Sermon on Luke 10:38-42

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

I’ve seen the story of Jesus visiting Mary and Martha used like a personality test: are you a Mary or a Martha? This is usually in a women’s devotional.

I’ve seen the characters pitted against each other: silly Martha was too busy doing chores to pay attention to Jesus. She should have been a Godly woman like Mary.

I’m pretty tired of it.

Maybe if there were more stories about women in the Gospels, especially women whose names are actually used, we wouldn’t be so desperate to use these two characters to exemplify women specifically.

When there’s a story about Peter, James, and John, I see the traits that I resonate with in the characters, regardless of gender. So why are Mary and Martha used as a typology for women?

Christians of all genders are called to service and to learning.

So, let’s let these two followers of Jesus be what he treats them as: disciples.

I also sometimes hear this story framed as service versus learning, as if when Jesus told Martha that Mary chose the better part, he was saying that all of his disciples should choose learning over service. But that doesn’t line up with much of the content of the Gospel of Luke, the book of Acts, which is by the same author, or much of the content of the whole Bible.

The Gospel of Luke focuses a lot on service and working for justice. We discussed the Parable of the Good Samaritan last week, which Jesus toldright before this story. That parable uses an example of service to emphasize that everyone is our neighbor, even and especially those we kind of wish weren’t. Throughout the Gospel of Luke, we see themes of service and acting out our faith in the world and not just paying lip service to God.

In the book of Acts, the follow-up to the Gospel of Luke, the twelve apostles were getting overwhelmed by the needs of the growing number of Jesus followers. They decided to appoint seven folks who would serve the physical needs of the community so the apostles could focus on prayer and other spiritual matters. This is where we and many other denominations get the position of “deacon,” which comes from the Greek word for servant. Service is an important part of what it means to follow Jesus or the apostles wouldn’t have bothered dedicating people specifically for that form of ministry. Both Luke and Acts are particularly concerned with service and addressing people’s physical needs. Martha is an early example of faithful Christian service.

Jesus didn’t discourage Martha’s service in this story. He accepted her hospitality. There’s no Lazarus or any other man mentioned in this story, so we can assume Martha was the head of this household.

So, there would have been certain expectations of her as the host. Hospitality was a huge deal in the Middle East in the first century and before. Look at the lengths Abraham and his household went to in our first reading to show hospitality to the three divine messengers.

Abraham isn’t scolded for showing hospitality, and neither is Martha. Her hospitality is a good thing—how any of us would want to treat Jesus if he were to show up at our door.

If Martha was resentful of her sister for not helping her provide that hospitality, it’s understandable. Making Jesus referee their disagreement isn’t a good look, but it’s a very human reaction to feeling overwhelmed and overworked. Martha’s hospitality wasn’t the problem.Her attempted interference with Mary’s discipleship was the problem.

Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, where students sat to learn from their rabbis. Jesus didn’t make a fuss that she was a woman; she was a disciple. He even encouraged her discipleship by the end of the story.

Jesus accepted and encouraged both Mary and Martha’s discipleship. When he said Mary chose the better part, he wasn’t setting study above service. He was inviting Martha to let study fuel her service. Right then, she was overwhelmed by what she had to do, and Jesus was reminding her of why she served: it was a sign of her love for him.

Discipleship isn’t about choosing learning or service. Most followers of Jesus do both, and that’s good. Learning can help ground our service in love for God and service can ground our learning in love for our neighbor. It’s a cycle of action and reflection that helps us love God and our neighbor with our whole selves.

That cycle’s going to look different for each of us, and it’ll probably take a lifetime to find what works best for us.

Our cycle of action and reflection may look different depending on our season of life. If we’re students, we may not have time to serve. If we’re parents of young children or caregivers for other family members, we may be doing a lot of serving and not have a lot of time for quiet contemplation. That’s okay—it doesn’t have to be an even split. But long-term, it’s helpful to pay attention to what God is calling you to and what nourishes your soul.

The communities we’re a part of affect our action and reflection too. Being a part of a smaller faith community like this one has its benefits and challenges. You can pretty quickly get to know the majority of the people here, which is wonderful. You can easily get plugged into whatever ministry you’re interested in or start something new. If you have ideas or questions, talk to me.

On the other hand, there are things that need to happen to keep the ministries of the church going, and it can sometimes be hard to find people with the right gifts and interests in a smaller community. And conversely, it can be challenging to step away from something if it’s not a good fit or you’re interested in trying something different if there’s not an immediate candidate to fill your shoes.

God provides, and sometimes much to our chagrin, God provides us. It can be hard to keep our service to a manageable level and also have time to just enjoy each other’s company and have contemplative and study time with God. We need to discern what’s essential in this community and what needs to be released or reformed to make sure we’re choosing whatever the better part is for us and our neighbors.

We can get distracted by many things—here at church, at home, at work. Our world moves so fast. There’s always something more to do, to achieve, to innovate, to manage, to perfect.

I realize I’m assuming most of us tend toward the service side of the service and learning cycle. I’m defining service not just as volunteering at church (though that certainly counts), but service to your family, friends, community, work, and any other action-oriented ministry. I see a lot of busy people in this congregation who are generous with their time here and elsewhere.

But maybe you feel a yearning for meaningful service that you haven’t been able to figure out how to fulfill. In that case, let’s have a conversation. You’re probably doing more than you realize, but God may be calling you to something new, and that’s exciting.

But whether your yearning is for service or study, let’s keep imagining together how we can meet each other’s needs in this community.

What’s essential? What needs to be reimagined to make time and space for something different?

We talked about Sabbath throughout last year, remembering in this bustling world that God made us good and invites us to rest and commune with God. It’s in the Ten Commandments—rest is to be a regular part of the rhythm of our lives as individuals and as a community.

How do we foster rhythms both of service and of study and contemplation that nurture this faith community and make this a place of healing for everyone?

We are the church that feeds people body and soul. Let’s sit at Jesus’ feet to fuel us to love and serve our neighbor.