Luke 10:38-42, Focus! 7-21-13
I have a confession to make to you this morning. Every time I have
read this text I have always related to Martha!
I love practicing hospitality. I enjoy taking the time to make delicious
food that people will truly relish. I enjoy creating spaces in my home where
people will feel comfortable and at ease and free to be themselves. And I
truly love having folks over - like the Wed. Bible study group - and having
in-depth discussions - not just about the scriptures themselves, but about
how our lives intersect with God’s word, how the real stuff of life and our
faith can actually come together!
That’s in my perfect scenario, when I’ve had time to plan and prepare
and think things through at a nice leisurely pace.
Then I think about times when I haven’t had the luxury of lots of
planning and preparation time. I go into some sort of hyper-superwoman
meets Godzilla mode and sometimes become this person I don’t know!
In wanting to be hospitable, I go into overdrive getting food together,
thinking about a thousand things that need to be done to get the house
ready, wanting to put out an aura of relaxation and comfort - while in the
wings my husband is trying to stay out of the line of fire as I flippantly issue
commands and spit out orders to him and anyone else who may be nearby.
It’s not pretty. Trying to do twenty things at once, my focus becomes
laser-sharp as I look to accomplish all that needs to be done - and I’m all
business...and that’s where it becomes problematic.
And it seems that even Starbuck’s has had to deal with this problem!
Stung by customer complaints back in 2010, Starbuck’s instructed its
baristas to start slowing down as they made their drinks.
Surveys revealed that many people were giving Starbuck's pricy
drinks an average ranking. Customers were also complaining, though, that
Starbucks reduced "the fine art of making coffee, to a mechanized process
with all the romance of an assembly line."
So according to a report in The Wall Street Journal, baristas all over
the country were told to stop making multiple drinks and focus on no more
than two drinks at a time.
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Luke 10:38-42, Focus! 7-21-13
Baristas also started steaming the milk for only one drink at a time,
instead of steaming an entire pitcher of milk. They also had to use only one
espresso machine at a time. Apparently, Starbucks is learning to slow
down and smell the coffee.
Of course, in response to this increased concern for quality,
Starbucks customers immediately started complaining that they have to
wait longer for their Grande No-Whip Low-Fat Extra-hot Pumpkin Spice
Lattes!
Matt Woodley, managing editor, PreachingToday.com; sources: Julie Jargon, The
Wall Street Journal, "At Starbucks, Baristas Told No More Than Two Drinks," (10-1310); NPR Morning Edition, "Starbucks to Take Time to Smell the Coffee" (10-13-10)
It’s so easy to make the process more important than the purpose,
isn’t it?
I remember a really special weekend retreat called Koinonia that
many folks in our area attended a number of years ago. It’s a weekend for
Christians where people really learn how to receive...which can be a hard
thing for many of us, can’t it?
The pinnacle of the weekend is Saturday evening where, after a day
of hearing inspirational talks, having heartfelt discussions and times of
prayer, laughing lots and experiencing awesome times of connecting,
people come into a beautiful room lit in candlelight and prepared for a
simple meal that seems more like a feast because of its breath-taking
beauty.
Folks who have attended Koinonia previously are invited to be a part
of the team who help to put on the retreat and host it for the next group of
attendees. There are different teams who do different things, and I
remember one year where people on the team for this special meal were
ready to just go home.
Apparently the woman who was in charge of this evening feast had
been so anal, so perfectionistic about every little detail, that she walked all
over anyone and everyone else on her team.
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Luke 10:38-42, Focus! 7-21-13
Her intention was that she wanted it to be perfect for the participants,
but in being such a taskmaster and perfectionist, she made the experience
miserable for her team. She lost her focus on what the weekend was
about...and what the special meal was to be about.
How about you? When have you lost your focus?
When have you made something more about what you want or need,
then what you set out to do in the first place? When have you made
something here at church more about you then about God - and His
desires?
