July 18, 2004

Seventh Sunday of Pentecost

Genesis 18:1-15

Luke 10:38-42

“One Thing”

     Anyone who thinks “fast food” is a new invention didn’t visit the Hammett household in the early sixties.  We set the pace for fast food 40 years ago.  Mom would have everything ready to go and on the table, Dad would zoom in from the office across the street, somberly recite our standard mealtime prayer and then a feeding frenzy would commence.  There was scooping and chewing and slurping and talking all at once. It wasn’t a pretty sight.  Thankfully, it was over as quickly as it started and Dad would be up from the table and out the door.  “Gotta get back,” he’d say over his shoulder, “I’ve got patients waiting!”

     I once timed a typical supper from the moment we sat down to the moment we finished.  A full dinner (my mother’s meals were always “full”), complete with conversation and dessert – 8 minutes.  When Kay ate with us for the first time she was embarrassed to be the last person eating while six other people with clean plates stared and watched her chew.  Hurried dinners are what one should expect with people living hurried lives. 

     We are all products of our environment, they say.  I grew up believing that there’s a direct correlation between being busy and being worthwhile.  Even so, I decided some time ago I didn’t want to live the rest of my life gulping down 8-minute meals, rushing everything.  But I confess I’m still working on this one.

     So I have some difficulty understanding and appreciating Mary, sitting there quietly, attentive at Jesus’ feet.  Martha I can appreciate, out there in the kitchen rattling those pots and pans, sautéing the onions, broiling the beef, icing the cake, taking care of business, keeping things running, calling the shots, in control.  Sure, she was miffed at her sister for not helping out!  What was wrong with that girl?  Didn’t she know what needed to be done?

     Evidently, she did.  Jesus sidestepped Martha’s demands and said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part.”  One can imagine Martha’s surprise at what he said.  She was the good girl getting the work done! 

     Living as we do in a pushed, hurried, competitive and demanding world, perhaps we all find Jesus’ words a bit surprising. 

     One thing is all we really need….really?  We’re to sit and listen at the feet of Jesus, and that’s it?  But Lord, our lives are crammed with stuff we think we need!  We hardly have space in the attic or garage for it any more!  We’re up to our necks with things and our schedules burst at the seams!  How could it be that we really need just one thing??

     Abraham and Sarah had a difficult time trusting that God could provide what they really needed, too.  As they got older they grew tired of waiting for the child God promised them.  They grew impatient and took matters into their own hands, choosing to start a family with a little help from Haggar.  Ishmael (believed to be the ancestor of the Muslim faith) was born to Haggar and Abraham and, as they say, the rest is history.  Abraham and Sarah closed their ears to what God was trying to tell them and as a consequence left us with history’s longest family feud.

     And yet, the Abraham and Sarah story tells us there can still be hope for even the impatient ones…that is, if they’ll slow down enough to listen.  When Abraham and Sarah welcomed heavenly strangers into their camp it must have been a sign that they were at long-last ready to hear what God had been trying to say to them all along.  That day, Sarah finally heard the one thing she wanted to hear her whole life.  She would have a son.  Suddenly, her stress lifted and she couldn’t help but burst into laughter!

     The same joy that echoed in Sarah’s laughter that day, is there for us, too.  It is waiting to surprise us with new hope and new life.  It’s been there for us all along and if we haven’t yet heard it, perhaps we haven’t yet listened. 

     Kathleen Norris, in her book, “Cloister Walk”, speaks of her personal struggle with slowing down enough to listen to God; “God wanted me empty, alone, silent, and watchful.  I was suffering from both severe laryngitis and a lame leg, and had to laugh at myself, wondering if I really were so dense that God had to resort to these extremes in order to get me to shut up and be still.” 

     Kathleen isn’t the only one who needs such intervention  - it took a recent stressed-out hospital stay to get me to start slowing down and listening to what God is now saying to me.

     Perhaps there is something of Martha in each of us.  Blame it on our insecurities or our greed…whatever…but when Jesus calls her name, he’s calling us, too.  Busy, preoccupied, self-absorbed, we need much less than we think and probably need to slow down much more than we do.  We need to listen, really listen to what the Lord is saying to us.  What great joy, what great surprise waits for us to leave the dishes in the sink?

     Jesus was as much Martha’s Savior as he was Mary’s, just as much as he is our Savior, too.  When he calls our names, he does so in love, beckoning us to slow down, sit down and listen.  He calls with forgiveness for our hurried, harried lives and freely offers what we really need – his saving love.

     As this conversation and cooperation between Second Church and First Church has grown, how tempting it is to dive into the busy little details!  What if we decide to blend our ministries even more?  What if we decide to merge?  Shouldn’t we be working out the details now, at least projecting what could happen with endowments and staff and buildings and program?  Shouldn’t we get busy?  Shouldn’t we be in the kitchen, rattling those pots and pans?

     In spite of the pressure to do otherwise, we must first sit at Jesus’ feet.  If we are to know what he would have us do, we must listen and be open to him and one another.  Something powerful and good is happening between our churches, but what does the Lord have to say about this relationship?  What is our calling?  How are we being loved by the Savior in this and how can we best live out that love, supporting one another, serving him and our community?

     Maybe we need to let those old dishes soak a while, first letting go of whatever it is that stands between us and that place at Jesus’ feet.  He accepts us.  He forgives us.  And he has what we truly need.  Listen.  Wait.  Watch.  There is great joy in store for you, for us, for new life, new hope, new vision, a new day!