"The Big Picture"

Suppose you were reading a book – a novel, a biography, a history – it doesn’t really matter which, and you could only read it a few paragraphs at a time. And you only read it one day a week. And sometimes you missed a week or two. And sometimes you skipped a few sentences or pages or chapters or read them out of order.

How long do you think it would take before you started getting a little confused? What are the chances in reading this way that you might miss something important, or think something meant one thing when it really meant something else when taken in a larger context?

That’s not the way to read a book, you might say. No one reads books that way.

Well, actually we do. And the book that we read this way is one that most of us here today would say is one of the most important books in our lives – the Bible.

Of course, the Bible is not actually one book; it’s many books, 66 to be precise, combined together in one volume.

We read bits and pieces of four different Biblical books each Sunday – a little from an Old Testament text, something from a psalm, a little epistle, and a bit of a gospel.

Sometimes the readings are in sequence; sometimes they are not. Many times verses are skipped, or we miss hearings parts when we are away from church for a week or two.

The Bible is not a book that needs to be read from beginning to end, starting with “In the beginning” in the book of Genesis straight through to “ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.” in the book of Revelation.

But seldom do we sit down and read even an individual Bible book – like one of the gospels – in one or two sittings. When we do we may discover that it changes the way we view some old and familiar stories.

Today’s gospel reading is such a story. The tale of Jesus visiting his friends, the sisters Mary and Martha, is a familiar one.

There is Martha, bustling around the kitchen, frantically trying to get everything ready for her important guest.

And then there is Mary, sitting at Jesus’ feet, hanging on to his every word, seemingly oblivious to her sister’s increasing frustration at being left alone to do all the work.

We may secretly agree with Martha when she finally complains to Jesus, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?”

Martha does not get the response she wants. Instead of coming to her defense, Jesus admonishes her.

“Martha, Martha,” he gently says, “you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part.”

I think anyone who has ever cooked for a dinner party, rushing around the kitchen while the guests laugh and talk in the living room, probably feels some exasperation with Jesus at this point.

We may want to remind him that if we were all Marys he wouldn’t be getting any supper that night.

If we read this story in isolation, it certainly seems as if Jesus is advocating a life of contemplation over a life of action, holding Mary up as the example of discipleship, while casting Martha out.

But in the full context of scripture, that is not the case at all. In Luke’s gospel, the story of Mary and Martha comes immediately following the parable of the Good Samaritan, which was the gospel reading for last Sunday.

To get the full picture of Jesus’ message, the two stories must be read together.

Last Sunday, we heard of a meeting between Jesus and a lawyer who has a scholar’s knowledge of scripture, but who is unable to put God’s word into action. Jesus offers the man an example – the good Samaritan.

Today, Jesus visits with a woman so busy working and serving that she cannot hear God’s words. Jesus offers her an example – her sister Mary.

To the lawyer, Jesus says go and do.

To Martha, Jesus says sit down and listen.

Jesus’ words are not contradictions, they are different sides of the same coin. Discipleship, being a faithful follower of Jesus, involves not only active service, but also time for being still and listening to God’s word.

We need the examples of both the Samaritan and Mary.

Quaker theologian and writer Parker Palmer suggests that rather than speaking of contemplation and action as separate, unrelated things that we speak of “contemplation-(hyphen)-action, letting the hyphen suggest what our language obscures: that the one cannot exist without the other.

“When we fail to hold the paradox together,” Palmer says, “when we abandon the creative tension between the two, then both ends fly apart into madness. That is often what happens to contemplation-(hyphen)-action in our culture of either/or.

“Action flies into frenzy – a frantic and even violent effort to impose one’s will on the world. Contemplation flies into escapism – a flight from the world into a realm of false bliss.”

But when contemplation and action are held together, God’s word may be truly revealed and carried into the world.

Episcopal priest Christine Smith, in a commentary on these stories, reminds us of a powerful moment in American history when contemplation and action came together.

It was in the 1950s when the Supreme Court was considering Brown vs. the Board of Education, the landmark case of the desegregation of American schools.

One turning point in the case comes when Chief Justice Earl Warren takes a weekend trip to view historical landmarks of the Civil War with his black aide and driver, Mr. Patterson.

They stop for the evening at a beautiful country inn. Earl Warren eats a fine meal while reading Carl Sandberg’s biography of Abraham Lincoln.

The next morning, the chief justice comes out of the inn and sees Mr. Patterson asleep in the back seat of the car.

“Mr. Patterson, why are you sleeping in there?” he asks.

The aide replies, “I couldn’t find a place, sir. There’s no place within 20 miles where I could…”

The sentence does not need to be finished. The chief justice returns to Washington a changed man, his mind made up on the issue before him.

“The court must vote to desegregate,” he tells his fellow white, male justices when he returns. “It is a moral issue, one that goes deep into the soul of our nation.”

In the moment of seeing Mr. Patterson asleep in the car, Earl Warren stops, pauses, and listens to the revelation before him.

He takes time to listen, and then he acts.

A revelatory moment, a moment of instruction, is sometimes the necessary thing that will send our lives down a very different path of action.

Truly hearing God’s word leads to action.

Jesus reminds Martha that she needs to take time from her busyness to listen to God’s word, like her sister Mary is doing.

But we can imagine that if Mary sits in contemplation too long, Jesus would remind her of the story of the good Samaritan and the gracious hospitality of her sister Martha.

If we asked Jesus which example applied to us, the Samaritan or Mary, he would probably answer yes. The issue is discerning what the needful thing is at each moment of our lives.

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Readings

Amos 8:1-12

Colossians 1:15-28

Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers–all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him–provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel. I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

Luke 10:38-42

As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, Jesus entered a village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

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