Click here to view past Sermons

Sunday July 18-Who Says I’m Distracted?

Today we have one of those stories that has become part of our cultural reality.  You hear it in the phrase ‘Oh she is just doing a Martha.’ Or ‘That’s her Martha side.’  We tell it as a story that places two goods against one another.  Maybe these comments reflect how we honour certain roles in our society… and also how we put down those who don’t fit with our definition of reality. Or our definition of who should be included? Or our definition of how things should be.

Whether we admit it or not, we often struggle with who we are as men and women. Just what are the limits to our gender? Who says I can’t be a Catholic priest?  Who says I can’t be a professional football player?

Have we assumed or been given certain roles because of our gender, or social norms?  The way we have told the story of Mary and Martha reflects this struggle. We often take the phrase “she has made the better choice” and make it into a put- down.

In Luke’s time, we find that it is not a matter of either/or.  But we do find a question of value in the story. But this value is not about the role of women serving, or hospitality, as we have often thought.

Think about it for the moment.  Who are the actors?  There is a woman is sitting in on the advanced teachings or seminar on the nature of the law.  Now that is the first clue.  Women did not sit in on such discussions. It was not socially acceptable.  Note too, that Mary did not talk. She listened passively. Jewish women could study the Torah, but they could not sit with men around the feet of the teacher and discuss their learnings. They could not even learn to read. Yet there she is and Jesus approves of her presence.

This is a clue about the equalitarian nature of the Jesus community.  Men and women are included. Further, we also have hints in other texts that Mary was a leader of some community.

Martha was also a leader. There was a church in this house, and Martha was the one who served, organized and did many of the tasks that kept the community going. Martha is stressed with all her work. She feels she is alone. Doesn’t every community need to work in cooperation and with team work so that no one gets too anxious or stressed? Maybe Martha is feeling that Mary needs to be helping her with what needs to be done to maintain the community.

It must have felt like a put down for Martha, when Jesus spoke to her. But place the story in the commandments to love God and to love our neighbour.  Mary becomes a symbolic figure. She is the one who does not get easily distracted from following these two basic commandments.  Martha is symbolic of those easily distracted. I wonder if this story raises the question of priorities.  Mary gives her undivided attention to the teachings of Jesus:  “You are to love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your energy, and with all your mind.”

We all have our Mary and Martha experiences.  I remember sitting around the dining room table as a child.  The conversation was colourful and demanding.  My mother sat there with the dishes not removed.  She was not going to be distracted.  Now, you could say someone else should clear the table. No. The point was all were involved.

Since that time I have watched how we attend to the simple functions of clearing the table.  Do we continue a good conversation or do we stop to clear? What do you do?

(Sometimes at home I am told my service is as efficient as one would find at the Royal York!!)

There are times we distract ourselves by paying attention to the minor issues.  Often we are more concerned with what is proper than the spontaneity of life.  We are more concerned about what others expect of us, than about what would be our most authentic response. Many of us don’t even know ourselves well enough to be able to respond from the heart. We worry about the small things and our energy evaporates. We are left without resources to deal with the big issues.

We all become distracted, don’t we? We concern ourselves with things that are not so important for our common life.  We use distraction to move our eyes and hearts away from the real issues that our community needs to struggle with.  

There was a book awhile ago called Distracting ourselves to Death.  This was a criticism of how we run from hard issues; take on superficial activities so we don’t face reality.  We see this daily on the news.  The media covering the G20 focussed on the violence and damage and arrests. Where was the voice of the non-violent protesters – from Kairos, from the UCC? There it is, distraction.  We did not hear from the voices we needed to.  

Daniel J. Boorstin….. “As individuals and as a nation, we now suffer from social narcissism. .... We have fallen in love with our own image, with images of our making, which turn out to be images of ourselves."

There is an old saying that where your heart is there will be your action.  If our heart is one of fear, nervousness, and distraction then that is how we encounter the world.  Our minds are only half there, thus our love will be only half hearted. If we only focus on our concerns then the wider issues get forgotten.  Our reality is very complex - it is tempting to be distracted - to worry about the small things.  

But the small things take of themselves. Our call is to join in the care of our world.

To be distracted is very tempting for the church these days.  When we are not clear about our mission, or who we are, or why we are here, or where we are going - we worry about minor issues and debate them.  You hear the words of distraction in “this is not how we used to do that” ‘I don’t like so many changes.’ Ministers often feel the temptation to tailor our message to fill our pews – or to suit the folks in the pews.

It is often shared amongst ministers that when people aren’t happy with something, and they don’t really want to name it or bring it to the person they should, then they will complain about little things – hymns, other people, we have too much of this or not enough of that.     In the church, the ministries of Mary and Martha are meant to complement each other. They are not divisive or separate. Cooperation is the key – rather than expecting too much from one person or blaming someone for not doing what we thought they should.

Luke reminds us that the central task of the church is first to immerse oneself in the character of the Sacred, to let the yearnings of the Sacred fill one’s soul.

We learn to mimic the character of Holiness.  To love God with all our hearts, minds, soul, and energy.  

We live out of Holy guidance. This presence and awareness shows us the way.  It is a move to compassion and justice.  It is to be in the Sacred who loves all things into being.

It is a call to show up.  To be present. To tell the truth. And to let it go.  It does not have to be a burden, because we are a community, sharing the task.  It is not all up to us. May we be attentive and speak the word of love in whatever context we find ourselves in.  Nothing more is asked.   The reality of God is that all the good we do joins together with other acts of love - it grows.

This makes all the difference to the healing of our community and world.  It is enough. Amen.