21 July 2013

“Not to be taken away”
Luke 10:38-42
OT 16C 21 July 2013


Once again, from our Gospel text:
The Lord answered … “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.”
As we’re gathered here this morning, I wonder … I wonder how many people, how many stories are here this morning, how many people and how many stories of “better parts” of people’s lives, “better parts” which have, for one reason or another, gone away … changed … been taken away?
Maybe the “better part” you are missing today is your summer vacation. After all, in just a little more than a month, vacations will be over, school will be starting, and homework will be assigned, too. The back to school ads have been out in full force for a week or two now, so you had better get with it and get that list together before the stores are all sold out of everything. But still … it’s hard to get ready for school again, when back just a month or so ago, the summer seemed so exciting, so full of promise – trips, camp, fun with family and friends. Now it’s nearly gone, and too soon … well, at least for you … maybe your parents feel different.
Maybe the “better part” you would like to see again is the way you used to look … 5, 10, 15 or more years ago. Put on a little weight? A little gray around the edges? A few more wrinkles?
Maybe the “better part” of your life you miss the most is the past. Simpler times, simpler lives … maybe the neighborhood you grew up in, the church where you worshipped as a child or youth, the community where you knew all your neighbors. Maybe for some of you, that’s this community, of 40 years ago or more. A quieter, simpler time, perhaps a “better part” for you which will never be seen again.
Or maybe the “better part” you miss today is something more serious … a love, a mate, a spouse … maybe they are on a business trip or separate vacation right now, but they’ll be back soon. Or maybe they aren’t coming back. Maybe your relationship, your marriage is in trouble. Maybe there were some harsh words said and you wonder whether things will ever be the same as they used to be when they were good.
Maybe the “better part” of your life today is slipping away from you because of a transition … going to a new school, a new job, friends being transferred or moving away.
Or maybe your “better part” is something much more personal and painful to you … someone, a friend, a loved one, who is suffering or in mental or physical pain right now, or a loved one who has passed away. You see the names on our prayer list, in the bulletin, received by email. They are more than names … they are lives who touch many, many other lives, in this community of faith and outside it as well.
What, this morning, this place and time in our lives, what is “the better part,” the part of our lives which, when we look at them, is the time or person or activity or feeling or place, the loss of which we feel most deeply right now … or the time or person or activity or feeling or place without which, we would feel a huge hole in our lives? What is it? For we all have one.
Martha may well have thought that she had the "better part," at least, the part that made everything happen. Or maybe, since it was the only “part” she knew in her life, she naturally assumed it was the best. She thought that what really mattered in life was to be as busy as she could possibly be, running around, constantly doing doing doing ... making this, cleaning that, and so on.
Now, we all know a Martha ... if we're not one ourselves. Marthas can't just sit still and enjoy life as it comes. They have to constantly be doing something ... indeed, their self-worth, how they view themselves, is based on what and how well they are DOING.
Thinking about a Martha, hearing about her "many tasks," kind of makes me think of all the other “better parts” in our lives … the happier times in the past … the vacations, or trips, or our past bodies, or accomplishments … or co-workers, or loved ones, people we’d counted on always being there, the same, the picture of health, part of our lives.
But then something happens, really jogs us ... kind of hits us upside the head and throws us. The sameness in our lives changes, maybe subtly and then one day we notice things are different, or maybe suddenly – and either way, it makes us take big notice … in surprise, in hurt, in fear, in sadness, or in pain. And that's what Jesus’ presence, and how Martha’s sister Mary reacts to him, does to Martha in our reading.
Martha was so busy doing doing doing that she started to get peeved that her sister, Mary, was doing nothing to help. Mary was sitting around, listening to Jesus, not DOING anything. "What a worthless sister," thought Martha. "I'll get Jesus to set her straight."
But the one Jesus ends up setting straight is Martha. "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."
Now Jesus doesn’t say this to Martha to devalue work ... keeping busy ... doing things. Certainly things need to be done in the world so that we can survive and have a civilization ... things need to be cooked and cleaned, built and worked on, made and bought and sold. Jesus isn’t promoting laziness here. What he is saying is that, Martha, look at your priorities here. Work has its place, to be sure, but look at what you are missing ... what is right here, right now before you.
