July 15, 2009 + “Duty and/or Devotion' (Luke 10: 38-42) + Hayward Fong

We continue this morning with the Third Year Lectionary assignment for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

I am always so glad to see you, but I often wonder what brings you to these Wednesday morning services, week-in and week-out. I know how difficult it must be to get here at 7:30 every week, particularly when it is so nice and cozy in the warm bed. Is it a sense of duty? Do you feel a sense of obligation to me since I have to be here? Or do you feel a sense of responsibility to the Lord for all that he has done for you. Is it possible to serve the Lord as well as others out of habit rather than out of love?

In last week’s study, Jesus was discussing with a Jewish lawyer the two great commands of the Scripture, that we are to love God with all our heart, mind and soul and that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus used the story of “The Good Samaritan” to illustrate how we should love our neighbor. Now he uses an incident which I just read, involving two sisters, Mary and Martha, to illustrate how we should love God.

The incident takes place in Bethany, a little village just outside of Jerusalem. From what we can infer from Luke’s record and John chapters 11 and 12, Martha, her sister Mary and their brother Lazarus live together. It appears that Martha may be a widow, or at least the elder sister, for she is the head of the household. It is here in Martha’s home that Mary and Lazarus, Jesus and his disciples sit down for some relaxation away from the pressure of the crowds. Jesus is no stranger to this home for he had been here many times, a place that he knew He was loved and accepted. Both sisters are delighted to see Jesus but as you have heard they express their enthusiasm in very different ways. Let me read again how Luke describes His welcome. “Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village, and a certain woman, named Martha welcomed Him into her house (vs.38). And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus feet and heard his word” (vs. 39).

People have varying temperaments; some are active, always needing to be busy, never able to sit still. Others are thoughtful, willing to sit back and think things through. Martha is a very activity-oriented person, her sister appears to be of the more thoughtful nature. I believe that many of us have wrongly contrasted Martha and Mary, as though each Christian should make a choice to either be a worker like Martha or a worshipper like Mary. But in so doing I think we miss the point; I believe the Lord wants each of us to imitate Mary in our worship and Martha in our work, and to achieve a balance in both.

Mary is content to sit at Jesus’ feet soaking up the Word, and not “do” anything. But her big sister, Martha was looking around at all the guests and sees the need to prepare a meal. Martha was obviously a great hostess; she got up and began to prepare food for Jesus and all those there with Him. Martha looked and said to herself, “What a privilege to prepare a meal for the Master?” Mary on the other hand would have said, “What a privilege to sit at the feet of the Master?” Is one right and the other wrong? No! Duty and Devotion are both necessary, but there must be a balance.

Every action, every relationship, every institution has a basic focus, which is its reason for existence if it hopes to succeed … if it loses that focus, it will fail. When you lose your focus, which is why you do what you do, then you are in trouble. So, this morning, I want us to look at this story and see what it teaches about the cost of loss of focus.

Loss of focus caused Martha to resort to self-pity. All you ladies can appreciate what entertaining unplanned visitors is like and why Martha is flustered and feeling more and more frustrated with each passing moment. I have lived that experience many times so I also know what it’s like.

In the first part of vs. 40, Luke writes, “But Martha was distracted with much serving, …” the sense of the word “distracted” as used here means “to be pulled away” or “dragged away.” The implication is that Martha also wanted to hear Jesus herself and to sit at his feet, but she was pulled away by her sense of her “duties.” Fretting about the meal has robbed her of the joy of her service to the Lord. We should, of course, take our responsibilities seriously, but not ourselves to the point that we overestimate our importance. The problem did not lie in the work Martha was doing. It was the attitude that she was doing it with that became the problem. Martha’s problem was one of balance, between the going and doing and the sitting and listening. The difference between Martha and Mary is not that one served and the other did not, but one served out of duty and the other out of devotion.

In our daily lives we can become so busy with the everyday things of life that we neglect the most important. Modern conveniences have not produced more leisure time; American society has become an overworked society, at least those who still have a job. Steven Convey in his book, “First Things First,” says “People expect us to be busy, overworked. It has become a status symbol in our society – if we’re busy, we’re important; if we’re not busy, we’re embarrassed to admit it. Busyness is where we get our security. It’s validating, popular and pleasing. It’s also a good excuse for not dealing with the first things in our lives.”

Loss of focus caused Martha to become angry at others. Our world is full of distractions. And the greater the pressure, the more tempting it is to focus on the urgent rather than the essential.