As parents, many times we set out to provide enriching experiences
for our kids but then end up being such strict disciplinarians that the kids
are miserable in the process.
Or as young people we’d want to get together with our friends and
have some fun, but drama ensued and before you knew it tempers were
flaring and feelings were hurt and fun was all but forgotten.
It’s easy to become a Martha. It’s easy to lose our focus and get all
wrapped up in things that are way off the course from where we were first
headed.
Let’s take a look at our text today and see exactly what Jesus is
trying to tell us...
This is a short little story that could be easily overlooked or easily
interpreted as simply a message on the higher value of the contemplative
life compared to the life of service. But there’s really a lot more to it!
As we look at the text the first thing we notice is that Martha opened
her home to Jesus and his disciples, and as she went about getting things
ready for them all, her sister Mary took a seat at Jesus’ feet to hear what he
had to say.
Here in the twenty-first century we don’t think much about what Mary
did, but in Jesus’ time it was a really big deal.
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Luke 10:38-42, Focus! 7-21-13
You see Jesus was seen as a rabbi, a teacher, and there were many
rabbi’s around at that time. Each rabbi had their own group of disciples,
learners, who followed them - lived with them and learned from them by
doing what they do, living as they lived, and by sitting at their feet as they
spoke and taught. They learned by the immersion method!
The thing is...disciples were always men. Because of the social
standing of women at that time and that place, it would be unheard of for a
woman to be a disciple of a rabbi.
So for Mary to sit at the feet of Jesus was a big deal. It
communicated that she was a disciple of Jesus, and the fact that Jesus
said that what she was doing was the good or better way, affirmed that,
and her.
In affirming Mary, Jesus was affirming the equality of all people - a
message that is reiterated throughout the gospels and the New Testament.
It was also an obvious approval of women’s participation in all
aspects of Christian discipleship...and that Luke wrote about it in both the
book of Luke and the book of Acts affirms women as well.
So Mary’s listening to Jesus talk, and Martha is working away in the
kitchen. Can’t you just see it? Pots and pans are getting banged around a
bit louder, plates are starting to get slammed down on the table as Martha
is more aggressively then passively trying to make her displeasure known
to her sister.. And whether Mary was aware of it or not, she was staying
right where she was at.
So Martha is ticked off. She is really upset. Minimally, she has
thirteen men in her house that she has invited in that she’s trying to prepare
things for. Remember that she’s probably already made sure that there
were water and basins and towels for the men to wash their feet and hands
as they came in from their travels and now there’s an expectation for some
food and drink from their hostess.
Martha is busy, busy, busy trying to throw a meal together. I can feel
her stress! I can feel her frustration that her sister is just sitting there, not
lifting a finger to help her! Can’t you?!!
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Luke 10:38-42, Focus! 7-21-13
I know I’d be ticked off, too!
But instead of going over and giving Mary a piece of her mind, she
goes to Jesus. She breaks all the rules of hospitality etiquette and
complains to Jesus, her guest! She puts Jesus on the spot.
“Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by
myself? Tell her to help me!”
Martha wasn’t just going to get Mary to help her, she was going to
embarrass her as well, shame her in front of these visitors, their friends.
But look at how Jesus addresses Martha. You can hear the love and
compassion in his voice...”Martha, Martha...” He knows she wants
everything perfect for him, but he tells her that she’s lost sight of what’s
really important at the moment.
Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Please tell me I’m not the only one here who
resonates with this scenario. You get so busy doing what you’re doing that
you leave God in the dust....
“...you are worried and distracted by many things, but only one thing
is needed.”
...worried and distracted... ...worried and distracted...
Jesus isn’t telling her that serving and being hospitable is wrong or
bad. He isn’t saying that that being contemplative, like Mary at his feet, is
good or better. (In actuality, it seems that Martha is the one who’s putting a
value judgement on which is better!)
The actions of Mary and Martha are not in opposition, it’s their focus
that’s in opposition.
