Choosing the Best
Rev. Richard A. Bolland

Luke 10:38-42
(August 1, 2004 Sermon Transcript)

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        Grace mercy and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

        The text for this morning’s meditation is the gospel lesson, that wonderful story of Mary and Martha and Jesus’ visit in their home which we heard just a few moments ago.

        Distractions surround us. They literally corner us on every hand. There’s a million details, for instance, to attend to at work. And so for most of us we find it necessary to make a list of things that need to be done each day, so that we might not forget any. And then of course, by the time you get to the end of the day, oftentimes you discover that things unexpectedly happened during the day, and so when you get to the end of the work day, you’ve crossed off oh, maybe two out of fifteen!

        And so then you go home for a little rest and respite, if you will, and when you get home, you find out that the kids need to be played with, the dog needs to me watched, and the lawn needs to be mowed. And not only that, there’s a squabble between family members about what ought to be watched on television that evening. And so, finally, we head for the sack, and we put our head down on the pillow for probably the only undisturbed rest and refreshment that we have in the course of a 24-hour day.

        Distractions are around us all the time.

        In our gospel reading this morning we find Martha in the same kind of quandary. Jesus has come to her house, quite unexpectedly, by the way. For it says in the Greek that they sort of "bumped into each other" in town and so they didn’t know that company was coming and so there was a lot of things to be done. What she did was well-intentioned. She wanted very much to be, if you will, the "hostess with the mostest", because of who it was that was a guest at her house. For this was her Lord Jesus and she loved Him, and wished to serve Him. And so she scurried about doing all the meal preparations, and gathering together all those things needful to be a great hostess.

        And then there was Mary. Mary, of course, took things quite differently. When Jesus sat down and began to teach, she forgot everything else, and plopped herself down at Jesus’ feet and would not budge from that spot. For God was speaking to her! God in human flesh, and she was going to hungrily eat up every last word that He had to say. She had become the pupil of Jesus, and that alone was important above all else.

        Have you every noticed that the clutter of life’s activities brings distractions to us, oftentimes resulting in our unwillingness to hear the word of God? Rarely does a day go by completely as planned, and often we are sidetracked by unexpected circumstances from accomplishing what we thought needed to be done.

        And here we have the same picture. He was visiting the house of Mary and Martha. Now, Jesus knows, although the others do not, that this home will soon be visited by the death of a loved one. A man named Lazarus, whom Jesus will then call back to life. And so, what is needed in that house? Is it the scurry? Is it the bustle? Is it all those things that need to be cleaned up and tidied up? Or is it hearing what the Lord Jesus Christ has to say?

        Martha responds with her loving action of being a gracious hostess, and Mary, dropping all other concerns and activities, appears at the Lord’s Table. Both are loving responses. Both are not as good.

        Certainly, absolutely certainly, churches fall into the same kinds of problems. As we do with individuals. Sometimes we are so busy and concentrated on meeting people’s needs, and rightly so, that we do not remember to listen to God, that the primary thing that empowers us and enables us to act on behalf of Christ toward others is to hear the truth of what God has to say.

        First we receive, and then we are enabled to God to give. We can’t get that order reversed, or what ends up happening is that God’s word is lost, and the gospel itself is compromised, and then our witness to the faith becomes, well, blurred and confused.

        Like Martha, we too occupy ourselves with the labors of our good intentions. For instance, think about us men. We occupy ourselves with the many details of earning a living. And that is also a good thing if it’s not done to the extreme. Now we males have a problem, as our wives will be quick to underline and point out, and that is, that we define ourselves so much by what we do that sometimes we let that which is of greater importance fall by the wayside.

        Workaholics who constantly only think about their work, to the ignoring of being a father, or a grandfather, or a husband, are asking for nothing but trouble. Other than being a child of God, and listening to God, our highest calling, gentlemen, is to be husbands and fathers. And by all means, if we are ever faced with a choice between the two, career and family, it is the wise man who chooses the family and makes the career change.

        Part of our first calling as husbands and wives is to be the spiritual head of our homes. But we consider that sometimes to be, oh forgive me, "women’s work". And so we pass it off to our wives, or let somebody else take care of it, or let somebody else step into that void, or maybe no one at all steps into the void. But the scriptures themselves tell us that the beginning of the failure of Adam to take the role of spiritual household leader in Eden’s garden has started something that has continued down through the ages which has brought nothing but pain to families. And hurt the church.

