7-21-19 Readings & Sermon

The first lesson today is a reading from Amos.

This is what the Lord God showed me, a basket of summer fruit.

He said, Amos, what do you see?

And I said, A basket of summer fruit.

And the Lord said to me, The end has come upon my people Israel.

I will never again pass them by.

The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day, says the Lord God.

The dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place, be silent.

Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain?

And the Sabbath so that we may offer wheat for sale?

We will make the applause small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.

The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob.

Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

Shall not the land tremble on this account, and every one mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again like the Nile of Egypt.

On that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad daylight.

I will turn your feast into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation.

I will bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head.

I will make it like the morning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.

The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.

They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east, they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.

The word of the Lord.

We will read Psalm fifty-two responsibly by the half verse.

You tyrant, why do you boast of wickedness?

You plot ruin, your tongue is like a sharpened razor.

You love evil more than good.

You love all words that hurt.

Oh that God would demolish you utterly.

The righteous shall see and tremble.

This is the one who did not take God for a refuge.

But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.

I will give you thanks for what you have done.

A reading from Colossians.

For in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible.

Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers, all things have been created through him and for him.

He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

He is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he is now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven.

I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.

I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church.

I became a servant according to God's commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints.

To them, God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ, the word of the Lord.

As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, Jesus entered a village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying.

But Martha was distracted by her many tasks.

So she came to him and asked, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?

Tell her then to help me.

But the Lord answered her, 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.

The gospel of the Lord.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Please be seated.

I want to quote from a comic strip this morning from two of the greatest theologians known to man, Calvin and Hobbes.

Calvin says to Hobbes in the first frame, live for the moment.

That's my motto.

You never know how long you got.

In the second frame, he goes on, you could step into the road tomorrow and wham, get hit by a cement truck.

Then you'd be sorry you put off life and its pleasure.

That's what I say.

Just live for the moment.

In the last frame, Calvin asks Hobbes, what's your motto?

Hobbes replies, My motto, look down the road.

In our gospel today, Martha seems to be living for the here and the now, but Mary is spending her time with Jesus looking down the road.

Now I imagine most of us would consider ourselves doers.

I can identify with Martha.

She was a doer.

She wanted everything to be perfect for Jesus' visit to her house.

Now, hospitality was an important social obligation in the culture of the ancient Middle East.

But in Martha's attempt to make everything perfect, she broke one of the primary rules of hospitality.

She neglected Jesus.

Even though she may have known the subject of the conversation, she missed out on the opportunity.

Mary, on the other hand, was fully present to the Lord, treating him as if she wanted to be received.

As she sat at Jesus' feet, she took on the role of a disciple, learning what to do next.

And Jesus didn't deny her that role.

In fact, he applauded it, saying she chose the better part.

Now Jesus didn't want to downplay Martha's service, but he taught that service needs to be grounded in a kind of love that Mary showed.

Jesus told Martha that she was worried and distracted by too many things.

Maybe Jesus was telling her that a burrito and a microwave and a beer would have been just as good as the main course of fajitas.

I don't know.

It's easy for me to feel like I need to do something for God, to draw his attention to me, or to make me feel worthy to be around him.

But Jesus wants to fellowship with us simply because he made us and he loves us.

He knows that we are incomplete without him, and he wants to fill us to overflowing.

He's so gracious that he just wants us to sit at his feet to be with him, to listen to him.

It's not in the moving and dancing around that we learn who he is or who we are, but in sitting and listening.

Doesn't the Lord care that I'm doing all the work on my own?

Of course he does.

But Martha and me, we had to learn to do what Jesus wants and what he needs.

Christ was concerned about Martha because she was not doing anything that would benefit her.

He cared.

He wanted to be with Martha.

So the reason he went to her house was to spend time with him.

This story tells us how important discipleship is, but it characterizes it in both service, doing, and listening.

Each of those is dependent upon the other, and we shouldn't try to force a choice between the active or contemplative response to Christ.

What's the good of doing without listening?

Or listening without doing?

They do go hand in hand.

It seems all too often that Martha is the poster child for all that's wrong with an overly busy life filled with distractions.

Yet Luke's gospel speaks of the importance of hospitality as one of the most important signs of the coming of God's kingdom.

If you've read Tim Sedgwick's book, The Christian Moral Life, you might recognize this as what he calls the covenant of hospitality.

Martha showed her love of Jesus through service, while Mary showed her love through relationship.

When Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life, those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.

And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

So he asked Martha, Do you believe this?

She said, Yes.

She believed he is the Messiah, which puts her theology neck and neck in fact with Peter when he confessed his belief.

I suggest this morning that the negative portrayal of Martha by some of the early church fathers contributed to the dualistic thinking that's been present in the church for a long time.

Action or contemplation?

It can't be both.

But this story tells us it takes both.

There must be a balance so that one does not outweigh the other.

That's great to be in church.

But if our life is void of action or contemplation, we might just be fooling ourselves.

Maybe there's already a wonderful relationship with Jesus in your life.

If so, share it.

Share it.

But for those who find it difficult to establish that relationship, let me offer four things that may help.

One, sit at his feet.

We are so accustomed in this life to being in the driver's seat, to being in control of a car, our life, the TV, whatever it may be, we want to be in control.

But in terms of a spiritual life, if we're in control, what role does Jesus play?

We might as well at that point go figure out our own salvation.

