Pentecost 8: Amos 8:1-12; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:38-42

July 18, 2010

    One of my all time favorite tv commercials some years ago went like this: Two people are talking in a noisy room. One says: "My broker thinks this would be a good investment. What does your's think?" And the other says: "Well, my broker is E.F. Hutton and E. F. Hutton says …" Suddenly a hush comes over the room as everyone strains their ears to listen in. And a voice says: "When E.F. Hutton talks, (pause) people listen." Right?

    Well, its important to listen in a lot of ways. But listening is most important in our faith. One of the regular practices of Jesus we read in the gospels is he would often draw apart from the crowds and even his closest followers to be alone.

"Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed."(Mk 1:35)

"After saying farewell to them (crowds), Jesus went up on the mountain to pray."(Mk 6:46)

"At daybreak Jesus departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowds were looking for him…"(Lk 4:42)

"When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself."(Jn 6:15)

"And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone."(Mt 14:23)

And in the Garden of Gethsemane shortly before he would be arrested the scripture tells us: "Then Jesus withdrew from them about a stone's throw, knelt down and prayed."(Lk 22:41)

    Jesus was a busy person healing diseases and broken bodies as well as teaching the crowds and his disciples. It also took a lot of energy to itinerate from town to town by foot. Yet, Jesus believed it important to suspend all activity at regular intervals to be alone by himself and commune with God. There was a balance in his ministry between doing and not doing, teaching and listening. As Jesus communed with God he received direction and purpose for his living.

    In John's gospel Jesus summarizes his relationship with God: "The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…(Jn 14:10f) And in another place he says simply: "The Father and I are one." (Jn 10:30) Only by following a regular practice of being in touch with God could Jesus have the certainty that his words and works were truly from God.

    This regular attention to God was the spiritual compass for this life. It pointed him in the right direction. It revealed what he was to do and gave him the strength to do it. Communing with God through prayer suggested, no doubt, to those who followed him that if Jesus felt a need to do this, then this might be a good thing for them to imitate as well.

    One day Jesus comes to visit in the home of Martha and Mary. Martha is very busy being a good neighbor and hostess. She may have dipped the water from the well for Jesus to drink and wash the dust from his feet. It was customary in those days for a host to provide for this. It is also likely she was busy preparing the meal and setting the table which would be expected for a woman to do within the culture of that time. She is being a very good neighbor and servant. But her sister, Mary is just sitting on the floor, 'at the feet of Jesus and listening to what he says.' She is not helping her sister and Martha becomes irritated. She calls Jesus Lord, but then "tells" Jesus to make Mary help her.

    Mary's posture, however, was the typical in those days for disciples who would sit reclined at the feet of a teacher in order to listen and learn. These students were also male. Mary, a woman, sitting like a disciple is breaking the mold of what her culture says a woman should do and be.

    Martha represents the role that women were expected to follow. But Jesus gently rebukes her complaining by indicating that while she is "worried and distracted by many things" there is only one thing needed and "Mary has chosen the better part." The "better part" refers to listening to the message of the Kingdom of God and learning what it means to be a disciple. Listening to Jesus is more important than pleasing what others expect.

    In the next chapter he teaches the Lord's prayer in which the very first petition is for the kingdom of God to come on earth as it is in heaven. Martha was not wrong for tending to her domestic chores. But the good of the Kingdom far surpasses this and all cultural roles. There is a higher standard to follow and Jesus is the one who sets it. Thus, Jesus says: "Mary has chosen the better part."

    We still live in a Martha and Mary world today. In the Martha world we are busy with a lot of things. Shopping for the family. Chauvering the kids from ball game to ball game. Cooking, washing the dishes, doing the laundry and so forth. Women have long been expected to do most of these things and work at home while husbands sweat in the fields and factories or work on reports in the office in order to bring home the income on which the family can live.

    We know that these traditional roles for men and women have changed dramatically in our time. For more than a generation many women have worked outside the home in many professions including even the church. In several denominations women now serve as ordained pastors a role that used to be for males only. And in some churches this is still the rule.

    Some blame this change in gender roles as a bad thing and see it as the cause of the widespread discord and strife in family life today. But I don't think this is true. Like many things women working outside the home is just another example of a lot changes that are neither good or bad in and of themselves. It all depends on the values and goals that a family seeks to achieve. If couples seek only to maximize their material comforts and pleasure, then this might cause a lot of worry and conflict about how to spend and safeguard what one earns. Children who are accustomed to always getting what they want can become spoiled. Or come to believe that their worth and success as a person depends on material achievement. But if working couples agree on how to use their material resources to serve God and the Kingdom, then that would create a much different attitude towards what success means and what one's worth is from God's perspective.

    Changing roles is not the problem. The problem is that prosperity has made our lives much more complicated and difficult because we have so many more gadgets to play with today, so much leisure time and temptations to do this or that, be this or that from which to choose. We become so wrapped up in our busyness that like Martha we become distracted from God and what endures. We forget our destiny and as a result place our trust and our hopes in things and people that do not last.

    This brings me back to E.F. Hutton. It is no more. Rocked by scandals and mismanagement in the 1980s it eventually merged with Citigroup which suffered big losses in the financial collapse in 2007. Then Citigroup sold off some the remaining Hutton assets to Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Many who staked their fortunes on Hutton ended up losing everything just as Jesus said: "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?" (LK 9:23f)

    Instead of listening to the world we are called to "listen" to Jesus "in whom the fullness of God was pleased to dwell." (Col 1:19) In closing I want to share a paragraph from Max Lucado, in his book: "When God whispers your name." What he suggests here is how little time it takes to listen to Jesus because he was the master of brevity.

    "His greatest sermon (Sermon on the Mount) can be read in 8 minutes. His best known story can be read in 90 seconds (Parable of the Prodigal Father and sons – Lk 15). He summarized prayer in 5 phrases (The Lord's Prayer - Matt 6:9-13). He silenced his accusers with one challenge. ("Let anyone among you who is without sin, cast the first stone." Jn 8:7) He rescued a soul with one sentence. ("Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise. Lk 2343) He summarized the Law in three verses ('Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself.' Mk 12:29-31 And he reduced all his commandments to one command." ("Love one another as I have loved you." Jn 15:12)

    Many times we may be despair about where to go to repair ourselves when our dreams and hopes are crushed. We may wonder where to turn when human love has broken and loved ones die. We may often wonder if anyone cares when we are down and sick. If you have ever had feelings like these or feel like this is where you are today, then remember Mary who sat at the Lord's feet long ago and listened to what he was saying.

    It doesn't take a lot of time to "listen" to Jesus. But when we do it is the most powerful remedy for changing the course of a person's life both now and for all eternity. If Jesus felt the need to listen for God, then how much more is this true for you and I?