God Decides and Women in God's Kingdom: Some Thoughts on Luke 15

As we continue to read the Gospel according to Saint Luke, one chapter a day from December 1 to 24, we come today to Luke 15, linked below.

In the three parables Jesus tells in this chapter--the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son--we see the precise roles played by God and by human beings in salvation from sin and death. Ready? Here they are: GOD DOES EVERYTHING; WE DO NOTHING.

Human beings are the passive recipients of God's "amazing grace," His charity, for sinners who deserve nothing but condemnation and death.

With loving perseverance, God seeks us out in the same way that the shepherd desperately sought his lost sheep, the woman searched for her lost coin, and the father ran down the road to grab hold of his son before the son had a chance to speak a word of repentance.

In each parable, there is a figure who stands for God--the shepherd, the woman, the father--and there is a figure that stands for us--the sheep, the coin, the son.

Neither the sheep, coin, nor son "decided" to be found. Even the son in Luke 15:11-24 only decides to go back to his father hoping only that his father would hire him as a mere servant, having no idea that his father would run down the road, seeking to embrace him in what one theologian called "a bearhug of grace."

God has done everything necessary for our salvation. Christ has already died, taking the condemnation for sin you and I deserve. It is God Who decided to save us from sin and death and to make available a share in Jesus' defeat of these human enemies. This is what Saint Paul is talking about when he writes in Romans: "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

Christ has established "means of grace," highways by which He delivers His salvation to us: His Gospel Word, whether read or heard in Scripture, preached, shared, or taught, and His Gospel Word given us in physical sacraments, water connected with the Word in Holy Baptism and bread and wine connected with the Word in Holy Communion.

Christ has already worked salvation for you. Like the lost, or prodigal, son, it is yours as God embraces you with His Word, Baptism, and Communion.

THE ONLY DECISION WE CAN MAKE regarding our salvation is the one apparently made by the older son in Luke 15:25-32. He refused to go to the party to which his father freely invited him, a party certainly representing the heavenly feast Jesus has prepared for all people.

Instead, the older son insisted that entry into the party needed to be earned and deserved by good behavior, righteous deeds.

By his self-righteous decision, he kept himself away from his father's blessings, just as we do when we think God owes us a place in eternity because we think we're such wonderful people.

But we are saved by God's grace given in Christ and the faith in Christ that God's Word creates within us.

As Paul wrote to the first-century church at Ephesus: "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Luke 15:11-24 is a wonderful picture of God's grace for you and through it, God gives us permission, to believe and live in the assurance of His forgiveness and love and in the certainty of His promises of life with God that never ends!

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Another point: One Living Water member commented here and in person about how much she appreciated the role of women in Luke's gospel.

The role of women in God's salvation story is seen a lot in Luke!

For example, the story of Jesus' birth is told by Luke through the prism of Mary's experience and faith. (Matthew, on the other hand, tells about Christmas through the eyes of Joseph.)

Throughout Luke's gospel, we see pairings of women and men either in Jesus' ministry or in His parables.

At the very beginning, for example, Zechariah, the priest who would become father to John the Baptizer, is chastened for his unbelief while Mary is extolled for her belief.

When Jesus is dedicated at the temple as an infant, two people approach the Holy Family to declare that Jesus is the long-promised Messiah. One is Simeon, an aged man. The other is Anna, an elderly woman.

Here in Luke 15, the two parables Jesus tells before that of the lost (or the prodigal) son, have as their central characters, first, a male shepherd and second, an elderly woman.

Luke is often called "the women's gospel" because of these frequent pairings of women and men. Luke, of course, was a protege of Saint Paul and in his telling of the events of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, well reflects the teaching of his mentor, who wrote to the Christians at Galatia: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

Here's a link to the English Standard Version rendering of Luke 15.

 

Not Like the World: The Radical Kingdom of God

[This message was shared with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio, during worship yesterday morning.]

Luke 10:38-42
You know the incident recounted in today’s gospel lesson, Luke 10:38-42, well. 

Last week I suggested that this passage serves as the exclamation point to Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan, which was part of last Sunday's gospel lesson. 

