|
One Needful Thing (Luke 10: 38-42)
(A sermon preached September 3, 2006 at University UMC by Kennetha Bigham-Tsai)
My sister lives in Houston, Texas. And she and I maintain our relationship
through long phone conversations. She tells me about her art—the media with
which she is experimenting at the moment—her studio, the smell of it, the colors
of paint spattered across the floor—the other artists who share the space, whose
creativity and exploration she gets to be privy to up close.
Then we talk about our children, or perhaps we brag. She tells me about her two
boys—Kenny B.--nine years old now—a competitive swimmer—made it to the Southwest
finals of the freestyle last year. Then C.J.—in the finals in his division in
all strokes—and at 14 years old—the youngest certified scuba diver in our
family.
And of course I have some things to say in these conversations. I talk about the
latest and cutest that Keeton has done, what Kee is working on, my own ministry
here at this church, and what it’s like to live in Lansing now--which is lately
a conversation about the number of boxes that still sit unpacked in my living
room.
My sister and I talk about family, and relationships, creativity and politics
and of course “our issues.” These phone conversations are the way that my sister
and I stay close to one another across the miles. This is the way, that despite
the distance that divides us, we have nurtured our need for relationship with
one another—our need to be near one another in love.
We all have ways of nurturing relationship with those we love—long talks, or
morning strolls, or dates with our partners, family vacations and reunions,
rendezvous at a favorite coffee shop, or other ways in which we nurture and care
for important intimate relationships. We all have ways of taking care of such
relationships because we all have a very human need for relationship.
This is a basic need. Indeed, the failure to meet this need for intimacy and
relationship often means a broken person and a broken life. For instance,
children who are, for reasons of abuse or neglect, not allowed to attach early
in life—often develop personality disorders and antisocial behaviors that can
plague them throughout their lives. Human beings have a need for intimacy and
attachment--a need to be close to another in a loving relationship. This is a
basic and essential human need that if lacking can severely damage a life. We
all need to be near another in intimate relationship.
And somehow, this all seems to make sense, because didn’t God make us for
intimate relationship? Didn’t God make us to be in intimate relationship with
God and with others?
Our tradition tells us that we are made in the image of God and that God is
relational. God is for us triune—Creator, Redeemer and sanctifying Spirit—three
in one in divine relationship with each other.
Indeed, don’t the Gospels show us Jesus, the second person of the Trinity; often
talking about his relationship with the God he called Abba. And don’t our
Scriptures tell us that Jesus was also in relationship with the Holy Spirit
which empowered his ministry.
Our triune God, in whose image we are made is relational. And, therefore, we too
are created to be relational—created with a basic need for relationship. And, so
God constantly calls us to fulfill that need and to fulfill it first with the
most significant and foundational of relationships – with a relationship with
the divine.
Indeed, this story in Luke about Mary and Martha and Jesus -- this story
highlights the need for a relationship with God—a relationship which is the most
essential call of the Christian life.
For here we have a story about Jesus entering a village, and Martha welcoming
him into her home. Martha welcomes him in as a guest, likely as an honored guest
to eat and to drink with them, to enjoy the ministry of hospitality with them.
Jesus is welcomed into their home and so into the context of
relationship—because people’s homes are often where significant relationships
happen. Homes are where families gather, where friends are invited in. Homes are
fundamentally places of relationship.
And so Jesus is welcomed into this home—into this place of relationship--and the
first thing that happens in Luke’s account is that Martha’s sister Mary deposits
herself at Jesus’ feet, (vs. 39). She sits near him. Mary comes near to Jesus.
Now, it interests me that we don’t initially hear about Martha’s distraction and
her many tasks—which seem to be a central point of the story. We don’t hear
about this until after we hear about the welcome and the sitting near. Luke
places first things first—he privileges the welcoming and the nearness and the
listening over and above all else.
It is only after we hear about this welcoming and this coming near that we then
hear about what Martha is doing. Martha is carrying out the many tasks of
ministry. Indeed, the NRSV does not give us a literal translation of this part
of the passage. It says in verse 40 that Martha was distracted by many tasks.
But, the word that the NRSV translates as “tasks” means ministry. Hers are not
some aimless tasks—but the work of ministry—the ministry of table fellowship.
But while Martha is busily about this ministry, Mary is sitting at the feet of
Jesus hearing his word. And so Martha complains about her sister. “Why isn’t she
helping me? She’s not working hard enough. Look Jesus! She’s not working at
all.”
Martha complains, and Jesus takes the opportunity of her complaint to teach.
Jesus tells Martha that a relationship with God is the most important thing.
That such relationship is a basic human need that was wired into us at creation.
Jesus tells Martha that her sister Mary has chosen the better part. Mary has
chosen the one needful thing—the need to be near Jesus in a relationship of
love.
Indeed this is the proclamation of the Gospel and the first and greatest
commandment--to love God above all else, (Mat 22: 36-38). That is what the
Gospel is about--that God so loved us that God has come near to us so that we
can be near God in intimate relationship.
