Why don’t we pray? – Part 3

• Part 1 – the sermon teaser.
• Part 2 – the depths of our desires – the first part of what I shared on Sunday.

The second part of Sunday’s Sermon was Mary and Martha (Lk 10:38-42).

Martha and Mary are found in other gospel stories, principally in John 11 and 12.  We see them as part of the community of Jesus, his friends and as people who trust him.  Martha shows remarkable faith in Jesus, when her brother Lazarus died.  Mary’s grief moves Jesus to action.  Mary shows huge devotion to Jesus in anointing his feet.  Martha gets a meal ready for the disciples, and there is no hint that wasn’t appreciated.

If it wasn’t for this passage in Luke’s gospel, Martha wouldn’t have the bad press she has got in church circles.

In fact, when you start delving in this passage, she seems as though she is a good disciple of Jesus too.  Perhaps we need to revisit the dualistic interpretations of this passage, that seem to force us to choose between the serving Martha or contemplative Mary?

Martha “received” Jesus, as he was travelling with his disciples.  This word had been used earlier in Lk 10, when the 72 were sent out in pairs without money.  People who “received” them, gave them food to eat, a place to stay, but also identified with Jesus and his mission.  So Martha’s action was much more than opening her home to Jesus.  It was identifying with the mission of Jesus, showing her to be an important member of Jesus’ community.

Martha was however “distracted” by all the “preparations that had to be made” (NIV).  Other Bible translations make the ‘interpretation’ even clearer: Martha was busy preparing a meal.  However, the Greek doesn’t actually have any word for meal here.  The word that is used is “diakonia” – service or ministry.  This word most often is used by Luke for ministry or leadership within the community of Jesus.  It might include in serving food, but if we make this interpretation we are reading that into the text.

Could it be that Martha is “distracted”, not by the meal preparations, but by the business of the mission and community of Jesus?  Whatever, the heart of her problem is that Mary is not pulling her weight.  Martha’s perspective is that she is doing all the work, and so the source of her distraction is a conflict with Mary.

The word “distracted” is a little difficult to translate, but it has connotations of being pulled away.  Martha has lost her sense of centeredness.

Martha does, what all good disciples of Jesus should do at this point: she prays.  She asks for Jesus’ help and intervention.  She asks Jesus to enlist Mary’s help.

I love what Jesus does at this point:  he takes the conversation to another level.  Martha is complaining about her sister not pulling her weight, and how she is doing all the work.  But Jesus doesn’t respond at that level at all … he starts talking about her anxiety.  Martha, says Jesus, your problem isn’t really your conflict with Mary.  Your problem is really your stress and anxiety.  This is what is pulling you off center.  This is what is causing you to be out of sync.  And, offers Jesus, the very thing that Mary is doing, is exactly what you need to be doing, to get back to the source of this mission and ministry you are involved with.

Jesus isn’t offering a choice for disciples: either action or contemplation.  He is offering Martha a way out from her stress.

In Luke’s gospel, we see an ebb and flow between mission, and returning to the source of that mission.  Just a few verses earlier, the 72 return from their mission, amazed at what they were doing.  Jesus immediately draws them back to the source: rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Jesus invites us, too, to an ebb and flow of action and contemplation.  Mission in our workplaces, colleges, communities and streets.  Return the source of the mission, to draw life from Jesus and remember whose mission it is anyway!

I suggested on Sunday, using “imaginative contemplation” with the Scripture this week.  Each day read the text, and imagine yourself in the story, perhaps as a different character each time (eg Mary, Matha, a disciple, a onlooker).  What do you feel?  See?  Hear?  What is going on inside you, and the story plays out?  Can this Scripture help us tap into our deepest desires?