The two passages, taken together, dismantle the idea that there’s anything that you and I can do to earn eternity with God. 

Eternity with God, along with the forgiveness of our sins and the Holy Spirit’s reconstruction of our personalities and priorities, is the work of God the Holy Spirit in people who daily turn from sin and trust in Jesus Christ as their God and Savior! 

All of this happens by God’s grace through faith in Christ Jesus alone. Period. End of Sentence. Full stop!

But the incident involving Martha and Mary is more than an exclamation to Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan. 

These five verses tell us something about the revolutionary kingdom of God that Jesus has brought to all who believe in Him. 

How can I say that? Letting Scripture interpret Scripture, which is what we Lutherans try to do, let’s take a look at the gospel lesson and consider other passages of Scripture that might help us more deeply understand what’s going on here.

Verse 38: “As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.”

It’s unimaginable that any other first-century rabbi would have abided Martha’s invitation to her house or said yes to the invitation! 

Although Jesus constantly was complicit with women who violated this taboo, it was strictly forbidden for a woman, who was not a wife, mother, or sister, to speak to a man in public, let alone invite the man to her house. Yet Jesus is not scandalized and there's not a hint to scandal in Martha's invitation.

Martha also seems not to have gotten the permission of her brother, in that culture, the head of the house, if she could issue her  invitation to Jesus. 

Whatever negative conclusions we may draw about her from the rest of this incident, Martha understood that the kingdom that Jesus came to bring was and is different from the kingdoms of this world. 

The apostle Paul would describe this difference well. He said that for those who are in Christ, who believe in Christ and are part of His Church: “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28)

But even Martha, who rejoices in the salvation and direct access that God graciously gives us through Jesus, because Jesus is truly God and truly human, doesn’t understand the implications of this very well. Verses 39-40: “She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’”

Now, we often view this just as Martha being resentful of her sister not doing the work that Martha is doing. But there’s more to it than that. 

You see, for most women in first-century Judea, welcoming Jesus and His other disciples with extravagant hospitality was more than a social duty, it brought them dignity and appreciation. 

Do you remember when Jesus visited the home of the apostle Peter and found Peter’s mother-in-law sick with a fever? Luke 4:39 says that Jesus “...bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.” 

I used to think it terribly unfair that as soon Jesus healed the woman from her fever, she had to start serving the guests. But for Peter’s mother-in-law, as perhaps for Martha from today’s gospel lesson, exhibiting radical hospitality was her holy calling, her area of spiritual giftedness.

Martha’s problem was that she thought that all of Jesus’ female disciples had the same calling that she had. They were, she thought, all to act as hostesses while the men listened to Jesus. 

As conservative and Anglican New Testament scholar N.T. Wright notes in his commentary on this passage: “to sit at the feet of a teacher was a decidedly male role.” 

And to sit at Jesus’ feet, listening to Him intently, as Mary was doing, was not just an act of worshipful adoration. You see, rabbis--teachers--gathered students to prepare them to become rabbis or teachers to others. 

The Church needs hostesses and hosts, just as the Church needs accountants, handypeople, Sunday School teachers, worship leaders, musicians, small group leaders, Scripture lesson readers, cooks and bottle washers, folks who take care of the altar, ushers, youth and children’s leaders, and others. It also needs preachers and teachers of the Gospel Word. And that is what Mary’ was saying her call was when she sat at Jesus’ feet to listen to Him.

Martha thought Mary was being uppity. Martha is really telling Jesus, “Lord, tell Mary to go back to the kitchen where she belongs.” Some women and some men do belong in kitchens. It’s where they’re gifted. But other people--women and men--belong in the pulpit.

This is essentially what Jesus is telling Martha in the last few verses of our gospel lesson. “‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered [the double use of Martha’s name denoting Jesus’ sadness for her], ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’” 

To, through faith, experience Christ living in us and to see the Holy Spirit using our own unique gifts and callings to bring God glory and to tell the world about Jesus is a calling that cannot be taken away from the Christian.

“Martha,” Jesus is telling her, “just because Mary’s discipleship doesn’t look like yours, doesn’t mean she’s less faithful than you. Just because only men have been preachers and teachers in the past doesn’t mean that’s how it’s going to be or got to be in my Church. Her discipleship, though rooted in the same truth, the same will of God, the same Word of God, and the same Gospel, won’t look exactly the same as yours.”

