We're starting to hit those few moments in my very young priesthood that I am preaching on texts that I have actually preached before. I remember three years ago, I shared some of my research into the story of Martha and Mary with my sending parish, St. Thomas in Thomasville. So many of them were moved by a more feminist theologian look at this text that I thought I should impart the same information to my folks at St. Barnabas. No, I didn't just pull out the same sermon again. This is all new and even contains some extra information I garnered in doing more digging. In looking up the original article I'd found by Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, I found an exegesis paper that gave some more insight into the Roman Empire. And while I refrained from drawing a line between our current cultural environment and that of ancient Rome....I think some discerning listeners and readers might see some uncomfortable similarities between the two. It makes this Lukan Gospel passage stand out even more. 

Text: Luke 10:38-42

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I want to begin this sermon with a quick quiz. There are no right or wrong answers. Y’all have already earned A’s…

How many of you have heard this Gospel story of Martha and Mary before?

It’s another of the very well-known Gospel passages from Luke.

OK…and how many of you have been told…or even referred to yourself…as a Martha?

Now…how many of you have heard this Gospel story and felt a negative reaction to Martha?

In my experience…a lot of women in the church have either been called a “Martha” or have in some self-deprecating way…referred to themselves as a “Martha.” The church…from about the time of the Reformation more than 500 years ago…has been presenting Martha in a bad light, as a nag pre-occupied with ‘things’ instead of being like her sister Mary, quietly sitting at the feet of Jesus. Mary is doing everything right; Martha is doing lots of things.

I remember when I read “The Cloud of Unknowing,” the seminal text on contemplative Christianity, the anonymous author used the story of Martha and Mary as an allegory for the tension between those in the early church who were about words and actions in prayer as opposed to the “better part” of sitting in contemplative silence with the Divine. The author was clear that Mary not only chose the better part; she was the better disciple.

It’s not unlike the Gospel of Luke to have two characters who seem to represent dual and diametrically opposed ways of being.

But I want us to consider these two sisters in a different way, especially poor Martha who I think has been unfairly…and wrongly…ridiculed.

Jesus is on a mission…he’s on his way to Jerusalem. For whatever reason, he has stopped at this house in the village of Bethany. We read that he was welcomed into Martha’s home.

Right there…we need to pause.

Even though Lazarus isn’t mentioned here, Martha and Mary are the sisters of Lazarus. Yet this is not Lazarus’ home; this place is identified as belonging to Martha. That’s a tip off to us that this woman is someone of means and must have some status.

The next thing we hear is that Martha has “a sister named Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying (10:39).”

Wait---what??

Stop the presses.

Mary…a woman…sat at Jesus’ feet?

To our ears…neither Martha’s status, nor Mary’s desire to listen and learn from Jesus, is all that shocking.

But this is where Luke’s context and what life was like in the days of the very early church becomes important.  

If we do a little research…we’d see that the Roman Emperor Augustus, the one in power in the days of Jesus, promoted religious practices that advocated for chastity, childbirth, and forced remarriage of widows and divorced women.

Men and women were expected to be married by a certain age…and any religious cult that didn’t promote marriage and childbirth was viewed as hostile to the Empire.

Even after Augustus…the Roman Empire would continue to push women to take subordinate roles in society.[i]

Luke is showing us two very independent women in both Martha and Mary that run counter to their day. And Jesus decides to stop in at Martha’s house on his way to the cross, confirming his affinity for their countercultural behavior. Mary, sitting at Jesus’ feet, means she is placing herself on par with any of the male disciples.

We see that she’s a renegade woman.

But what about Martha?

I was having a conversation with one of my friends recently and when I mentioned this story of Martha and Mary, she told me how she has always identified with Martha. She understood that Martha was doing what women did in those days, showing hospitality, working in the kitchen. In other words, doing all the traditional female roles, right?

Except…if we look closely at what Luke has here on the printed page…Martha is not in any kitchen.

Our translation says she was distracted “by her many tasks.” The word used for this in the Greek is diakonia …the root word for “Deacon.” This is the term for “service.”

Jesus will use this root word again later when he tells his disciples that it is the one who serves who is the greatest among them (22:26). Martha’s not banging pots and pans in a kitchen; Martha is serving…preparing for table worship.

To get an even fuller sense of Martha as a disciple…we need to go to another Gospel. If we look at the Gospel of John, Chapter 11, we get the story of when Jesus goes to the grave of his friend Lazarus. Remember that Lazarus is the brother of Martha and Mary, and Martha is the first one to meet Jesus at the tomb.

“Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’” (John 11:20-27).

“I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

Those words came out of Martha’s mouth…from her soul, her head, and her heart.

Martha’s statement about the identity of Jesus is as rock solid as the profession Peter makes about Jesus…Peter…that rock of the church!

What Luke has given us in this Gospel is a chance to see the two roles of discipleship in the sisters Martha and Mary. These roles run counter to the surrounding Roman Empire’s definition of what role women are to play. And yet…even Luke’s portrayal has been used to place boundaries on women in the church.

The disciple Martha’s diaconate has been ignored and ridiculed.

But even Mary gets sidelined when we praise her for being seen at the feet of Jesus, but not hearing her prophetic voice.

When the women finally do get heard…as the first witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection…the male disciples don’t believe them and dismiss their good news as “idle talk.” (24:11).

So how might we see these two women as fully followers of Jesus?

I think it starts with the fact that Jesus made a point of showing up at Martha’s house on his way to Jerusalem.  

The Son of God has shown he has high regard for this disciple and what she means to his mission and ministry.

I think we see it in that Mary is engaged with Jesus as her teacher and that nothing of this opportunity and experience is going to be taken away from her.

Finally, I think the way Jesus addresses Martha…”Martha, Martha”…that repeated use of her name, can be heard not as a rebuke and a scolding, but as an invitation.

“Yes, Martha: your service…your diakonia…isimportant.

But service without grounding in the teaching…that “better part” …leads to worry and distraction.”

We can see that in the structure of our own worship.

Before we prepare for the Eucharist…we are immersed in the Word of the Lord…both from our ancestors in the words of the Hebrew Scriptures…as well as the Epistles and the Gospels. We take that time to start with grounding in music and prayer…and fix our minds on what we hear that God calls us to do and to be in the world in which we’re living. And then…with those lessons still in our minds…we are ready to approach the table and once more…through the bread and the wine of the Eucharist…renew and recommit ourselves to the service we do in our communities. Not just inside the walls of St. Barnabas. Out there. Wherever we live and move and encounter that person who may or may not be having their best day.  

Not only does the church need Martha and Mary. We need to embody and embrace Martha and Mary’s boldness in the face of a culture that would want to limit them…and us. God knows we need to have some more people grounded in Jesus’ way of Love to be the face of Christ people see in the world.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.