Sermon 21st July 2019 - 6th Sunday after Pentecost - Text: Luke 10:38-42 - Sibling rivalry
Sibling
rivalry.
Is this
what we are seeing in our Gospel reading between Mary and Martha or is it
something deeper?
Jesus has
come to the home of Mary and Martha and both sisters see a different emphasis
of what needs to happen.
It reminds
me of a similar situation which involved Mary in John’s Gospel – it may have
even been the same event when Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, Mary
and Martha’s brother whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner
for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him
at table. Mary took some expensive perfume and anointed the feet of Jesus and
wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the
perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples said, “Why was this perfume not
sold and given to the poor?” Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep
it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do
not always have me.”
Was one
action more important than another?
Not
necessarily.
It was seemingly
a question of priorities.
Mary chose
to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to his teachings because who knows when she
might have that opportunity again.
Entertaining
the guests could have happened anytime afterwards.
Mary chose
to use the expensive perfume to anoint Jesus because he was about to die.
The poor could
be helped continuously after that or with other resources.
So this
Gospel reading speaks to the heart of priorities.
I don’t
believe it’s a situation of one of the sisters being better or more “Christian”
than the other because of what they have chosen to do.
Both were
believers in Jesus as the Christ.
Both loved Jesus
and Jesus loved them both.
But they
were very different women.
There is no
doubt that grace lived in both their hearts.
But each
showed that love and grace in different ways.
So we learn
from this that we should not expect all Christians to be exactly the same as
each other as the body of Christ is made up of many different members – like a
human body.
We learn
that we can each make decisions on how we believe God is calling us to express
our faith and gifts.
Neither,
therefore, should we judge based on our own expectations and gifts – which is
what Martha did.
And that’s
one of the beautiful things about God’s creation – the differences and
diversity.
As we look
at creation we see a variety of flowers – different colours – different aromas –
different times of the year they flourish in different conditions.
It’s the
same with God’s creatures – we don’t have one type of bird but thousands – the same
with all animal species.
That’s part
of God’s creativity.
So too in
humanity –we have different gifts – different skills – different ways of
expressing ourselves – including our faith and service to God.
What we are
called to do, as members of the body of Christ is to embrace what God has
gifted us with and support the other members as they too express their God
given gifts in their own ways.
And together
we express God’s creativity in harmony.
St Paul
highlights that when he says: the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need
you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary,
those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts
that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour.
Martha’s
problem is that she was bringing down both herself and Mary by her criticism of
her sister.
Martha’s
gift was the gift of hospitality.
But because
she was so focused on Mary not sharing the same gift she also distracted her
own gift.
Because of
her distraction she didn’t see what she was doing as a gift and that’s when we
begin to lose passion for what we are doing for God.
And that’s
what Jesus is pointing out.
He points
out her distraction not her decision to not sit at his feet.
He doesn’t
tell her to stop what she is doing and come and sit down but to not allow her
distractions from affecting her calling and also her sister Mary’s.
The body of
Christ is like a well tuned machine.
Each part
by itself doesn’t really achieve anything.
But when it
works in conjunction with all the other parts it achieves the outcome for which
is has been built.
A sparkplug
in an engine has an important function.
By itself
it has no purpose.
An engine
without one will not function.
But together
they work in harmony.
Or take a
piece of music made up of many notes.
By itself a
note is just a noise.
But with
other notes it creates a harmony.
So too the
body of Christ.
Martha had
a function which in harmony with everything going on created a harmonious
environment for Jesus’ visit.
But she
stopped serving.
She interrupted
Jesus’s function.
She interrupted
Mary’s function.
We no
longer have harmony but chaos.
When God
created the world he created order from chaos.
The Spirit
of God hovered over the empty void and then God began to create order – he
brought light and life into our world.
He ordered
it in such a way that had harmony between creature and creation and behold it
was very good.
And that
harmony continued until human beings broke that order through sin and
reintroduced chaos through disobedience.
Adam and
Eve were distracted by Satan to look away from God’s harmony and let their own
desires break that harmony.
Martha,
too, became distracted and allowed her own desires to break the harmony of Jesus’
visit.
So this
text speaks to us and any behaviour we might show that breaks the harmony of
God’s work.
Each of us
is gifted in one way or the other to which we contribute to the harmony of the body
of Christ.
St Paul, so
majestically paints that harmonious order in our 2nd reading today:
Notice how
many times he highlights Jesus being at the head that puts everything in our
lives in order:
Christ
Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
In him all
things in heaven and on earth were created.
All things
have been created through him and for him
In him all
things hold together
He is the
head of the body
He is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead
In him all
the fullness of God was pleased to dwell
Through him
God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things
I think we
start to see the picture here.
If Jesus is
at the head of our congregation.
If Jesus is
at the head of our family.
If Jesus is
at the head of our ministry.
If Jesus is
at the head of how we live our lives –
Then everything
falls into harmony.
It’s when
we let our own desires – our own egos – our own agendas – our own criticisms, when we let these influence our judgments –
then chaos creeps back in.
When we
start to act like Martha and start judging others by our standards rather than
Christ’s then our harmony breaks down.
We all play
our part in our community of Christ here.
And some
play what might seem a lesser role but one that would create chaos if it wasn’t
done.
Just like a
$10 sparkplug can render a $100,000 luxury car inoperable if it is faulty or
missing.
All of us
are an intricate and vital part of the body of Christ and we should value each
and every part as indispensable and irreplaceable.
That’s how
God sees us and that’s how we should see ourselves – we are that one lost sheep
– we are that one lost coin – we are that lost prodigal son – and together we
make up the body of Christ.
Whatever it
is that God has gifted you, do it joyfully and don’t be distracted by how God
is using others.
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