Sermon for the Sixth Sunday After Pentecost, Year C (7-20-25)

Picture it: two close friends are due to come over for dinner later in the day. And so naturally you want to tidy up the house a little bit. To be a gracious and hospitable host, you know? So the bathrooms are cleaned, the floors swept, oh and while we're at it might as well dust that shelf that never quite gets much attention. And you know what, those pillow cases on the throw pillows are looking dingy too, and the stove - you know the one that's just about to get used and dirtied - it's begging for a good scrub. I guess the oven too while I'm at it. In fact, let's just make it seem as though no one actually lives in this house. That will be the best way to prepare for these guests. That is some real hospitality!

Anyone else? Or is that just me? (If you're not like this please give my husband Charlie some support. Just so he knows he's not alone when he witnesses this most neurotic behavior of mine time and time again.)

Today's gospel story is generally a familiar one even though it only shows up in Luke's account. Maybe it's because it's short and simple - at least on the surface. And maybe it's because it's a wildly familiar vignette of human experience. Two sisters are equally raptured by this inspiring, itinerant teacher named Jesus. They are both looking to aid this movement, to be part of the big thing that Jesus is doing in their world. And like the rest of us, they initially click into their most natural, most innate postures when he walks in the door. 

As the curious one, Mary plops right down trying to drink in every word Jesus says. Tuning out the scuttle and commotion around her. And who can blame her? I love it when Jesus gives me a break from the reality right in front of my face. When he offers a perspective that allows me to breathe a little bit - to see God's goodness in an otherwise scary and broken world. It can be such a relief. And even a bit intoxicating.

And Martha our host is doing what good hosts do. She's ensuring that her guests will want for nothing. One step ahead, doing that host thing where every need is considered before the guests even know they need it. It's magical, this kind of work. It makes you feel special as a guest, and it's more than anything a labor of love.

And so in viewing this difference in posture - these seemingly conflicting approaches to discipleship - we, along with Martha, do that very human thing. We ask for the right answer. We look for the "better part". Because us either/or, black or white thinkers there can only be one right way. Right?

Well if this is where your mind first went, please know you're in good company. Even St. Augustine of Hippo in the fifth century noted this clear either/or problem within the story:

"Martha," he writes "was absorbed in the matter of how to feed the Lord; Mary was absorbed in the matter of how to be fed by the Lord. Martha was preparing a banquet for the Lord, Mary was already reveling in the banquet of the Lord." (Sermon 104.1) And even in how he presents the situation we get a sense that Augustine, along with many, have decided which was "the better part," to use Jesus' words. Learning over doing. Listening over serving. Devotion over hospitality. Mary over Martha.

But when we really drill into it this doesn't seem quite right, does it? After all, we hear Jesus speak often and passionately about service to others. About radical hospitality. He himself dons a servants towel and washes his own disciples feet - a seeming reversal of parts of today's very story, in fact. So, it does seem strange for Jesus to suddenly become enamored by Mary's devotion and kind of dismiss Martha's hospitality. Or, are we sure that's what he's doing here?

"Martha....Martha," we can hear the compassion in his tone straight from the page. "Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, there is need of only one thing," Jesus assures her.

One of my favorite things about Jesus is that he always seems to know our "one thing". Which is, indeed, a miracle seeing as each of us have a different one thing at different times. For me, I'm right there with Martha these days. Needing Jesus to tear me away from all my doing and invite me to sit at his feet for a while. But in any other season I could easily need the opposite - to get out of my head and into my world. Needing the transforming presence of Christ to shape my faith into service and action.

I find it interesting that this Bible translation among many others seems to have made up Jesus' mind for him in his reply to Martha that "Mary has chosen the better part". Interesting because a more accurate translation here would simply be "Mary has chosen a good part". There is no rank order. What might have been good for Mary could be different for Martha. We all show up to host Jesus with different needs at different times.

What's your need these days? Do we work really hard? Or do we sit at Jesus' feet?

Yes. 

Search your hearts, beloved. Find the better part for you. It is a unique conversation between you and your Savior. Don't be too concerned with everyone else - they're having their own conversation and hopefully finding their own better part. And in all things, marvel that the God of the universe has come here. To be a gracious and understanding guest in to you.

Amen.