Jesus knew that one day, Martha's busy-ness would come to an end ... maybe she would become sick or arthritic, unable to move around and do her many tasks. Maybe an earthquake or other natural disaster would strike, and wipe out the whole village. The "many things" which "distracted" Martha would become pretty trivial then, as her ability to do them, or other circumstances, changed ... Martha’s "better part" would be taken away.
Martha’s sister Mary really had the better part. Mary realized that here before her in Jesus was the start and source of all good things ... in the words which he was saying to her and the others who sat at his feet and listened. Here was one who spoke of God's love for humanity, who offered forgiveness of sins, who spoke of a kingdom of God where the suffering and troubles of this life were nowhere to be found. Here was one, indeed, who through his own suffering, death, and resurrection, held out the promise of an end to death itself, and instead, eternal life with God. And here was the one whose presence could set the priorities of life straight ... through him and this Word which he brought, work could find its proper place ... not as a busy-ness or drudge, but as a joy ... not waiting on God, as Martha was insisting on doing ... but instead, serving God by waiting on our neighbor.
So what does Jesus’ word to Martha have to say to us today? Is it a harsh word, telling us what we feel, what we think, doesn’t really matter … just chuck it all and trust Jesus, everything will be OK? Of course not. I doubt that Martha reacted that way to Jesus when she heard his words to her – she more likely got angry and stomped off to do her chores alone. I know I would have if I would have been in Martha’s shoes, and if you think about it, you probably would have too. We are in our own lives so deeply sometimes that we don’t believe anyone can possibly understand us, know what we’re going through, know the pain and loss we are feeling. Right?
But the reading of the Good News today does bring good news for us … for Mary, for Martha and everyone like her, for us in whatever state of happiness or sadness, fear or mourning or blah we are feeling today, for all the “better parts” of our lives which we feel wistful about or just miss or painfully, gut wrenching feel the loss of with all our heart. For the one who said to Martha that only “one thing” was needful, “one thing” was the better part for all of life, well, he knew it and lived it to be true.
Because, in the seemingly crazy, mixed up way that our God decided to do things, he sent the One closest to him to be as one of us, a baby, a kid, a teenager, a man, someone who certainly experienced life with all its gifts and, yes, all its losses too – even until the day when it all seemed lost, that day when all that was good and right seemed to lose and all that was wrong seemed to have won, that day on the cross when even Mary’s “better part” died … for a time. But rising from death, he proved that he was right all along … that the “better part” of God’s plan for humanity was not eternal loss, not eternal suffering, not death … but life. And hope for all whom he claims as his own that the same “better part” shall be for them … for us … as well.
And this hope is rooted in something we have all been given; something that, no matter what changes we individually or as a congregation or community or a collective people of God may face, no matter what changes come over us in the future, this will not be taken away from us. It is the better part which Mary and Martha had right before them ... the better part ... the gift of forgiveness, the gift of new life, the gift of love, from God, through Jesus Christ.
And it comes to us freely ... without any "Martha-ized" rushing around, working like crazy. It comes as a gift ... in his Word, we have heard it and will continue to hear it ... "your sins are forgiven" ... the very same as Mary heard in Jesus’ Word while sitting at his feet. In his gift of baptism, we have felt its cleansing splash. In his Meal, we have tasted and will continue to taste it. "You are valued. You are loved. You are mine. And in everything you go through in life, I will be there with you, I will share and understand your joy and your pain, I will not abandon you ever, and at the end, you will be with me.”
So here is our better part. Here is our better part which shall not be taken away, even though many things around us, even we ourselves, change and grow, come and go and move on, get sick, heal, or pass away. Here is our hope, as we look out toward the future ... a future with both challenges and possibilities, for us personally, for our friends, and for our community and this community of faith … but a future where we will as brothers and sisters of our Lord continue on our pilgrimage in this life, working together, not frozen in fear but moving in love, emboldened, comforting and consoling and building up one another, in the path of our Savior, who is with us always, even until the end. Amen.