Genesis 18: 1-8 / Luke 10: 38-42
Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder, PCUSA
Offered to the First Church of Hanover, NJ on July 17, 2022
The two passages from the Old and New Testaments this morning make a curious juxtaposition of ways of being “Welcoming”.
We see Abraham in this story from Genesis observes three travelers approaching his tent. And once he goes out to greet them, they immediately become honored guests. Initially, Abraham suggests first that he is their servant. And that they might be weary and that they should stop for a brief respite, that water should be drawn to wash their feet while they rest under a tree and that a bit of bread be brought to refresh them. Nothing outlandish, just the bare necessities. They agree.
Abraham, however, goes in a completely different direction. He goes into his tent and tells Sarah to use the finest flour to bake loaves of bread. Then he runs to his herd and selects a tender and good calf and gives it to a servant telling him to prepare it. Nothing outlandish, only the bare necessities? It sounds a lot like my Italian grandmother’s house when a visitor came a knocking on a Sunday morning. “Sit. Manga. You looka so skinny.”
All is prepared and served to these travelers, Abraham’s guests. Then he stands attentively nearby watching so that he would be able to not only respond to but anticipate their needs.
This passage from Genesis is often selected as a Bible verse to study when congregations want to look inward on themselves and to plan how they can be truly welcoming. We have used it and it has become the template of: How to be a welcoming congregation. Get out front, smile, greet, say hello, invite the stranger in, lay out the most impressive spread possible. These are all things we have learned from Abraham. From the beginning, we have been taught by the Father of our Judeo-Christian heritage how to be welcoming. And this is all good.
Now in the second passage this morning from Luke, we see Martha emulating Abraham in every way possible. She is doing what was expected of a host in the Jewish culture. She is doing everything that is expected of a household when a guest arrives. She is consumed preparing and serving the type of feast an honored quest like Jesus should be accorded. She is hustling. She is bustling, scurrying here and there trying to get everything in order, to get everything just right. Have his feet been washed? Does he need a drink? He must be thirsty. Most assuredly, he must be fed. What can we serve our honored guest? Start work, get it done.
While all of this is going on around her, Mary is just lying there at his feet and not helping. Martha, while running around exhausting herself becomes annoyed that her sister is not helping. After all, it is just as much her sister’s burden to welcome the guest as it is hers. Why is she not helping? So, Martha goes to Jesus to complain. “Excuse me ‘J’, could you tell my good for nothing, lazy sister to get up off her duff and help. I’m knocking myself out here.”
What happens next? It is Martha that is chastised. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. Only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part, and it is not going to be taken away from her.”
OOO! Burn, Martha.
Unfair? Perhaps. Martha is doing her best to do what is expected of her. This is how any Jewish household would be expected to welcome a visitor or a guest. To put out a lavish spread so as to display the importance of this guest. Father Abraham taught us that. And for Martha, Jesus was as important a guest she could receive. So why is it Martha that gets the talking down?
There are a couple of things going on here; so, let’s look at each of them.
First what we see in the passage is a clash of temperaments. We have the dynamo and the quiet, laid-back person. We know in our experiences of committee work as Presbyterians that some of us are dynamos and some of us are not. We charge into projects and rush on ahead of everyone else finishing half of the work before anyone else has a chance to get into the project at all. And, then we complain that no one is helping. We’re doing all the work ourselves. While others are quiet, reserved and patient workers. They will volunteer to help. It won’t be as showy as the dynamos; because perhaps they are listening first before making decisions on what should be done.
Martha is caught up in going through the ritual, the work of doing what was expected. The first thing she didn’t do was to stop to consider the guest and his needs. What was it this guest needed?
Now this is part of what is happening between Martha and Mary. Martha is assuming everything about the occasion of Jesus’ visit. This is a big deal. It calls for a lavish feast. She charges ahead to make him comfortable and to serve his every need before he even utters it, even before she knows that he really needs any of it at all. Martha is over-doing and over the top. Now, let’s not be too critical of Martha. We’ve all have done it, charged into a committee meeting convinced that we had all the answers and a complete plan of how to proceed. All anyone else has to do is listen and follow directions.
Mary, on the other hand, reads the room. She is quiet and observant. She has a sense of where Jesus is going, to Jerusalem, that it will be the death of him. She sensed his inner turmoil and that what Jesus needed that day was quiet, a place of comfort, yes, but a refuge as well. So, she quietly sat at his feet wanting to give him just that.
Now, Jesus, is not demeaning or ridiculing Martha’s work. He loves Martha equally to Mary. And, he is not saying that there would never be a point when it would be appropriate for Mary to help. Just, not now. Jesus needed both Mary and Martha that day. Both the work of the dynamo and the reserved quiet one are always both necessary for the success of the kingdom.
