“Worry is the natural result when our hopes are centered in anything short of God and God’s will for us.” C.S. Lewis
      “Anxiety is the interest paid on trouble before it’s due.” William Ralph Inge
      “Distraction comes from strain, and strain is caused by too complete a dependence on ourselves rather than God.” Thomas Merton ⁱ

      As we travel to Luke’s house for the summer we meet Martha who is worried, anxious, and distracted by many things.
      As we travel to Luke’s house for the summer we meet two sisters at odds: Martha being upset when she’s left alone with all the preparations; Mary spending her time at Jesus feet when there are duties to be seen to. Martha is entirely focused on her tasks. Mary is entirely focused on listening to her Lord.
      But the thing we don’t want to do here is make this scene a cartoon, a caricature, with an obsessive Martha up to her eyeballs in soapsuds, and a virtuous Mary curled up in front of the fire, and Jesus all the while giving scriptural warrant for dishes piling up in the sink. Fred Craddock says if we criticize Martha too harshly, she may abandon serving all together, and if we praise Mary too profusely, she may sit there forever. There is a time to go and do; there is a time to listen and reflect. Knowing which and when is a matter of spiritual discernment. And if we were to ask Jesus, should we be Marys or Marthas, his answer would probably be “yes.”ⁱⁱ
      I was raised by Marthas; that is I was raised by women for whom hospitality is an art form. They happened to all of been born in the south – Savannah Georgia, Pickens Mississippi. There was my grandmother Josie and her sisters, my Aunts Willie Hines, Amy Lee and Elene. There was my own mother Joanne and my aunt Corinne, and Aunt Bobbie.
      Southern women are great Marthas and proud of it. Having been raised by them, I know that dinner in a southern kitchen is a wonder to behold. I say dinner because that’s the noon meal when everyone comes in from the fields to take a break and enjoy the central meal of the day.
      Those who have traditional southern hospitality refined to an art -- never sit. They hover. Plates are never allowed to go empty. Guests are continually asked if they need anything: “Susie, you need anymore black eyed peas honey?” “Artie, looks like you’re runnin’ low on rubbard sauce.” “Jo, pass those butter beans.” “Cora, pass the succotash.”
      In fact, many times the hostess will continue to cook all through the meal: The okra needs to be restrained as the meal begins, reheated and served mid-way; corn must always be served straight out of the pot; corn bread comes to the table straight from the cast iron skillet. And somehow the grace, the prayer before the meal, is timed so perfectly that the food doesn’t skip a beat.
      I have never in all my life been able to time a meal in all of its glory like my mother and grandmother. The greens are still steaming as the pole limas are cooling perfectly. The biscuits are evenly brown even though there’s one oven and often times it was stoked by a wood fire. My new Maytag double oven has nothing on them. Nothing.
      And when does the hostess eat? This is one of the South’s greatest mysteries. The hostess keeps working, scurrying around the table, stopping mid-stride only to wipe the steam from her glasses with a pristine apron. She gives herself totally to servingⁱⁱⁱ. And we are all grateful.

      But when you travel to Luke’s house for the summer and find yourself welcoming Jesus as a guest, things get surprising. At Martha’s house Jesus has no need, as yet, for collard greens and relish tray, but he has great need, a deep need, for both Martha and Mary’s conversation and friendship.
      And that moves us to the heart of the Mary and Martha story. One preacher puts it this way: “there is nothing wrong with Martha’s fixing the food. This is the way people show love and welcome, hospitality and care. In fact there is something absolutely essential about showing one’s love of God and neighbor: by baking the bread and washing the apples; by putting out those bottles of glue before Sunday School; by spackling that ceiling for Habitat; and serving the meatloaf at the soup kitchen.
      The preacher goes on: Martha is doing a good thing, a necessary thing, an act of service. But if we try to do this kind of service apart from the life-giving Word of the gospel, apart from sitting at our Lord’s feet, apart from steeping ourselves in the Word, apart from conversation with God,it will distract us and worry us, beat us down and burn us out.^iv
      Jean Vanier puts it like this: I often hear of people committed to the church and social action that are burned- out. Sometimes these people have been too generous; they have thrown themselves into activity which has finally destroyed them emotionally. They’ve not known how to relax and be refreshed. Sometimes people in their over-activity are running from something. They may be too attached to their function, perhaps even finding all of their identity in it. They’ve not yet learned how to live fully in God, to be freed to live, to discover the wisdom of the present moment, and to relax in body and in heart.^v

      Perhaps Martha has not yet discovered the wisdom of the present moment, nor learned to relax in body and heart. What Jesus wants for her in that moment is to find the better portion, not in the kitchen, but in him.
      Martha was not being hospitable in the abstract and her cooking that meal that day was not trivial; hospitality finally means that somebody has to peel the carrots and mash the potatoes. Someone has to arrive at church early on Sunday morning and put out so the bottles of glue and scissors and construction paper. Busy work? Worry work? Absolutely not. ^vi
      But if we don’t stop and notice Jesus right there in our own living rooms, or discover the wisdom of the present moment, or learn to relax in body and heart, then we’ll never hear our Lord beckon us to take a seat right there beside him. For this thing only does he want for us, the better portion that will never be taken away.
      How else will we be fully present to care lovingly for the ill and show hospitality to the stranger, to visit the prisoner, and prepare meals for the hungry; to keep on living our lives in the name of our Lord.
      For this thing only does he want for us, the better portion that will never be taken away.
      Thanks be to God.

Endnotes

ⁱ Quotations from The Westminster Collection of Christian Quotations. Compiled by Martin H. Manser. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001, 11-12.

ⁱⁱ Fred B Craddock. Luke. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990, 152.

ⁱⁱⁱ I am grateful for images and remembrances of Mary W. Anderson’s article “Hospitality Theology.” The Christian Century, Chicago, IL: The Christian Century Foundation, July 1, 1998.

^iv Thomas G. Long. Sermon: “Mary and Martha.” Proper 11, Luke 10: 38-42. Broadcast on Day1 from Alliance for Christian Media, Chicago, IL, July 2007.

^v Jean Vanier. Community and Growth. Toronto: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1991, 177.

^vi Thomas G. Long. Sermon: “Mary and Martha.” Proper 11, Luke 10: 38-42. Broadcast on Day 1 from Alliance for Christian Media, Chicago, IL, July 2007.

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