In The Horse and the Boy, a book in C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, a young girl asks Aslan, the Christ figure of those books, about what will become of her old nurse back in her home country. “Child,” Aslan answers, “I am telling you your story, not hers. No one is told any story but their own.” 

This is Jesus’ message to Martha and to us as well. Yes, as members of Christ’s body, we are accountable to the Word of God and to one another, but we dare not presume to take the place of God by telling others what the story Christ has written for them must be. 

Martha was to employ her gifts within the body of Christ, just as Jesus was calling Mary to use her particular gifts in that same body. We need each other and each other’s gifts as Christians and it would be wrong--not to mention boring--to expect every other believer in Jesus to be exactly like us.

Martha seems to have gotten what Jesus taught her. The Gospel of John tells us that just before Jesus was crucified, He was back at the home of Martha, Lazarus, and Mary for yet another dinner. John says that, “Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair.” (John 12:2-3) 

Martha serves without bellyaching and Mary once more becomes a lightning rod for criticism by doing another controversial thing. (That’s an occupational hazard for preachers.) This time, it isn’t Martha who attacks Mary. Martha seems by now to appreciate her sister’s calling and giftedness. This time the attacker is Judas, the one who will betray Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. “‘Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages,’ [he bellows]. He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.” (John 12:5-6) Maybe somebody should have told Judas to focus on following Christ himself. Maybe that message would have fallen on deaf ears. Maybe it was too late for Judas to hear it.

But it’s not too late for us! Jesus has called each of us to follow Jesus with our own unique gifts and personalities. 

The differences between us as disciples of Jesus aren’t something to be lamented, not something to be complained about, not something that should cause us to try making others conform to our image. Our call as Christ’s body is to encourage one another to follow Christ so that He can reconstruct us in His image, so that Christ, His lordship, and His love will be manifest in each of us in the unique ways He has in mind for us. 

We need lots of Marthas, Marys, Lazaruses, and others to fulfill the mission Christ has given us to pursue together: to be and to make disciples of Jesus Christ. 

May we always honor God by respecting one another’s uniqueness as children of God. Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Servant Leadership

[This was shared during the Service of Installation for Pastor Dwight Hanson as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Eaton, Ohio.]

Mark 10:42-45
Recently, someone asked me whether the term “Christian leader” wasn’t an oxymoron, an internal contradiction. 

The question wasn’t unreasonable. After all, Jesus, the One we confess as our Lord and God, was a servant “Who,” [according to Philippians 2, despite being] in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant...he humbled himself  by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” This, the apostle Paul tells us, is how you and I are to be with each other in the Church, humble servants (Philippians 2:5-11).

Is it possible then for anyone to be a servant and a leader as a Christian? 

In Romans 12, Paul gives a list of seven spiritual gifts God grants to individual Christians for the benefit of the church and how the people given those gifts should use them. “If [your gift] is to lead,” Paul says, “do it diligently.” So, it appears, one can be a Christian and a leader. (Romans 12:8)

The reason that the phrase Christian leader may seem like a contradiction, I think, is that we get confused by what the world says a leader is. The world tells us that a leader is a kind of dictator who always gets his or her way. 

But even without delving into the Bible’s understanding of leadership, the world’s definition doesn’t pass muster. A friend of ours, General Curtis Scaparrotti, the son of the congregation I formerly served in Logan, Ohio and today the commander of NATO, once told me that even a general must rely on more than power to lead people. You can hold a title, but you only earn the right to lead others by being a servant. Leaders never ask those they’re called to lead to do things that they themselves are unwilling to do. And so when he was second in command in Afghanistan, General Scaparrotti regularly jumped out of aircraft with his paratroopers. Friends, nobody is worthy of designation as a leader who is not first of all, a servant.

That’s why I was happy to see the lessons from the Bible chosen for Pastor Hanson’s installation. It shows that he has a healthy, Biblical understanding of what it means to be a Christian leader who is a servant and disciple of Jesus Christ!

