The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Ephphatha Parish of the Deaf
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY
I would like to ask everybody to take a minute to think back to a time when you felt safe and secure and comfortable with your life. Perhaps it was a time when you were a child, and you could be sure that Mom or Grandma would be waiting when you came home from school, with a glass of milk and fresh cookies, and time to sit down with you and talk about your day. Perhaps, if you went to a boarding school, you might feel safest in your dorm with your favorite housemother. But take a moment now to think back and see if you can pick out a time that made you feel happy and comfortable and safe in your life. (pause)
I would guess that the reason we felt so comfortable and happy was that somebody paid attention to us, and made us understand that they cared about us. Right?
Today's Gospel reading is the famous story about Mary and Martha. They were sisters, but sisters are not always alike in their personalities and thinking. Martha was a good housekeeper. She was the Martha Stewart of Jesus' time. She wanted her house to be clean, she wanted all the food to be perfect, and she wanted everything to be exactly right for her guest, Jesus. So she bustled around, setting the table, stirring the soup, maybe sending a servant girl out to the garden for fresh vegetables. She was very busy and it really made her mad when she looked out the kitchen door and saw her sister, Mary, sitting there, talking with Jesus.
So, Martha went up to Jesus. Don't you know, Jesus, that I am working hard to prepare a good meal for you and your disciples? But Mary is sitting here, doing nothing, just talking with you and listening to you. It isn't right for a woman to be discussing and arguing things like the Bible with men! Women are supposed to be in the kitchen, getting a meal ready, and making sure that the house is clean and attractive for guests. Tell Mary to stop being lazy, get up, and come help me!
I imagine Mary blushed bright red, and maybe she began to speak, to make excuses for herself. But Jesus put out a hand to tell her to be quiet. And then he answered Martha: Mary has chosen the best, the most important part of making a person welcome. I will not take that away from her.
And Martha hurried back to the kitchen to stir the soup again, probably angry inside, but you can't blow up at a guest.
Now most of the time we hear the preacher tell us that this story means that it's more important to give our attention to God and to religious matters than to things like washing dishes and scrubbing floors. And they are right. It is. The reason, of course, is that the dishes will have to be washed again tomorrow and the next day and the day after. The floor will have to be swept again and again as long as we live in that house. The meal we work so hard to cook will be eaten, and tomorrow we will have to start all over again and cook another meal. But our attention to, and our learning about, God and heaven will be with us for always, and will prepare us to live in heaven ourselves someday. So, yes, that is true.
Now, let's think about this.
Suppose you check into a fine hotel or even an average hotel. The room they give you is perfectly clean, and the towels hang just so, and the bed is properly made. You go down to the dining room and the tables are set beautifully, with shiny silverware and glasses, and a waiter comes and is very polite and nice to you, and the food is good and well cooked. And then you go up to your room. You turn on the TV, but all the shows are reruns. You don't feel like reading. You miss your family and friends, and you feel very much alone in this perfect room, all by yourself.
Wouldn't you give a lot for a friendly face to come in the door, and a chance to sit down and chat with a friend?
How do you suppose Jesus felt, when he went to Martha's perfectly clean, well-scrubbed house, and sat down in her nice clean living room, waiting to eat a perfectly cooked meal, and wondering why his hostess didn't have time to talk with him? He needed a friendly face and someone to talk to, and Mary provided that for him.
But let's think a little more. How about us, and God?
We put a lot of emphasis on how people behave. Don't talk in church.....hold your prayer book properly....it's time to kneel...stand up for the hymn now...don't play with that paper, it will make a noise and bother people....don't kick the back of that chair!
And we put a lot of emphasis on how people behave outside church, too. Don't be late...hold the door for older people or ladies...let others go first...remember to say "please" and "thank you" and "excuse me."
We try our best to make everything perfect. We even give money to the Red Cross or the Rescue Mission to help make the world more perfect for other people, too.
BUT...Don't you think maybe we need to give our selves? Our attention to God...talking to God in prayer, just about the things that happen in our lives every day. Our attention to others, listening to their problems and helping them feel that somebody cares about them, that somebody is interested in their lives and what they do. Our attention to society, paying attention to what is happening in our town, our country, and the world, and doing advocacy to try to show others how much we care about everyone having a good life, and somebody to talk to and share with.
You see, this Bible reading can be understood in two different ways, and both of them are right.
It is more important to give our attention to God than to things.
And it is more important to be a friend to God, and to other people, and to our own city, country, nation and to others in the world, than it is to act just right or have a perfect house and a fine car and a lot of money. God, and other people, and their needs and feelings, are more important than any kind of work, any kind of money-making, any kind of meeting or project.
There is an old song that says, Take time to be holy. When we think about that song, we need also to think about what Jesus said: What you do to even the least important person you meet...you are doing that to ME, Jesus, God.
Amen.