Put another way, there are many FORMS of devotion, but only One
FOCUS of devotion.
Martha’s focus strayed to herself. She got caught up in comparing
herself with Mary, making judgements on who was doing what better, and
how much she had done and was doing. Worried and distracted.
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Luke 10:38-42, Focus! 7-21-13
Instead of focusing on what she was doing, and trying to do it the
best she could for Jesus, she focused on how badly she thought her sister
was acting instead.
Martha took her eyes off Jesus. It reminds me of Peter walking on
the water to Jesus. What happened when he took his eyes off of him? He
started sinking!
When we take our eyes off of Jesus, when we allow other things to
take front and center...then our whole attention goes in that direction, and
before we realize it, we’re going down a whole different road - we’ve been
derailed.
I really believe that’s how the devil works, and why Jesus gave us his
example of prayer that has us asking God to not allow us to be led into
temptation! It’s just too easy to get derailed!
So how do we avoid getting sucked into things that are not of God?
How do we keep our eyes focused on Jesus?
What was Mary doing? She was listening to Jesus.
We come to church on Sunday mornings and hear God’s word and
the message he has given to me through his word. But what about the rest
of the week? What opportunities are you giving God to speak to you? How
much time are you taking to listen for his voice, or look for his message to
you?
Are you in his word regularly? Even just reading the Daily Bread
devotional each day gives you some of his truth to carry with you
throughout your day.
Are you listening to music, watching tv shows, or reading books that
feed your soul and draw you to him? Or do they immerse you even deeper
into a world where God’s presence is neither seen nor acknowledged?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that every single thing we ingest
figuratively or literally has to have Jesus written all over it! But just as the
food we eat affects our physical health, all the other things that “go in” us
affect our spiritual and emotional health as well.
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Luke 10:38-42, Focus! 7-21-13
When our foundation in Christ is strong, we’re not easily swayed, our
focus is not easily interrupted. We won’t become distracted.
When a person keeps their focus, amazing things can happen...
On his way to work one day, Chicago insurance broker Bob
Muzikowski saw a derelict ball field full of trash in a gang-infested
neighborhood. The kids there could use a real Little League to play in, he
thought. So he teamed up with a friend to create the Near North Little
League.
In "pretty wild" early practice sessions, coaches dealt with 250 boys
long on enthusiasm but short on fundamentals. Each game began with a
prayer. Cursing was strictly forbidden.
"While I had no illusions that I'd change the world, I had no doubt that
God wanted me to play baseball with these kids," said Muzikowski,
converted not long before. "My faith had taught me that being a Christian
means truly believing what Jesus said about loving my neighbor."
The next year, 400 kids joined the league. Today 900 fatherless kids
in 100 Little League teams are learning self-respect and community values.
Reporters wonder why a wealthy businessman lives among the poor,
coaching other people's kids. Muzikowski answers, "Jesus didn't say,
'When you've paid someone to do it unto the least of these.' What he said
was, 'when you have done it."
"A League of Their Own," Men of Integrity (July/August 2010), August 13 entry; based
on a passage from Chuck Colson's How Now Shall We Live (Tyndale, 2004)
Bob Muzikowski was connected with the Lord. And so when he
passed that first, sad-looking ball field....he heard God speak. And
because he was grounded in God’s word, and had regular conversations
with him...he was able to keep his focus, and heed God’s call on his life.
(I’m sure there were plenty of times while he was trying to put that league
together, and coach those boys, that it would’ve been easy to get derailed by people who didn’t agree with him, people who didn’t share his vision,
people who didn’t know or trust him...but he kept his focus on God.)
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Luke 10:38-42, Focus! 7-21-13
God wants us to keep him first and foremost in our lives and in our
church. When we are focused on him and the direction he has shown us to
go, we won’t get caught up going down rabbit trails and using our time and
energy and resources in fruitless pursuits. We will bear much fruit for his
kingdom. May it always be so. Amen.
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