Sermons

Choosing the Better Part

Aaron Doll                                     Third Presbyterian Church  November 30, 2003                   Exodus 3:1-6, Luke 10: 38-42   

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro. It was a long day. His senses were filled with the pungent smells of wooly sheep, the dusty dry air along the road, the bleating voices and clomp of hoofed feet.

His mind was distracted by the concerns of life; the road ahead, his wife at home, his children, his investments, the ache in his lower back. He found himself distracted in the wilderness of busy time and a full calendar and forgot that the road led past Horeb, the Mountain of God.

He wasn't ready for a fire that would come upon him; a fire not threatening his body- but burning through his very soul. He found himself on holy ground and his spirit was not prepared, and he was afraid to look upon the face of God!

So here we are.
Happy New Year!
It's Advent- it's beginning all over again- do you realize what this means? We are going to live the story of our faith all over again;

a year full of celebrations on high mountains and valleys full of darkness and suffering. We have come through a long journey, my friends, a journey of birth, epiphany, growth, passion, death, resurrection, fiery spirit, ordinary time and the harvest of the saints.

Advent is the beginning of the Christian year. We are on the road to Horeb again my friends!

There are two sisters that are waiting for us this morning as we begin this time of preparation for the journey. Martha has been right in there with us all through the Thanksgiving holiday; getting rooms ready for family coming in, basting the turkey, mixing the stuffing, breaking up the cousins when they got too rambunctious in front of the football game.

Now, all the guests are gone, the dishes are done, the orange and yellow linens have been put away. There's lots to do yet, don't we know!

The neighbors have their Christmas lights up already. They had them up the day after Halloween for heaven's sake. And the shopping- Holy Christmas! What a weekend- can you believe the deals we got yesterday! Good thing we got an early start waiting in line before 6 am - not like all those slackers who found the sale tables empty at 7.

Almost didn't make it to church this morning, our feet being so sore from all those miles we put in at the malls. Everyone has benefited, you know; we swung by Wegmans yesterday, too, and filled grocery bags for the Christmas Baskets that we will deliver as a church for Christmas to needy families. Just look outside Johnston Hall after the service today- you'll see a big pile of groceries next to the plastic bin. It's a good feeling! Good old Martha. . . Martha knows just what it takes to get through these holiday seasons - and she digs in and she does it.

We need Martha's in our families and in our church; we even need to be Martha more often than not. Please don't hear me belittle Martha's activities in the least. And don't hear Jesus belittle her either.

So what's going on with Mary, then? Sure it's nice to have some time to sit and listen, but who really has any time in this season of the year? Why is Jesus so harsh with Martha?

The figures of Mary and Martha are an interesting pair. They are each significant in their own right.

For some readers, they take the tone of the text and praise Mary for a life if ideal spirituality - she is the one who listened to Jesus - the attentive student who knew that Jesus' teaching was God's very word.

Martha is criticized as worldly and distracted by this group. She doesn't see the importance of the guest who is in her house.

For other readers it is just the opposite. Martha is hosting a valued guest indeed - and plays her role as good and as dutiful as she knows how to be; fulfilling the proper role of a woman in her society.

One can imagine her cleaning house and preparing the coming meal, so as to honor her guest! In this light, Mary is seen as lazy. Taking on what would have been the male role of keeping an honored guest company. By violating this social boundary, Mary would in fact have brought shame upon her household.

Martha and Mary represent different types of people. Our own personal sentiments attract us to one or the other a little more, and we are therefore either satisfied or frustrated by Christ's final pronouncement, vindicating Mary.

This Story, I believe is not intending to draw a moral contrast between two types of character, calling one inferior to another. Jesus is not to be seen as commending a contemplative lifestyle and reproving a life of action. Mary and Martha were both warmly attached to the circle of disciples surrounding Jesus. Indeed when he came to raise Lazarus from the grave, Jesus distinguished both sisters, and even Martha more than Mary. Both were faithful and devoted followers.

There was a book that I taught a class on earlier this fall. It was called "God Views,"written by Jack Haberer. Jack chastises the Presbyterian denomination in particular for falling for two polarized and very limiting Christian orientations; being "liberal" and "conservative," or "fundamentalist." He proposes five different spiritual views within which all Christians should develop themselves - regardless of our polarized camps.

We tend to identify with one or two in particular, but together they define a holistic path of Christian faithfulness. It's not my intention to recreate that lesson here, so I'm going to let Jim Stewart help me simplify it; Jim came up with an analogy that describes Dr. Haberer's five views very well: picture a fruit tree.

Justice and Compassion are the two God Views that are represented by the fruit of the trees. The trunk and branches of the tree represent Community- the Church, which is the vehicle by which we move mission forward. It is the business of committees and meetings and working together.

