A sermon preached at St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church, Canyon Lake, Texas.
The lectionary readings for the sixth Sunday after Pentecost are here.
Our gospel story this morning is one most of us know well. Jesus is at the home of his friends and devoted disciples although not allowed to claim the title because they were women, Mary and Martha. Martha is doing all that she thinks is necessary in order to provide Jesus with a pleasant and hospitable time in her home. She invited Jesus in and then continued to do all that she normally did.
Martha sees her sister Mary sitting with and listening to Jesus – To be at Jesus’ feet is an idiom that means a posture of learning and humility – and instead of listening herself, Martha’s resentment grows and rather than join her sister at Jesus’ feet, she makes an attempt to coerce Jesus on to her side. “Tell her to help me!” Martha insists. She invited Jesus in and then tells Jesus to follow her lead.
Now, don’t get me wrong, what Martha is doing, the tasks she is performing, aren’t bad. She’s wanting to offer Jesus the cultural norm of hospitality but her motivation is out of whack. Jesus knows this and doesn’t belittle or condemn her; he doesn’t even tell her that the work doesn’t need doing. He tells her that she doesn’t need to be worried about proving herself, that what’s most important is to be with each other. Jesus invited Martha to follow him into the Kingdom where cultivating and nurturing healthy relationship is the purpose of all the activities and tasks we do.
True hospitality is being kind and welcoming AND curious about those we invite; true hospitality isn’t about proving how hospitable we are but about nurturing our relationships. The tasks still need doing but its when we use the tasks to prove ourselves or earn gratitude or control things, like Martha, we’ve let ourselves be distracted by, well, ourselves. We’ve taken our eyes off of Jesus. And when we let ourselves be distracted from being fully human, we miss out on relationships and we miss out on God’s presence with us.
In his book The Expectation Gap, pastor Steve Cuss talks about the Big 5 False Needs that people have: Control, Perfection, Knowing All, Always Available, and Approval. At various levels some struggle with all 5, some with a few of the five but everyone has an internal struggle with at least one. This is similar to the work I do with the Enneagram, discovering what needs we are trying to get met by our regular patterns of behavior and that the good of us is, when misdirected, the worst in us.
Steve presents it this way: Each of these false human needs are traits of God’s character: God is in Control, God alone is perfect, God is all knowing, God is always available to us, and God gives us his approval through his righteousness. These are false human needs because we are not God and shouldn’t try to be. We don’t need to be in control of everything around us because God is; God doesn’t demand our perfection but calls us to completion in relationship with God; we can live life curiously because God knows all; God is always available to everyone so we don’t have to be the superheroes; God frees us from needing human approval with God’s unconditional love.
When we try to make God’s traits our responsibility, we are trying to be God instead of being human. We aren’t trusting God to be God. Like Martha, we are inviting Jesus in and then telling him to follow us.
Martha wasn’t doing anything wrong, the dishes need doing. Martha had her priorities out of order; she had made doing more important than being. Jesus teaches us that our highest priority of life is cultivating and nurturing our relationships. Relationships are the true treasure of God’s kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. When we give our attention and energy to trying to be god-like rather than following Jesus, not only do our human relationships suffer but so does our relationship with God.
When folks ask me to describe St. Francis by the Lake, the first thing I always talk about is Decktime. This time is set aside each week for the sole purpose of being in relationship. We gather with food and beverages and as more folks come in, we drag more chairs over until we need another table and then we rearrange again, always making room for everyone who shows up. And if it’s monthly potluck night, when the time comes to shift from snacks to dinner, no one has an assigned job, we just all chip in to reset and then clean up after, because yes the dishes need doing and it’s our collective responsibility to do them. Part of being in healthy, growing relationship is doing the necessary tasks together, not letting the burden fall on one, nor taking the burden solely on ourself. Life in God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven is about doing life together as we follow Jesus, each of us doing what we are capable of, from praying, to organizing, from encouraging to doing dishes or stacking the chairs. There’s something for each of us as we are able.
When we let go of the distractions of proving ourselves and focus on cultivating our relationships we are choosing the better part. When we work together for the benefit of all we are choosing the better part. When we always make room for others we are choosing the better part.
The better part is living life on God’s terms, accepting God’s love for us and not working to earn it; believing that God sees us as invaluable; trusting God’s forgiveness and God’s desire to redeem all of creation. The better part is letting ourselves be human together and in relationship with God because it is in relationship with God that we are most fully human.
The good news, the Gospel, is that we are all invited into the Kingdom as we are. Following Jesus in the Kingdom Way of living teaches us how to be Kingdom people. We don’t have to prove ourselves to be Kingdom people or earn the right. We don’t have to be perfect or control everything and everyone or know everything or fulfill everyone’s every need or have everyone’s approval. We merely have to be human.
As humans we aren’t perfect but we are enough in God’s eyes.
As humans we can’t control everything or everyone but we are loved so that we can love well.
As humans we can’t know everything but we can be always curious about each other and God’s creation.
As humans we can’t fulfill every need in this world but we can do life together with God so that none of us are in need.
As humans we can never gain everyone’s approval but we have God’s unconditional love in abundance so we can share that love with everyone.
That’s why it’s good news! God’s love for us is enough, God’s grace and mercy are sufficient.
We glorify God in our lives by being the humans God made us to be. We don’t have to be super human, we don’t have to be god-like. We can’t be. We honor God and all of creation by being who and Whose we are created to be: humans who follow Jesus, the One who is God in human form. And if God is willing to be one of us to show us in flesh and blood how to be fully us, being human is pretty special indeed!
God is God and we are human, beloved people made by God because God loves. When we let go of the distractions that tell us we must be something other than God’s beloved, we enter the freedom of God’s Kingdom-on-earth-as-in-heaven. We begin the journey of becoming fully human by following Jesus, remaining steadfast in our faith, firm in the hope of the good news, working with God and each other to build up the Kingdom of God. Amen.
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