10 Jul 7/14/24 Luke 10:38-42 “The Key to Your Existence!”
7/14/24 Luke 10:38-42 “The Key to Your Existence!”
Every year at seminary was interesting but the second to the last one was more interesting than the rest. You see, Saint Paul School of Theology was moving to a new campus which is at the Church of the Resurrection in what amounts to south Kansas City. So, as we were staying at the old campus that summer, they were moving things. Some of these things were integral to our schooling like the library. It was gone. We had limited access to the library. Food service was dwindling. Offices were gone. All of these things made it a little inconvenient to have school but we carried on. One of the high points of my schooling there had always been having chapel every morning. Well, you guessed it; they decided that we wouldn’t need it this year. What they didn’t count on was that we students decided to have chapel anyway. Each day a different class led the worship. Other years they had some professional come in and lead chapel. This year the students led it and we had some of the best chapels ever. This is a seminary where they thought that we didn’t need spiritual enrichment, only intellectual enlightenment. I praise the Lord that we students felt it was our duty to try to fulfill our spiritual obligations also. Today, we are going to look at a well-known passage from Luke about Mary and Martha. Let’s see if we can tell which is more important between duty and spiritual learning or if maybe there might be a time and place for each.
Monty Newton tells the story of Dr. Robert Shuller who was on a whirlwind tour to promote a new book. He had been in 8 cities in 4 days. Dr. Shuller was the leader of the mega church, Crystal Cathedral. He had kept this schedule while he was still fulfilling all the duties that come from running a mega-church. Just as a little sidebar here, burnout from more than demanding schedules are one of the reasons why so many pastors end up retiring from the clergy at an early age. Anyway, Dr. Shuller was checking with his secretary for upcoming engagements before he returned from the last city. He found that he was supposed to have dinner with the winner of a raffle where dinner with him was the prize. He was elated at this until he found out that his daughter had paid $500 so she could have his undivided attention at a meal. Wow! Busyness can really eat us up if we allow it.
I’m sure that many of you have heard this passage preached many times. However, I think that this is the first time that I have preached from it. I would like to begin with the obvious here because so many people only take this reading on its face value when there is so much more to it.
Last week we talked about Jesus sending out the 72 disciples. They were to go among the people, heal the sick and drive the demons out. Right before this Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. According to Luke, Jesus is on a teaching spree here and He is teaching us more as we look at the story of Mary and Martha. Jesus has been traveling with his disciples. Now we don’t know if it was just 12 or maybe it was the 72 or maybe even more. It doesn’t tell us because it isn’t that important. What is important is that this is a festive occasion.
It tells us that Martha opened her home to Jesus. This might mean that Martha was either never married or she was a widow to have her own home. Please note when Martha opens her home to Him, this would be considered a gracious act of hospitality. Far too often Martha gets the bad rap as being one who was not gracious or doing the right thing. This was the proper and right thing for her to do. It was common hospitality to open your houses to travelers.
I think we do a lot of the same things today only our travelers are a little different. Just for a moment, think about what you do when you are expecting company. We have to make sure that the house is clean. There really should be some extra goodies in the freezer. Men, if it is winter, we have to make sure that the snow is cleaned up so people can park or mow the grass in the summer. We might even plan an outing to one of our local areas of interest. The things we do are just common sense so that our visitors will feel welcome. The same goes for Martha.
There is nowhere in this passage that it tells us that this isn’t the right thing to do. Some people like to read this in between the lines but I’m telling you it isn’t there because we need to welcome people. What would happen if we totally ignored a new person who came to church to worship on a Sunday morning? They would probably never come back. When we invite someone to church or to God or to our house, we need to be prepared in the event that they show up. This is what Jesus wants us to do so keep that in mind. Martha is right.
Then we come to Mary, sweet Mary, to everyone accept Martha. Apparently, Martha was doing all the work and Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus listening. At least it seems that Martha thinks this anyway. Can’t you just see this scene in your mind? We have Martha running all over the place trying to serve 12 or more visitors. She is working and working and out of the corner of her eye she is only seeing Mary sitting. She knows that Mary should be helping her get things ready. I mean, women in that culture were not supposed to sit at the feet of a man for learning purposes. It just wasn’t done. Hospitality was what needed to be done at this moment. Martha keeps on working and getting madder and madder all the time.
Finally, she breaks. Please note that this is a very interesting part of the story. One would think that if you had a lazy sister, you would go to her and tell her to get to work. That is what I would do with my siblings and many of you are the same way. But Martha doesn’t. She takes her complaint to Jesus and not Mary. She begins by showing Jesus that she is having her own little pity party because she has to do all the work. She doesn’t ask Jesus to tell Mary in a nice way, she tells Jesus to tell Mary. Either Martha is so familiar with Jesus that she can say this or maybe she doesn’t yet know who He really is. Either way, we don’t see many people telling Jesus what to do or do we?
When you go into your times of prayer, are you asking Jesus to do things or are you presenting your wish list and demanding that they be granted or you won’t believe anymore? I think that we try to tell Jesus how to run the world instead of relying on His vast wisdom and knowledge about such matters. You want things done your way and not God’s way.
