You Should See My Desk!
Luke 10: 38-42
Gettysburg Presbyterian Church
Rev. Lou Nyiri
July 29, 2007
I gotta tell you…I love this morning’s passage!
I love it because of the two women we read about – Mary & Martha.
These two women personify the battle which rages within me. If you need some direction as to what I’m talking about, then read the sermon title in your bulletin – “You Should See My Desk!”
And not only my desk but the corner behind the door as you enter, the corner behind my desk, and the closet, and the cabinet above the closet, and…well, you get the point.
You see, I want to be Martha, though judging from the “mess” (notice the quotations I use around the word mess) in my office I live the existence of Mary. Though in my defense it’s not so much a mess as it is controlled clutter because I have a 95-98 percent chance of knowing exactly which pile to look in for the piece of information I’m looking for at any given time.
The New York Times reports on a movement that calls us to embrace disorder and “say yes to mess.” Recent studies are revealing that:
Some times the perfectly organized life is not all its cracked up to be!
I know what you might be thinking, “You just said all that to a Presbyterian congregation who has something called a Book of Order…are you out of your mind?!”
But you know what this morning’s passage isn’t about Mr. Clean versus Schroeder from Peanuts.
And that is another reason I love this morning’s passage because it shows us the reality of Scripture AND the reality of the gospel for our lives.
Namely, that Jesus came to turn our worlds upside down so that we might live right side up.
Now what do I mean by that statement? I mean that often we read something and think we have it nailed down and then we think about it some more, maybe read some more about it and then realize we’ve got it all wrong.
We realize that what it was saying to us at one point is not really what it’s saying at all AND that what it’s saying to us now is more important for our lives than what it was saying to us then.
For instance, I initially interpreted this morning’s passage as a statement on personality types. There are those who are busy, neat and tidy and those who are not – they are the ones who sit back, relax, and enjoy the Master’s company – and it’s those type people who are given kudos by our Lord.
But it’s not about personality types at all – it’s about discipleship – and those things which can block discipleship.
This morning’s story of Mary & Martha follows closely on the heals of the parable of the Good or more appropriately the Compassionate Samaritan.
This episode between Mary, Martha and Jesus is a lesson on the nature of authentic hospitality.
Jesus is looking not for worrisome, distracted domestic performance.
Rather, it is an example of how we ought to attend to this guest – The ONE whose very presence in our lives is a disclosure of the divine plan.
The problem presented by Luke’s passage and in Luke’s world is not of a woman in service to others for that is exactly what would be expected in Luke’s world view.
Rather, the problem presented in this passage is that of a woman choosing the role of disciple – or life-long learner.
The duty of a first-century Jewish woman was to help with household chores and Mary knew this. By sitting at Jesus’ feet, she is acting like a man … taking the place of a disciple! She’s violating a crystal-clear social boundary and runs the risk of bringing shame on her house.
Jesus’ own words in this passage though underscore the decency of this transformation of conventional roles!
The distinction between these two women, Mary & Martha’s, activities is really beside the point.
What really matters is how these two responded to God’s presence in their midst.
Jesus’ words help us understand that one of our obstacles to authentic discipleship is our “worry” – “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Often we get consumed with making sure everything is in its place and there is a place for everything.
Some times we get overwhelmed with making sure that everything is just right as we entertain company – we run into the kitchen to get the drinks; we run back into the pantry to get the snacks; we run to the hallway desk to get the coasters for the drinks that have now left a sweat ring on the recently dusted end table; we run into the kitchen to make a note to call the furniture people to ask how to get a sweat ring out of the end table that didn’t have a coaster under the drink; we then go back into the living room to talk only to be whisked away back into the kitchen to get the crab dip out of the oven so we have something to go with the crackers we put on the coffee table; and we’re running around entertaining everybody that we forget to enjoy the people we’ve invited over.
And that’s just for the people we’ve consciously planned to entertain and invited!
Now go back and read the text this morning.
As I read it I don’t think Martha had previously invited Jesus into their home prior to meeting him in her village. She hadn’t been expecting to have company that evening so as I read it she meets him, talks with him and welcomes him into her home – now keep in mind where Jesus goes there are at least 12 other guys following him…and then the gravity and reality of the invitation comes crashing down on her.
And she loses herself and more importantly she misses out on making the most of this encounter with God-in-the-flesh as she makes sure everything is just right!
Isn’t that just like God though, to show up at the most inopportune times in our lives…and then expect us to know what to do!
The reality is that God doesn’t expect us to do anything.
God doesn’t care what the choice of beverage for him to drink is – besides just give him a glass of water and if he wants stronger he’ll turn it into wine.
God doesn’t need us to scurry around “engaged in our tasks” in an attempt to make his visit more comfortable.
What God wants for us is to become comfortable at his feet and “engage in the task” of sitting and listening as he reminds us of how really good life can be – even when life is not going as we have planned.
And as we sit and remember what God promises, then we can go out and do as God wants.
In Eugene Peterson’s, The Message, Jesus’ words to Martha are, “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it – it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.”
Perhaps Peterson’s words “main course” for “the New Revised Standard Version’s “better part” can help this well-worn story be heard in fresh, new ways.
There was a woman in a parish who commented that she never liked hearing this text preached because she always comes a way with the sense that it’s never possible to get things right.
If, like Martha, she works hard, she will be labeled “over-functioning.”
If, like Mary, she sits and listens too long, nothing gets done.
Giuseppe Belli’s 19th century sonnet “Martha and Magdalene” ends with Martha snapping back at Jesus when he tells her she that Mary’s choice is more important: “So says you, but I know better. Listen, if I sat around on my salvation the way she does, who’d keep this house together?” (Divine Inspiration: The Life of Jesus in World Poetry).
Thinking about God’s word as the “main course” in the feast of Life, however, doesn’t give that immediate sense that listening is better than doing. Instead, it places these two activities in balance.
Whereas the corporate world reminds us to keep the “main thing the main thing,” Christians are urged to remember that the main course is just that – the main course.
Jesus is the host, not Martha or Mary or any one of us, and Jesus spreads the word like a banquet to nourish and strengthen us.
The word calls for us to both sit and listen AND to go and do.
At times we are called like those words of Giuseppe Belli’s sonnet “to sit on our salvation” though our sitting has built-into it a call to then scatter into the world and the work of daily life.
Mary & Martha’s story is a story about priorities and choices.
It’s about choosing to make God a priority in our lives and not merely the façade of God in our lives a priority.
It’s about choosing to allow God to shape us into the people God needs us to be and then allowing God to use us to impact those around us in healthy, up-lifting, God-inspired ways.
If we go back to our neat versus messy motif from the beginning of this morning’s message, then we must say yes to the mess of life, which means:
To say yes to mess is to be willing to lay everything else aside and pay attention to Christ’s teachings.
So, today I say (tongue in cheek), say yes to your mess…walk away from the closet organizer and take a seat at the feet of Jesus.
It may just help you get a little perspective. Amen and Amen.
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