Trinity 6 (Proper 11 - year C) - 18th July 2004
Well there we are. That’s the excuse we’ve been looking for. The next time someone moans because you haven’t done the washing up, all you need to say is I’m following ‘the better part’. Something tells me it won’t wash.
Looking at the Gospel reading (Luke 10:38-42) from our vantage point at the beginning of the 21st century we may well want to know why Martha is only annoyed with her sister. What about the others sitting there doing nothing, can’t they help too? Why didn’t Jesus say to his companions: ‘come on guys, let’s grab a teacloth each and we’ll get this done in no time. Then Martha can join the rest of us as we chat over the coffee and chocolate mints!’
If we wind ourselves back to first century Palestine that thought becomes as ridiculous as the idea of Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet in the first place. There was also a clear demarcation between the sexes and between their roles. There was a divide between the various bits of the house. The public space was the domain of men to sit and chat. The private areas, like the kitchen, were the preserve of the women. So Mary has strayed from her place and is behaving like a man, which annoys Martha, if not unnerves her. Only a shameless woman would do such a thing. To Martha, Mary was also being too familiar!
To sit at someone’s feet, when those feet belong to a rabbi, has a particular meaning. In the book of Acts, we hear of Paul sitting at the feet of Gamaliel (22:3). Sitting at the feet of someone is what you do if you want to be a rabbi. Women couldn’t be rabbis, so Mary is being radical, challenging the social conventions in more than one sense and Martha expects Jesus to put her back in her place and so restore the familiar order.
Of course he doesn’t do that. We miss the shock of what he says, because we are now very used to women priests and there have been women rabbis, like Julia Neuberger, for even longer. It is very tempting to look at passages like this and see Jesus’ backing for women priests and the emancipation which has taken so long to come about. I think there is something in this, but I suspect that Jesus is saying something even more fundamental than anyone can do any job, something so fundamental that it deepens our relatively recently discovered equality. Behind these movements is a recognition that Jesus calls everyone to follow him, to pay attention to what he has to say. His gospel is for all humanity.
This means that it is not just for a few professionals who might become rabbis or priests or scholars and great spiritual guides. Even Martha, who does the dishes, is to join in. To see this we need to not just look at Mary being allowed to sit at Jesus’ feet, which is radical enough, but at how he refers to Martha in her busy-ness. “There is need of only one thing”, he says. My bible has a note in the margin at this point referring me to Psalm 27 (v4) to explain what this ‘one thing’ might be.
So Jesus is saying far more than I am calling women as well as men to be my story tellers - which I think he is saying. But he is also saying something fundamental about how all of us, whatever our role, are to sit at his feet. ‘Leave the dishes for once, Martha, and come and join in. Listen to what I have to say and let your heart be filled with this good news.’
There are lots of Marthas around today: the woman who is always cooking and doing for people; the man who always has to have a screwdriver in his hand; the way some have a tendency to throw themselves into their work so that it becomes all absorbing; even those who have no time for themselves because there is always someone else, or something else that they feel needs to be done. We can even ask if our church structures make Marthas - there is always something pressing to be done. If our over concentration on buildings or the ease with which we turn to building matters make Marthas. What do we need to stop doing for once so that we can go and sit at Jesus’ feet? I’ll leave that question hanging in the air.
Jesus reminds Martha that we need to give proper space and time to him. We need to give him our full attention, not just the spare bits while we do something else. This is not really listening. I kid myself sometimes, that if I haven’t had time to pray properly in the morning that I can always turn the radio on for the Daily Service and do it while I do something else. I can’t really because I am only giving half my attention at best. As an emergency measure, it’s better than nothing, but it is not good if that is all I ever do. Those who say they pray while they walk the dog so don’t need to come into a church or just sit and be still in God’s presence are actually walking the dog first and praying second.
It’s also not good if every time we come to church we happen to be doing something so that we don’t really concentrate on our prayers. We need time set aside so that God can have all of our attention, we can give ourselves completely. Of course giving ourselves to God can also mean being aware of what is going on around us. New parents have to find ways of doing this while there is always a little distraction bouncing around our knees. The same goes for clergy, churchwardens and organists. Anyone who has a role to play in our church life has to make sure that the roles don’t become a displacement for spending time in the presence of God and giving ourselves fully to that. We need to find occasions to be away from all distractions. For some that will only be in the bath.
Whatever our level of busy-ness and however important that work is, Jesus reminds us through Martha that we still need to spend time at his feet, giving him our complete attention. There is no substitute for this and he doesn’t allow us to kid ourselves or him with our excuses, however noble and plausible they may sound.
© Ian Black 2004