Sermon: Distractions, Luke 10:38-42

A Sermon for the People of First Baptist Church of Austin

July 20, 2024

Luke 10:38-42

Martha and Mary by Jerome W. Jones Jr.

Distractions

Growing up as a pilot’s daughter meant our family’s holiday traditions looked a little different from those around me.  My dad’s work schedule typically looked like three days on and two to three days off. While he was “on”, he was away, flying a Boeing 737 from city to city across the country and sometimes Mexico.  He would call home any chance he got. Because this was the 90’s and cellphones weren’t exactly prevalent like they are now, the chance to talk to him was rare, so we made it a priority to drop what we were doing to hear his voice. Each call began with my dad telling us his current city and my sister and I running to the wall sized-map in our hallway to find his location on the map. Those memories I recall with joy, remembering how fun that was. Other times were more difficult- there were many Christmas mornings we opened presents with my dad on the phone, calling from a random city in the US, while on a layover for work. Because of his non-traditional job schedule, we often celebrated holidays a few days before or after the actual day. Thanksgiving was usually always celebrated on the following Saturday. We made sure to make the event extra special as a result. We even sat at the formal dining table and got out the fancy dishes!

When it came time for the first Thanksgiving after my daughter Ella was born, I had high expectations to continue the Schoenert family tradition of an extra special home cooked Thanksgiving meal. I invited my parents to our tiny one- bedroom condo, secured my 3 week old baby into my baby wearing wrap and got to work preparing the most delicious, elaborate, and meaningful Thanksgiving ever. Giving birth less than a month before wouldn’t slow me down! I made my grandmother’s traditional cornbread dressing, homemade cranberry sauce, and a pecan pie. Luckily my mom had been teaching me how to prepare and cook a turkey for the past few years, so I felt confident I would be able to do it. 

When my family arrived with side dishes, the smell of a turkey roasting in the oven was in the air. Stomachs were growling in anticipation. It was almost time to eat! But when I pulled the turkey out of the oven, it was severely undercooked.  I was shocked that I could make such a miscalculation in the cooking time! Why didn’t it cook all the way? This wasn’t my first time to cook a turkey and I was angry that the centerpiece of the entire thanksgiving meal was ruined. It turned out, my oven had malfunctioned and stopped producing heat, so for the last hour of “cooking,” the oven wasn’t actually heating like it said it was. 

I was devastated that my perfect and special FIRST thanksgiving with my newborn and my family didn’t meet the expectations I had set for it. I apologized and apologized to my family, who didn’t seem to care as much as I did, since there was plenty of other food to eat. 

But I couldn’t let it go. Every other thought was about how I failed at creating a special holiday for my daughter. My brain was stuck on a loop of “how could this have happened” and “how did you not notice?”, that I was missing the tender moments of my mother holding my young child in her arms, looking at her with sheer tenderness and joy. I was missing the conversations and laughter between josh and my dad.  I was so focused on my own failures that I wasn’t giving my full attention to the joy that was in front of me. I was missing out on creating a meaningful memory by dwelling on something out of my control. I wasn’t present to the gift I was being given- time with the people I loved the most. 

How many times have we been distracted by a mistake, or by our to-do list, or by our own anxiety or resentment that we miss the beautiful moment we are given? I’m sure you have a similar story to my undercooked-thanksgiving-turkey story where you’ve missed out on what was right in front of you because you were dwelling on something else. Can you think of it? 

Something similar is happening to Martha in this very gospel story. 

Martha is preparing to host Jesus and a large group of his followers into her home. The fact that she owns her own home is unique and not culturally typical since we know women had little power and agency outside of a male husband, brother, or father. It is likely that Martha was an independent women and was financially stable because she was a widow. Regardless how she managed to own her own home, Martha is still in charge of caring for the needs of her guests who are arriving soon and there is work to be done.  

In keeping with cultural customs, the women were tasked with all the cooking and food preparation, which meant the chores of food prep fell on sisters Mary and Martha to make the table ready. There was a lot to be done, and Martha wanted to make sure her honored guest Jesus felt welcomed at her home. Eating together was an act of hospitality.  To invite someone into your home was to invite them into your family circle. It was intimate and sacred. And it wasn’t often that Martha hosted someone so special and important to her family. This day had to be perfect. But when Jesus arrives, her sister Mary neglects her duty to prepare the food and instead chooses to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to his teaching. 

