PENTECOST 9C
July 22, 2007
SCRIPTURES
- Poor Martha....is really poor.
- Jesus, as you may recall, is still on the road to Jerusalem. He has the cross ahead of him. Following the same instructions he gave the 70 about where to eat, that is, accept the hospitality of others and eat what they set before you, he accepts the offer of Martha's home and meal Bass Mitchell
-The real issue here is not who does the dishes. The real issue is the meaning of Jesus, the consequences of his presence. Rev. James Liggett
- Biblical stories help us to realize not just that hospitality is an important virtue but even more that guest and host can reveal their most precious gifts and bring new life to each other Henry Nouwen Reaching Out
-the contrast is not between doing and listening, but between being anxious and not. Stoffregen
-What are the opposing forces pulling at Martha? What are opposing forces pulling at our lives? How do we put the important things first? The popularity of the book First Things First, by Covey, et. al., and The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, indicates that it is a growing need among our people to learn how to determine their priorities and then to actually make them priorities in their weekly schedules
-Jesus questions her not because of her activity but because of her attitude about it: "You are. What she has done by sitting at Jesus' feet will remain with her. Jesus is not so much condemning Martha's activity as commending Mary's. He is saying that her priorities are in order. To disciples Jesus says, "Sit at my feet and devour my teaching. There is no more important meal."
- sermon Are your gods adequate?
A. We find gods in strange places: inanimate and animate objects, box, cloud (O.T.) Greek and Roman gods, money, job, health, sex, etc. (Are your gods adequate?)
B. Martha's god?? "Martha, Martha, are your gods adequate". They may be necessary, needed, not sinful but are they adequate to be your God?
C. Mary's God. Jesus, incarnate God, a present God, an ultimate concern, etc. Lindy
-The Greek word translated as "distracted" literally means "to be pulled, dragged away."
-Martha's emphasis was on being a host of Jesus. Mary's emphasis was on being a guest of Jesus
-We know the idol but does the idol know us?!
-“An eternal instant” is the kingdom of God
-If we censure Martha too harshly, she may abandon serving altogether, and if we commend Mary too profusely, she may sit there forever. There is a time to go and do; there is a time to listen and reflect. Knowing which and when is a matter of spiritual discernment. If we were to ask Jesus which example applies to us, the Samaritan or Mary, his answer would probably be Yes. Craddock
-I think that Jesus maintains a non-anxious presence. He wouldn't share Martha's anxiety. To the question, "Don't you care . . . ?" He probably would have answered, "No, I don't -- at least not about that!" Stoffregen
- Idolatry shrinks God's domain and enlarges ours.
-"In the Episcopal Church, the feast of Mary and Martha is celebrated on July 29 every year, and on that day over a quarter of a century ago, the first women were ordained to the priesthood."
-"Making Time for the Spirit,"
- Priorities, choices,
-Martha is concerned about many things, but all of them are finite, preliminary, transitory. Mary is concerned about one thing, which is infinite, ultimate, lasting.
-This is the meaning of every sermon. It shall awaken infinite concern.
SERMON TITLES
-"The Hostess With The Mostess"
-"Stop, look, and listen"
-If, in the power and passion of our ultimate (infinite) concerns, we look at our finite concerns, at the Martha sphere of life, everything seems the same and yet everything is changed. We are still concerned about all these things but differently—the anxiety is gone! It still exists and tries to return. But its power is broken; it cannot destroy us any more. He who is grasped by the one thing that is needed has the many things under his feet. They concern him but not ultimately, and when he loses them he does not lose the one thing he needs and that cannot be taken from him. Tillich
-The tyranny of the urgency (telephones, email, cell phone,) is well known to most of us. As more and more of our living becomes encumbered with this sense of urgency, we get stressed and burn out. And get this -- we burn out over the "many things" which are not finally urgent at all. Jewell
QUOTES
-"Men don't want to see what's on television -- they want to see what else is on!" Steinfeld
- God not an unknown but a miss known.
- We tend to worship that which leaves us in charge of our own lives.
- God is hidden in plain sight.
-The best way to make God laugh is to tell Him your plans
- Not where God is but WHEN God is.
-"I have so much to do today, I'd better spend an extra hour in prayer." Martin Luther
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. Southern women are great Marthas and proud of it. Those who have traditional southern hospitality refined to an art never sit. They hover. Plates are never allowed to go empty. Guests are continually asked if they need anything. In fact, many times the hostess will continue to cook all through the meal. When does the hostess eat? This is one of the South’s mysteries. The hostess keeps working, huffing around the table, She misses all dinner conversation, all sharing of feelings and information, and gives herself totally to serving. Also a wonder is the woman who greets the guests unflustered at the door with the table already set, the kitchen spotless. This hostess sits, talks, laughs and eats the appetizers with her guests. She excuses herself, goes to the kitchen, and returns with food that’s prepared and ready to eat. At dinner, she remains around the table, getting to know the guests, asking about their lives, sharing her own thoughts and feelings. Mary W. Anderson
2. people used ice houses to preserve their food. Ice houses had thick walls, no windows, and a tightly fitted door. In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled to the ice houses, and covered with sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the summer. One man lost a valuable watch while working in an ice house. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but didn't find it. His fellow workers also looked, but their efforts, too, proved futile. A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the ice house during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch. Amazed, the men asked him how he found it. "I closed the door," the boy replied, "lay down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking." Often the question is not whether God is speaking, but whether we are still enough, and quiet enough, to hear. James Hamilton
3. A Lutheran bishop, James Rave, was writing a column focusing on the need to lift up the name of Jesus in the marketplace. When he had finished typing the words into his word processor, he ran a spell-check. The program stopped at the word "Jesus" with the comment, "Does not exist." This prompted a later column in which the bishop cleverly reminded his readers, "Jesus does not exist in anybody's vocabulary, including a spell-checker's, until you intentionally insert it."
HUMOR
-"Don't just do something, sit there."
- True story about a movie set in Hollywood, set up to look like filling station. Some innocent person drove up and asked to be filled up. Actors decided to play along so pretended to fill the car with gas. The man drove away thinking his tank was full and when the gauge still read empty, he figured it was broken. (false gods make us feel full when we're really not)
CHILDREN
1. Illustration number 2 could be used.
PRAYER PHRASES
PRAYER PHRASES
- Turn us to listen to your teachings and lead us to choose the one thing which will not be taken from us. Jesus Christ our Lord.
- Often the imbalances in our daily lives blind us from your presence. Our work becomes more important then family, friends, God. We are too religious....We try so hard to make ourselves religious, we forget that you made us religious the day you placed your spirit within us. Our abundance leads us to poverty of spirit. Oh God help us to get out of our own way. Help us when we are blind to our own blindness. Lindy
- keep me on the narrow way. You alone can do it. When I want to go some other way, keep me, at whatever cost, keep me with you and constantly fit me for service, for work with you in your wonderful world. Amen
- In our need for power direct us outward: towards neighbor not to power over or control but to serve, etc.
.....direct us upward: to our higher potential to new spiritual levels that transcend our ordinariness .......become fully human, etc.
---direct us forward: beyond horizons of smaller visions where new hope, promise, and new births can transform
.....direct us inward: Where your spirit may minister to us in the deeper places of our hearts. Lead us to deep interior reserves of power that lie
within us all, for our greatest power is within...where love, faith and truth reside. .... Lindy