Proper 11 C What is the One Thing Necessary?

 Proper 11 C What is the One Thing Necessary?

July 20, 1986

By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell

As Christians, what must be our primary concern -- our number one priority? Put simply; we are called to discern and serve the will and purpose of Jesus Christ. At baptism we ask the candidates, “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?” And we pray, “That God’s Holy Spirit will give us an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, and a spirit to know and to love the Lord,” in the final analysis, how could anyone claim to be a follower of Jesus Christ if they don’t know what He taught and how He lived?

In today’s Gospel lesson about Mary and Martha, Our Lord gently reminds us to give our relationship with Him a high priority. Jesus gently reminds Martha that only one thing is necessary…. To serve the Lord. I could have titled this sermon, “First Things First.” In fact, I titled it, “What is the One Thing Necessary.”

Now, before all the ‘Marthas’ in the church this morning get on my case, let me quickly say that setting priorities is a constant, life-long challenge to every man, woman, and child. 

Example) There was a man in the hospital who told me that his work kept him from Church. In fact, it was his work that was killing him. I was moved to say that I knew he was smart enough to put first things first. After he recovered, he was in church every Sunday. 

If there is one legitimate complaint that we all share, it would be the pressure of interruptions. Being a parish priest is no exception. I have compared it to the hunter who complained that just as he got a rabbit in his sights, another rabbit hopped right in the way.

In today’s Old Testament Lesson, we are given a model of how to deal with unexpected drop-in guests. V.I.P. drop-in guests! We heard how the whole team was mobilized to minister to their needs; Abraham washed their feet, Sarah bakes bread, while the servants butchers and barbecues a lamb. We see the whole team hustling at the chores of hospitality, but at the same time keeping an attentive eye and ear towards the honored guests. 

Example) My wife Margaret’s gift of hospitality is so smooth that you would think we had servants. She is as much a part of the gathering as one of the guests. Her secret? It is planning and practice. Not to mention…her highly skilled family assistants (the children). We have a three-minute-kitchen-cleanup-drill that works! There is more to gracious hospitality than meets the eye. It is a team effort.

Many of us have had the pleasure of eating in a restaurant where experienced waiters and waitresses are all but invisible until that moment when you need more coffee, or water, or your plate cleared…which all happened with a kind of effortless economy. You know you are being well served, but everyone is doing their part so efficiently, they are next to being invisible. 

I have been in homes for a meal where both husband and wife, and at times children, were all very much a part of the gathering, but at the same time carrying out the responsibilities of serving the needs of the guest. I don’t know about you, but I have never been asked as a guest to chide any member of the family for not doing their share of the work. If that were to happen, I would suspect that something was radically wrong. 

In the model of hospitality presented in the Old Testament lesson, I tried to emphasize the all-out team effort. I’m sure that the reason Martha gets so much support and sympathy from so many is because they would say that Martha is being treated unfairly. Unexpected guests or not, they all expect to eat! Somebody or bodies have to prepare the food. One gets the feeling that this was not the first time that Mary had managed to ditch out on her share of the work. I can’t imagine that Our Lord could have missed that reality. 

Jesus knew what hospitality required. Wasn’t it Our Lord who washed His disciple’s feet? And wasn’t it our Lord who prepared breakfast for His friends on the beach? He knew what was required and was willing to role up His sleaves to make it happen. What Our Lord was responding to in Martha, was the paramount priority that she had assigned to her task. It was as if Martha said to herself, “We have an important guest, and even if I have to mobilize Jesus himself, I am going to show him the hospitality he deserves! So, pardon me Jesus…if you want to eat, as custom demands, then tell my sister to help me!” 

It seems likely that Mary and Martha had been over this script before. Mary may have been out there in the kitchen ‘muttering’ against Martha for her seeming lack of simple courtesy. (muttering)… “Mary may be content to just sit there, all bright-eyes, but we have guest and there are chores to be done; like dinner tonight, cleaning the guest’s room, trimming all the lamps, gathering wood for the fire, getting a start on the food for tomorrow!?” No wonder Martha “let her have it” (indirectly). 

“Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

All at once, the success of the dinner has become what is most important! Martha can only see the honored guest as a means to her success. It would be like the chair of the bishop’s reception asking the Bishop to send the lady he was visiting with out to the kitchen. I think Our Lord sensed that Martha’s plea for help was more about her own need to be seen as a successful hostess than it was to meet the basic needs of their unexpected visit from the Messiah who may never pass this way again. 

There is a Martha and Mary in each one of us…to a greater or lesser degree….and the truth is, they will always been in tension. We all wrestle with the question -- should we focus on some tasks, or shall we contemplate some truth? That is the tension between ‘doing’ and ‘being.’ Until we learn to pay our respects to both, our lives will not be whole. 

I learned as the rector of a parish, that I had both a job and a function. My job (Martha’s concern) was to see to the day-to-day operations. My function (Mary’s concern) is to care about, and nurture people’s souls. At times my job, and my function, were in conflict. In my experience, people do not decide to deal with their problems in relationship to the rector’s “plans for the day.” I can not tell you how many times someone just appeared at my office door and asked, “Have you got a few minutes?” There have been times when those few minutes turned into hours of listening in an effort to discern where the Lord is leading that person. Ministry does not have a time clock. You learn to deal with interruptions to the best of your ability (and your family’s patience). I could do my job more effectively if I didn’t have to deal with people. I could deal with people more effectively if I didn’t have to do my job. The challenge, of course, is to do both. The tension created is what keeps us honest. Honest to the task of living and loving. 

We know that there will always be the temptation to justify…in the Lord’s name.... the direction of our own interests. Holy scripture could supply ample arguments for either Martha or Mary. Had Martha known that someday St. Paul would write, “Let him who does not work, not eat.” She might have thrown those words at her sister. On the other hand, Mary could have reminded her sister that, while the apostles went shopping, the Lord spent time talking to the Samaritan woman at the well. 

The point is that the Martha’s and Mary’s in the world must learn how to live together in tension – both discerning with each other’s help, what will best serve the Lord’s needs. What then is our primary concern. Put simply, it is to discern and serve the mind and meaning of Jesus Christ as we live and love.