Our gospel lesson, Mark 10:42-45, teaches us all what it means to be a disciple and a leader in Christ’s Church. Just a few verses before, Jesus has told the disciples that soon, in Jerusalem, He’s going to be rejected, arrested, crucified, buried, and then, raised by God the Father. According to the gospel of Mark, this is the third time that Jesus told the disciples about His impending cross. They’re at least as oblivious this time as they were the previous two times. They don’t even react to the prediction. The idea that the Messiah--the Christ, God’s anointed King--would be overcome by opposition is so foreign to them that Jesus’ prediction of a cross doesn’t compute. “There He goes again,” they may have thought.

Just how little they thought of Jesus’ words can be seen in what happened immediately after He spoke them. Two of the twelve, James and John, brothers, make a request of Jesus: When He becomes king in Jerusalem, they want to become His right- and left-hand men. The vision that James and John, and apparently the other ten apostles, have of the kingdom Jesus has come to bring to earth is pretty much the same as all the other kingdoms in the world, only with Jesus and them in charge. They envisioned a reign in which they would have a piece of power, prestige, and patronage.

It’s in the midst of this confusion that Jesus brings clarity about what life in His kingdom is all about. Take a look at our lesson, starting at verse 42: “Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’”

“The Gentiles, the pagans, the people who don’t know God or His amazing grace,” Jesus is saying, “have their own ideas about what it means to be important, to be a leader. They go around barking orders, always seeking to get their way.” But this is not how it is when you belong to the God we know in Jesus Christ.

This God sets free all who dare to trust in Jesus Christ, the One Who bore our sin and the punishment for it we deserve, death, so that when He rose from the dead, He could offer new and everlasting life to all who repent and believe. The only sermon given by Jesus that is recorded by the author of today’s gospel lesson, Mark, is contained in just one verse. Jesus says, “The time has come. The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15) That’s it!

We can do nothing to make ourselves fit for life with God. We can’t be good enough, influential enough, enough of a big shot, enough of anything. Only Jesus Christ and our faith in Him can make us fit for His kingdom. Only Jesus can justify sinners and make them forever new. And Jesus’ salvation can come to all kinds of people when they daily believe in and follow Him: big shots, little shots, no shots. 

So, in the Kingdom of God, there’s no reason to push or shove. When I trust in Jesus Christ, I already have the kingdom of God and because of that I can be a servant, accepting whatever role that Christ has given to me. When you know you belong to the King of all creation, you’re not particularly concerned, as James and John were, with the seating arrangements. And speaking only for myself, I would say that in light of what a sinner I know that I am, I’m so content to be a saved child of God that I have long been cured of any human desire to be a big shot. That’s what it’s like to belong to a servant Savior in Whose kingdom the first are last and the last are first.

Because we know how much God loves us and all that He has done for us in the crucified and risen Jesus, the Christian can dare to pray the most revolutionary of prayer petitions, “Thy will, Your will, and not mine, be done, O Lord.” 

That’s the prayer that Jesus teaches us to pray, of course. But, servant-leader that Jesus is, it’s also the prayer He offered in the garden as He prepared to go to the cross for you and me and for all who, without a relationship with Jesus, would face a Christ-less eternity. 

Jesus has the authority to tell us to fall into the arms of God the Father because He dared to do just that on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday! 

And, Pastor Hanson, you will have the authority to call this people to follow Christ when they see that you, however imperfect and human you are, seek to follow Christ yourself.

Dear people of Grace Lutheran Church, you’ve waited a long time for this day. I’ve been following your journey and praying for you and I know how difficult it has been for all of you. But God has blessed you with a servant leader. He clearly understands what it means to be a Christian leader. 

• I ask you to pray for him and honor him for what he is for you, a gift from God. I ask you to pray for Kelly and him as they adjust to their life in a new place. 
• I ask you to take it upon yourselves to be servants of Christ in serving and working alongside them. 
• I ask you to honor his work here, the same work which the young pastor Timothy was reminded to do in our second lesson: “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” (2 Timothy 4:2)

Pastor Hanson, I ask you to be a servant of Christ to these people and this community as you seek to be faithful to the Lord Who has set you free from sin and death by grace through your faith in Him and has brought you to Grace Lutheran Church.