In fairness to Martha, I truly believe she wanted to honor Jesus. I even believe she began preparing dinner with the right attitude. I believe you ladies out there can relate to what I am about to say. Again, I can speak from personal experience, not once, but many, many times. You begin the task of a huge festive event with the greatest of enthusiasm, but as time passes you realize that you are running out of time and you can’t possibly finish everything you planned to do. When that happens, you get angry … angry at yourself for allowing yourself to get into this fix and angry at anyone else who might have made a difference in accomplishing you goals. Martha was like that, the harder she worked the more worked up she became. Some people “burn out” in service but Martha was “burned up” in hers. It’s bad enough to have everything to do. It’s even worse when we can think of someone who isn’t pulling their weight and who has let us down. That was what was happening to Martha. Tension and frustration were mounting ... she had so many things yet to do, time was running out and her sister was sitting out there at Jesus’ feet.

Loss of focus caused Martha to find fault. Martha was ready to explode as she came roaring out of the kitchen, red faced and furious. She says, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help me.” Martha is so upset with her sister she doesn’t even call her by name. In all fairness, I believe Martha had probably given all sorts of signals that she needed help in the kitchen, but Mary either didn’t catch the signals or chose to ignore her. I think Mary chose to remain seated at Jesus’ feet and face Martha’s anger because sitting at the Lord’s feet meant everything to her at that point. No one can force us to be devoted; devotion is a voluntary decision.

Loss of focus has caused Martha to question God’s care. Whatever Martha has already done to get Mary’s attention, she is totally exasperated now and speaks directly to Jesus. There is an accusation in her voice when she says, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” Martha was angry at Mary for being so selfish and she is angry at Jesus for allowing this to go on. Notice that Martha addressed her irritation to Jesus. You have to admit that she is one gutsy woman. Martha is accusing Jesus of not caring for her, because she was sure that if Jesus really cared for her He would tell Mary to get up and help her. In the vernacular of today, she’d probably say something like, “Lord, you know what a ding bat my sister is, but you are part of the problem too. You tell her to get her sweet self in here and help me!” In saying this she not only rebuked her sister but also the one for whom all these preparations are being made. Whenever our service causes us to criticize others and pity ourselves because we feel overworked, we need to take the time to examine our lives.

It is interesting how Martha links Jesus’ care for her with His willingness to tell Mary to get busy helping her. Martha thought that she knew how Jesus should demonstrate His care for her. I wonder, “Do we do that?” Do we ever accuse God of not caring for us, because we already decided what his care for us looks like? Part of Martha’s problem was that she worried too much about what others were doing. Does Martha’s concern over Mary remind you of Peter in John 21: 18-22? While Jesus was explaining to Peter what the future held for him, Peter looked at John and asked Jesus, “But what of this man?”(vs. 21). Jesus reminded Peter: That was not really any of his concern. He just needed to follow Jesus (vs. 22). In today’s text Jesus by his refusal to do as Martha had asked demonstrates that although what she was doing was valuable work, she should worry less about Mary’s choices. It all boiled down to the fact that Martha wanted to force Mary to serve Christ her way.

Loss of focus can be eliminated by remembering why we are doing what we are doing? (vv. 41, 42) Jesus responds to Martha, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled by many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken from her.”

Jesus responds with great tenderness. Notice that Jesus did not rebuke her for making preparations for Him and the other guests. He did not reject Martha’s attempt to serve Him. Martha’s problem was not that she was preparing food for the guests to eat, which was necessary, but she was giving too much importance to it. In the hustle and bustle of everyday living, we have to be careful that we do not let the necessary things that must be done get out of balance and distort our lives.

The core of Martha’s problem is that she tried to impose her value system on Mary. Note that Jesus did not tell Martha to do what Mary was doing. It was Martha’s attitude that needed correction. Martha’s work was both good and necessary. The reality is that you and I, as with all believers, need to cultivate both the Martha and Mary in each of us.

Martha came to Jesus because she wanted Him to lighten her load that day. He did what she wanted but not in the way that she had expected. He lightened her load not by having Mary help her but by giving her a new perspective on her work. When we forget why we are doing what we are doing we can get turned upside down, and we may end up feeling overworked and unappreciated. Dr. Mark Hollingsworth (Baptist minister) once remarked, “If we forget God while serving God we will probably quit God!” When we keep our attitude right we find that God will enable us to do what “needs” to be done with joy and satisfaction.

Unless we take the time to spend time with Jesus personally and privately, we will soon end up like Martha, busy but not blessed.

Martha was not wrong nor was Mary. It is a case where one did good and the other better. The Christian life is learning to balance duty with devotion.