My focus today is Luke 10: 41-42: The Lord answered, “Martha, you are worried and upset about
many things. Only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it
will not be taken from her.”
Let us pray. Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go
to the house of the Lord.’”[i] Now
that our feet are standing within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As
we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love
deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
Conversations mark every moment of my day. My wife, Cindy,
and I engage in conversations about family, jobs, news, chores, and plans for
the future. At work or school, conversations focus on accomplishing goals,
executing tasks, reporting outcomes and assigning blame or credit.
Conversations in public settings – as we enter and leave church or the 7-11 –
are friendly and short. Conversations with a pastor, counselor, physician or
attorney are so confidential that a court of law cannot force us to reveal them.
Conversations generally involve one or two people, but
sometimes more. Right now, we’re having a conversation, and most of us are
holding separate conversations in our heads. You’re wondering where I’m going
with this, and I’m wondering if you’re following me and will laugh at the end
of this sentence.
Then there are conversations with God. In those conversations,
we pour out our thoughts, emotions, desires and disappointments. We cry with
the psalmist, O God, you are my God—it is
you I seek! For you my body yearns; for you my soul thirsts.[ii]
In the end, we admit that the Lord probes
us and knows us.[iii]
Conversations with God start with, “Lord,
listen to me,” while the Lord asks us to listen to Him. Let’s look at how
our Scriptural characters conversed with God and how those conversations apply
to our lives today.
Abraham and Sarah offered hospitality to the Lord, and are
models of faith in the Old Testament. Genesis records that they believed God
would make Abraham the father of a great nation; that Abraham listened to and
obeyed God’s Word; and that God indeed fulfilled His promise.
From their conversations with God, we learn that in contrast
to a resistant, mistrustful world, Abraham and Sarah are responsive and
receptive to God’s Word.[iv]
The correlation between God’s call and their response reveals God’s promise and
human faith. God promises. Abraham and Sarah listen, accept and obey.
Is it as simple as God promises and Abraham listens, accepts
and obeys? What does God promise and to whom? God says: “Go forth from your land and your father’s house to a land that I will
show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your
name great. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All
the families of the earth will find blessing in you.”[v]
God promises a 75-year-old childless nomad that He will make
him the father of a great nation. Abraham thinks for a moment and responds, “Two problems, God. I’m gonna need some land
and a son.”
Read Genesis 12–25 and see that Abraham does not accept God’s
promises blindly. He made backup plans. To spare his life before Pharaoh, he
passed Sarah off as his sister. … Because Sarah bore him no children, he took
her suggestion to father Ishmael through Hagar, her Egyptian maid.[vi] Even
when God reaffirmed his promise, Abraham, like Sarah, laughed and
asked, “Can a child be born to a man who
is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at ninety?” He then said, “God, listen to me. Let my son Ishmael live
in your favor.” God replied, “Abe, listen
to me. Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you shall call him Isaac. I
will make an everlasting covenant with him whom Sarah shall bear to you by this
time next year.”
Abraham’s faith did not occur in a vacuum. It is not without
anguish. He is not always sure and often formed backup plans. Nevertheless, the
faith to which Abraham is called and for which he is celebrated demonstrates
that he acknowledged that God can shatter the normal definitions of reality and
bring about newness.
Abraham’s story has meaning because it is set against a fixed
and settled world. Our world is no different. We are taught that the world is
entrusted to us, that we can construct our own future, or that inequality and
oppression run so deep that there is no power on earth or in heaven that can
make real change. Our world dictates either inordinate pride or deep despair.
Abraham reminds us that God did not abandon creation to us and to our backup
plans. Our gracious God promises the amazing gift of life, and God always
fulfills His promises.
God always fulfills His promises. Do you
think Jesus said that to Mary the moment Martha interrupted Him?
Like Abraham and Sarah, Martha and Mary offer hospitality to
the Lord. The sisters are models of discipleship in the New Testament. We know
from the raising of Lazarus that they believed that God was working through
Jesus. As Abraham wanted God to listen to his backup plans, Martha wanted Jesus
to listen to her, while Jesus wanted Martha and Mary to listen to Him.
We can appreciate Martha’s predicament. Jesus came to dinner
with 84 disciples – the 12 + the 72. Her problem is 3-fold: the demands of
hospitality are immense; she alone is fulfilling them; and Jesus does not notice.
Surprisingly, Jesus rejects her solution and assessment. “Your problem,” he says, “is that you are anxious and troubled. It’s
not that you have too much to do. You are busy with secondary and unneeded
matters. Attend to me and listen to my word.”
