I just returned home from a week in Kanas City, serving as an elected delegate for our United Church of Christ General Synod, which happens every three years. I know that our friends in the United Methodist Church also have a General Conference that happens every few years.
And, it’s so wonderful to have thousands of people from all across the country come together to hear all the amazing things are churches are doing in the world.
From soup kitchens to homeless shelters; from mission and justice work and humanitarian aid around the globe, we are, indeed, are extremely ACTIVE churches.
But, in the Gospel message from today’s lectionary, Jesus is reminding us to SLOW DOWN, to take time to BE STILL.
As we just heard, the two sisters, Martha and Mary, have invited Jesus into their home for a meal, and Martha is busy doing, doing, doing.
She’s like us: the do-er. She is busy getting everything ready and perfect for Jesus’s visit. There’s a meal to prepare, a table to set, so many things to do!
And, she’s resentful because her sister, Mary, is just sitting at Jesus’s feet, doing nothing.
So, Martha says to Jesus, “Don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me.”
But, notice: Jesus doesn’t side with Martha.
Instead, he tells her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by so many things. There is need of only on thing. And, Mary has chosen the better part.”
Mary has chosen the better part!!
There’s an important lesson here for all of us.
Because most of us, as Americans, tend to identify with Martha.
Most of us grew up with this Puritan, American work-ethic, which values and admires DO-ers, multi-taskers, those who can accomplish many things in a day!
But, if you’ve ever traveled abroad, you know that in many countries, people take siestas every day. They literally stop what they’re doing in the middle of the afternoon, and they go home to relax or to nap for a few hours.
And, where most Americans are lucky to get a week or two of vacation each year, in many other countries, people get month-long vacations.
That seems so strange to us as Americans. Most of us feel guilty if we are not always being productive.
We would much rather be DO-ing something, like Martha, but Jesus is calling us to be like Mary.
Even though this Gospel story is only six sentences long – one of the shortest stories in the Bible and told only in Luke’s Gospel – yet, it is one of the most powerful for us as modern Americans.
Because, we are the Marthas of the world! We are always doing. Our minds are always going. Like Jesus said to Martha, We are “worried and distracted” by so many things.
Jesus said that “Mary has chosen the better part,” for she has chosen to BE STILL. To be present in the Presence. To simply BE.
I’m sure you’ve have all heard the phrase: “We are human BE-ings, not human Do-ings.”
And, yet, it is very difficult for us to “just be,” to “be still,” to “still our minds,” to be like Mary.
Jesus says that Mary has chosen the better part, but it is hard for us to be like Mary when we live in such a Martha world.
We live in a 24/7 world, with “round-the-clock” news channels, where we’re always plugged in to one device or another. Our minds are never still.
That keeps us worried and distracted and resentful like Martha.
But, you may say, “Pastor Sal, there are so many things that need to get done…the world needs our attention and our action, now more than ever.”
And, all of that is true.
But, we need to balance that action with contemplation.
The Christian Church has done a good job of calling us to be people of action, but it hasn’t done a very good job of helping us be contemplative.
If you go service at Buddhist temple or a Hindu shrine, you may hear a few brief words (a Dharma talk or a satsang), but much of the service is in silence.
Some of you may have experienced a Quaker meeting, where most of the service is simply sitting in silence.
Can you imagine if I said, “Today, I’m not giving a message. We’re just gonna sit here in silence for 15 minutes.”
Some of you would love it, but many of you couldn’t do it. You either couldn’t sit still, or you’d see it as a complete waste of time.
We, in the Christian Church, love to fill our services with words: prayers and readings and song lyrics. Silence makes us uncomfortable.
We would much rather be DO-ing something, like Martha, but Jesus is calling us here in today’s Gospel to be like Mary.
Now, the writer of Luke’s Gospel puts this story of Martha and Mary immediately after the story of the Good Samaritan, which we heard last Sunday.
And, I think that was done on purpose, for the Good Samaritan was a man of action. Action is necessary and needed. Jesus, himself, was a man of action.
So, Jesus isn’t telling Martha that actions are bad. Rather, he’s telling her there’s a time for action and a time for contemplation.
Jesus ministered to people (teaching and healing them), but he also spent time a lot of time alone in the desert, in the wilderness, up on the mountain-top…time alone with God.
We need to find balance between our “doing” and our “being” And, to me, that is what the Martha and Mary story represents metaphysically or symbolically.
The story takes place in a home, which represents our spiritual dwelling place within.
In that home are two sisters, which represent the two aspects of the self, the DO-eR and the BE-eR., the outer and the inner.
Both of them need to live together in peace and harmony and balance.
It’s not an either/or. It’s a both/and. It’s not Martha or Mary. It’s Martha and Mary.
I love this quote from the spiritual writer, Shelly Tiffin, who says, “It is not Mary VS. Martha. It’s Mary AND Martha. We must balance what love DOES for people with what love SAYS when it sits at their feet.”
So, my question for you is: “Are you leading a balanced life, a harmonious life?”
Do you find time each day to just be? To do nothing? To just sit in silence and contemplation?
If you do not, you are not living a balanced life, and, like Martha, you will probably experience distraction and worry and resentment. And, that is not a healthy life.
A few years ago, I took a group from my previous church in Michigan on a retreat in New Mexico, where we spent time with the spiritual writer, Rihard Rohr, and toured the center he founded there which he calls the “Center for Action and Contemplation.”
Their Mission Statement reads, in part: “We need a Contemplative Mind in order to do Compassionate Action.”
Many people tell me that they don’t know how to be contemplative. They don’t know how to pray or meditate.
Well, we are going to talk about that next Sunday, because in next Sunday’s Gospel reading, the disciples ask Jesus, “Rabbi, teach us how to pray.”
So, you’ll have to come back next week!
But between now and then, I’d like to invite you to pay attention to your actions this week.
If, like Martha, your actions are leading you to distraction and worry and resentment, maybe it’s time for you to seek some balance in your life, and to make some time each day to be like Mary, to simply sit at Jesus’s feet; be to more fully present in the Presence; to “Be Still and Know.”
May it be so. Amen.