Sermons

Years ago, when the kids were younger, John and I liked to have people over. The vision always started out like something out of Sunset magazine, children self sufficient outside on a swing, friends with cocktails as I put only the last few touches on a meal that was primarily finished before they arrived. My appearance would reflect my calm demeanor, dressed in something new, hair and makeup done, that was the vision, something like June Cleaver meets Martha Stewart.

But the reality was that we would get a late start, Morgan would have a baseball game that ran late, Id be at the store, without a recipe, because that was now at home, running back home, wondering why no one was helping me unload the car, house a mess, dog needing to get put, kids fighting in the bath room, which eventually led to a few melt downs, mine, not the kids.

The vision and the execution never matched. As I got older, I learned not to care whether my base boards were clean. I learned to cook without recipes, and I learned that the most important thing I could do was to let go of all my visions on how it was supposed to go, and instead see it for what it was, see who was in front of, listen to what was being said, and to be there.

That doesn’t mean I don’t occasionally lose sight of it. When Jesus said “Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things,” it was not her serving, it was her resentment towards her sister, her worry, her inability to see the value in the moment. Hospitality is a spiritual gift in and of itself. But every gift, every gift has a shadow side, and today’s scripture is pointing that out.

Martha and Mary were sisters. I’m guessing Martha was the older sister, and doing what she knew was good and right. But Mary stopped. Perhaps she stopped at first out of curiosity, “was this the truly the Messiah she heard about?” Maybe it was something she heard. What Mary heard, or felt, that caused her to move away from the kitchen, and then closer still… perhaps she got so lost in what he was saying that she no longer recognized her place in the world, a world that separated men from women. She was now sitting front row, at the feet of this man she could not peel herself away from despite the nagging pull from her older sister, and probably a few glares from the men around her.

I imagine Martha, in the kitchen, intentionally creating noise in the kitchen as a signal to her sister. I imagine her doing that, because I’ve done that when I felt like no one was helping after repeated requests. Service is only a problem when it turns into resentment, because for any number of reasons, you’ve lost sight of why you’re doing what you’re doing.

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A few months ago, the wonderful Deacons of St Luke hosted a luncheon for the Vision Impaired of Marin. It was a small gathering at a beautiful church social hall in Lucas Valley.

There we were, with a beautiful meal set before us by St Luke Deacons. They were in the kitchen, preparing. They were in the social hall, serving. They were moving from table to table greeting and speaking with people. It was just lovely and if a Pastor can be proud, I was beaming at the opportunity to witness it. I mostly spent my time sitting with Lily, Ara’s brilliant wife. All was going really well.

Then when the meal was coming to an end, musical guests showed up. Two young boys, maybe 14 years old, and their teacher, as part of a non profit organization that provides music as a service, in different venues all over Marin.

The boys were young, but they held and carried themselves very professionally as did the teacher who made the introductions. The social hall had particularly good acoustics and their first piece was Pachelbel's Canon in D. Brides, including myself, frequently walk down the aisle to that. But the best part was just sitting in silence and hearing the sound of violins. Hearing violins played 20 feet in front of you isn’t something that happens very often. And so I closed my eyes and began to take it in, even when the boys missed a note here and there, it seemed that much more endearing, because they were learning. And as my eyes were closed, I tried to imagine what it must be like to be vision impaired and listen even more acutely as one sense compensated for one another… But then I started to hear the shuffling of feet, and the clinking of forks, and the murmuring of voices. And I realized that our wonderful Deacons were clearing silverware, and getting ready to go. And I thought, “wait, what a wonderful opportunity you have here…to just sit, just be.” So I walked over to the kitchen and whispered to them, to encourage them, to give themselves a the gift of listening, to just one song, before they continued on their busy days. They had just given of themselves an valuable gift, the gift of service, of hospitality, but they were missing the opportunity to now receive one. This is not a scolding, but rather an invitation into thinking about all the ways we can be hospitable. Hospitality is about inviting others in, but it is also about allowing yourself to be invited in. Serving and receiving. Being with others, being in the moment, just being.

