This morning I'm reading from Luke chapter 10, as Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?
Tell her to help me. Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed. Or indeed, only one. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.
The word is true and it can be trusted. Thank you, Dawn, and thank you, Austin, and Hayden, and Stacy for leading worship this morning. And thank you all for being here. And I don't know about you, but there was something I really got teary-eyed for a minute.
Whenever worship was over and we lifted our voices for the Lord's prayer, there's something holy and sacred about our voices. Me and lifted both in song and prayer and praise and it's such a beautiful thing. So I don't know about you, but that just turns my heart into the right direction. So this morning I'm going to ask you a question.
You just heard Dawn read and thank you Dawn, you heard her read the structure. So let's be honest, and men, I want you to do this too. This is not just for women. You may think it is because it says Mary and Martha, but I don't want you to look at names as much as personalities.
So if you are teen Mary, I want you to raise your hand. If you are the one who finds that you can easily sit in the presence of Jesus, that you are not distracted by other things, I want you to raise your hand. All right. Okay, so who is going to be Martha?
Who is busy and distracted? Longing to be like Mary, but just can't find it. Yeah, I like that. It's somewhere like I'm not going to admit either one, but it's okay because this morning we're going to learn that you can be both and it doesn't have to be either or.
And so that's where we're going to start this morning with Mary and Martha and thinking about where are we going to fall? Not only as individuals, but also as a church because sometimes the church looks like Mary and sometimes the church looks like Martha, just busy doing, but forgetting to sit. So hyper living might be a good term. Hyper focusing is a term other people may know that hyper living is a very good word that could describe what Martha is currently doing.
That's a Martha world in other words, a world in which when is somebody's planning and organizing, perfecting, controlling and maximizing the time. And so we never have that true time to stop and to smell the roses or to even catch your breath or to listen to the words of Jesus. Some of us here this morning and myself included, we kind of want to cheer for Mary because she has this inversion of traditional roles. Mary sits at Jesus's feet listening to his words and rather than assuming the role expected of women in her culture like this is a big deal what Mary did.
She was crossing all kinds of cultural barriers by coming and sitting at the feet of Jesus. And she's assuming this posture of a student learning from a rabbi or role that was traditionally reserved for men. And so I'm sure that Martha's jaw was not the only one that was gaping open. I'm sure that the men that were there, the disciples there were Jesus, they were probably thinking who is this chick?
Like what is she thinking? She doesn't need to catch you. Don't you know that's where they were supposed to be. That's what their culture said.
So some of us may be going, yes, Mary. She's helping us to have a place as women in this world and she's breaking all these boundaries and she's doing things that we want to be a part of. So we're like, yes, we long to be Mary sitting, listening, learning and breaking all kinds of barriers. But we also empathize with Martha because I get it.
I'm a Martha. I'm a Martha girl longing for a Mary heart. Trust me. Trust me.
I try. I try to be Mary, but I just don't sit well. But we empathize with Martha because she has this resentment towards her sister for leaving her to do all the work. Do y'all ever have that?
Has anybody, let's just be honest. You know you can't lie and charge them to say anything. But have you ever resented somebody, even if it's your spouse or your coworker or somebody else, your children? Because you are the one doing all the work and they're just kickback living their best life?
Some of y'all going, hey, oh, show line. I'm teasing. One of my things that I always tell my children and I am so thankful that they get it now that they're older is I would always tell them, I just need you to see me. I need you to see me because I'm struggling.
I need you to see me and it's important to voice these things too because they don't read minds. People don't read minds. I need you to see me because I'm doing everything. I need you to see me because I'm tending to other people and I still got to wash your clothes and I've got to buy the groceries.
Sometimes I got to cook supper and I'm not good at that. But I need you to see me. And I think that's what Martha was doing. She desperately wanted to see her but she couldn't vocalize that.
Now one of the greatest gifts that my kids could do for me and Jason's always great. He always sees me. But my kid will say, what can I do to help? Us.
We're getting, we're evolving. We're getting there. But the problem with Martha is not that she's so busy serving and providing hospitality what she was because you remember last week that we had the parable of the Good Samaritan and Jesus commends this kind of service to the neighbor. This is what he'd been talking about to serve and to love and to give of yourself.
But the problem with Martha's not that she was busy serving is that she was worried and distracted. See that's what the real story is here. It wasn't in her serving in the hospitality because those are great things. The problem is that she was worried and distracted.
She's being pulled and dragged in different directions. Can any of us relate to that? Absolutely. We're pulled in different directions and gracious alive, sorry kids I don't want to say this out loud.
