SERMON
at the
All Saints, Oakville, Connecticut Parish Picnic
Pentecost VIII
July 18, 2010

“You GO, girl!!!” That’s what Jesus is saying to Mary. And it’s not, I’m sure, what either she or her sister, Martha, expect. It’s not, probably, what we expect. It’s certainly not what my wife expects when we’re having a dinner party and she’s busy in the kitchen and realizes “Are you ever going to get around to taking the drink orders????”

But there’s really more to this Gospel than that and, mostly, at least not in the sermons I’ve heard so far on this passage, we don’t realize it or hear about it. We’re no stranger to the countless occasions in Scripture when Jesus violates the fokways of his time and annoys people by doing so, at least some people, and usually the very people, at least to our modern eyes, whose attitudes and behaviors should be challenged.

Meet Jesus the feminist! Yep! We “get” well enough that Mary…sat down at the Lord’s feet and listened to him speaking. We “get” the logic her sister, doing all the work, she thought (and I’ll come back to this), of extending hospitality would be annoyed. What we miss is that, by doing this, Mary has stepped out of her culture’s prescribed female role and its hostess duties and stepped into the role of disciple, a male role, sitting among the men. We may have missed the significance of this but I’ll bet you the men sitting at Jesus feet didn’t!

And what does the guest of honor do??? He sides with the one not playing by the rules. He not only sides with her; he devalues the traditional “proper” role Martha is playing. How do ya like them apples?

By doing so he calls into question typical values then and typical values now.

He raises for us the question (told you I’d come back to it) “of what does extending hospitality consist?” In the final analysis may it not be more hospitable to give the guest our undivided attention?

I think of a visit I made during my college years to my great aunt Anna, then in her 70’s at least. I’d not seen her in some time but, in deciding to visit, I remembered she was very much her own person, a character, a very spirited woman, my kinda gal.

So I shouldn’t have been all that surprised to see a book of Aristotle’s philosophy on her reading table. I commented on it. She didn’t miss a beat: She said, “Well, you know, Stanley, this body is deteriorating and I can’t do much about it. That doesn’t mean my mind has to; I can do something about that!

A day or so into my stay I noticed, though the pots and pans of cooking had been washed, the dishes hadn’t. Strange. Aunt Anna, even in her 70’s, was a good housekeeper. With the impertinence of youth, I asked. You know she had an answer. It turns out a very good one. An answer very appropriate to this morning’s Gospel. “I have plenty of dishes. Enough dishes for your great uncle Hardy, you and me for your stay. We’ll get along fine. I can do them all after you’ve gone when I’ll have plenty of time. But you won’t be here to enjoy. So let’s use the time we have for that rather than for doing those dishes.”

Martha, Martha…you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part; it is not to be taken from her.” Last week we learned the two sides of that one: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.

This week’s lessons are all directed to the basics: The Genesis lesson to the importance of family. Sarah is barren. The disappointment occupies her entire being. Yahweh God causes her to conceive. The Colossians passage identifies Christ as the head of Creation and Paul’s witness the center of his life is to reveal Him to us pagans. That word, in Greek pas/pagan, by the way, translates “other.”

Yet these priorities appear to be foreign to most of us. The choice in this Gospel is between two values: being and doing. I find it interesting the choice of words: Martha who was distracted with all the serving… “distracted” Hmmm.

My favorite late mother-in-law divided the year between her homes in Charlottesville, VA and Deer Isle, “way down East,” in Maine. She would come home from the summer in Maine and go “on vacation” from her summer of tennis every morning, sailing all fair weather afternoons and entertaining or being entertained every evening (at least the ones there wasn’t a show at the Stonington Opera House!).

An oft-quoted saying is “I’m too busy to have a nervous breakdown!” I’m sure you all don’t need me to fill in the blanks of your several respective versions of the overbusyness I’ve just described.

And, believe me, I don’t count myself as immune. Who else you know can sign up for a three day silent retreat at a place he’s loved for almost 50 years, Holy Cross Monastery, get so stir crazy that he turns up home early as if he’s “burst his three days prison!”

Still, that’s no cause not to take seriously the “get your priorities straight” message of these lessons because I’m sure we’ll all agree the signs are all around us what we’re doing is not “working” for us. Think of how laden our calendars are with the things we do only because of one word, “ought,” when, really, few of them carry with them a high price tag were we not to do them. I’m continually amazed at how many dysfunctional relationships, family and other, are maintained out of habit or “what people might think.” “People” be damned! This is about having the Life with a capital “L” our Savior promised us and having it abundantly!

And what better time to contemplate the adjustments we should make to move more toward the Mary, “better part” side and assure it not “be taken from” us than summer. Maybe starting with a picnic, even, getting to know and enjoy fellow Episcopalians over an expanded version of the 8th sacrament.

L’chaim!