Genesis 18: 1-10a
NPMC
Psalm 15 8
Pentecost
Colossians 1: 15-28
July 18, 2010
Luke 10: 38-42
Anita Retzlaff
Welcoming Jesus
Grace to you and peace from God the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the
Christ. In our moment of silent meditation this morning let us give God thanks
for something that has been an unexpected surprise and blessing in our lives,
past or present. We welcome Jesus by being grateful people. Let us pray…. Hold
us and carry us into tomorrow, the unknown, with the confidence of your love
that binds us to you in and through all things. AMEN
As I was looking for a fitting printed image of the Mary and Martha story to use
on the cover of our bulletin this morning the pictures that I found clarified
for me the discomfort that I have with the way in which this story has been
interpreted. Too often I have heard the story told in such a way as to pit
Martha against Mary and in the end denigrate the hospitality that Martha offers
Jesus. Most pictures that I found portray Jesus seated at the center, Mary
sitting close to him on the floor and Martha standing at a distance with her
hands full. There is something that is not right about this scenario. How could
it be that Martha is pushed to the margins, that Jesus does not value the
hospitality that she offers; the food that she prepares and the work that is
involved in her gestures of kindness to him?
As you can see by the bulletin cover I did find a rather different illustration
of the relationship that Jesus has with Martha and Mary. Here the three of them
are pictured sitting together, all on the same level engaged in conversation
with each other with the evidence of table hospitality at their feet. So,
backing up just a bit, I would like for us to get a feel for the place of this
particular story in the Jesus narrative and imagine how the visit with Martha
and Mary fits into the larger picture. Immediately ahead of Jesus’ visit to Mary
and Martha’s house Luke has placed the story of the Good Samaritan. I think
these two stories together make a point.
The story of the Good Samaritan is told by Jesus during a sparring contest with
a lawyer. The lawyer tries to bait Jesus by asking what he will must do to
inherit eternal life. Jesus asks him, “What is written in the law?” The lawyer
replies, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor
as yourself.” Jesus confirms that the lawyer has given a good answer. Then so
very smugly, the lawyer, assuming that this means he need only pay attention to
those “neighbours” considered holy, worthy and ritually pure asks Jesus, “Well,
who really is my neighbour?”
Thereafter follows the story of a Samaritan man who comes to the rescue of
another who has been robbed, beaten and left for dead. Two holy men pass him by
and do nothing to help because they do not wish to make themselves ritually
impure among other things I would guess. However, the second class citizen from
Samaria comes upon the man in distress and tends to the victim’s wounds and
makes arrangements for his care and recovery. When all is said and done, it
becomes clear that the despised Samaritan is the true neighbour to the neighbor
in need because the Samaritan man shows mercy. It is the unclean Samaritan who
will inherit eternal life with God. Jesus says to the self-righteous lawyer, ”Go
and do likewise!” (Luke 10: 37) Go and do!
Then Jesus visits the home of Mary and Martha and something even more
astonishing takes place. We don’t get many details so there is a lot of room for
interpretation here but the focal point of the story is the event of Mary
sitting at the feet of the teacher, Jesus. This is in direct contravention to
the social boundaries of the day. Men, young and old, sit at the feet of
teachers. Women do not! Women provide the food and hospitality. Women deliver a
service and stay out of the way. Learning and listening belong to the realm of
men. The fact that Jesus instructs a woman in such a manner is a scandal.
And it represents a radical new opportunity for the two sisters in today’s
story. My 21st century interpretation of this scene is pretty basic: one of the
women “gets it” and the other one does not. Mary seems to understand that Jesus’
teaching is meant for her and she attends to the things that Jesus is saying. We
all assume that they are talking about things of faith. Martha has trouble
making this huge leap of social convention. And who can blame her? The gospel
writer states unequivocally that Martha welcomes Jesus into her home. Martha
does what is right and expected. Guests must be welcomed and tended. Martha is
gracious and living up to social and religious expectations. She welcomes Jesus
in the way that she knows how, in the way in which all women of that day have
been taught. I don’t think we can fault her for that; it is a significant
service that she provides.
I think the greater puzzle is that Mary has the courage, the audacity to set
aside what she has been taught and welcome Jesus by receiving his words. But the
fact that she does and the invitation that Jesus then implies in what he says to
Martha is a moment in which the gates of heaven are flung wide. In this moment
walls are broken down, boundaries that have endured for generations are breached
and social convention is forever altered. Something new is emerging. The word of
God is made accessible to everyone, women as well as men. That is a huge deal!
