"One Needful Thing"

July 21,201                                    

Luke 10:38-42

There is a story floating around about former President George Bush a few years ago. He was supposedly visiting a nursing home, where he took the hand of an elderly man walking the halls and asked kindly, "Sir, do you know who I am?" The man replied, "No, but if you ask the nurses they can tell you."

This reminds me of when my Grand Parents were alive they always called me Denny… I really didn’t like that name. But when others would call me that I would reiterate that my name was “DENNIS.” However, my mother and my grandparents would still call me “Denny” even though they knew I didn’t like it. So… I let them… but they were the only ones that I would let use that name.

Prayer

We live in a very needy world… I need this… I need that… I need… I need…

Martha needed Mary

Mary needed Jesus

Martha needed Jesus to tell off Mary

Mary needed to be at Jesus’ feet… Martha needs help and Mary won’t budge from Jesus’ feet.

This story is a microcosm of human nature at its worst and at its best… and is just as relevant today for us as it was in Jesus’ day because we have the same confrontations with our siblings and why I believe this story impacts many of us today.

The first impact is that we are a Distracted & Worried People.

How many of you are feeling distracted and worried about life? Many of us would like to be like Mary… at least in appearance she seems to be a carefree soul. She’s just sitting at Jesus’ feet taking it all in. Taking life as it comes without a care in the world.

Martha… and some of us thinks Mary is a slacker. She is just sitting there in front of Jesus… seemingly not caring what Martha is or is not doing. I think many of us are Martha like and take responsibility for what we do. Martha is trying to be hospitable in preparing a meal for Jesus & his friends and Mary is just sitting there not lifting a finger to help. After-all… someone has to take responsibility and Martha obliges.

My baby brother seemed to fit in the Mary category and me being the oldest a Martha. It seemed he got all the good stuff and I got stuck doing all the work. It seemed I got the brunt of all the criticism and he got all the accolades. I don’t like the Mary’s in my life…

You see… Martha seems to be the one with the issue… she is worried and distracted. In Vs 40 the translated word “Worried” gives the sense that Martha is being pulled in different directions, and she’s worried if she will accomplish all of her duties of being hospitable to Jesus. And Mary doesn’t seem to care… does anyone know that feeling?

How many of you are feeling like this right now?

Being pulled in all sorts of directions?

Worried if you’ll be able to pull it all together?

Martha’s worry & distraction leaves little room for the more important aspects of hospitality… that being Graciousness… In fact… she breaks the rules according to theologian Elisabeth Johnson when… “she tries to embarrass her sister in front of her guest, and by asking her guest to intervene in a family dispute… she even goes so far to accuse Jesus of not caring about her… Vs 40… Lord, doesn’t this bother you… ie don’t you care?”

Jesus is often seen as rebuking Martha by saying “Martha, Martha… you worry about many things… there is need for only one thing.” I don’t see this as a rebuke… rather I believe it’s an invitation to receive the gracious presence of Jesus. It’s an opportunity to listen to the voice of God. It’s an opportunity to take a break and be present with the Lord. Does this not speak to us as well.

The second impact is That One Thing.

What is that one thing you need? We live in a culture of hectic business and we are pulled in a lot of different directions and we are tempted to measure our self worth by how much we accomplish. What’s the saying… “The one who dies with the most toys… wins” That’s why many of us identify with Martha… we worry about stuff that in the end has little value.

Luke 12… Jesus says, “Can worry add a single day to your life?”

Yes… there’s need for Martha’s in the world. Martha’s are a good thing…There are things that need to be done. Service is a good thing in our faith communities… in fact it is vital in making the faith community a welcoming & well functioning community. Yet… if all our activity leaves us with little or no time to be in the presence of God… what have we gained?

So I believe Mary is on to something we need to pay attention too.

There needs to be balance in our physical & spiritual lives.

So… what is that one thing you need?

In our story today with Mary & Martha Jesus tells us Mary chose what was best, and it seems to pit sister against sister. The New Living Translation I believe says it best… “There is only one thing worth being concerned about… and Mary has discovered it.”

It’s Mary’s One Needful Thing!!

What is your One Needful Thing?

Closing: A story from Stephanie Frey, in a Christian Century article, “Living with Martha,” she says…

“In Eugene H. Peterson’s The Message, Jesus says: “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it — it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.”

Perhaps Peterson’s words “main course” for “better part” (NRSV) can help this well-worn story be heard in fresh ways. A woman in the parish I serve commented that she never likes hearing this text preached because she always comes away with the sense that it’s never possible to get things right. If, like Martha, she works hard, she will be labeled “overfunctioning.” If, like Mary, she sits and listens too long, nothing gets done. Giuseppe Belli’s 19th-century book “Martha and Magdalene” ends with Martha snapping back at Jesus when he tells her that Mary’s choice is more important: “So says you, but I know better. Listen, if I sat around on my salvation the way she does, who’d keep this house together?” (Divine Inspiration: The Life of Jesus in World Poetry).

Thinking of God’s word as the “main course” in the feast of life, however, doesn’t give that immediate sense that listening is better than doing. Rather, it places these activities in balance. Whereas the corporate world reminds us to keep the “main thing the main thing,” Christians are urged to remember that the main course is just that, the main course. Jesus is the host, not Martha or Mary or any one of us, and he spreads the word like a banquet to nourish and strengthen us. The word has within it commands both to sit and listen, and to go and do. We “sit on our salvation,” as the book has it, but then scatter into the world and work of daily life.
—Stephanie Frey, “Living with Martha,” Christian Century, July 13, 2004.

So… my friends… What’s Your One Needful Thing?

See You Out on the Road