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"Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There"
The pastor walked into the church alone and felt an overwhelming
sense of God’s holiness. He went to the front, knelt down at the
altar rail, and began to beat himself on the chest, crying out,
“Oh Lord, I am nothing!”
A few moments later, the minister of music entered the church. He
too felt the overwhelming presence of God and, seeing the pastor
at the altar, went and knelt down beside him. He also began to
strike his chest and say, “Oh Lord, I am nothing. I am nothing.”
It happened that the Director of Christian Education came in,
followed by others of the staff, until—eventually, the whole
church staff was kneeling at the altar bemoaning their
“nothingness” before the Almighty.
A moment passed and then the church custodian came in and knelt
beside the ministerial colleagues and began beating on his chest,
adding to the refrain, “Oh Lord, I am nothing. I am nothing.” At
that moment the pastor looked up, saw the janitor, and nudged the
minister of music. “Well, well,” he said. “Just look at who thinks
he’s nothing!”
I do have to say, one of the slipperiest sins that we often fall
into is the sin of comparing ourselves to others. This sin is the
foundation for the incident in the Gospel lesson today. Martha
compares her actions with Mary and that lights a fuse that finally
sets off her anger.
But, things start off innocently enough. In a stroke of generous
hospitality, this woman, named Martha, invites Jesus and His
followers to her home for dinner. This is a spur of the moment
decision that Martha may have begun to regret.
All of a sudden, she has a house full of guests, and she hasn’t
done any shopping. And there are only left-overs in the
refrigerator. She has a lot to do, and not much time in which
to do it. Now, that, is a recipe for trouble isn’t it?
And so Martha begins to get upset. Perhaps she is upset at
herself for putting herself in this situation in the first
place. But mostly, she is upset at her sister Mary, who is
sitting out there doing nothing – just politely listening
to Jesus. Martha is taking care of the obviously more
important task of all the preparations AND Mary is doing…
well, nothing.
But then Martha thinks about Jesus – and really gets angry.
Martha goes out of her way to provide a meal and a place for
Him to stay. If you remember, Jesus said of Himself in chapter
9, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but
the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” (Luke 9:58)
If it weren’t for her, Jesus would have been sitting outside,
under the trees, at the edge of town eating nuts and twigs
for dinner. And here He is chatting comfortably in Martha’s
home, blind to the fact that she needs some help. If this
was truly a loving and merciful God, He wouldn’t let this
happen.
I mean hospitality only goes so far. And if she is kind enough
to open her doors to Jesus and His crowd, then by God, He ought
to, at least, see to it that she gets the help she needs. What’s
wrong with Him? “Lord,” Martha says, the fuse finally igniting
her temper: “don’t You care that my sister has left me to do
the work myself?”
And there it is. The ugliest and nastiest of our sins –
accusing God of not caring about us. If our sins are like
plunging a knife into the heart of God, then, “Lord, don’t
you care?!” is like twisting it.
If God didn’t care, then humanity would never have made it
past Adam and Eve. If God didn’t care, then what was Jesus
doing on earth – having become a human being?
If God didn’t care, then why was Jesus deliberately heading
for Jerusalem, knowing that He would be tortured and executed
on a cross there?
If God didn’t care, then why was Jesus willing to receive
His Father’s full punishment for the sins of every human
creature that ever was, is, or will be?
If God didn’t care, where would we be? Because it sure
wouldn’t be here, in church.
The Lord CARED about Martha and He CARED about what she
was doing. The Bible says she was working on “preparations
that had to be made.” What she was doing was important
and necessary.
But she made a very human mistake. She began comparing what
she was doing with how important she perceived what Mary
and Jesus were doing. Deep down she thought that Jesus
needed to knock off His teaching for a while, so that
she could finish the more important and pressing task
of the meal.
Now, this is where this story hits me between the eyes. Too
often, I am in this kind of competition with God over what
I think is important, and what He thinks is important.
And, of course, I know myself better than the Lord does,
and so I know exactly what He needs to be doing for me! And
when things don’t happen the way I want them to, then guess
what…? I twist the knife. “Lord, don’t you care?”
