Pentecost 9 (Year C)
21 July 2013
Genesis 18:1-10a; Luke 10:38-42
With
this cartoon in mind, I think that the common interpretation of this story
might have been wrong for several hundred years. Each story in Scripture has
three contexts, all of which we are relying on the Holy Spirit and God’s gift
of reason to help us interpret. With today’s gospel reading, we have to
determine what was happening when the actual event occurred, why the writer
thought it was important to include over nearly fifty years later, and what God
is saying to us today with regard to the story.
When
Jesus first came to Bethany and stayed with Martha and Mary, he already knows
them. They are friends of his. Martha is apparently the older sister, since the
house is listed as hers. Maybe there is some sibling rivalry between Mary and
Martha (younger and older) or maybe Martha has always done most of the work.
Regardless, Martha has begun the culturally appropriate tasks of preparing her
home to host a guest (or several) and Mary is not helping. When Martha
complains about her burden, Jesus tells her Mary has made a different choice.
The
implication of Jesus’ words is that what Mary has chosen is more important that
what Martha has chosen. It doesn’t mean that Jesus doesn’t understand that
dinner has to get made, but that Martha shouldn’t be consumed with what has to
be done, but should instead focus on who she’s hosting. Having Jesus present
means that the focus isn’t on what you can do for him, but what he does for
you. Mary is learning from him, hearing his radical teaching,… she is actually
paying attention to who their guest is, as opposed to what has to be done for a
guest. Even when we hear this story this way, most of us still have a lot of
sympathy for Martha and what it takes to get things done. We are able to
understand, however briefly, what Jesus is saying about Mary.
When
Luke is writing sometime in the 70s A.D./C.E., the early church is struggling
with what to say about the role of women. Are they able to sit and learn with
men? Do they have the capacity? Is it appropriate? When Luke includes this
story in that context, it is a rebuke to those who believe women are better
suited to the tasks of hospitality at the edges of the early church, rather
than the work of discipleship through learning (and maybe teaching!). Luke’s
story makes the space for people to hear Jesus say that a woman learning is
right and proper and even part of their duties as his followers. Luke
understands the importance of hospitality and the work of the community, but it
is not to be done solely by women to the exclusion of their ability to
participate otherwise in the life of the community.
When
we hear that interpretation, we are a little more able to understand the
meaning and the layers of the story. Furthermore, in that context, we are able
to see how wrong later church interpretation has been around this story. How
many years have Marthas- people who are on the go or active or who get things
done- been denigrated instead of Marys- people who want to sit, perhaps let
someone else do things, and who learn well in traditional classroom settings?
How many women have felt frustrated and hurt by this story? How many women have
been told that they can learn, but then they can’t teach? How many men feel
frustrated by this as well, but left out because the parable mostly seems to be
about women?
And,
in all this, what if we’ve been very, very, very wrong about what the parable
means for us in our time? The following saints have their feast days in the
coming week (among others): Macrina (early church monastic and teacher),
Margaret of Antioch (martyr), Mary Magdalene, Bridget of Sweden (mystic), James
the apostle, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and
Harriet Tubman, Bach, Handel, and Henry Purcell. None of these were content
with sitting, but all worked… all were active in their faith- even in doubt- to
the glory of God.
Every
single one of those people probably related more to Martha of Bethany than to
her sister, Mary. By venerating Mary over Martha all these years, the church
has mistakenly promoted the idea that orthodoxy (right thinking/teaching) will
always trump orthopraxy (right practice). Jesus never expected anyone to sit at
his feet forever, but to learn and to go out into the world- knowing he’s with
them!
The
gift of the Holy Spirit is not so we can continue to brood over Scripture,
waiting and hoping for complete clarity. If we understand anything at all, it
is that the love of Christ compels us to go out into the world and live- asking
God to help and guide us. We are called to the hospitality of Martha, without
her worry, knowing that we will be
hosting Jesus everywhere we go. We will be encountered by Christ in the
store and the school, in music and in art, in knitting and in running, in
cooking and in shopping, in study and in action.
The
lives of the saints teach us that the church has been carried forward not
merely by Marys, but primarily by Marthas. Marthas who have learned that Jesus
is for them as well. Marthas who cannot be still, but learn on the go and on
the move. Marthas who appreciate the call of hospitality, but also know whom
they are hosting and Who is hosting them. Marthas who compose, teach, learn,
make, and wait on the Lord.
Mary
and Martha of Bethany… we’ve been thinking about them all wrong. The grace of
God is for both doers and thinkers, for teachers and students, for active
learners and introspective ponderers. The grace of God is for all of them. For
all of us. And so is the work of the kingdom. Amen.
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