July 21, 2019
Lk. 10:38-42
Rev. Mary Erickson
One Needful Thing
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
There is a joy surrounding hospitality. It’s delightful to be the one who welcomes. And it’s warmly gracious to be the one who is welcomed in turn.
Guests can come in two varieties. Some are invited, and others are the “pop in” variety. They just show up, like a package on your doorstep! Times were when that was a lot more common. People went visiting on Sunday afternoons. But nowadays popping in is much less common. Some people don’t appreciate guests of the pop-in variety. They want to prepare their house so that all looks especially well for their guests.
We have two different stories today in our Bible readings about guests. In the first story, from Genesis, the guests pop in. In the story from Luke, Mary extends an invitation.
Abraham is sitting in the doorway of his tent, trying to catch a breeze during the heat of the day. After this past week, we know all about the heat of the day! But no one here is complaining, not after this last winter!
Abraham had pitched his tent near a big oak tree. It was siesta time. Three men appeared, walking across the barren terrain. They must have shimmered in the heat. Why would anyone be walking during that time of day? That was dangerous and could cost you your life!
I lived for one summer in Arizona, in Phoenix. It was VERY hot! When someone came to your house, the very first think you asked them was, “Would you like a glass of water?” There was an urgency about it, too. You didn’t wait around until they were nicely settled into their seat. Seeing to their physical need for hydration was pressing.
Necessity forms the shape of hospitality. Abraham found himself in just such a dry and hot climate like Arizona. These travelers needed attention! He wastes no time in seeing to their needs. Even in the heat of the day, Abraham scurries about like a man on a mission.
Then something unusual happens. Abraham and Sarah receive the blessing of the Lord. The guest becomes their host. He announces that Abraham and Sarah will be blessed with a son.
In the second story, the guest doesn’t pop in. He’s invited. Jesus is invited to the home of Martha. It’s rather unusual that a woman should have invited a man. AND that she does it in such a public setting. This was a bold move for a woman of her time.
There’s no mention of brother Lazarus in this story, but we know he’s part of the household. It’s an unusual family, don’t you think? You have three adult siblings who are living together. That would be very unusual today. There is no mention of spouses. We don’t know the stories behind their living arrangements. Perhaps both sisters had been widowed, and brother Lazarus took them in. At any rate, it’s an unusual family setting.
Jesus is invited to Martha’s home. Even though it would most rightly be her brother Lazarus’ home, she feels comfortable inviting a guest to their house. And Luke tells us that she invites Jesus to HER home. I think I know who the eldest child is in that family!
Keep in mind how Jesus’ itinerant ministry worked. He and his disciples would walk from one city or village to another. When they arrived, they waited until someone invited them to stay with them. Jesus had instructed his disciples to take no money in their pouches. He once said, “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Jesus and his disciples were vulnerable to the elements and dependent on the hospitality of their hosts..
So Jesus had arrived at Bethany. Martha was aware of it, and she invites him to stay with her. When they get to her house, Martha is busy taking care of his hospitality needs. Accommodations need to be prepared, the food readied, water is brought for the washing of feet. There is a lot to do! Martha was a busy woman.
And just where was her sister Mary??? Imagine Martha’s outrage when she saw Mary sitting leisurely at the feet of Jesus!
There are different ways to demonstrate care and love to another person. Some people are verbally demonstrative. Others are huggers. Martha was a woman who demonstrated her love through service. She made sure to provide for their needs. Martha was a Capable Woman. She had a mental list of everything she wanted accomplished to take care of her visitors’ needs.
But Mary is cut from a different bolt of cloth. Mary shows her devotion by being with that person, by being physically near them and being truly present. Mary seems oblivious to all the things so important to Martha. But Mary’s inactivity meant that Martha would have to work doubly hard. So Martha was by herself, seeing to everything that needed to be done. She was checking everything off her prep list, while Mary enjoyed Jesus’ company.
