Calvary Episcopal Church
Memphis, Tennessee
July 18, 2004
The Seventh Sunday After Pentecost

Life Becoming Prayer
The Rev. George Yandell

The First Reading: Genesis 18: 1-14
Gospel: Luke 10:38-42
(This sermon is also available in audio)

How many of you has ever worked construction?
(If you weren’t too hot or too cold, sweaty and dirty, don’t raise your hand.) When I was on my first of three unskilled labor jobs, I learned the two major commandments of construction work:
1) Never, never sit down except on lunch break, and a corollary command,
2) Always look busy.

Isn’t that right?

There’s a joke I’ve heard about God that goes like this: a church member was asked by his priest, “What would you do if you heard the Lord was coming right away?” The parishioner said, “Look busy, man, look busy!” … He must have worked construction.

Recently I’ve heard American culture referred to as a ‘merit-ocracy.’ A meritocracy rewards people based on the quality and quantity of work produced. A hard worker can expect reward commensurate with the greater energy s/he expends on the job.

There’s a flip side to a merit-based society that needs examining. All of us know people (as we know ourselves) who have a tendency to do their good works and service as a way of gaining leverage over others. The joke about God coming and us looking busy pokes fun at our work ethic. We live in a world that has such a vacuum of deep-set values and has so little feeling for what joy life can give, that some people’s only sense of worth and purpose are found in working hard - almost no matter what the work!

If we’re caught in this perpetual busy-ness we fall easily into a martyr complex. Our martyrdom is fueled by our self-inflicted wounds of jealousy and self-pity that make us say things like this: “I’ve been working so hard, why am I not more appreciated? More loved?” If we can’t feel good about our busi-ness, we want others to join us in our misery (or at least to feel bad because we’re sacrificing to work so hard).

The downside of a meritocracy is we forever compare ourselves and our output to others. We put others down if their work and output isn’t up to our standards. And we only feel valued and valuable if our product’s worth is more than our competitors’. At base, we find there’s not enough merit to go around. Our comparative self-worth doesn’t get us anywhere- it’s a hollow gauge to build our whole life around.

Mary and Martha’s story hold great threat and great promise for us merit-ocrats. On the surface it seems Martha is at the center of this story with Jesus.

Martha receives Jesus into her home. She is in charge. Martha takes her hospitality seriously. She directs her servants, and prepares scrupulously for her guest. She becomes ‘distracted by her many tasks.’ Then she sees Mary sitting in a place of honor at the rabbi’s feet. And Martha becomes indignant. She tries to get at her sister by interrupting Jesus and pushing Jesus to get Mary into action helping her. Real triangulation, eh?

How much like Martha I am. If I’m busy doing, I can resent almost anyone near me who’s lazing about. I’m particularly resentful of those who won’t notice all the dust I’m stirring up. I resent those who fail to compliment me on my hard work.

Do you see what Martha was up to? “Take notice, Jesus, I’m worthwhile, I deserve your attention, too!” And Jesus chastised her gently: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things ; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Now Jesus wasn’t condemning action. Most of Jesus’ teachings involve doing for others, actively seeking the kingdom of God. Jesus questions action that’s not rooted in contemplation of God. Jesus chides Martha about directionless activity.

It’s interesting to consider Abraham in the Hebrew scripture. His hospitality serves as a precursor and correction to Martha’s. Abraham recognizes God in the three men who come to his encampment. He serves these strangers as if they were God, and they were. He stands with them, both contemplating God and serving God.

Some years ago, Ron DelBene visited and taught in the congregation I served in Dallas. In one of his presentations to us, he said, “All that God requires is that we be faithful.” Mother Theresa of Calcutta said it similarly: “God has not called me to be successful…but faithful.” And Mother Theresa was one of the most active Christians in the world. What then is the balance between Martha and Mary? What helps us to be faithful?

To be appropriately busy, we baptized people need to recall our covenant with God made in our baptisms. (You may want to look at the Baptismal Covenant on p. 304 of The Book of Common Prayer.) First, we affirm our belief in God active in our world as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. It is God who stirs up the dust, first and foremost. Then we pledge to continue in the apostles’ teaching, in fellowship, in sharing the bread and wine of Eucharist, and in praying. Then we vow we will repent and return to God when we fall away. Then we vow we will proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ. That’s Good News points to the final two vows: to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving neighbor as self, and striving for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being. Whew! It’s a lot to do, so little time to do it! But that’s the point- the Balance is our responses to all the questions: We’ll do it all, with God’s help.

Seeking God’s help means sitting at the feet of Jesus, learning the truth he speaks about his father. The rest will flow, shaping our actions into more and more compassionate caring. Balance. For Martha the corrective balance meant choosing the one important thing, and centering there. For Mary, the balance was in hearing her sister’s complaints and realizing one can sit at the feet of the master for just so long, then one must rise and walk with him into the world of service. I can’t help but think the balance between contemplation and action as another Teresa, St. Teresa of Avila, described it in the 16th century. She knew the life of faith ebbed and flowed between attentive prayer and attentive action. St. Teresa encourages the faithful of each generation, where and as we are, not only to sit at the feet of Jesus but to wash his feet as well.

You and I would do well to seek both the Mary and the Martha within us. Tend to our Lord, open ourselves to him, and simply be with Jesus. Then he’ll point us to all those for whom he cares. We wash his feet daily as we act for him in his world.

But service is not the culmination of our covenant. Serving Christ in all persons returns us again and again to seek Jesus. Over a lifetime of working the balance between contemplation and holy action, our lives become prayer. Life becoming prayer is what Jesus offered his first disciples. It’s what the baptismal covenant points us to. It’s where the joy of the kingdom captures us and transforms us more and more into the beings we are meant to be--living prayers, offered every moment to the God who loves us.

Copyright 2004 Calvary Episcopal Church

Genesis 18:1-10a
The LORD appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, "My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on--since you have come to your servant." So they said, "Do as you have said." And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, "Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes. " Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate. They said to him, "Where is your wife Sarah?" And he said, "There, in the tent." Then one said, "I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son." NRSV

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Gospel: Luke 10:38-42
Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to
help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." NRSV

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