What is the Better Part?

Luke 10: 38-42

Beaumont Presbyterian Church

July 18, 2010

Rev. Susan Warren

This is a brief little story so we have to fill in the gaps. We’re told that Martha welcomes Jesus into her home. It seems as if she knows him. Notice that there is no mention of Martha’s husband. She welcomes Jesus into her home.  Jesus enters, sits and begins to teach. We assume he’s accompanied by the usual contingent of disciples. And here comes Martha’s sister Mary, who sits down to hear what he has to say. Then, Luke tells us, “But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?”

Martha was distracted by her many tasks. Do you hear the word “kitchen” mentioned? How about “food”? Anything about meal preparation? How about washing dishes? Martha was distracted by her many tasks.  In the original Greek in which the New Testament is written, the word used here is diakonia. It means ministry. My Greek lexicon describes diakonia as the promotion of religion. It’s the word from which we derive diaconate. Beaumont doesn’t have deacons, but churches that do usually think of deacons as offering a ministry of service. When I was a deacon before entering seminary my duties included visiting the sick, taking up and counting the offering, serving regularly as usher, and so forth. Cooking is not in the job description, although I have known quite a few deacons who could cook up a storm.

I hope you get the picture and will help me dispel one of my several pet peeves about the interpretation of this text. I’ve heard sermon after sermon about how Martha was in the kitchen cooking up a batch of matzo balls when she really should have been out there with Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet.  Friends, this is not a Martha Stewart moment. This is a Martha disciple of Jesus moment.

Does it matter? After all, busy is busy, regardless. But yes, it matters, first, because it’s important to hear what the text says. It’s important not to “hear” that, in biblical times, if a woman was busy it must have been in the kitchen. Don’t get me wrong, making meals is a great ministry. But the mistaken reading disregards other forms of ministry for women. It misrepresents Martha’s identity as a disciple. And it misrepresents Jesus.

This story supplies another instance of Jesus shaking up established Jewish law and tradition. Early Judaism excluded women from ministry and from being students of Torah. Mary and Martha cross the men-only line on both counts.

There are other points of contention about this text. Scholars argue about it all the time and the books of interpretation probably could fill this room. Why would Jesus be critical of Martha staying busy, getting the work done? (He wasn’t critical, by the way: read carefully). Does the text pit sister against sister?

The sermons written on this text also are something to behold. “Are you a Mary in a Martha world?” “Having the heart of Mary in a Martha world.” “Is your church a Martha church or a Mary church?” And on and on and on.

But you’re in luck. I’m here today to give you the real meaning of this text. Men, wake up! This is about you, too!

Listen again to Jesus’ words: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things.” And there you have it. Worried and distracted. We all get that, don’t we? When we’re worried, we get distracted, and when we get distracted, we miss something important, or make a mistake. We make the wrong turn; or we think we have more money in our account than we do; we forget to buy dog food, or get a flu shot, or pay the gas bill. Worried and distracted is bad.

Then Jesus says this: “there is need for only one thing” – and Mary has chosen it.

What can that one thing be? What is the better part? Does Jesus mean that Martha should not be busy with her tasks? Should we not be active, on the go, tending to the many tasks of our personal and family lives, doing the ministry of the church – as Martha was?

Let me remind you of the last words of the Good Samaritan story you heard last week. “Go and do likewise.” Go and do. Jesus is always calling people to action. So, no, the better part is not sitting in silence. The better part isn’t busy with many tasks. The better part is the opposite of worried and distracted. The better part is focused. We can’t accomplish much if we’re not focused. Whether we’re engaged in active ministry for God, or in listening to God, the point is to be engaged! To be focused. To not be sleep-walking our way through life.

Mary is focused on Jesus. She’s really listening to Jesus’ words. She’s intent on learning. If you want to be a disciple of Jesus, you have to really listen to what he has to say, to what the gospels teach us. Otherwise, in your worry and distraction, you might become confused and hear Jesus telling Martha to get out of the kitchen; or you might hear Jesus saying something like “cleanliness is next to godliness.” Or “God helps those who help themselves.” Pithy sayings that aren’t in the bible.

Or maybe if you’re not paying attention you hear Jesus say Martha should stay in the kitchen -- and out of the pulpit – and any number of other things that some like to attribute to Jesus even though he never said them. To be a good disciple, you have to really listen to what he says, and that can be mighty frightening.

I don’t know why Jesus is always siding with the poor and outcast – but he is! I don’t know why he talks so much about forgiving and including, sharing what we have, but he does. I don’t know why he doesn’t think things like homosexuality are important enough to talk about – but he doesn’t. Issues of gender just aren’t a big topic with him.

Peace is. He talks about that a lot. And love. And faith. Faith is a big, big issue with Jesus.

So it’s important to engage in focused listening, as Mary did. And probably that’s the most important thing you need to do to be a good disciple. Because focused listening leads to focused action. Not worried and distracted action, like Martha’s. But focused action.

Dr. Thomas Long, professor of theology at Candler Seminary at Emory, tells the story of Grace Thomas, the second of five children born to a streetcar conductor in Birmingham. Grace grew up in modest circumstances and, after marrying and moving to Georgia, took a clerking job at the state capitol in Atlanta. She was attracted to politics and the law, so she added law student to her jobs as full-time clerk and mother.

In 1954 Grace shocked her family by announcing that she wanted to run for public office. What’s more, she didn’t want to run for drain commissioner or for the city council. Grace ran for governor. Nine candidates entered the race that year. There was one issue: the 1954 Brown verses Board of Education ruling that desegregated schools. Grace alone among the candidates called the Supreme Court ruling just. Her campaign slogan was “Say Grace at the Polls!” She finished dead last.

Grace’s family hoped she had gotten it out of her system, but she decided to run for governor again in 1962. Racial tensions were even higher by then and her progressive platform earned her a number of death threats. One day she held a rally in a small Georgia town at an old slave market in the town square. She pointed to the platform where once human beings had been bought and sold like produce and she said, “The old has passed away, the new has come. A new day has come when all Georgians, white and black, can join hands and work together.”

At that point a red-faced man in the crowd interrupted Grace’s speech to blurt out, “Are you a communist?” “Why no,” she replied quietly. “Well then, where’d you get all them galdurned ideas?” Grace pointed to the steeple of a nearby Baptist church. “I learned them over there,” she said, “in Sunday School.”

Grace had spent time listening to what Jesus taught. What she heard changed her life and launched her on her mission. It’s good to take time to listen carefully to the Word. But it’s dangerous. The Word always leads to action. Amen.