And then Martha commits the great hospitality faux pax: she triangulates Jesus into a family dispute. “Jesus, don’t you care that Mary has left me to do all the work? Tell her to help me!”
Does it seem to you that we very easily show more hospitality to outsiders than we do to our own family? Hospitality begins at home. Unfortunately, the people we’re least hospitable to can be the people under our own roofs.
Jesus speaks to Martha. He calls her by name. But how does he say it? What he says can carry very different meaning depending on the tonality. Did he say her name with disappointment? “Martha, Martha!” Or did he use a patronizing tone? “Martha, Martha!”
Jesus says her name twice. In the Old Testament, saying a person’s name twice is connected with calling. At the burning bush God said, “Moses! Moses!” At the tabernacle in the dead of the night God said, “Samuel! Samuel!” Could Jesus possibly be calling Martha? Is he calling her into awareness of the one thing that is necessary – just being with him! Just being truly present with other people!
Martha had been distracted by many things. We get that way, too. We get side tracked by all the things we have to do, by all the responsibilities weighing down on us. We run from this deadline to that appointment. Then we run home and tend to a list as long as your arm.
We can do the same thing with church activities. We can become absorbed in the maintenance of the church building and the church’s ministries. You have to love the Marthas in our midst for being initiators and doing what needs to be done! And like Martha, this is how they show their devotion and commitment.
Katherine Hawker wrote a tribute to the Marthas in our midst:
She changed the banners
He mowed the lawn
She made the coffee
He chaired the Council meetings
She recruited the Sunday School teachers
He painted the walls
She studied the scriptures
He baked the turkeys
She tended the flowerbeds
She was Mary
He was Paul
She was Martha
He was Peter
Each according to their ability
Offering what they had
Our ministries and life as a congregation depend on the efforts of those who do what needs to be done. But sometimes our devotion to these ministries can become a distraction.
In one congregation I served, there was a woman who for years had maintained what was called The Cradle Roll. She sent cards to families on the anniversaries of their child’s baptism and other important dates. She had organized the Cradle Roll for at least three decades. But she was at an age where she wanted to let go of being in charge of this ministry. She wanted to hand it on.
However nice it might be to send a card to someone on the anniversary of their child’s baptism, the younger women of the congregation felt their efforts on behalf of the church’s ministries could better be spent elsewhere. No one volunteered to take over the operation of the Cradle Roll.
It became a bit of a distraction to this older woman, that no one would help her with this ministry that had outgrown its time. She felt a small degree of resentment that no one else valued this Cradle Roll ministry the way she did.
Like Martha, the demands and activities of our responsibilities and our perceived duties can feel overwhelming. The distraction of these many things can lead to burnout. And that’s a shame.
Jesus calls Martha, and he calls us, to be centered on the one needful thing. And that one thing is relational. It’s the relationship Jesus wants to have with you. Faith boils down to that one simple thing. All the songs, all the creeds, all the liturgies – they all are there to anchor us in him.
It’s easy to turn our worship and social ministries into an end unto themselves. But when our worship and when our actions in Jesus’ name lead to the one needful thing (to be with Jesus), then an interesting thing happens.
The hospitality reverses itself. What started as our worship of Jesus ends in his ministering to us. Christ becomes the host, and we become his guests. We sit at his feet, and we see that he has given all things to us.
He has created for us this home, this beautiful planet.
As we worship, he welcomes us at the door and gives us belonging. Once we were separated from fellowship with God by our sin. But Jesus has opened the door to our homing.
We also celebrate the meal together in his name. And although we set the table and ready the elements, he is host of this meal. On that night long ago, he cast aside his inner anxiety. He looked beyond his impending suffering and death to share this meal with his disciples. He knew that only one thing was needful, and that was communion with his disciples, the ones he called friend.
Even today he comes to us just the same. He is the host of this meal. We receive the cup as from his hand.
Friends, one thing is needful, one thing only. Jesus loves you, and he wants to be with you. And that is the heart of all hospitality.
