Weekly Sermon: You are Nourished - 07-20-25

The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. Glory to you, O Lord.

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain 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 our Lord. Praise to you, O Christ. Please be seated.

Thank you very much.

Many of us think so much that America is divided.

Maybe our church is divided. The city is divided.

It's like this never happened in the world before.

The time of Jesus is far more divided than we are now.

We have fought over the centuries. We people, human beings, have fought over

the centuries to become a more inclusive and diverse place.

And the fight has been across the world. Some places are indeed making it.

Others are a long ways from it.

In the time of Jesus, the divisions would be between the Romans, who were occupiers,

oppressors, and peoples of all the countries they had invaded.

Peace was a vague, occasional idea.

Some of the peoples in those countries became collaborators with the Romans,

the people who tattled on their neighbors or worked for the Romans to increase

their lands or their wealth.

Some became, or already were, poor peasants who just continued to work even

as they did before the Romans came.

Some became what was called zealots or rebels who spoke against the Romans and

worked against them too.

Division also came within the country due to their faith. It was important to

be able to go to the synagogue to worship God, often, often.

Left behind, so to speak. There were

those who were always allowed into the synagogue because their work did not

make them unclean and therefore required days of purification and blessings from the priest.

There were those who handled money

or buried the dead or were

doctors or worked daily to feed their family and so needed to work on the Sabbath

or were sick or disabled or handicapped or were unclean for a myriad of reasons

and could not be a part of the community.

We were not welcome. Not welcome.

When Jesus came, the most radical thing he did was to form a community where

all were invited and even welcomed.

He called many to leave their jobs, their status, to become disciples.

He invited the fishermen who worked daily, even on the Sabbath, to feed their families.

He invited the tax collectors who handled money, and so they were unclean.

He invited Simon the Zealot with radical ideas. He invited the Samaritan woman

with questionable background.

He invited the Gerasene demoniac, after he cured him, to go and tell the story.

He invited Zacchaeus, who was probably not quite a dwarf, but he was very, very short.

So he was odd and not welcome. Besides, he was a tax collector.

And he invited Mary, a woman, to be a disciple.

The danger of this story of Mary and Martha is that it's an invitation to what is better,

which service is better to fit one expression of belief of discipleship,

of service, of vocation against the other,

we're exceedingly skilled in such comparisons, aren't we? we can say which is better.

Yet when we make these kinds of moves and assumptions, we rarely stop to think

about what we are then assuming about Jesus.

To favor Mary is to say Jesus discounts the service of all the wantless and

calls all to study and lead in the faith,

which if you read the Gospel of Luke makes no sense at all.

It makes Jesus make no sense to us.

To favor Martha, everybody needs to cook, clean, do something like that.

It would be to say that service is all that matters.

There may be no more. If you read the Gospel of Luke, very carefully you see both men.

So the story cannot be about who is better or what is better,

but rather about technology that even a woman can become a disciple.

Even a tax collector can be a disciple even a zealot can be a disciple even

a crazy guy can be a disciple,

and consider the future Jesus in the morning,

the story of Episodio because service and learning are both hallmarks of following

Jesus is a story about pointing out what is possible,

what is included in the community of Christ, what God wants to be possible.

That those we deem unworthy for the role of disciples may well be those that

Jesus insists are more than qualified.

Our certainty about criteria for discipleship, Jesus seems to just upend,

as he does so many other things.

This is a story about the fact that even Mary, even a woman,

even those we have determined are outside of God's grace, those not admitted

to the inner circle of the synagogue can imagine themselves as disciples, even you.

In other words, what if this story had nothing to do with what is better and

everything to do with who matters?

What if this story is not preoccupied with proper acceptance and has everything

to do with whom you accept.

Is it, or rather it is,

an indictment on all that we judge right and wrong,

in and out, and worthy and unworthy, which are manifested now in our world as

racism or sexism or xenophobia or homophobia

Homophobia, or all the rest of the phobias.

Are we able to confess, as in Psalm 15, O Lord, who may abide in your tent?

Who may dwell on your holy hill?

Those who walk blamelessly and do what is right, and take the truth from their

heart, who do not slander with their tongue.

Who do no evil to their friends, or take up a reproach against their neighbors.

Too many people have events, we never had our news, headlines,

all the internet stuff, as right or wrong.

All are manifestations of the sin of disregard.

Disregard is no small moment of oversight.

No unintentional act of overlooking, no mere happiness, I just didn't notice him over there.

Because disregard, oversight, overlooking, passing by, as the story of the Good

Samaritan proved, is no lapse of judgment.

No mere misunderstanding, no mistake in assessment. It leads to the reality

of non-committal, no big deal, oh, he didn't mean it, acceptance.

It leads to complacency and even compliance with the world.

We become immune to that which should cause outrage.

Outrage.

We give in to saying well that's the way it is we accept that the world around

us is the world we should accept,

Mary and Martha cannot be about the better thing that means who is better,

who acts better, who can be better.

The better thing is the invitation to believe that you are who God sees you are.

And that is precisely our promise, an inherent, systemic, ingrained,

intrinsic, disturbing belief that not all are worthy of God's regard and love.

Conviction that all are not equal in God's eyes, that all are not made in the image of God.

This is not a story about comparison, it's a repetition, not about who is better,

but when is better, not about what is better, but why it's better.

Perhaps if we allow for a more nimble and gracious view of the kingdom of God, a way of,

we might be able to imagine more of the world as part of it, even ourselves.

And when we imagine ourselves as part of God's kingdom,

we are instantly called to bring about its presence in the here and now when

we realize that the skill that we've been given, whether it's whatever it is,

has been given by God and is given to be used for the kingdom of God,

whether it's service, whether it's prayer, listening, singing,

baking, cleaning, fundraising,

it's our goal for God.

Sin is not in using whatever skill to the fullest you are to serve, serve you are to sing,

you are to pray, pray do it for the love of God not in competition with anyone else,

make a difference do it for the love of God And we at this moment in history

score with me all the sins given by God.

He used to be generous, skillful, and to give you.

Jesus had a big tent. People from all walks of life were with him.

He carried his message to the world. All are welcome, just as all are welcome here.

Amen. Go now, with hearts open wide, trusting that Christ comes before you.

Open doors with compassion, cross boundaries, seek out a stranger and make them a friend.

Share the love of Jesus in words and action. Let your life be an invitation

as you know a piece to love, serve, and welcome all.

Thanks to God, and we will...