“Focus”
Luke 10:38–42
*****
Unfortunately, this morning’s Gospel text has a history of interpretation which has been
“littered” with biases.1 Despite what you may have heard, Martha was not slaving away in the
kitchen! It is simply untrue that she was a misguided busybody: Martha’s work is very important,
even faithful. In fact, the word used to describe Martha’s activities is the same verb that is
translated as “ministry” when in reference to male disciples.2 She “welcomed” Jesus into her
home, just as we, too, should make room for the Lord in our lives (Luke 10:38). Long ago, a
church father named Ambrose observed that “virtue does not have a single form. In the example
of Martha and Mary, there is the busy devotion of the one and the pious attention of the other.”
Both women are ministers, serving Jesus in different ways. So rather than prejudiced notions,
let’s remember that ministry takes many different forms, just as many different people are called
by God– both men and women.
Modern translations, however, distort the original meaning of the text by suggesting that
Mary’s actions are somehow “better” than Martha’s, which mistakenly implies the sisters are in
conflict. Jesus’ actual words, however, do not imply such a comparison. Instead Martha’s
problem is one of focus. Her service–her ministry–is crucial; yet she strays from attending to its
rightful object of devotion: Jesus. “There is need of only one thing,” our Lord counsels her,
“Mary has chosen the good” (Luke 10:42). In the words of a poem by Robert Bringhurst, “Love
1
2
This term was often used by a former professor, Frances Taylor Gench.
Diakoneo, verse 40 – see, for example, Acts 19:22
1
means love of the thing sung, not of the song or the singing.”3 It strikes me that many of us can
relate to Martha’s lack of focus.
Sociologist Linda Stone has diagnosed our culture with the disease of “continuous partial
attention.”4 This illness is a product of the Internet age, our technologically advanced society
which values multi-tasking. The television is on, while you check email; you update your
Facebook status, while eating lunch; or, you are texting . . . right in the middle of the sermon!
It strikes me that “continuous partial attention disorder” creeps into other areas of church
life as well. Such communities are marked by frantic potlucks and anxious stewardship
campaigns. Heads are counted and money is collected. Of course, such ministries of fellowship
and finance are important; but, sadly, sometimes we can’t focus long enough to experience the
presence of God. We’re moving on to the next thing; as such, continuous partial attention leads
to an almost constant state of anxiety.
Jesus gently warns Martha, “You are anxious about many things” (Luke 10:41). Perhaps
you’ve heard me say before that the Greek word for “anxiety” is made up of the prefix, “part or
portion” and the verb, “to remember.” To be “anxious” is to remember only in part; to recall only
a portion of the larger narrative or experience. The antidote, then, is to pay attention–a practice
or discipline that is often called contemplation.
Writer Gregory Wolfe knows that many of us have hang-ups with this word.
“Contemplation” calls to mind “the image of some gaunt, tortured saint on a pallet in the dark
night of the soul” or perhaps the work of intellectuals in their ivory tower of academia. Whether
you admire or dismiss such people, the over-riding point is the same: contemplation is
3
4
Bringhurst, “These poems, she said”
Thomas Friedman, “The Taxi Driver” (New York Times: Nov. 1, 2006)
2
understood to be something that “other people” do–it is not for the rest of us.5 My friends, we
need to change this working definition.
When Mary sits beside the feet of Jesus, hanging on his every word, she is a model for
us, especially those who, like Martha, do important and necessary work. Wolfe claims, “To the
ancients, the act of contemplation was fundamentally about opening ourselves up to a beholding
of what is, to receiving the world as gift.” Yes, there are any number of things we moderns must
do, necessary activities which are both mundane and sacred. But the spiritual practice of
contemplation invites us to discover God’s grace in every single thing, all around us, every day.
As poet Richard Wilbur put it, “The world’s fullness is not made but found.” Rather than rushing
to the next thing on your to-do list, or trying to accomplish several tasks at once, it seems to me
that such contemplation is about slowing down and focusing. And I think Jesus was trying to
help Martha understand this, so it’s good advice for us today as well.
In a recent commencement address, writer Leon Wieseltier told graduates about, “A great
Jewish thinker of the early Middle Ages [who] wondered why, if [God] wanted us to know the
truth about everything, did not simply tell us the truth about everything. [The theologian’s] wise
answer was that if we were merely told what we need to know, we would not actually know it.
Knowledge can be acquired only over time and only by method.”6 In other words, God wants us
to learn by slowing down and staying focused.
Pastor Barbara Brown Taylor offers a concrete, every day image of this kind of
contemplative experience:
Start with anything you like [she writes]. Even a stick lying on the ground will do. The
first thing to do is to pay attention to it. Did you make the stick? No, you did not. The
stick has its own story . . . What purpose did this stick serve? Did a bird sit on it? Did it
Gregory Wolfe, “Slow Culture” (Image: Spring, 2013)
Leon Wieseltier’s address, “Perhaps Culture is Now the Counterculture,” was given at the commencement
ceremony of Brandeis University (May 19th, 2013)
5
6
3
bear leaves that sheltered ground from the hottest summer sun? At the very least, it
participated in the deep mystery of drawing water from the ground, defying the law of
gravity to deliver moisture in its leaves.7
Contemplation, then gives insight into the world around us, and our place in it. Therefore,
it leads to compassion, not anxiety; we glimpse a bigger picture of what God is doing.
Perhaps, though, you are like me in that, truthfully, you don’t really want to stop and pay
attention to every stick that is in the road! So do not be mistaken: these ideas have important
consequences in our society.
I, for one, am still contemplating what the verdict of George Zimmerman’s murder trial
means for us in America today. But I am willing to say this: if Zimmerman had only slowed
down on that fateful evening, if he had been willing to see Trayvon Martin with compassion for
who he truly was (the same flesh and blood, likewise created in God’s image–rather than as a
threat or, in Zimmerman’s words, a “punk”); if he had practiced contemplation, leading to
compassion, then it would have been highly unlikely this would have tragically escalated into a
deadly shooting. Say what you will about self-defense; my point is that, sometimes, action
without contemplation is literally a matter of life or death.
I began this sermon with the challenge that, instead of prejudice, we might remember that
ministry takes many different forms; and so, many different people are called by God–Mary and
Martha, men and women, black and white, you and me. And our neighbors! I conclude by
reasserting this claim because it strikes me that it needs our focused attention. The combustible
dynamic of race in this country teaches us that we need more contemplation. We need to think
deeply about what it means to be a part of a larger community, which MLK referred to as “the
inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
7
Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World, 194–195
4
For the words of Jesus ring true: there is need of only one thing. Sit beside the feet of
Jesus. Do not be anxious. Learn to look with compassion upon everything that is and everyone
who is. Learn to be like Jesus; for what we do flows naturally from who we are. Think on that,
my friends, think on that.
Rev. Andrew Taylor-Troutman
New Dublin Presbyterian Church
July 21st, 2013
5