Do Not Wait to Be Invited – Luke 10:38-42 – Annabelle Edward

Back. Good morning, everyone.

My name is good morning. I'm Annabelle Edward, and I am

so honored to be here with you all this morning.

Let's pray before we begin. Lord, we thank You for this time

to hear Your word. Open our hearts and our minds to

receive Your truth. Speak through me, Lord, and let

every word bring glory to You. May your Spirit move among us

today in Jesus name, Amen. Now let's dive into our passage

today. It is Luke 1038 to 42.

Jesus visits Martha and Mary. As Jesus and his disciples were

on their way, he came to a village where a woman named

Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary who

sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.

But Martha was distracted with all the preparations that had to

be made, so she but so she came to him and asked, Lord, don't

you care that my sister has left me to do all the work myself?

Tell her to help me, Martha. Martha, the Lord answered.

You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are

needed, or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better,

and it will not be taken from her.

This is the Lord of the Lord. Sometimes life can feel like

you're being pulled into so many directions.

I know I have been feeling this a lot as I prepared for this

sermon. I'm a full time student at the

University of Guelph, worked 2 jobs on the side, try to spend

time with friends, go to church, and sometimes make it out to a

few Christian events on campus with the Christian group I

joined. Thank you.

I am being. Sometimes it feels like I'm

being divided up to into parts, trying and more often than not

failing to do everything. And I know I'm not the only one.

Many of you most likely have so much to do at work, at home, at

church, with the kids, at school.

There are 1000 expectations, things that need to get done,

time you just don't seem to have.

And these aren't necessarily bad things either.

I am blessed to go to a university, work during the

semester, have friends, be a part of a church community, and

have the privilege to go to a Christian group on campus.

Most likely this is the same for you.

That all the things that are filling up your calendar are

good things, but the accumulation of everything can

sometimes feel like you're being pulled apart in so many

directions. This is likely how Martha was

feeling. Martha had a lot going on.

Not only did she have Jesus in her home, Jesus, but everyone

who comes with him. There were a lot of preparations

that needed to be done. All good and necessary things

that need to be done when you're hosting people in your home.

But the accumulation of everything like in our own lives

our stressing her out, pulling her in 1000 directions.

Jesus clearly lays this out by saying to Martha you are worried

and upset about many things. 2 words worried and upset that

literally translate to being pulled apart in many directions.

I think that's why we feel so drawn to Martha.

Like, OK, Mary is doing what Jesus says is better, but come

on, Martha isn't wrong, is she? There's a lot to get done.

Again, think of all the people that are in her house.

I for one now know coming out of Thanksgiving that it can take a

small army to feed one. Yes I had these same thoughts

all the but if this applies to my life, is Jesus saying to just

quit my job and pray all the time?

Because that doesn't feel quite right either.

That is not what Jesus is saying in this passage at all.

He's not saying that Martha is bad and wrong and Mary is the

epitome of all that is good and everything a Christian should

ever be, But Jesus is saying that what Mary is doing is

better. What Martha was doing was not

bad. She knew her role, knew what the

Jewish law required of her, knew what hospitality looked like.

Unlike the priest or the Levites from the Good Samaritan passage

last week who knew all the head knowledge, all the facts of

generosity and service, but did not act on it, Martha was

actively doing it. She was living out her head

knowledge of hospitality and service.

And yet Jesus still says what Mary is doing is better.

Jesus is demonstrating in a powerful way how radically

different his Kingdom is, a Kingdom that is for the outcast.

The Samaritan orphan woman in Jesus affirming Mary's right to

sit at his feet to Martha. He is affirming her right to the

Kingdom of God. And T Wright puts it like this

in his book Luke for Everyone. Mary has quietly taken her place

as a would be teacher and preacher of the Kingdom of God

by sitting quietly at his feet as an apprentice or a student

would. A place that in Jewish custom

was only ever meant for men. Jesus is showing us sneak peek

into how radical his Kingdom is. He is showing that His Kingdom

is for everyone, that the new order he is rushing in will

break long held barriers and expectations.

Not only that, but he's also saying, with this quiet, gentle

correction of Martha, that the Kingdom is not only about doing.

For we can never do enough work enough, volunteer enough, pray

enough, go to church every Sunday enough be pulled enough

directions to ever earn a spot in heaven.

Even if what we are doing is good work, it can never be

enough. Mark 1230 to 31 says Love the

Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your

strength, and with all your soul and with all your mind.

The second is this. Love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no commandment greater than these.

Service is good, loving your neighbor.

Everyone is the call of Jesus, but you get there by first

loving the Lord your God, knowing and being known by Him,

spending time in His presence, sitting quietly at His feet, and

learning from Him. Because of our ticket to heaven

is based solely on our deeds alone.