Martha is understandably upset when Mary walks away from the duties and expectations that Martha sees as their sacred work.  The prep work is pilling up in the kitchen and Martha has one less helper to get it all done. Failing to be a good hostess means disrespecting the guest, a guest who deserves the highest honor at that, and Martha doesn’t take that lightly. Martha holds Mary responsible for the weight she now feels forced to carry by herself.

Martha is a classic enneagram one. She has a strong since of right and wrong and sees her behavior as serving in the kitchen as being the morally right choice. Ones have a strict moral code, often of their own design, that they hold themselves to and everyone else around them to as well. They can be critical and judgmental which leads to resentment and anger.  Martha is doing what is expected of her and there others around her aren’t. She is resentful because Mary isn’t pulling her weight, and her anger is disguised as a sense of justice when she pulls Jesus in to make it “fair.” 

You notice it the most when she confronts Jesus. She says, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to prepare the table all by myself? Tell her to help me!” (Attitude and emphasis mine) Martha is so wrapped up in doing what’s right and trying to force her sister to conform to her version of righteousness, that she misses the point completely.  Her anger and resentment is clouding her ability to see what’s right in front of her- Jesus! 

Jesus’ reply might seem insensitive, but it’s exactly what Martha need to hear. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things”, he says to her. Jesus does not give in to Martha’s resentment and does not take pity and make things right to appease Martha.  Instead, Jesus tells Martha that she’s missing it! She’s missing the moment! Jesus is right in front of her and she is worried about the dishes and the doneness of the bread and stews and the perceived shortcomings of her sister. 

When we are distracted by fear, anxiety, resentment, or our to-do list, we can miss out on what matters the most- God’s presence in the moment. 

It’s a surprise then, that this story of Martha missing the moment comes right after the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke.  Why would Luke tell a parable about Jesus calling us to action and caring for the least of these in the story of the Good Samaritan, both practices in hospitality and service, and then immediately tell of the encounter of Jesus and Martha in a rebuke of her service and hospitality? Should we think that contemplative practices of prayer and study, like Mary was doing at Jesus’ feet, are actually better than active practices of hospitality and service? 

This is a huge tension for modern readers, especially when Jesus tells Martha that her sister has chosen then “better part.” Is learning from Jesus better than service to others? No, and this is not what the text is saying. It can be tempting to read Jesus’ reply as if their activities are in opposition. Early readers of Luke’s gospel would have understood that Luke is making that case that it’s not about the form of your devotion—it’s about the focus of your devotion. The focus should always be on Jesus. Martha was focused on the wrong thing. 

A trap we can fall into is when we want to justify our desire to do one form of devotion over the other. Justice and service and hospitality work is good work. All are genuine acts of discipleship.  But it can be so easy to neglect our spiritual formation when we spend all our time doing. We can spend long hours doing physical labor for the good of a community in need, or sacrifice an evening waiting to testify on a bad bill at the Texas legislature, or suffer in the summer heat to build tiny homes for neighbors suffering from chronic homelessness.  All of these things are good. And… we can unintentionally distance ourselves from an intimate relationship with God because we are focusing heavily on service and hospitality at the expense of our spiritual life.  If we want sustainable hospitality, we can’t neglect the things that form our very being, our very souls. 

Cynthia Jarvis writes, “a community that is hospitable to Christ is a community marked by the attention the community gives to God’s word.” In other words, service and hospitality go hand in hand with the contemplative life of prayer and devotion. They shouldn’t be distanced from each other. Our role as Christians in a Christian church is to make sure we are not neglecting time sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to what he has to say to us. 

How are you listening to Jesus? How are you developing your spiritual life? Are you engaging in meditation or silence or practicing lectio divina, observing sabbath, reading scripture, writing in a prayer journal? In what ways are you doing the work to develop your soul so you can be equipped to do the active work Jesus is calling us to do? Are you missing the big picture because you are distracted by things that don’t prioritize Jesus?