One Sunday morning, a man woke up around 5 a.m., his wife
and children still asleep. Glad to have time to himself, he
went downstairs, brewed some coffee, and began to read the
morning paper. Three sentences into an article, he saw his
five-year-old daughter descending the stairs. He said,
“Honey, it’s too early, go back to bed.” “But I’m not
sleepy,” she insisted.
Determined to read his paper in peace, he again urged her
to go back to bed. Again, she told him she was not tired.
Looking down at the newspaper, he conceived a plan. In the
paper was a picture of the world, which he cut into several
pieces. Handing his daughter some Scotch tape, he instructed
her, “Go sit in the dining room, and see if you can put the
world back together. It’s like a puzzle.”
His daughter accepted the challenge, and he went back to the
kitchen to finish his coffee and read the paper. But after
only a few sips of his coffee, his daughter came bounding
into the kitchen. “Here, Daddy, I’m finished!” she said,
showing him the picture of the world put back together.
Amazed, he asked, “Sweetie, how did you do that so fast?”
She replied, “It was easy, Daddy. On the back side of the
page was a picture of a man. When you make the man right,
you make the world right.”
This is an important principle. The more jumbled our lives
become, the more difficult it is to remain focused on what matters.
So, what or who is the focus of your life? How is that working
for you? Is it exciting and thrilling? Or, is it confusing
and frustrating? There is, really, only one focus for our
lives. Everything else is quite honestly, a distraction. This
is what Jesus was getting at. He told Martha, “There are many
things out there, but only one thing is needed.”
That “one thing,” the center and focus of our lives, is Jesus.
When we are there, then everything else fits.
I was in the nursing home the other day with a family that
was saying goodbye to their dying mother. And sorrow, and
tears, and pain was there. But Jesus was also there. And
so, there was also peace, and grace, and love, and strength.
And everything fit – it was okay. Their beloved mother was
going to heaven and the family accepted that, and rejoiced
with her in that.
This incident with Martha emphasizes the significance of
Jesus and His Word in our lives. When we center up our
lives around God’s Word, then everything else will fit
together and work together properly.
That is the one thing that keeps us stable. And as Jesus
told Martha, “…it will not be taken away…” In Matthew 24,
Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my Words
will never pass away.”
Martha’s problem was not that she should have ignored the
dinner preparations. Her problem was that she thought –
at least at that moment – that the dinner preparations
were more important than Jesus’ Words – His teaching.
But to add a twist on a familiar phrase, every once in
awhile we need to hear Jesus say, “Don’t just do something,
sit there.”
Martha made the mistake of thinking that she was the host
and Jesus was the guest. That’s not what was really going
on there. In fact, Jesus was the host, serving the Bread
of Life. And Martha – indeed all of us – are the guests,
receiving His Word as a divine meal.
And THAT is what we are doing here today. We are no the
host, inviting Jesus to come be with us. In worship Jesus
is the host and we are the invited guests. We are invited
to gather around His presence in His Words of Scripture,
and with repentant hearts, receive His gifts of love,
and forgiveness, and life.
It is then, only in thankful response to Christ gracious
gifts that we are able to begin to serve Christ acceptably.
We get that all turned around in our lives a lot. But,
everything begins with Christ, and His Word in our lives.
And then goes on from there.
In this Gospel lesson today, Jesus calls us to refocus ourselves.
He invites us to prepare in the best way possible – “with
the one thing that will not be taken away.” That is,
with our hearts firmly set on Jesus and His Word.
He has provided His cross as a rallying point. Here our
sins are forgiven. Here our guilt is taken away. Here
at the cross, Jesus delivers strength for living and
hope for a bright future, even though we are living
in a dying world.
If you are feeling like life is confusing and jumbled, then
it is time to focus on the one thing needed – Jesus and His
Word. It doesn’t matter whether it is school, or work, or
relationships, or retirement, or good times, or bad times,
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector
of our faith.”
There, things will fit together much better. There, Christ
will minister to you. There, He will provide just what you
need, and it will not be taken away from you.
Amen.
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