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In September the church will undergo some long term planning and I’ve been doing a lot of reading in preparation. There are many competing theories around what makes a church successful, how to grow a church. And there is usually a “flavor of the month” if you will. Years ago it was program, now it’s mission. That the church needs to get out into the world, into the community and perform missional work. And in order to sell books they create an either or mentality. That’s what preachers have done with todays scripture. You’re either a Martha church or a Mary church. And today’s culture encourages Martha church mentality. And there is nothing wrong with that…until it’s becomes framed by worry and distraction.

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;

It’s not the service itself. It’s the hyper-focus on the service. So worried that your vision will be fulfilled that we miss what’s sitting right in front of you. That’s why we begin with Jesus Christ as head of the church. There is only one thing. When we lose sight of what we are doing all of this for, we lose sight of what we are, who we are and what we can be… God has given us gifts, but the first set of gifts we are given is the example of Jesus Christ. We must resist the temptation of being distracted and worried in what we are not, and instead celebrate what we are; disciples of Christ. And that involves both missional doing and a contemplative being.

This Martha world, this Pokemon Go world, this phone connected, technology-driven world, social media world, gives us 24-hour news coverage from around the world, most of it bad, even horrific images and the coverage counts on our fear to stay tuned. We were not created to be able to take in that level of horrific images and information. And this past week is yet another example. It's been an exceptional year of attacks and violence and we are saturated.

And yet, I’ve read that we are living in the most peaceful time in the history of the world. Statistically, our world is less violent than it’s ever been. But because we are more connected than we’ve ever been, we hear more, see more and are called to carry more than ever before. If we take it all in, we become subject to compassion fatigue, and a kind of numbness that leads to an inability to create, to problem solve, to connect in all the ways that real connection takes place, face to face, heart to heart.

We are in need of replenishing and recovering faith in Christ who brings us back to love, back into the moment before us. We are in need of connection to all that is good and right and there’s a news network that recognizes this need. They are called the Goodnews Network. They report all the good news from all over the world, including random acts of kindness. (headlines)

Kindhearted Brothers Hand Out Brown Paper Bag Lunches To 200 Homeless

Animal Shelter Enlists Help of Pokemon GO Players to Walk Dogs

Folks Worked Together to Claim World Record: 50 Million Trees Planted In One Day

Good News. That’s the word “gospel,” The Good News. But those acts of good news are not created in a vacuum. And they are most definitely not created out of compassion fatigue. We feed off what we are creating in and around us. When we are bombarded with negative news or feedback from others, creativity ends. When we are lifted up with encouragement and affirmation, amazing things can take place.

The Good news that we have to offer here, up on this hill, in this culture, in this community, is not only the ability to serve. It’s a place to come back to. To sit, to be quiet, to be with God and Christ and one another. As as we move forward together, my hope is that one day, we will have a page of service opportunity, and a page of contemplative prayer and learning and pilgrimage and learning. Because we were created to serve and to learn. To replenish. Because without Christ as the center and motivation for what we do, we will get distracted from what is most important of all.

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I had a busy week last week, beginning with Gladys’s fall, into Evelyn’s death and finally ending with the wonderful memorial service we had. When the service was over, I had planned on attending the luncheon, but I got pulled to the computer, it was a work day, and there were emails to check, so I pulled my lunch over the computer and continued to go, to do.

When the luncheon was coming to an end, I began to get myself ready to be with Evelyn’s family and Gladys walked in. We both needed a glass of water. We sat on the bench outside the office and looked at the trees, watched people leave, noticed the house with its blinds drawn open for once, we sat. We just sat and drank a cool glass of water slowly. It was one of the more enjoyable moments I can recall last week.

We have moments all day long that God calls us into… and we have a choice. Maybe Mary was so tired she just needed to sit. Perhaps Mary so was enamored by Jesus, she couldn’t help herself. To sit, and to be, is a kind of hospitality of its own. To be with Jesus, to open up and read your Bible, to walk into an empty church and pray, to take a slow walk, to sit on a bench is an invitation from God, God saying, choose this moment to be with me. To metaphorically sit at my feet and learn from me by being with me.

In this Martha world of serving… when distraction begins to creep in when worry begins to take over… Be with him. Be with him. Be with one another, and remember the one thing that is your motivation behind all other things. Jesus Christ.

Amen.