Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C, Proper 16

At the Feet of Jesus

Readings: Amos 8:1-12; Psalm 52; Colossians 1:15-28; Luke 10:38-42


I was born in a little country hospital on Lake Erie. We lived in a tiny hamlet, and I was the third child so the doctor knew our family well. He said to my mother, “You have another girl.” Mother replied, “Oh! Her name is Catherine Ann.” He went out to my father with the same news. “Her name is Rachael Ann!’ my father told him. “You two had better get together,” the doctor told him. And so I became Ann Martha. And I must say, it was the bane of my existence growing up. You see my sister’s second name is Mary. They loved to remind me of the story of Mary and Martha, but it was always to remind me of my place in life. I personally believe they missed the point of the story.

What a homey story it is! Yet all week I have struggled with it, much as I struggled with it as a child. What can it possibly be saying to us in the context of all that has happened during this past week? The news of the past week has been devastating; the murder of a young girl and her mother, yet another terrorist act in France, a coup in Turkey. I truly want anything but a homey story. I want something that will give comfort that will allow me to say that God is in control, that there is hope. I want good news.

Not only is it homey. It is also wildly ambiguous. Is it meant to give Mary a male role and deprecate the so called ‘women’s work’ that Martha is doing? Is it lauding Mary for being a submissive female and dismissing the caring Martha? Is it praising impracticality? Is it a feminist story, making space for Mary beyond women’s traditional roles? Or is it the opposite? Is it about what is better or simply about our call, male or female, to be disciples of Jesus?

Jesus is visiting some close friends. As friends will do when they have an important visitor, Martha was scurrying around preparing and serving a meal. Mary, on the other hand, sat at Jesus' feet listening to him. Most women, I suspect, immediately identify with Martha. She complained to Jesus suggesting to him that he order Mary to help with the work. He refused to interfere. Instead he said to her, "Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things."

The gospel is not merely pointing out that Martha was busy getting a meal while Mary sat listening to their guest. It is the business of someone to stay with a guest at any time and in every culture. When something we are doing gets to the point that it is making us distracted then something has gone wrong and we need to do something about it. Jesus did not call Martha to task about what she was doing. He accepted her service and hospitality. Such things were important to him. But she was 'distracted' with all the serving. It was her distraction from what was important that caused him to respond as he did. Her anxiety about all the details kept her from the most important thing, really enjoying the opportunity to be with Jesus, to spend time together, to talk, and to listen to one another. She was missing out on the best part of friendship. She was obsessed with 'doing' rather than 'being'.

Our secular world is one of distractions, distractions that keep us from building relationships. I am sometimes appalled at the amount of time that has passed as I played some mindless game on my computer. And then there is the cell phone. I lived without one for fifty years, yet now I never leave home without it. Who has not reacted at seeing young people seated together at a table, all texting messages to who knows whom and totally ignoring the friends who are seated at the table with them? We have had to enact laws to limit people from driving distracted; the city of Toronto just announced its intention to limit pedestrians from texting to cut down on accidents. As I speak to people planning a relative’s funeral, I am struck by how often I hear regrets that they did not spend more time together. They regret that work came first. Yes! Like Martha, we are distracted by many things.

It happens in church life as well. So many things distract us from the mission of the Church. As a Church there are many issues that we face. They need to be prayerfully dealt with. I trust that is what happened at General Synod. It has been in the news, and so no doubt you will have heard the outcome of one of the many issues that was dealt with over this past week, that of changes in the Marriage Canon to allow same sex marriage. In his pastoral letter to the Diocese, Archbishop Johnson wrote about the problems facing our Canadian Anglican Church over what was a contentious debate.

I quote: “The next months will require considerable prayer and restraint. The bruising, confusion and pain of General Synod are echoed in our Church and certainly in our diocese. We need to provide the greatest pastoral generosity to each other who will be in very different places, and have been formed in very diverse contexts, theologically, spiritually, scripturally, experientially.

We need to be tender with one another, recognising in each other the image of God redeemed by our Saviour Jesus Christ, a beloved child, the desire of God's heart and will.

And we need to remember that what unites us is far more central than what divides us: our baptism into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and our service together in his mission in the world.”

No matter what our personal opinion, we simply cannot let this debate divide us and distract us from the work of the Church. Nor can we separate this issue from our mission. For surely we are called to be an inclusive and loving community of faith.

Martha was so taken up with the hustle and bustle of service that she neglected the quietness of worship. She was so busy giving that she was not open to receiving. With all that distracts us, how do we hear, how do we truly take in Jesus’ words that one thing is needful? If we are to be servants in the world, the assignment begins at the feet of Jesus and draws us back periodically to that place of quietness and strength. Through Word and Sacrament we are renewed and revitalized and able to face the demands of a world so often torn apart by violence, by racism, by sexism, xenophobia, homophobia. Whatever comes along to distract us from what God is calling us to be.

So back to the ambiguities of the story! As far as I am concerned, this story cannot be about who or what is better. It cannot be about the role of women. Service and learning are both part of our call as disciples. What it does point out to us, and how it intersects with all that is going on in our world, is how important it is to maintain our relationship with God. In these times of distraction and upheaval how important it is to be grounded in our faith and able to listen to all that God is saying to the Church. Then and only then are we able to be a prayerful presence in the world. Amen.