If discipleship and spreading the gospel to all nations is

solely based on our own knowledge and strength, we will

never get there. We need God, Matthew 722 to 23

says. On that day many will say to me,

Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name, and cast out

demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.

Depart from me, workers of lawlessness.

I never knew you. This is why knowing and being

known by Jesus is vital. Jesus didn't look at Martha and

tear her down because of how she was going about being

hospitable. No, He gently told her that what

her sister was doing was better. He's saying stop striving to

earn what you can never earn because we can't earn our way

through good deeds or prophesying in Jesus's name or

doing many mighty works. Service and hospitality have

value. Don't get me wrong, this is not

a sermon to tell you to stop volunteering at church or

helping your neighbor until you know for sure that you are known

and know God. As Fred Craddock says, there is

a time to go and do. There is a time to listen and

reflect. If we only listen and reflect,

we will sit there forever. And if we only go and do without

knowing and being known by God, how can we possibly pursue His

Kingdom? So of course going and doing as

the Samaritan did is good, but we cannot go and do without

continually pursuing, knowing and being known by Jesus,

sitting quietly at his feet. David Jeffries says it well when

he says well. Active service of the Lord

coupled with love of 1's neighbor is the hallmark of the

disciples life. None can long be practiced, none

can long practice it rightly, without sitting at the feet of

the Lord. At this point in the sermon,

you're probably sitting there and thinking, amazing, OK, that

I need to know and be known by Jesus.

Got it. Great, But how?

What does that actually look like?

And really, how does this apply to my life on a random Tuesday?

All fair questions, all ones I asked myself.

In fact, I was going through some old notebooks other week

and I found something that I must have written when I was 11

or 12. I wrote I want to be closer to

him, Him being Jesus, but how? How do I meditate in him?

Do I just sit there? I laughed when I read this,

mostly because I guess someone told 11 year old Annabelle that

we must meditate in the Lord and I was so utterly confused.

But also because this resonated with me during my sermon prep

because it shows that we all have these questions.

See, little me knew the facts, knew that I wanted to be known

by God, that I wanted to know Him, that I wanted a

relationship with Him, But I didn't know how to actually do

that. Little me like us was asking but

what does spending time with Jesus, knowing and being known

by him actually look like? I like to think in actionable

terms. Things I can do today, not wait

for the perfect moment cause let's be honest, there never

will be 1. This can look different for each

one of us because we're all at different stages and phases in

our life. As I mentioned, I'm in the

middle of university, desperately trying to keep my

head above all the coursework and midterms that all seem to

happen on the same week, which is not ideal.

But so in this part of my life, an actionable thing that I can

do individually to spend time with Jesus is listen to Lectio

365, a daily devotional app, on the way to the bus, on the bus

to school. And now maybe there is a better

time and where and when I'm listening to it is not ideal or

free of distractions, but it is a solid time where I can sit and

listen to God. It's a guided prayer that gives

me a few minutes every day to intentionally spend time at the

feet of Jesus. For you, this could like go look

like going for a walk in nature, finding a quiet place in your

house to read your Bible, listen to worship, music, prayer.

What works for one might not work for another, and what works

for you in one season might not work for you in another season.

But intentionally carving out time to sit at the feet of Jesus

is crucial. And in carving out this time, we

build a strong foundation, a strong relationship with Jesus.

Building a strong foundation, filling up your cup to then go

and fill up others, it is a fundamental practice to the work

of the church. Burnout is real and it is hard.

If we do not have this strong foundation of knowing and being

known by Jesus, it is a slippery slope into complete burnout.

Martha was doing all the right things, serving and being

hospitable, but she did not have the right foundation.

Instead, she was saying in her confrontation to Jesus and her

sister, Look at all that I am doing.

Haven't I proven myself? We do the same thing.

Look at all this volunteering I have done, all this work I have

done all in order to try and continue to prove ourselves,

prove that our hearts are in the right place.

This is not a healthy cycle for volunteering at church or

anywhere is good work, but we have to build a strong

foundation on knowing and being known by Jesus, filling up our

cups to then go and do it out of want and love, not out of guilt

and a wish to prove ourselves. So we talked about things that I

personally, you personally can do, but let's not forget that

Mary wasn't alone. In fact, she was probably in a

room of most likely all of Jesus's disciples, a community

of people who wanted to learn and grow in their faith.

So well yes, having quiet time to pray or listen to, in my case

Lectio 365 is great. It doesn't always have to be

alone, as Matthew 1820 says. For where two or three are

gathered in my name, there I am with them.

Community is just as crucial in our journey of knowing and being

known by Jesus. I don't know about you, but I

have struggled to put in the work to know Jesus, to sit at

his feet and spend time with Him.