Galatians 3:28 tells us that in Christ’s Church, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Understanding that the only way to freedom from sin, death, and darkness is in following Jesus Christ as the Lord over our lives, Martin Luther once remarked that, “a Christian...is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian...is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.”

In the freedom that comes from belonging to Jesus Christ for all eternity, I urge you, people and pastor, not to be afraid to serve each other, to pray for each other, to listen to each other, to worship together, to confess sin and be absolved from sin together, to work together, to witness together, doing all of this knowing that while you may differ in the functions to which God has called you in Christ’s Church, you do not differ in status. You are all redeemed children of God called to join together in telling the whole world the good news of new and everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ.

God has called this congregation and this pastor and his wife together in partnership for one purpose and one purpose only: to be and to make disciples of Jesus. Dear servants of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen One, since that is your one and only mission: Have at it! Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

[Welcome to Pastor Dwight Hanson, installed today as pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Eaton, Ohio. The clergy of our Southwest Ohio Mission District are incredibly supportive of one another and a contingent was able to be present there today. Clergy l to r: Brian McGee, Dean Haferman, Heidi Holst, Alan Knoke, Dwight Hanson, me, David Matevia, and Marv Hileman. (Thanks to my wife for snapping the pic.)]

Cosby, Gender Equality, and the Kingdom of God

This Los Angeles Times timeline shows that for fifty years Bill Cosby lived a lifestyle of repeated and continuous sexual assault of women he drugged. He got away with it because he was successful and made lots of money for other people. (Money often buys silence over moral wrongs in this imperfect world!)

But, as theologian Ed Stetzer points out, it wasn’t until a man, Hannibal Buress, in a video that went viral, said that Cosby was guilty of rape, that criminal investigations moved forward. 

It’s a commentary on how a male-dominated society has for too long taken the testimony of women less seriously than that of men. 

By the way, this also shows how different Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God are from the norms of most earthly societies and institutions: In the first-century Judean world in which Jesus was born, crucified, and raised from the dead, the testimony of women was deemed unreliable and so, inadmissible in disputes. But Jesus chose women to be the first witnesses and preachers of His Easter victory over sin and death! Jesus believed that the testimony of women was at least as credible as that of men; our society has rarely taken this attitude.

The New Testament teaches that in Christ, there isn’t male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile. 

I wish that society held men and women in the same equal regard as Jesus, God the Son, does. 

Maybe today’s Cosby verdict says that some in our society are ready to change. If we will trust in the God we meet in Christ, in His will, and in His sovereignty, maybe, finally, things will change for the better. 

Maybe, we’ll collectively turn from the world’s sin and turn instead to the life God only gives through Christ (John 14:6; John 3:16-18; John 10:30) and we will start to see one another as Christ sees all of us, as cherished children of God, each one to be loved and respected equally.

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Truly Welcoming Jesus: The Good Part

[This was prepared to be shared during the Sunday morning worship services of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, earlier today.]

Luke 10:38-42
God values hospitality.

In our first lesson for this morning, Abraham and Sarah welcome three strangers to their tent. At least one of the strangers is God, although Saint Augustine, who lived in the fourth century, believed that Abraham and Sarah welcomed God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Whatever the case may be, their hospitality is a great example of how people of faith should act. With Genesis 18 in mind, the preacher in Hebrews writes, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”

It’s no exaggeration to say that salvation comes to us when we welcome Jesus Christ and the good news that all who turn from sin and believe in Him have life in His Name with hospitality. Near the beginning of his gospel, John writes of Jesus, the Word made flesh: “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name...”

Only those willing to welcome Jesus as their God and King know the salvation and new life He came to bring through His death and resurrection.

When hospitality is given for the right reasons, it’s a beautiful expression of faith in Christ.

But there’s more to hospitality than fixing dinner, handing your guest something cold to drink, and ensuring that your guests have a good time.

All of which leads us to today’s gospel lesson. Please open your Bible or your bulletin to it, Luke 10:38-42. It says: “Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.” Martha, at least at one level, practices hospitality. She welcomes Jesus into her home. That’s good.

