Who Is Jesus? The Honored Guest. 

                                                  by Rev. Karen S. Cook

Who was the last person out of the kitchen Friday night at the Chicken BBQ? Who did the dishes? Who put out the garbage? Who cooked? Who set up the tables & chairs? Who put the tables & chairs away? Who took the tickets at the door? Who made up the tickets & printed them? Who bought ingredients?
Who thinks Jesus is being rough on Martha?

Who has taken any time in the last 6 months for spiritual development or Christian study of any kind? And if you did, don’t you feel relieved that Jesus affirms Mary’s choice to sit and learn from Him?

What does this tell us? There is a time for study & there is a time to do the dishes. If all of us spent our church time studying – the dishes & garbage would pile up – if there was a chicken dinner at all! If all of us spent our time on the chicken dinner – the rage would pile up & we’d forget why we are really doing a BBQ!

People might come from all over the neighboring towns to sit at a table in a place that’s focused on God. But someone will still have to set the Table. That’s probably why this passage has always bothered me. Mary & Martha have become caricatures of themselves. Over the years, they’ve become a cartoon of bickering sisters, the right one & the wrong one, the OCD sister & the sister who didn’t just get up and help. I’ve even wondered this week why no one has labeled Jesus as the “typical” guy, who after Easter dinner sits around the table talking while everyone cleans up after him.

I’m also tired of the sermons on this passage that talk only about the need for both Marys & Marthas in the church. Is there anything new to say this week about Mary & Martha & Jesus? Maybe that something to say has to do with Jesus – the guest of honor at all of our tables.

Over a month ago, I read all of the lessons from Luke for this summer & I saw this theme of “Who is Jesus?” I titled each sermon for the summer 6 weeks ago – WHO IS JESUS? THE SAVIOR. THE EXORCIST. THE LEADER. THE SENDER. THE TEACHER. Six weeks ago, when I thought I knew what the title should be…just this last Wednesday when I confirmed this title in the bulletin… WHO IS JESUS? THE FRIEND, God had something else in mind. When I sat down to write the sermon on Thursday, as is my custom, suddenly, God was speaking loud and clear that the focus for us today should not be around Jesus as our friend – but about Jesus as THE HONORED GUEST.

Martha is absolutely correct when she offers the hospitality of inviting Jesus to dinner. The lesson tells us that, “Martha welcomed Him into her home.” She has done the right thing. So when Martha starts to grumble about having to do all of the work herself, why doesn’t Jesus just take the conversation into the kitchen? I mean, it could have been a 3-way conversation over many tasks… But that is not what happened.

I read an amazing sermon this week in The Christian Century by Joy Douglas Strome who is the pastor of Lake View Presbyterian Church in Chicago. She looks at last week’s lesson and this week’s lesson as intimately connected. Last week’s story of the Good Samaritan & today’s story about Martha & Mary are back to back in the Bible – and maybe there’s a reason for this. The Good Samaritan story starts out with a question about the most important law about loving God and neighbor. At the end of the story the Good Samaritan actions encourage us to love our neighbor. Perhaps this week’s story of Martha & Mary encourages us to love God.

Martha welcomes Jesus into her home. In that moment, Martha is the queen of hospitality. Martha invites Jesus to dinner. While you would never expect your guest of honor to help with the clean up, you might expect your sister to help. But - you would not leave your honored guest alone so you could complete many tasks! And this particular guest is demanding your full attention. Martha’s hospitality was beyond reproach in the invitation to dinner, but the chores of hospitality distracted her from why she invited Jesus into her home in the first place. Love of God & love of neighbor must be front & center always. No discussion. No time for distractions. No time for worry. Love God – love neighbor – ‘nough said.

Listen to Martha – we know her story. It’s not just a story of OCD – it’s the story of our lives. We’re at the computer & the phone rings & it‘s the school nurse who tells us our child is sick. We jump in the car & call the doctor from our cell phone on the way – and we don’t have a hands free set & we race through intersections like there’s no tomorrow with people gesturing at us – we realize we haven’t eaten & run quickly through the drive-thru, remembering to order a gingerale for our kid with the upset stomach. The person at the fast food register overcharges us & gets our order wrong & we lose our cool.

Or maybe we need to stay late at work & while we’re still at the desk working, we phone home, only to be absolutely NOT present with the family member who picks up the phone. Instead of a conversation – we sound like an instant message – one that doesn’t want to deal with the feelings of the person on the other end of the line.

Or, mom has told us to clean our rooms, and then we’re told to set the table. We forget all about the room & then get yelled at because we didn’t finish cleaning it up. We could be overscheduled, overbooked, overwhelmed – and the pace is about to make us snap. The urgent demands of life collide with the urgent demands of the gospel – and any one of us can have that last button pushed & forget all about that part about loving God & neighbor. We all know Martha because she is us.

Distractions, worries, messes, things to clean up, things to finish up, lists to check, business to do, people to see, places to go. We focus on the to-do list and get less focused on God – God with us & God in us. Jesus calls us to stop. Stop what we are doing and listen. There is need of only one thing. Love God; love neighbor. If we are driven as much by this motivation as we are to getting things done – then the process of life will become the love of life. Love God; love neighbor.

For those of us caught in a never-ending swirl of priority setting with too much to do and too little time, drowning in commitment fatigue, swamped with busy-ness overload – Jesus offers the Way. Gospel trumps busy. Gospel trumps worry. Gospel trumps distractions. Gospel trumps Chicken BBQ. Gospel trumps next Saturday’s party. Love God; love neighbor. That’s all that really matters – in every little thing that we find ourselves doing. Love God; love neighbor.

If that’s our bottom line motivation for how we do the dishes, for how we deal with stress, for how we hang out with our friends, for how we treat our waitress... If loving God & neighbor is our bottom line – maybe we’ll really be able to hold onto the life that really is life. And maybe this is how we’re supposed to make God’s ultimate dream a reality. No distractions. Love God; love neighbor. Jesus is the honored guest everywhere we go – because we are the people who are supposed to see Jesus still alive – resurrected – everywhere.

Amen.