But school is about to start and talk about being pulled. The rat race is about to begin. Some are kind of affords us the opportunity to slow down, to get a little bit of a breath, to smell one little rose off the bush. But when school comes it's a whole different kind of busy.
So Martha's distraction and her worry. It leaves no room for the most important aspect of hospitality. And that was gracious attention to the guest. She was missing the whole point.
Y'all, Jesus was in her house and she was missing the point. How often are we in the presence of Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord and we are missing the boat. We aren't even in the right vicinity. The boat has set sail and we're over here looking at what has just happened.
But not only that, not only is she missing the point of the most precious guest. But now she's trying to embarrass her sister. She's like, I've had enough, I'm just going to embarrass her. So Martha's worry and distraction, it prevents her from being truly present with Jesus.
And it causes a wedge to be driven between her sister and herself and between Jesus and herself. Isn't that what happens when we get aggravated and frustrated when our families are doing things to help us, when our co-workers, when society, whatever it may be. We drive these wedges because we hold all of that in. I'm the one doing, nobody else is helping.
Woo poor me and it drives these wedges. I'm going to get aggravated because she just don't do her job. I'm just not going to even, I'm just going to ignore her. And he doesn't help me.
So he can just iron his own clothes and somewhere in that spirit, our hearts are hardening towards other, but also it's hardening towards Christ because that is not a Christ-like behavior. And so we find ourselves looking a lot like Martha, a lot like Martha. Another thing to notice about Martha is complaint to Jesus. And I just led into that a little bit, is that she refers to herself several times.
And this is her right here. Don't you think that's what Martha would look like? When she says, my sister, my sister now, has left me to do all the work by myself. She's such a care and she only the young ones look at that.
But then she's like, I need you to tell her to help me. Can you imagine the audacity? Hey, Jesus. I know you're here and I know I'm supposed to be serving you and being humble and all of these things, but I'm going to need you to step up and I'm going to need you to tell her to come and help me because this isn't fair.
Can you imagine? Poor Martha. She's just kind of had it. She's kind of had it.
There's a lot of me, me, me, and my myself. So Martha's generous hospitality has become more about her than about Jesus, about her guest. At a different time, Jesus might have commended Martha's hospitality. Remember last week he told the lawyer, go and do.
But today he's telling Martha to sit and listen. It wasn't Martha's busyness that Jesus called her account. But it was her distractedness, her worry, her lack of focus. She's literally distracted by so much service.
So distracted that she not only resented Mary's idleness, she even sold Jesus. You see, hospitality was highly valued in a Jewish society. And a woman's honor and reputation depended on how well she managed her household. So she's struggling and appearing anxious and and flying and all over the place, trying to get everything done.
People are going to notice and it's going to look bad on her. You know, Martha, she can't handle her household. Did you see her sister? Her sister was sitting at the feet of Jesus like a man.
People would talk. Her reputation would be tainted. So since service was a woman's highest calling, Martha's complaining it's Mary's legitimate. Look what you're doing to me and this is what you should be doing.
But for Jesus, all that hard work was just a distraction for Martha. Mary's desire was to sit at the master's feet as a disciple and learn from him. His presence was enough for her. She didn't have to do anything.
She could. She could bring him the best grape-salt divine. She could fluff his pillow as he sat on it. She could take off his sandals.
She could do all the things but all that she wanted and needed was just to be in his presence. You may recall that the first miracle that Jesus performed, he was out of wedding and the wine had ran out and his mother looked at him and I always loved this because she's like, do something. You know, when Mama speaks to you, yes, ma'am. But Jesus is like, that's no concern of mine now.
It's not the time. But his mom's like, you need to do something. And part of it was because it would be such an embarrassing thing for the host to run out of wine. It would be such a social faux pas.
It would be embarrassing the talk of the town because this was a time a wedding was a time of great celebration. It was a time of hospitality because everybody went. And so there's no reason why this wouldn't be included as Jesus' first miracle because hospitality was a big deal and to mess that up could have a lasting impact. But the story of Jesus' visit to Mary Martha's home points out the importance of learning from Jesus, how we can learn from Jesus and the importance of being in a relationship with him.
Relationship with Jesus has to take precedence over our serving. And I can get called up. I'm high energy. I mean, I love to encourage and to serve and do all those things.
But before we can do those things, we must sit at the feet of Jesus. We must listen to him, allow him to guide us and speak to us because we may be serving in a whole different capacity than what he has for us. If we're not sitting and listening, we're taking control of so much on our own. Our relationship with Jesus has to take priority over serving him.