But does she really welcome Jesus? Or is Martha like I can sometimes be, welcoming Jesus just enough to claim to know Him, but not allowing His Lordship to permeate my resistance to having someone else in charge of my life? Leave those questions in the back of your mind for now.

Let’s read on. Verse 39: “And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.” Something that often gets overlooked in this passage is the true meaning of Mary sitting “at Jesus’ feet.”

When we talk today about someone sitting at another person’s feet, we usually mean that they sit dreamy-eyed, devoid of independent thought. But this isn’t what Luke meant when he used the phrase.

Let me explain: The title that almost everyone gave to Jesus while He did His earthly ministry was rabbi, meaning teacher. A rabbi’s students--the formal word is disciples--were always said to sit at the rabbi’s feet. It meant that they were learning from the rabbi so that they too could become rabbis, teachers. Disciples hung on their rabbis’ every word because they knew that they would one day have the responsibility of imparting his teaching to others.

But here’s the thing: In those days, women were never rabbis. Women were never disciples. And knowing God’s Word, sharing God’s Word, wasn’t considered a woman’s place. A woman’s place in that culture was in the kitchen, as we see in Sarah in our first lesson.

But that’s not how things work in the kingdom of God that Jesus ushers into the world. As the apostle Paul puts it in Galatians 3:28, in Jesus’ kingdom: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

In the Church, everyone is called to be a disciple, a scribe of God’s kingdom, a rabbi who teaches the Gospel to others who need to know or be re-acquainted with the crucified and risen Jesus and the good news that all who turn from sin and believe in Him have a life with God that lasts for eternity.

But it was hard for Martha to accept that her sister or even she herself could be a disciple and one day, a rabbi, like the men who followed Jesus.

Look at what happens in verse 40: “But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached [Jesus] and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.’"

Now, let’s be clear: Along with what I've said about Martha being hung up on the idea that women had no place in hearing or teaching the Word of God, Martha also appears to be a workaholic, one of those people who believes that by doing good works, she will receive approval from God or from others or will feel like a worthy person. Her hospitality doesn’t seem to be an expression of faith, but of pride and of a controlling personality.

It’s also true that Martha stands as a warning to all Christians to relax, to rest easy in the grace of God, in the knowledge that we are not saved by what we do but by God’s grace given to all who believe in Jesus Christ.

One of the tragedies of the Church is that so many Christians who could live in the freedom of knowing that Christ gives them a friendship with God and the forgiveness of their sins as free gifts to those who trust their lives to Christ, instead turn their Christianity into a list of do’s and don’ts and religious obligations. Martha traded in a relationship with God through faith in Christ for a religion.

That’s not the life that God intends for us!

God wants us to know that He accepts and loves us just as we are and that as we grow closer to Him, the good things we do will simply be an outgrowth of our friendship with Him--what the Bible calls a “fruit of the Spirit”--and not something we feel that we have to do.

Martha is caught up in what Martin Luther called "works righteousness." She's a slave to staying busy instead of living as a free child of God. Misery loves company, you know. So, Martha wants Mary to submit to the same religious slavery she has chosen for herself. That’s why she lashes out at Mary!

Verses 41 and 42 give Jesus’ response to Martha’s outburst: “And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.’" So, what’s Jesus saying here? Let everything go to seed? Don’t do anything but listen to sermons and Bible lessons all day long? We all know people who, as I've said before, are so heavenly-minded that they're no earthly good.

Is that how Jesus wants us to be. Hardly!

I believe that we can’t really read what Jesus says here without remembering the passage that came immediately before it, Luke 10:25-37. You’ll remember that right after Jesus told a scribe, an expert in the Bible, the parable of the Good Samaritan, He also told him to go and do the same thing. The Scribe’s problem was that he knew all about the faith, but he didn’t do it, didn’t live it.

In today’s lesson, Martha’s problem is that she’s constantly doing, but she has no interest in the Word of God. Without living under the will and Word of God revealed ultimately in Jesus, she was living in futility, relying on her own goodness and her own power to work, instead of on God’s grace, to save her.