Jesus has come near to these two sisters; he has entered their place of
relationship to invite them into relationship. He has come near and has called
them to respond by coming near to him. This is the one needful thing—this being
near God in Christ in a relationship of love.
In this case, Mary, who is just sitting there, has heard the call that Martha
has been too distracted to hear. Martha has been too busy, too anxious,
multitasking her way into a frenzy. Martha has been too distracted to hear the
call to love-- too harried to hear the call to divine-human relationship.
Now we know from the story what is distracting Martha—the many tasks of her
ministry. But, what is distracting us? There are many possibilities, many things
in our world and in our lives that can worry and distract us—the many duties we
have to attend to in a day; our own internal turmoil; world affairs; problems on
our jobs or at home.
And we know that this is a particularly frenetic time of year. Those of us with
young children are armed this time of year with lists and are searching the
Meijer’s frantically for the last box of exactly 24 crayons. Our university
students are getting back into the rigors of study and into the even more
important rigors of football games. Many of our jobs are picking up pace after
the lull of summer. And here at our church, fall programming is starting, and we
will begin again with the many tasks of our ministry.
And then there are world affairs, and the church’s call to be attentive in
prayer and service to all of the suffering that goes on in our world. Those who
will be going on a mission trip to New Orleans to help the still suffering
victims of hurricane Katrina are making preparations and praying. And those who
are constantly in prayer over issues of peace are ever mindful of continued
violence in Iraq and Darfur, a fragile cease-fire in southern Lebanon, and the
memory of the pain of September 11 and the events that came in its aftermath.
Life is full of concerns and worries—things that weigh heavily upon our hearts.
Life is full of tasks—things we must do. Yet, in the midst of it all there is a
call to stop, and to sit, and to come near to our God who has come near to us—to
accept an invitation from the divine to come near to God in love.
This is what we most need, especially at times of heightened concern and
increased activity. We need this intimate relationship; we need to fulfill this
basic human need for nearness to God; we need to respond to a God who has come
near in the person of Jesus Christ--we need to respond by sitting at God’s
feet--by being near God in love. This is the most needful thing.
And we all know this. But, how do we do this? How do we fulfill this basic need
to be near God in love? How do we fulfill this call of the Gospel to come near
God in love?
Now there are many ways in many religious traditions of coming near to
God—rituals of prayer and worship that cross many faiths. There are many ways of
coming near to God, but they all begin with what we see exemplified in this
story. They begin with a welcome, the welcoming of God into the homes of our
hearts. Then sometimes, we need to stop doing and just sit—sit at the feet of
God, through worship, or prayer or silence.
Now mind you, we don’t just sit at God’s feet during religious services.
Sometimes we can sit at the feet of God by taking a stroll along a beach—not to
get to the next destination, but to be mindfully present to a sunset, or the
sound of waves, or the warmth of the sun, or the feel of the sand between our
toes. We can sit at the feet of God by sometimes just sitting with the beauty of
what God has created. These are just some of the ways that we can sit with
God—ways to be near God.
And this is the better part, the one needful thing. This is what Mary got and
heard and acted upon and what unfortunately Martha missed. This is what we
need--this nearness to God. And this will not be taken from us.
For even though we know that at the end of the story Jesus is crucified, our
tradition also speaks of resurrection and of the coming of the Holy Spirit which
is even now at work within each of our lives—the spirit of God which daily draws
near to us to draw us near.
You sometimes feel this drawing near of the Spirit or experience it as a
stirring in your heart—not the stirring of some ideology or some particular
theology or some particular interpretation of a biblical passage—but something
much deeper. This is the stirring of the Spirit of God in your heart--that
stirring that happens in the midst of silence, in the midst of prayer, or in the
midst of worship as you praise God by singing a favorite hymn. That same
stirring that happens sometimes when you look at a sunset, or feel the wind on
your face, or hold a loved ones hand. You feel it as the Spirit of God calling
you to intimacy.
And so, speaking of calls…sometime this week, my sister will call again, or
perhaps I will call her. And we will talk again about what is going on in our
lives. We will sit with each other for a moment, listening to each other’s
words—but experiencing something beyond the words.
For the truth be told, the words we say and the events we recount, will not be
the central thing, because the relationship is not just in the telling and in
the listening. The relationship is in the time with one another. It is in the
sitting with one another. It is in the being together. That’s all. Our
relationship is in the being near one another in love.
So too our relationship with God. It is being near God in love. This is what we
need and what we are promised. This is the door that we are invited to open.
This is what we are called to welcome into our hearts.
Let us open the door today, and invite God in and sit in our own ways at God’s
feet -- loving and being loved. Let us take a moment even now to sit with God in
silence as we prepare the feast which is Holy Communion—which is the eating and
the drinking and the communing that reminds us that we are one with God in
Christ. Let us follow the example of Mary and recognize and act upon our most
basic need—this one needful thing. Amen.
|