The roots of the tree are the views of Truth and Devotion. This is the source of our input; where we take in knowledge about God and our faith tradition, but also where we intentionally open ourselves up to the Horeb experiences.

Those of us who are filled with passion for the fruit - seeking justice and finding ourselves moved to action with compassion, those extroverts among us who find joy in the shared work of greasing the cogs of the church. You are the ones who are quick to defend Martha.

On the other hand, there are those of you who love to soak up the mysteries of the faith. You faithfully attend Sisters in Spirit or the Men's Group. You love to hear the speakers at Calvin Guild or Adult Education classes on Sunday mornings. Worship energizes you in all its forms; the music, the prayers. This is the side of us that sits with Mary at Jesus' feet.

I believe that Horeb moments can be encountered within any God View of our faith. We should be ready to take off our shoes at any moment, be it while volunteering with the Dining Room Ministry on Saturdays, sewing costumes for the youth musical, serving on a church committee, or sharing joys and concerns around a small group meeting or reading our Bibles and praying.

There are Horeb moments, however, that we should schedule into our lives. The mistake that liberal Christians often make is neglecting the inner state of the soul for the outer state of the community. Sometimes it is just easier to do than to be. Actions indeed may orient us towards goodness- and the practice of doing good things teaches us. But doing them in lieu of prayer and study does not build our foundation.

The fire of self-surrender must be within the works of our hands or our works are merely part of the machinery of the world.

This is why the Outreach Committee of Third Church, a committee one might expect to be more concerned with the "fruit" of compassion and justice, has put together a core curriculum of faith education. In the words of Don Boyd, the chair of the outreach committee on this flyer describing the course:

"What we need now, is to nourish and equip our great volunteers so that they are not exhausted and discouraged in their good work. We need to move to the next level of advocacy while maintaining our service record. This takes a deeper level of spiritual resources. We need bread for our journey, fuel for our souls."

Mary knew what Don was saying. Mary recognized that she was on the mountain of God. She sat at Jesus' feet because she was hungry for spiritual fuel.

All our effort is for naught without Christ in front of us. Mission is important, but not at the cost of neglecting our own soul. Attention to our inner life - faithfulness in our relationship with God, is too often hurried or unexercised. Should we serve others shallowly from the shallowness of our own soul? Or shall we live through the richness of our knowing Christ in our being, and therefore serve in ways which Christ's spirit discerns of us.

To say yes or to say no - to be able to recognize the vocational call as it comes from God and not just follow any need that comes - or no need at all.

There is a story told about a young woman seeking entrance into a Catholic order. One day in the course of her process of initiation her superior asked her if she had ever prayed and asked God about her decision to enter the sisterhood.

"Well no, actually," she answered.

"You should do that, my dear, before you make your final vows." Her superior replied.

"I will go right now and do this very thing!" she exclaims!

So the initiate went to her cell and prostrated herself in order to pray. Suddenly the room filled with a heavenly light and was lit more brightly and warmly than it ever had been before. The young woman became afraid and fled the room. Her mentor found her in the hallway waiting outside her door.

"Weren't going back to your cell to pray?"

"I did." Said the initiate.

"And what did God say?"

"I don't know." She admitted, "He's in there right now and I don't know what to do!"

This woman had the same reaction to the burning light of God's presence as Moses did. She was so distracted by her own good intentions that she wasn't ready for God to actually break into her life.

Many of us keep God at an arm's length. Faith in God might be an intellectual exercise. It might be because of a fear of being exposed to an opinion that we perceive God has for us. It may be that we have never understood the intimacy that God desires with us.

The miracle of the season we are preparing for is God bridging the ultimate gap of inaccessibility. The infinite takes on the form of the finite. God becomes flesh so that we might be able to relate to God as a child to a parent. As a friend to a companion. As a student to a caring mentor. Horeb moments come when we allow God to be what God desires to be in our lives.

Martha was not corrected by Jesus because she was busy. She was reproved because she was distracted by her many tasks - as it is so easy for us to be in this holiday season. She was allowing "stuff" in life keep God at an arms distance from her. She did not recognize the Horeb moment - the moment of God-intimacy - that was in front of her.

Advent is the beginning of the Christian year my friends. We are on the road to Horeb again!

It would be a good choice to prepare ourselves for a random encounter or two with a burning bush along the way...

It would be a better choice to do that, but also to schedule in some regular time in the midst of our bustle to sit at Christ's feet.

Amen

Charge/Benediction:
Happy New Year My Friends! My hope for us all year is that we would be SELFISH keeping our intimate moments with God, and SELFLESS in sharing the joy of this season with all. Go forth in God's love.