That is a dangerous way to live! People, like Martha, who know who Jesus is, who may even be active members of a church yet rely on their good works to save them from sin and death are as eternally lost as those who have never confessed belief in Jesus as their God and Lord. This is why Jesus told Martha that Mary had chosen the good part.

You see, every Christian needs to be a Mary!

That’s why engaging in the study of Scripture, especially in the company of other Christians, is essential to the Christian life. Reading, hearing, and studying God’s Word reminds us of Who God is and, simply soaking up His Word with faith in Christ, can build faith in us even when we know ourselves to be incapable of believing in God or living in Christian hope. That's because the Word of God is powerful! As the apostle Paul reminds us, faith comes when we hear God's Word!

Jesus knew that by taking in His Word, Mary wouldn’t sit for long! When His Word takes hold and creates faith in Christ within us, we will, not from pride, not to control, but from simple gratitude to the God Who went to the cross and offers life forever with God as a free gift to all who dare to believe in Jesus Christ, do their faith in Jesus. They will live like the people set free from the prison of sin and death that they are. [See Luke 8:15.]

Someone asked me this past week, "If we're saved by God's grace through faith in Christ, why doesn't God just let us die and be resurrected so we don't have to put up with this world any more?" Here, I think, is the big reason: Once we have become certain of our place in eternity with God through our relationship with Christ, God wants us to take as many people to heaven with Him as possible. God gives us time on this earth so that we can fulfill that commission. [See 2 Peter 3:9.]

When you and I take time to sit at Jesus’ feet, the Holy Spirit will then empower us be Jesus’ feet, Jesus’ hands, and Jesus’ voice in the world!

We know that Mary chose the good part because it’s only those who live in utter dependence on Christ and His grace who have the power from God to live and serve in Jesus’ Name long after those who try to be live like Christians without the power of Jesus’ Word working in them have given up!

Every burnt-out Christian I have ever known was one who thought they had to do everything themselves, like Martha.

Every joyful Christian I’ve ever known has been one who knew that they were completely dependent on Christ and that being a Christian is a team activity best lived out in that company of other forgiven sinners called the Church.

And joyful Christians change the world!

I recently heard the true story of Pastor Gil, who served a congregation in a poverty stricken barrio in the Virgin Islands.

Gil wanted to reach out to others with the good news of Jesus Christ, but few responded.

Then, he befriended an alcoholic named Sam. He shared the gospel with Sam and over time, a miracle happened. Sam received Christ as his Savior and was able to enter recovery from his addiction.

Sam, like Pastor Gil, wanted to share Christ with others, but few were interested in coming to worship to hear the gospel.

Then, Sam had an idea: “Pastor, come bless my house. I’ll invite my neighbors and friends. They can have parts in the blessing. You can tell the good news about Jesus and they will want to follow Jesus too.”

The house blessing happened. But no one responded to the gospel. No one came to church.

One night some time later, while working on a sermon, Pastor Gil became aware of a commotion. He looked out his window and saw that something was on fire. Along with others in the community, he ran to the fire to see if he could help.

The building on fire was Sam’s house, the one Gil had blessed. It burned to the ground. Sam’s friends laughed as the last embers were extinguished: “You thought Jesus would protect you.”

Sam pretended not to hear their words of derision. Instead, he fell at Pastor Gil’s feet. “Thank you, pastor,” he said, “for blessing my house. Something woke me up. Had you not offered a blessing, I would have died in the fire.”

Over the next four months, Pastor Gil blessed forty-eight homes and twenty-nine people came to faith in Jesus Christ.

A pastor and a parishioner steeped in the Word of God, like Mary, let their faith lead them to action, and twenty-nine people who might have otherwise remained separated from the new and everlasting life that only Jesus Christ can give, came to faith in Christ and to eternal life!*

My message to you this morning is simple. Be a Mary! Be a Gil! Be a Sam! Welcome Jesus and His Word of grace and power into the center of your life. Then do your faith in Jesus wherever God and your life may take you. You never can tell what God might do in you and through you. Amen!

*This vignette was shared by Bishop John Bradosky during a recent sermon.

[I am indebted to the scholarship of Fred Craddock and N.T. Wright in helping me to more clearly understand this incident from Jesus' ministry than I had previously.]