By humbling herself at Jesus' feet, Mary not only chose her rightful place, but was in the spot to win Jesus' heart and receive him and his teaching into her life.

Martha was distracted by the preparation.

It's not good to always get caught up in everyday life that we don't find time to sit at the feet of the master.

Two, we should listen to his voice.

We often sneak away into the darkness of the world to do things that aren't pleasing to God.

But God's always calling for us, knowing full well that what we're doing is a dangerous mission.

He keeps calling, calling, calling, hoping that we'll come back home.

We read in John 10, My sheep listen to my voice and I know them.

They hear and follow me, and because they follow me, I give them eternal life.

If we're out in the darkness, befriending the world, we must listen carefully for the Savior's voice because he wants us to come home.

Step three is to lean on Jesus.

We shouldn't be discouraged when trouble or sickness or sorrow comes our way, because those are only meant to be distractions.

When Christ is closest to us, that's when the storms of life rage against us.

Remember the story on the boat in the Sea of Galilee?

The boat was tossed about, began to take home water.

But where was Jesus?

Thank you.

Kevin Tones is listening.

I love it.

He was asleep in the stern.

The disciples, faithless, tested.

They screamed for Jesus.

They went to wake him up because they did not know what to do.

They had not been sitting at the feet.

In every spiritual journey, there are often times we can't do it alone.

When life is rough, that's when we need to draw nearer to Christ.

And lastly, we follow in his steps.

Now, this is the hardest part.

Because it calls for sacrifice on our part.

We now begin to look at others with the eyes of Jesus.

When someone is crying, we won't be at peace until we wipe those tears away.

When someone is hungry, we won't stop until we can do something to feed them.

When someone is sick or someone is lonely, we're there to share the love of Jesus.

In this step, we become the hands, the feet, and the heart of Jesus to a very needy world.

A woman asked her a priest one day to come and pray for her old sick father.

When he arrived at the house, her father was lying in bed, propped up on some pillows.

Next to his bed was an empty chair.

Seeing the chair, the priest assumed the old man was told he was coming.

I guess you're expecting me, he said.

No?

Who are you?

asked the old man.

I'm the priest at your daughter's church, and I saw the empty chair, so I kind of thought you knew I was coming.

Oh yeah, the chair.

Well, Padre, I ain't never told nobody this, not even my daughter.

All through my life I'd never known what it means to sit and spend time with Jesus.

That church I heard the priest talk about Jesus knocking at the door of my heart, but it always went in one ear and out the other.

Never really cared until a few years ago.

My best friend came and said, Joe, spending time with Jesus is a simple matter of having feeling that he's always with you.

And here's what I suggest you do: sit down.

Put an empty chair in front of you.

Then imagine for a moment Jesus is right there sitting and you're having a conversation.

It's not real crazy, you know.

Jesus said, I'll always be with you.

Just talk to him.

Kind of like we're doing right now.

Crazy as you thought it was, he said, I'll give it a try.

I liked it so much that I've done it at least two hours every day.

I'm careful though, because if my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm.

The priest was so moved by his story, he encouraged him to continue this path.

Two days later, the daughter called to tell the priest that her father had passed away that afternoon.

Did he seem to die in peace?

He asked.

She goes, yes.

When I left the house early, he called me to his bedside, told me one of his stupid jokes, and kissed me on the cheek, and said, I'll see you soon.

When I got back from the store, I found him dead.

But there was something strange.

Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and put his head on the empty chair beside his bed.

In a few moments, we're going to take part in the sacrament of baptism.

And as part of this service, each of us is going to renew our own baptismal covenant.

This is our moment where we can rest our head in an empty chair.

A moment where we can rest in the presence and peace of Christ.

You see, it's in baptism that we begin our journey with Jesus.

It's in baptism that our life was and is changed forever.

We'll be pledging not just ourselves, but our lives to these three that are about to be baptized today.

It's through our own baptism that we begin our journey with God, and throughout our life, we should want to spend more time with him.

Sit at his feet.

Jesus said that Mary would not have the better part taken from her.

It's now that we realize that Jesus was the doer for us on the cross, so that we could have the privilege of sitting at the feet of Jesus.

We read in the Gospel of John further, for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

God loves us so much that he sent his son to die so we could be in right relationship with him.

As I was studying for this sermon, it hit me that we can be too busy to spend time with Jesus even by serving in the church.

Like Martha, we can be worried, upset about many things: candles, linens, air conditioning, music, bulletins, on and on and on.

Only one thing is needed.

It's so easy to be caught up being a doer, living for that moment, that we allow that to get in the way of our looking down the road, being present with Jesus.

God is interested not in what we can do for him, but what we do with him.

I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business.

Instead, I've called you friends, for everything I have learned from the Father I have made known to you.

Think on that for a moment.

Jesus calls us friend.

May we break the current belief that the busier we are, the more successful we are.

It's in rest, prayer, and contemplation that we are renewed, and it's in that action that we're able to do the work of God.

As we prepare in just a few moments to renew our baptismal covenant, I invite you to stop and sit at the feet of Jesus.

To rest here at this fountain of life.

Keep that empty chair near you and look down the road.

Jesus is sitting with us and is expecting that we'll sit and rest in him.

I pray that each of us, each one of us today will commit to getting to know Jesus so that when our time comes to go home, we will have a place to rest our head.

Amen.