And so Jesus answers her gently. I love it. It's so gentle. Martha.
Martha. It's a kind way of addressing her. Surely he was smiling. He appreciates all that she's doing.
But he points her towards the most important thing. You are filled with inward anxiety and outward agitation about many things in the preparation of all of this. It's too much. That's not what Jesus wants of us.
He doesn't want us serving in such a way that we're worn out and distraught and overwhelmed and burn out and blaming others because they haven't stepped up. Jesus is wanting us to serve with hearts that are glad and rejoicing. He wants us to serve in a spirit that looks like his. And it comes from sitting first.
I love that he commends Mary without condemning Martha. Love for God is best expressed in listening and responding to Jesus' words, not embitantly doing for him. One of the things that I told you the last two Sundays, remember we're working from the inside out. In order for us to go and serve and in our community, in our schools, in our workplaces, we've got to be able to sit and listen first.
We've got to be so intimately connected to Christ like Mary so that we can be an effective Martha Church. Does that make sense? When we are sitting like Mary, we will be able to serve like Martha, but it'll have more graciousness, more eagerness, more peace. That's what Martha was lacking, a peace.
In a culture of hectic schedules and the relentless pursuit of productivity, we are tempted to measure our worth by how busy we are, how much we accomplish, how much we make, how much we serve, how much we need the expectations of others. You saw it up here a few minutes ago that's steering wheel with the sticky notes. We're going to look at that again. How many people?
This is your life. Your calendars, it may not be on your steering wheel, but your calendars are sticky-noted, and they're written on and they're color-coded, so we don't miss this and we don't forget that. I own three calendars, okay? I'll get you.
But if we're not careful, this overrides everything. What a distraction that is. You can't focus on the road before you, because you're looking down at all of the things you have to do and be for everyone else. Surely we can all relate to that.
Surely. It is true that much of our busyness and distraction stems from the noblest intentions we want to provide for our families. We want to give our children more than what we ever had. We want to have every opportunity to enrich their lives.
We want to serve and love our neighbors, and yes, we want to serve the Lord. If the story of the Good Samaritan illustrates love or neighbor, then Mary and Martha story illustrates the love for God. While Martha was busy preparing a large meal, Mary ignored her sister and sat at Jesus's feet, the traditional place of a disciple. Indeed, there would be, where would the church be without the Martha's?
Where would we be without you who faithfully serve and do? But those faithful who perform the task of hospitality and service, they're so vital to making the church a welcoming and well functioning community. And yet, if all of our activities, all of our doings leave us no time to be steel in the presence of God and to hear his word and his voice, we too will likely end up anxious and troubled. We are likely to end up with a kind of service that is devoid of love and joy, and that is resentful to others.
One thing about this that I always get hung up on is we don't know how the story ends. It just ends. We don't know if Mary and Martha were reconciled, if they hash it out, as sisters do. We don't know what happened.
We don't know whether they were able to enjoy the meal that Martha had prepared. We don't know whether Martha finally gave in and was able to sit and give her full attention to Jesus. We don't know. But what we do know is that Jesus invites all of us, me and you, he invites all of us who are worried and distracted by many things, by many things, to sit and rest in his presence, to hear his words of grace and truth, to know that we are loved and valued as children of God, to be renewed in faith and strengthened for service.
There is need of only one thing. One thing is necessary, attention to the guest. As it turns out, our guest is also our host with abundant gifts to give. How do we welcome and make space for God and for others in the ways in which we order our own lives and live life out into this world?
What does it look like? I'm going to tell you a quick story. There are these two Lumberjacks and they wanted to see which one was the best. I can cut more trees than you in a shorter amount of time.
I'm better than you. They decided the only way to settle this argument was to have a little competition. The two Lumberjacks, they got together and they had someone there with them and they were going to try and as quickly as they could, see who could cut the most trees in a certain amount of time. All they went and they were chopping in and laying trees down and they just kept going and going.
But whenever it was over, the one guy had chopped all these trees and he was exhausted. He was just worn out and he was frustrated and he looked over at the other guy and he had twice as many as he did. He was cool and he was calm. He wasn't out of breath and it was just like it was all an ease for him.
And he said, how did you do that? How in the world did you cut that many trees and you look like that? And he said, well, you never stopped and I slowed down to sharpen my axe so that each time I could be better and better and the other man said, okay, you see, there's a time to go and do and to work and work and work. There's also time to sit at the feet of the master to sharpen our axes.