        For many men have abdicated their responsibility to offer spiritual leadership to both wife and children and grandchildren. And Holy Scriptures is given first to fathers, to teach our children the ways of the Lord, and also what it means to live in godliness of life. And we are often so distracted by other things that we forget our primary goal as spiritual leader of our own home.

        In the same way we find Jesus talking to Mary and Martha. For Jesus tells Martha, and He also tells us by means of His word, that there is one thing that we need. That is the very best. And that is to hear Him speak. For unless we do, nothing else will go right. Unlike Martha, Mary knew that Jesus had come to serve, and not to be served. The great misunderstanding about Christian worship is that we think we are doing God a favor by showing up! And we think that this is a man-centered activity by which we tell God how much we love Him. Now true, that is part of worship, the response to God’s grace. But the primary thing in worship is that God comes to us!

        He brings to us His gifts of grace through word and sacrament. He gives us Himself at the sacrament of Holy Communion. He gives us His own body, His own blood, together in, with, and under the bread and wine. He comes to us! He forgives our sins! He strengthens us through the word. And with thankful hearts, then, we rejoice to respond to Him.

        Here is Jesus. He speaks. And when He speaks, we remember that He alone is the source of that which is honestly true. That He alone is the source of all hope in this world, and the next. That He alone is the source of all life, and no other well-intentioned labor could possibly begin to compare with the joy of hearing Him, and receiving His gifts.

        Discipleship for the Christian is to listen to God. The moment that Jesus sat down, Mary turned away from everything else. To sit and be completely absorbed in what He had to say. This is, dear friends, the natural devout, devoted, complete attention to God’s word, which stands through all the ages and marks those who call themselves the disciples of Christ.

        It is a hunger for His word that can never, under any circumstances, grow cold, grow weary, grow tired, grow bored, nor anything of the sort. For this is the one who has lived for us, and who has died for us, and who has suffered for us, and who has risen from the dead for us so that we might know Him. And we know Him through word and sacrament.

        To receive the doctrine of Jesus with an open, undistracted heart, is literally better than any work, any labor, any sacrifice, any suffering that might be done on His behalf. For without the hearing, none of the rest is remotely possible.

        Conversely, to close our ears, to turn our hearts away from Him and His speaking, no matter what the cause, is bound to be, as the scriptures say, fatal. For it shuts off the live steam of our faith, and that on which our faith depends. It is the hearing of the word. And it is the receiving of the sacraments which them prompts faith, and results in service.

        Do not decipher Jesus’ words to Martha to be scolding. For they are not. Upon close examination of the Greek in this particular passage indicates that He speaks to her as a father would speak to, or chide perhaps, a somewhat wayward child. With all love, and with all compassion. Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things. But only one thing is needed. One thing. Hear God. And commune with Him.

        What demands of career or home or recreation are so important that this listening need be set aside? What distractions are keeping us from the one thing that is needed desperately?

        For from His words, we learn of our forgiveness of sins. From His words we learn of the height, depth, and breadth of the love of God through Christ Jesus, who breathed His last on Calvary’s cross, suffering and dying that we might know Him. From His word we alone know, and are assured, that we have eternal life. From God’s word alone can we learn of true joy in this life as we serve Him, in God-pleasing ways!       

        Do not be distracted, dear friends, for God’s people, and He brings joy to you.

        It is this one, this best thing, this thing which is to be prized above all else, which then finally displaces the worry and the distractions of this world. Part of the reason we gather here, part of the reason we call this room a sanctuary instead of an auditorium, is that it is a place apart from the world. It is a place apart from the world’s distractions. It is a place where we commune with God without all the hubbub that life so frequently and regularly brings.

        Mary’s one act of rapt attention is set by Christ over and against the continuous distractions that worry Martha. Likewise our distractions and worries, and our misplaced priorities, also by God’s grace and strength, be set aside, so that we too might take every opportunity to sit at Jesus’ feet, to be hungering after His word with a bottomless appetite, for the sampling and savoring of His love for us.

        May the Lord grant to us that same unending appetite, that there we might find, with Mary and Martha, a respite. I would suggest we leave this text in this way. To get a new picture in mind, a new image, if you will, of what happens after the text ends. Let us leave this text picturing Mary and Martha both sitting at Jesus’ feet, and after He has finished giving to them, He allowed them both together to serve Him. May this picture, of course, include someone else. That would be you and me. Sitting down next to Mary and Martha, soaking it up, listening with rapt attention at every opportunity to the wisdom which God unfolds to us.

        I think Peter said it rightly in John chapter six. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God." Of course. Of course! He was willing to listen. In Jesus’ name, Amen.