Sermon: What's Going on with Martha and Mary?

Date Preached: Sunday July 22nd 2007

Bible Reference: Luke Chapter 10, verses 38-42

Now if you thought the ‘good Samaritan’ was radical, the powerful little story we have as our gospel reading this morning suggests that Luke the gospel writer has plenty more where that came from – as Bishop Tom Wright puts it in his ‘Luke for Everyone’ commentary. But once again there are ways this interaction between the two sisters has been generally understood that doesn’t seem to fully grasp how scandalous this incident and Jesus’ use of it might have seemed at the time. I wonder if you’re getting the sense from looking into these gospel stories that the Lord Jesus was such a risk-taker? Let’s have a quick look.

Luke has placed the story in a particular place in his account to alert us to something special about Jesus’ ministry – his work. Not only was Jesus redrawing the traditional boundaries of who counts as God’s people – who’s in and who’s out (if you like) – by extending the gospel beyond the Jewish people to include the Gentiles Here he is redrawing boundaries between men and woman within Israel – blurring the lines which had been clearly laid down; redefining what it means to belong to God.

The real problem between Martha and Mary wasn’t the workload Martha had in the kitchen. No doubt that was real enough, but it wasn’t the main thing that was upsetting Martha. Nor was it that she was necessarily jealous that her sister got to look adoringly at Jesus, like she was romantically smitten and her sister couldn’t get a look in! Luke gives no hint of a modern take on this.

No – the real problem was that Mary was behaving as if she was a man. In that culture, as in many parts of the world to this day, houses were divided into male ‘space’ and female ‘space’ – and male and female roles were strictly demarcated. Mary had crossed an invisible but very important boundary within the house – and another equally important boundary within her social world.

Let’s try and picture this – because it’s the crux of what’s happening.

The public room was where the men would meet; the kitchen, and other quarters never seen by outsiders, belonged to the women. Only outside, where little children would play, and in the marital bedroom, would male and female mix. (Don’t forget this is ancient near eastern culture – so it’s going to appears very strange to us in the West.) So for a woman to settle down comfortably among men was bordering on the scandalous. Who did Mary think she was? Only a shameless woman would behave in such a way. She should go back to the women’s quarters where she belonged. Now again we need to understand that this wasn’t principally about who was superior or inferior – though no doubt it was often perceived and expressed like that. It was a matter of what was thought of as the appropriate division between the two halves of humanity.

So in the same way, to sit at the feet of a teacher was a decidedly male role – and sitting at someone’s feet doesn’t mean (as it might sound to us) a devoted, dog-like, adoring posture – as though the teacher were a rock star or celeb’. We hear about the Apostle Paul sitting at the feet of Gamaliel in Acts 22. He wasn’t gazing up adoringly and thinking how wonderful the great rabbi was; he was listening and learning, focusing on the teaching of his master and putting things together in his mind. To sit at someone’s feet meant, quite simply, to be their student. And to sit at the feet of a rabbi was what you wanted to do if you wanted to be a rabbi yourself. (So are you getting this?) Mary had the audacity to quietly take her place as a would-be teacher and preacher of the kingdom of God.

And what is outstanding – and in the context probably regarded as completely scandalous – off the wall  – is that Jesus completely affirms Mary’s right to do so.

I’ll say it again – this incident has little to do with women’s movements as we know them in modern Western society. They do have some parallels with the agenda of Jesus to liberate people, but he didn’t base his teaching on some set of egalitarian ideals – the ‘Jesus was an Equal Opportunities’ employer kind of notion – he wasn’t endorsing  what we would think was the politically correct agenda. This is all about the outrageous love and grace of God which overflows from who he is – like the rivers in our recent floods – breaking their banks. Only this time not adding to the problems of an already saturated country – but bringing life-giving water to parched countryside – irrigating parts of the desert that until now had remained barren, dry and unfruitful. Mary stands for all those women who, when they hear Jesus speaking the good news about the kingdom, know that God is calling them to listen carefully - so that they can speak of it too. And by extension – all those whose faces don’t fit – or feel they don’t have the respect or dignity enjoyed by others – or who feel themselves overlooked and unimportant. Amazingly good news this.

The other thing that often gets trotted out about this story is that Martha and Mary are seen as models of the active and the contemplative styles of spirituality – leaving you guilty if you’re not like Mary. But let’s be clear: both action and contemplation are important.

Without the first you wouldn’t eat.

Without the second you wouldn’t worship

And of course there are people who are called to balance both. But what we can’t avoid is the challenge the passage presents us. It’s not a comment about different kinds of Christian lifestyle – but it is about the boundary-breaking call of Jesus. This is God in Christ shattering images, not just bending or overstepping boundaries, but breaking them – smashing to smithereens the containers and restrictions we try and place God in – so that he’s tame, safe and unthreatening

So there he is – our King Jesus – going up to Jerusalem to die – leaving behind him whole towns, villages, households and individuals who have all glimpsed a new vision of the kingdom of God – for whom life will never be the same again. May we have such an encounter with the living God as we worship. Aren’t you tired of church being anodyne? Harmless, unthreatening? This is dangerous stuff – it’s no mistake that the word dunamis for the work of the Holy Spirit, is the same word from which we get our word dynamite.  I’ve talked before about my friend Caroline who died a few weeks ago. She loved the books of an American woman called of Annie Dillard and here’s a cracking quote she sent me soon after we were both ordained.

This is from her book: ’Teaching a Stone to Talk’. It reminds us of just how powerful is the God we worship: She writes: 

”On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the ancient catacombs (where they used to hide for fear of persecution), sufficiently sensible of conditions.  Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke?  Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning.  It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets.  Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews.  For the sleeping God may wake someday and take offence, or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return".

It’s a book that was written in the 80s - hence the reference to hats - but the general point I think is profound – this Christianity isn’t bland – it’s explosive, life-changing good news!