A few years ago, I would read my Bible every morning.

In fact, I remember a conversation I had with someone

where I could. I told them that how drastically

this changed my days, that I could pinpoint the days where I

forgot with how much more anxious I was.

But somewhere along the last few years I stopped and it felt

exponentially harder to start up again instead of just letting

the business consume my life. It was not until recently that a

mentor of mine challenged me to try again.

I was telling her how hard I found it, that I knew I wanted

to spend intentional time with Jesus, that I knew I felt so

much more at peace when I did. But without someone actually

holding me accountable, it was easy to let that be the thing

that slipped through the cracks when life got hectic.

She was actually the one that introduced me to Lectio 365, and

to be honest, I sort of just started doing it because I knew

she'd probably ask about it the next time I saw her.

But accountability and community is not a weakness.

It does not reflect that you're not strong enough to do it

yourself, Hebrews 10/24 to 25 says.

And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love

and good deeds, not giving out meaning together as some are in

the habit of doing, but encouraging one another,

pursuing, knowing and being known by Jesus doesn't have to

be a journey we go on alone. In fact, the Bible clearly say

it's that encouraging one another is crucial as well.

I know I will continue to struggle in this journey of

learning and spending time at the feet of Jesus, but I also

know that I have a community of people who are on the same

journey. We are not meant to walk this

walk alone. That doesn't mean that it is

easy. Today, maybe now more than ever,

people find themselves tackling loneliness and isolation.

Our country greatly values individuality.

We have a culture that thrives on it, but we need community.

We need a village. We need it for our everyday

lives, and we need it for our walk with Jesus.

And a village isn't just gonna show up on your doorstep.

Actively building it is key. Taking actionable steps is key,

just as we take actionable steps in our relationship of knowing

and being known by God. Mary did not wait to be invited

into that room. She sat herself right at the

feet of Jesus and surrounded herself with the people there.

Do not wait to be invited. Build a village that supports

one another in this walk. Take actionable steps.

Go to a Bible study. Invite over those friends you

haven't seemed to have time to see.

Volunteer or food cupboard and meet other volunteers.

Find and be a mentor. There are so many ways to build

community, and actively building this village brings that

accountability, that care, that support that.

We need a place to wrestle with those questions and dive deeper

into knowing God together. Both having private moments with

God and making time to sit at the feet of Jesus together in

community truly shape our relationship with Him in

extraordinary ways. But also both building, building

this community, building this strong foundation and knowing

and being known as Jesus. Being known, knowing and knowing

Jesus in community and individually helps us move

forward in the going and the doing.

We want to be a people who go and do a people of welcome,

hospitality, generosity. The common thread of all of Luke

so far has been about hospitality, the Good Samaritan

speak, Jesus speaking to and healing outcasts, feeding the

5000. It is fundamental.

It is the call of the Church, but it cannot happen well

without knowing and being known by Jesus, and it cannot last

without a community intent on knowing and being known by God,

Ruth Barton says in her book Sacred Rhythms.

How had I gotten this far into the spiritual life without

anyone having told me that it was OK to stop talking and to

stop doing and to just be in God's presence?

When we get so caught up in the doing, we forget that loving the

Lord our God is our greatest commandment.

When we feel like we are being pulled apart by the many things,

we forget the most important one.

We must pursue knowing God to pursue His radical Kingdom.

Because Jesus is Kingdom, is radical.

It is transformative. It brings in outcasts, gives

voices to the oppressed, loves thy neighbor, every neighbor.

Christian hospitality needs to be one that is radical, but it

also is why we must know Him, because how can we possibly

pursue his Kingdom without him? We individually and we the

church need to be radically hospitable, just as Jesus's

Kingdom is radically different. But to do so, we must know and

be known by Jesus. We must spend time in His

presence. And the even better part, He

wants it too. He didn't correct Martha to tell

her she was wrong. He did it to show her what was

better. He wanted to spend time with

her. Just as he wants to spend time

with us. Jesus desires to spend time with

you, me, us. The God of the universe wants to

know us wholly and completely. He wants a relationship with us.

We individually and we as a community are not alone in

pursuing, knowing, and being known by Jesus.

He is right there beside us. So today, what is one thing you

are going to do to seek out knowing and being known by God?

And who is one person you're gonna tell about trying it?

Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for this time

together. Lord, I pray that each one of us

is able to dive into knowing and being known by youth this week.

Lord, we want to know you and you want to know us.

You want to spend time with us and we are forever grateful for

this God. As we seek you this week, speak

to us, speak through us. Let us be your people of

generosity and hospitality and welcome.

Thank you in Jesus name, Amen.