One is incomplete without the other. It's not a question of either being Mary or Martha. It's a questioning of just starting when the right time to be when are the other is. There's a time to be Mary and there's a time to be Martha.
Our duty is not either or but it's both and. Martha had been stirring to see that everything was perfect. And the reality is that very soon all that food would be eaten, all the guests would be gone, the dishes would be done, the house would be restored back to order. It would be as if no one had ever been there.
Jesus's visit would be a faint memory and Martha had missed it. If we're not careful, we're going to miss it. We cannot be so busy serving as Martha that we miss the opportunities to grow in our faith and to learn more from Jesus. But on the other hand, we cannot spend all our time learning and not serving.
Do you see it's a balance? It's a balance of learning and listening and serving and growing. It's easy to go to all the Bible studies, all the worship services, all of the events, everything that the church offers and then not have time to serve the Lord. Have you thought about that?
I go to all the things I'm always present, but you're too worn out to serve. It's like we're debating our purpose. We have to have a beautiful balance. We have to make sure we don't lose our joy in serving by focusing on what others are not doing.
That's a big catcher. I'm guilty of that too. My joy can be squandered really quick and squashed when I'm like, well, they're not doing it. What do I have to do at all?
Anybody else ever said that? Either out loud or too themselves? Sure we have. We cannot lose the joy in serving by worrying about everybody else.
We got to listen and serve and balance and closing up my share of money with you. In 1990, a woman entered a Hock-a-Daw store. Some of you may have heard this, but a woman entered into a Hock-a-Daw store in Kansas City, and she was going to purchase an ice cream cone. And while she was ordering another customer entered the store, she placed her order and she turned around and found herself staring face to face with Paul Newman.
Now some of you younger girls, you may not understand who Paul Newman is, but back in the day Paul Newman was, I mean, he was pretty fine. And even as an older man, he's still a good-looking man. But Paul Newman had a face. And I mean, he was one of those faces that you were just lost for words in his presence.
And so he was entailing filming a movie and his big blue eyes made her knees buckle. I mean, she was just in awe of his presence. And so she finished paying and quickly walked out of the store, and her heart's pounding. She was so excited.
Oh my gosh, it's Paul Newman. Those blue eyes looked at me. I know we had a connection. I know it.
But she was so frazzled. And so she gained her composure. And then suddenly she realized that she didn't even have her ice cream cone. And so she turned to go back in to get it.
And once again, she came face to face with those dreamy blue eyes, and there stood Paul Newman. And he said to her, are you looking for your ice cream cone, man? And all she could do was nod. She didn't have any words.
And he looked at her and he went. And he said, you put it in your purse with your change. When was the last time that the presence of God made you forget what you were doing? What all was going on around you?
When have you been so immersed in the presence of God that everything else just fell away? It made you forget the dishes and the mounds of laundry and the bills to be paid and all the sticky notes on the steering wheel, all the responsibilities and the chaos. We're able to step all to the side as you sat in his presence. As we move forward into this new season together, there will be times when we are called to go and be like the good Samaritan, to do acts of service to work and serve others.
And there are going to be times when we must find the time, we must find a heart, the desire to sit to inhale the presence of the Lord, to allow his spirit to wash over us so that when we get up, whether it's off of our knees or flat of our face, whatever posture it is that we enter into the presence, when we get up, we'll be able to say I'm ready to serve. Psalm 37, says, be still in the presence of the Lord and wait patiently for him to act. Don't go into his presence telling him what you're about to do, but wait for him to guide, wait for him to show us what he's going to do first. Psalms 47, 10, be still and know that I am God.
Amen. Would you just bow with me? Holy and sovereign Lord, we thank you that your presence goes before us, that it hymns us in and surrounds us. But Lord, we're often distracted.
We're distracted by the many things that we have to do and be the ways in which we have so many to do list. And it's even hard sometimes to come into worship and be fully present. Our minds are always trailing with thoughts of the next thing. Lord, remind us of importance, especially as we leave here this morning, and as Monday is right around the corner, and with that comes a new work week, new responsibilities, new distractions.
Remind us of importance of sitting, of sitting in your presence, allowing you to nurture us and guide us. Because the truth is, we can't do anything without you. We can, but it's nothing compared to what we can do with you. So Lord, thank you for this reminder.
Remind us that it's okay to be Martha, it's okay to be Mary, but let us not get those two things mixed up. One thing is necessary, and it's to pay attention to you. Amen.