Sermon - Elliott May, July 20th, 2025

Year C: Luke 10:38-42 (Mary and Martha)

A former seminary professor of mine was fond of saying when we pick up the Bible, it does stuff to us and through us. That was his lighthearted way of saying that the Bible is a living document, one which teaches us, convicts us, and often surprises us. On some days, a certain passage will strike us one way. On another day, the same passage may strike us very differently. We may feel unmoved by one passage but overcome by another. I was thinking of that saying of his today, looking at this collection of passages we have, each with their own questions and concerns.

From the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, we get an ominous message from God through the prophet Amos, declaring that a day of devastation will soon come, one in which the people of Israel will experience a famine- but not a famine of food or drink, a famine of the Word of God. The Psalm for the day contains some similarly angry themes, deriding those who love evil more than good, those who practice deceit and wickedness against the vulnerable. The psalmist longs for God to uproot the wicked and restore righteousness among the people. But then in Colossians, we get a seemingly unrelated passage, one of the most beautiful in the Bible- In Jesus the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God has been reconciled to all things, in heaven and on Earth.

So three very different passages, and then finally the gospel- the story of two sisters, Mary and Martha, and a disagreement that Jesus steps into involving household chores. It feels like a strange story, and a long way off from the big themes of the earlier readings about wickedness, ruin, and God’s cosmic victory in Jesus.

But maybe not, actually. Maybe the connection isn’t as far off as it seems. Beneath the surface of this odd exchange between Martha and Jesus is a deeper question—not just about chores, but about how we respond to the presence of God. Let me tell you what I mean.

I want to acknowledge that some of us may experience some friction or even frustration with the scene we read about in today’s gospel. In the story, a woman named Martha has welcomed Jesus and his disciples into her home. Jesus is teaching and Martha’s sister Mary is sitting with the other disciples, listening to Jesus, while Martha rushes around, serving as host. In the end, Martha is gently chided by Jesus for being ‘worried and distracted by many things,’ and Mary is praised for having ‘chosen the better part.’

Is this story familiar to any of you? If you’ve been in church settings for awhile, then it probably is. The contrast drawn between Mary and Martha here has sometimes been used as a way to sketch different kinds of people or even different ways of practicing faith: in this paradigm, people like Martha are Type A personalities, the ‘doers,’ the planners and achievers; while on the other hand, people like Mary are construed as Type B people, ’dreamers,’ contemplatives, learners. Martha acts while Mary studies.

There are a few things to say about this. Here’s the first. When Mary and Martha get pitted against one another as contrasting types like that, it gives us the wrong impression about what this story is about- in essence, that Jesus is expressing a preference for the Marys of the world over the Marthas. The dreamers and contemplatives over the achievers and the doers. And that would be frustrating for those who identify more with Martha in the story- the ones who express love and faith by volunteering, leading, serving.

But that’s not what is going on here at all. We know how important hospitality is to Jesus as a Christian act- as we heard last week, the story immediately before this one is the parable of the Good Samaritan. In that story, it’s a priest and a Levite, a member of the chosen priestly tribe of Israel, who pass by the broken man on the side of the road, before a Gentile comes along and saves him through an act of radical hospitality. That story ends and the very next verse begins this story that we have here today. In other words, immediately before this, Jesus tells a story about the educated religious leaders who have spent their lives in study and worship passing by the person in need, while the Gentile stops and expresses hospitality when it matters most.

So it can’t be that Jesus is expressing a pure preference for Mary’s way of being over Martha’s. And heaven knows how much the church needs the Marthas of the world. We need you on vestry, leading coffee hour, and volunteering at the yard sale. The Marthas of the world help us keep the church moving forward.

Here’s the second thing to say. We need to say that this story is showing us Jesus’s closeness to both Mary and Martha. Martha has no problem complaining to Jesus and asking for help. Marching into a room with a bunch of people and saying, “Jesus, tell my sister to get up and help me,” is not a comment you would make in public to someone that you feel you need to be careful and polite around. This is an exchange between two people who already have a close relationship. Later on, in the book of John, it’s this same Martha who comes to Jesus in tears when her brother Lazarus dies and says to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” So whatever Jesus is communicating to Martha needs to be understood in that light- this is not a teacher reprimanding a student, this is a friend speaking to a friend they know well.

Here’s the last thing to say. Jesus begins his reply to Martha by saying her name twice. “Martha, Martha…” On the page, it’s easy to read this as being patronizing. If someone came to me and started with, “Elliott, Elliott….” I’d be bracing for something unpleasant.

But something else is going on here. This is one of only 7 times in the entire Bible when God uses a name twice like that in direct address to someone. Each of the other 6 comes at a profoundly significant moment of calling, in which the person is faced with a life changing message or choice from God. I won’t list them all, but we would recognize most of the moments- like God speaking to Moses at the burning bush, Saul, later called Paul, having a vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus. Each of the other 6 moments mark turning points in someone’s life, a moment when God tries to grab their attention to tell them something crucial. In the other 6 moments, the individuals leave this encounter of hearing their name twice with a renewed purpose or even a renewed identity.

Is that what Jesus is doing here with Martha? Is he calling to her in an unusual way, trying to get her attention or point or toward something utterly important? We can’t say for sure what Jesus’s intent was or how Martha received it- the story ends after Jesus’s comment to Martha and we don’t get to hear Martha’s response. But I am compelled by this idea, that in this moment, Jesus is not just trying to settle a dispute between sisters, or make a comment about learning versus serving, but that he is extending a deep invitation to Martha, a call to set down the demands of daily life and attend to the presence of God, right there in her living room.

‘Martha, Martha- you are worried and distracted by many things.’ Do any of you feel worried and distracted by many things? I know I do. How could we not be in this day and age? There are so many things to distract us, and so many things that deserve our worry. We could spend all day making the list. But I wonder if that’s the heart of what Jesus is trying to express to Martha. Jesus never says that Mary IS the better part; he says that Mary has chosen the better part. Even though in the previous passage Jesus has just affirmed the very thing that Martha is doing, maybe Jesus sees something in her that is blocking her ability to attend to what’s most important, which is that God has drawn close to her. Instead of a rebuke, I read this as an invitation. Maybe Jesus is trying to call Martha’s attention toward something critical, and through this passage, maybe ours, too.