PENTECOST 8, C, 2010

SCRIPTURES – Gen. 18:1-10; Col. 1:21-29; Luke 10:38-42

The way of the kingdom of God, the way of Jesus, is so often contrary to what seems right and good and proper to our way of thinking.

‡       “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus proclaims. We would think that it would be the opposite!

‡       He also says that the first are last and the last are first, the rich are poor and the poor are rich.

This morning’s story presents just such another opposite, another seemingly backward lesson.

The story is simple. There’s Mary, sitting there at Jesus’ feet, listening, while her sister Martha is hustling and working hard to provide for Jesus and His disciples. We all understand Martha’s complaint: “This isn’t fair, Lord. I’m doing all the work. Tell my sister to help me!”

Martha’s doing good, isn’t she? She’s working hard to serve Jesus, who has no place to lay His head. She wants to help Him, to ease His journey. Her work is her way of showing that she is honored to have Him as her guest in her house. And, after all, hadn’t Jesus said His followers should serve Him? If she were a member of our church, she would not be sleeping in on Sunday. No, she would be here: preparing the coffee, helping parents with young children during church, greeting people, serving wherever help was needed.

How surprised Martha must have been to hear Him scold her and praise Mary! This is not the way you or I would have responded. Jesus seems to condone doing nothing and letting others do all the work! This would make for lazy Christians, church members who are willing to let others take care of all the things that need to be done in the church.

Why does Jesus respond in this way? What was it that Martha needed to learn, that we need to learn?

            Sometimes we are faced with a choice between a good and an evil, a clear right and a wrong. That is not the case here. Martha is faced with the choice of serving the Lord, giving of herself to Him, or listening to Him, letting Him give of Himself to her. Serving the Lord is good; so also is listening to Him. Both are good; and yet, hearing God’s Word is always better.

Normally, the Christian does both. We work and we worship; we labor and we listen; we serve and are served. That’s the ideal. We should be both Mary’s and Martha’s. We are to be like Mary and listen to Jesus, and then like Martha and serve. But, of the two, always remember that the listening is more important than the labor, the worship more essential than the work, the being served by Christ more blessed than serving. Serving is usually more impressive, and the greater the service, the greater we think of a person. But, listening to Christ is the one thing necessary. Should a conflict between listening and laboring ever arise, we are to be like Mary and listen first.

Why is listening the better choice, the one thing alone that is necessary? Because by listening and believing we receive Christ. To sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to Him is the highest form of praise and worship of Him that there is. To make the time and effort to listen, learn, accept and follow what God says, to consider this to be of first importance, is to state that you need Jesus and recognize Him for who He truly is: your Savior and Lord. This is the truest and highest form of worship. This means that you should make time to read your Bible and listen to the words of Jesus during the week. If you spend your week doing good things – helping people, visiting or calling the sick and the lonely, etc. – but don’t make any time to sit at Jesus’ feet by reading His words and hearing them in church, then you are not truly serving and pleasing Him. Even though you are doing good things, you are ignoring the most important thing. Nothing in the way of service that we could offer to Him is more important or even comparable to what Jesus freely offers us in His words.

What are Jesus’ words? Consider what Jesus says to Martha: “Mary has chosen the good portion.” Do you remember how God made everything? Genesis 1 tells us that He simply spoke, and by His word called into being everything that exists. And at the end of each day, there is the phrase, “God saw all that He had made, and it was good.” Good is the word that applies to and sums up God’s creation by His Word. Jesus points out to Mary that His words are words of creation, words that bring life, God’s life. By them God calls forth new life with Him. “Mary has chosen the good portion.” There is nothing better than God’s words! Give your attention to them! Listening is the good portion, the one thing necessary of which there is nothing greater, not even service of Christ Himself.

The words of Jesus are the words of the eternal Son of God, the Creator of heaven and earth who came down to us from heaven. “You have the words of eternal life” we sing before the Gospel reading, echoing what Peter once said to Jesus. By His words, as they are heard and received in faith, Christ gives to us forgiveness of sins and eternal life, and so leads us from this world of sin and death to the presence of God in heaven. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is therefore “the power of God for the salvation of all who believe it,” as St. Paul says in Romans 1:16.

‡       Think of God’s words as like sap in a tree: as they come into you they give you life and bring forth the fruit of works that are pleasing to God.

And so, when it comes to making time to serve God and making time to listen to Him, follow the advice of Martin Luther, who said:

“a man becomes a Christian, not by working but by listening. And so anyone who wants to exert himself toward righteousness must first exert himself in listening to the Gospel. Now when he has heard and accepted this, let him joyfully give thanks to God, and then let him exert himself in good works that are commanded in the Law; thus the Law and works will follow hearing with faith.”  (LW 26:215)