In the wider context, today’s passage begins with a reference
to Jesus’ journey. He is not alone on his way to Jerusalem. His disciples join
him, and along the way, he meets would-be followers and a lawyer before he
reaches Martha’s house. Some express interest in following Jesus, but must
perform important tasks – burying the dead and bidding adieu to family. Luke
reminds us that would-be followers must disengage themselves from these
responsibilities and relationships.
Without diminishing the importance of her duties to her
guests, Martha’s fault, like the lawyer who claimed he was prepared to do his
duty for his neighbor, was in not letting Jesus love her as neighbor. As Peter at
the foot washing thought, she made the mistake of thinking she was the host and
Jesus the guest.[vii]
Now, how do these passages apply to our lives? How do we offer Christian hospitality?
Are we models of faith like Abraham and Sarah? Are we models of discipleship
like Martha and Mary? Do we take time to listen to God? Do we believe God’s
promises to us will be fulfilled?
First, hospitality.
In the Lutheran tradition, there are 3 elements of Christian hospitality or
table fellowship with Jesus: teaching, eating and the presence of Jesus.[viii]
When we gather for worship those 3 are present. At times as ordained ministers,
elders, ushers and choristers, we are so busy preparing and celebrating liturgy
that we forget that the posture in which we receive Jesus’ divine service is
not the busyness of human doing, but the stillness of listening to His words.
As the Apology of the Augsburg Confession reminds us, faith is the highest form
of worship.[ix]
Be still and know that I am God.[x]
Second,
are we models of faith like Abraham and Sarah? Last month, Joel Bierman,
presented Man and Woman in Christ. He
challenged pastors to preach like Paul, saying, unlike the Apostle, we’re too
timid to say, “Imitate me!” So, I’m going to reveal something about my life,
and challenge you to imitate me.
Less
than a year into our marriage, my wife, Cindy, made 2 announcements in 2 weeks.
For the longest time, even before we met, she considered retiring and moving. Retiring
and moving, like any change causes stress. … My life changed dramatically since
I left the Catholic priesthood in 2008 after 21 years of ministry. I then
became a well-paid fundraising professional in Berkeley when I met Cindy.
Neither of us was “looking to get married,” but God brought us together, and
the rest is history. History in the making. … (That’s the abridged version. I
can relay the full version for a cup of Java Dave’s.)
Cindy’s desires
to retire and move made me anxious about our finances. While I was in the
colloquy program, I would have to find a job. So, like any reasonable person, I
made plans. … But they collapsed.
Recall
that in his conversations with God, Abraham created backup plans; however, God
would fulfill His promises not according to backup plans, but according to His
plan.
I found
myself in a similar situation. I made plans for employment, and God rejected
them, much in the same way that the Lord rejected Abraham’s and Martha’s plans.
Has God
ever rejected your plans and said something like He did to Abraham and Martha,
“Listen to me!”? Listening to God means that we are not only models of faith
but also models of discipleship.
Models
of faith, models of discipleship listen to God. We know that God speaks to us
through creation, history, Word and sacrament. Do we consider that God speaks
to us through other people? Have you ever considered that God speaks to you
through your spouse or other family members?
You
know, the person who drew me to the Missouri Synod is my wife. Did your spouse
or someone close to you draw you into a deeper relationship with God? I would
like us to consider that Mary, by sitting at the Lord’s feet listening to what He
said drew her sister into a deeper relationship with Jesus.
Because
you love the Lord and those closest to you, what are you doing to be drawn
closer to God? Some of you made a Marriage Encounter weekend. I know from
presenting dozens of weekends how that deepens a couple’s love. Some of you
dialog daily. Cindy and I spend time together each day praying, journaling and
dialoging. Currently, we are reading Couples
of the Bible: A One-Year Devotional Study to Draw You Closer to God and Each
Other. This keeps us focused on our relationship, on each other and on
God’s plan for us. It challenges us to be hospitable to our gracious God, and
to be models of faith and discipleship. It reminds us to be like these figures
on the banners behind me – God’s people in prayer.
In
short, imitate us. Be God’s people in prayer. Know that God has called you into
His immense love, to be attentive to His Word, and to be models of faith and
discipleship to others. Today, I ask you to do just one thing. Set aside 14
minutes (the length of this sermon) to listen to God speaking to you and
reflect upon His promises. Only one thing is required – that you sit and listen, and … May
the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:7). Amen.