It is no wonder that Martha struggles with this sudden turn of events and
through her indignation and confusion expresses irritation that the rules have
suddenly changed.
Grace opens doors and we are often caught off guard. What we must never forget
is that it is God who is opening doors, inviting us to see love from new
perspectives. Martha probably couldn’t believe what she was seeing; her sister
sitting as a disciple at the feet of Jesus. I assume that she figured it out
quickly enough though, as risky as this invitation is for her to contemplate.
Jesus’ caution to Martha, and to all of us, is that we must not get caught up in
the things of our society and social expectation to the extent that we shut out
an opportunity to come close to God, to welcome and to learn the Jesus way of
living. It can be right in front of our eyes yet we are so distracted with
keeping things as they are that we don’t recognize the grace of God when it is
right in front of us. And we run and run and run, doing all the things that we
think must be done and often don’t stop long enough to experience the true gift
of love that is staring us in the face.
This is particularly instructive for our church of the 21st century, for the
Mennonite church today and for Nutana Park Mennonite Church right now. I would
suggest that Jesus is present with us encouraging us to sit down and listen and
to pay attention to his words. The love of God is poised to change our lives and
in order for that to happen we will most likely find ourselves in unfamiliar and
unusual territory. I think we would all agree that it feels as though the world
is changing so rapidly that we can’t keep up, technologically, socially and
spiritually. So I think that many of us are in that unfamiliar territory now,
everyday. I often feel like Martha, standing there with consternation and
resentment, eyeing Mary and Jesus who are breaking the familiar social
conventions and saying, “Hey, what are you guys doing? We have expectations to
fulfill. This isn’t acceptable.” And then I have to realize that maybe I must
revisit these so-called “expectations.” Our church has to revisit our assumed
expectations.
For those of you who are charter members in this congregation, for you who have
been here for many years, who have supported and nurtured the Nutana Park
Mennonite Church community, some of the changes that have taken place must be
disorienting. There are many social conventions that have changed since Nutana
Park became a congregation; we dress differently for worship. In the 1960s
everyone put on their Sunday best. In the 1960s families attended worship more
frequently and together. Today there are many activities that take us away on a
Sunday morning and we attend now in different configurations. Divorce has hit
our community in the same manner in which it has affected the rest of our
society; so no longer do we just come as Mom and Dad and 2.5 kids.
Let’s look at families and marriage. Our children are marrying later, often
living together with their partners before they choose marriage. These same
young people no longer choose baptism in grade 11 or 12 like I did. There is a
general trend today that joining in church membership is not easily chosen
either; people under 50 don’t join in the way that previous generations did. All
of this forces us to peel away the layers of tradition and to listen to what is
happening. Though we might be impatient like Martha and express our concern
about the unfamiliar landscape before us, we must realize that there are other
ways to welcome Jesus and they will look different from what we have been taught
– a caution for all of us at any age.
The grace of God defies all of our training and expectations. We are encouraged
to keep an open heart and mind and like Mary take the risk of doing things
differently at the invitation of Jesus, of welcoming Jesus in a new way. For
when we stop to consider some of our practices we realize that they have been
merely the framework that carries the gospel for a time but not the heart of the
gospel itself. And so we admit that it is not the clothes we wear to church or
the style of hymn that we sing or even the ways in which we are used to meeting
together that are the gospel. They are the familiar ways in which we express
ourselves to God. And those things do change with time and in different places.
When faced with difficult transitions and new circumstances we are often driven
like Martha to be distracted with the details of our upbringing. Some of it we
can release and let go and together we discern in our church communities those
things which we retain. These are not easy times but the grace of God shines
through our fears and uncertainties, our traditions and our rigidity to offer a
new word and always new hope.
So, these two stories, the Good Samaritan and Jesus’ visit with Martha and Mary,
together form a solid foundation on which to build our lives. That’s what Jesus
would like us to know. True faith in God involves both doing as in the case of
the Samaritan man who shows mercy and believing anew, in the case of the sisters
who are given a rare opportunity to learn at the master’s feet. Acting with
mercy and being open to learn the ways of the Spirit are companions in the life
of faith. We welcome Jesus this day, in our worship together and in our lives
that continue to unfold and surprise us with grace when we are open and
receptive to hearing the word. Thanks be to God. AMEN