Mary’s approach also says something to us about how to approach our good works. It is that we need to listen to what the people we are trying to help truly need. We need to read the room. Mary at a glance could see that Jesus was tired and struggling with that inner turmoil. Mary could see that he was most in need of quiet rest to ease his mind. That is what she was able to give Jesus because she observed and reacted to the need before her. She didn’t assume like Martha did. She didn’t go off halfcocked.
That is the balance of our good work, isn’t it?
Let me tell you this story. At LVPC, we participate in a Food Pantry program that is called the Long Valley Community Assistance Program. It is co-sponsored by 7 different churches and is now its own 503[3] [c] charity. Now here’s the interesting tidbit. All of us well-healed Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists had assumed what types of food stuffs the people would need. And one of the items we would purchase a lot of was pasta. Every time Shoprite ran a sale on Ronzoni or Barilla pasta, the storeroom would be filled to the roof. But this is what we discovered after numerous of the clients turned down the offer of pastas. The clients didn’t use pasta as a staple food item. They used Rice and Beans. So, after a couple of years of head scratching, all of us dynamos finally figured out the problem and switched the suggestion for donations from pastas to other items and then the issue was resolved.
Now this doesn’t mean that the pasta years were wasted or didn’t get the job done. What it means is that quite listening made the program better. Read the room. That I think should be the first rule of Christian mission and ministry. Once you’ve listened and understand what the need is, then build and execute a dynamic plan.
So, let’s not be too hard on the Marthas in our congregation. We need them. But we can remind them to cool their jets at the beginning and make sure we are reading the room and understand the need. So too, we need the Marys, the insightful good listeners. But let’s not allow them to sit in the background and allow a hardy few do all the work, either.
There is another thing that Martha is missing out on. She has busied herself so fully that she is missing out on a gentle time with Jesus. In these short verses we see Martha [or even ourselves doing any church work] worried to distraction. The Greek word used here to describe Martha’s work is Di-a-ko-ni-a. It can mean serving; but it can also mean ministry. You know if Martha was a Presbyterian, her time would be fully booked with committee meetings, leading Bible studies and hosting church events.
For Martha, worry was ingrained. Her work is valuable, she knows that, but completing one task doesn’t calm her. She checks items off her To-Do- list but it doesn’t give her peace. Her anxiety just rolls over to the next task. Her time with Jesus is spent complaining about Mary and not being comforted or replenished by Jesus. When Jesus tells Martha that only “one thing is necessary” and that Mary has chosen the right thing, he is not only denying Martha that he should tell Mary to help; he is inviting Martha to come to him and rest as well. Martha, lay down your worries and rest with me.
Years ago, I was listening to a radio preacher talking about those evenings when we are tossing and turning worried about this or that issue. You know the times when we are tired and want to sleep but our minds just start racing with all the things we have to deal with. We tell ourselves that we will deal with it tomorrow but as the night drags on, we lie there in fear that tomorrow will come and we will never get any sleep at all.
This radio preacher said at those times she says this simple prayer, “Father God, here are my worries and concerns. I am laying them at your feet to deal with. I’m going to sleep. What the heck, you are up all night anyway. I expect all will be resolved when I awake in the morning.”
Now this may seem a comical way of characterizing and dealing with our cares and concerns. But there is a real element of truth about how we need to deal with our jobs and the worries that seem to keep us awake all night. There is a time to dive into and deal with thorny issues and there is a time to lay them at Jesus’ feet and just lie there to rest and be restored. And we have to recognize when to stop working and just rest. The next evening that you are tossing and turning in bed, try it out. But really do it whole-heartedly. Take your Bible and read your favorite verse, a Psalm, or a Gospel parable. Let God’s Spirit calm you. Then dump everything at God’s feet, roll over and go to sleep.
At the beginning of the service today, I greeted you and congratulated you on being here. I told you that this is the day the Lord God made for your rest and restoration. And I am serious about that. When you come here on a Sunday morning, you need to leave all your anxieties at the door and just lie here at Jesus’ feet and rest and be restored. Your To-Do lists will be there tomorrow morning. But today is a time for you to be with God, to hear God’s word, to be restored and refreshed by it so that you can go out and deal with the To-Do list tomorrow.
So how do we do this welcoming thing? Read the room. Make sure you are serving the right need. Prepare your plans and execute them to the benefit of those you are serving. But don’t forget to lay at the feet of Jesus and rest.
CHARGE: My Friends, my charge to you this week is to be “welcoming”, yes. But you must also read the room. Learn about the people whom you serve and fill their needs and not yours.