I want to continue on and come back to all of this in a minute. Notice that Jesus tells Martha that Mary is doing the right thing. This is a time of instruction for Mary and also a time of worship. Maybe Martha could be doing the same thing. Maybe Jesus is telling her that because she is worried and upset, she should take a few minutes and come and sit. ‘Come and join me as I tell you what is important.’ Jesus can say stuff like this because He is God.
Moving on to the other half of this conversation, Jesus tells Martha and us that what Mary is doing is the right thing. Martha is all worried and upset about how things are turning out as far as getting ready for the guests and Jesus says it is time to sit and listen.
We are the same way. There is a time to sit and listen to the Word. Sunday mornings are one of those times. Whenever you are involved in your prayer time is another. Any time you are involved with any of these types of things are the times when you need to be still and let Jesus carry you. There are times and places for you to be still and know God.
This is one of the areas where we struggle along with Martha. Often times we get busy doing things. We might be planting our fields. We might be trying to figure out a new way to do business. We might be planning our activities for our children. I would dare say that most people do not give Jesus any credit at all for many of the things that we do in life. We just go ahead, do them, and take credit ourselves. Then when we find that we have made a huge mess of things, we might come crawling back to Jesus. This is how we operate. Jesus is telling us ‘No’ to this. You are not to operate like this. You are not to be like Martha.
Now let’s go back a second here and review. Jesus tells us not to be like Martha. He tells us to be like Mary who is listening at his feet. But that isn’t really what Jesus is trying to say at all. You are to be like both Mary and Martha. They are both doing the right things. After all, if you have faith without works, you have nothing. The same can be said of works without faith which is a much more common problem. Therefore, you need both faith and works and that is what Jesus is telling us here.
I think we do ok in the area of balancing our time with work and faith. Could we do better? Of course we could. I have been in on various mission projects in my life where there is never a mention of Jesus or why we are doing such and such a project. I have been to so-called worship services where the only thing that matters is the number of people saved on that particular Sunday. Some like to bean count our Christians. Now are either of these two situations a bad thing. No. They are good but the focus is not in the right place. Jesus wants us to help new people become Christian but He also wants us to help feed the poor who live across the street. Don’t ignore them, feed them. Jesus wants us to give Him all the glory when we are out doing the things for Him like feeding the poor or sending clothes to our reservations. I hope that you can see that there has to be some sort of balance with worship and duty.
Now after saying all of these things about this passage, I would like to conclude by saying that this message is about something entirely different. It really has nothing to do with worship or duty or having our priorities right. This passage is mainly about attitude. I think we all know attitude. If you have ever raised children, then you know about attitude. Martha had been giving Jesus a little attitude. Did you notice that as I was reading? Jesus wasn’t concerned that Martha was working when she should have been in worship. No. He was concerned because she was doing all of it for the very wrong reasons. If she had been working to further the Kingdom, she wouldn’t have given Mary a second thought. Mary knew there was work to do but it is not often we get to sit at the feet of Jesus. Martha couldn’t see this. So, she sasses Jesus a little bit and He tells her what is right and wrong. This is all about bad attitudes.
Now I think that when it comes time to worship, we don’t have a problem. We know how to be a Mary. However, sometimes I wonder if our attitudes are in the right place when it comes to missions or duty. Are we giving out of our plenty to the children of Spirit Lake Nation in the name of Jesus, or are we just giving because we have plenty? Our society says to just give and forget about Jesus. That is kind of what we do sometimes or most of the time, but it is not right.
One of the things that the Methodists do is give to missions. A few years ago, when the tornado hit in Missouri, we responded and stayed a long time. We stayed in New York long after everyone else has gone home, helping people from the hurricane. We are the only ones left in many disaster areas long after the media quits covering them. And for the most part, we are there with the right attitude. I had the honor and privilege, once, of having a class taught by the head of mission teams in Oklahoma. He does everything in the name of Jesus and He wants all his teams to do the same. Just think of what things would be like if we parked our old egos out in the field someplace and actually lived and breathed the way Jesus wants us. Our world would be so much better if we could just learn to rely on the best of the best, Jesus Christ.
Adrian Dielman told of an ancient Scottish legend in which a poor boy that was tending some sheep on a mountainside when he saw at his feet a beautiful flower. It was so beautiful that he could not resist picking it… and as he did so he heard a sound. Looking up he saw the mountain before him open up, revealing a cavern filled with precious gems and metals. He walked into the cavern, laid down the flower and began to gather all the gold, silver, and precious gems he could carry. When he could carry no more, he heard a voice as he turned to leave. It said, “Don’t forget the best.” So, he turned again and gathered even more stuff into his arms. As he left the cavern the mountainside closed up behind him, all that he carried turned to dust, and the voice said, “You forgot the best. For the flower is the key to the vault of the mountain.”
You see your flower is Jesus Christ. He is the key to all of your existence. You have to concentrate on both worship and duty but you must have the proper attitude. When we become humble like our Lord became humble, then we will begin to see things in the proper light. This week as you are going about your life, stop yourself when things go bad or wrong or not the way you want. Stop and think about Jesus. Jesus only wants us to follow him because He only wants what is the very best for us. The very best begins with our loving Jesus with the same unconditional love that He gives us. Thank you, Jesus, for all these things we don’t deserve. Let’s pray.
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