Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 10:38-42
 
One of my favorite stories of sisters is the movie The Parent Trap. I loved the original but the one I remember even better is the remake that came out when my children were little. If you don’t know the story, it’s about two girls who meet at summer camp and immediately become bitter enemies. They are polar opposites. They cause enough chaos that eventually they are punished by being put in a solitary cabin together. And that’s where they figure out that they are identical twins who had been separated as babies; one was raised by mom and the other by dad. Together they concoct a scheme to reunite their family, swapping places when the summer camp is over and it’s time to go home. Predictably, things don’t go according to plan and the movie makes us all witnesses to what happens next and all the ways that different personalities, habits and feelings make life and family beautifully messy and complicated.
 
Today’s gospel gives us another sister story, and it’s a story that has been used to divide sisters and women into two camps of their own. In error, it has been used to contrast different ways of being and value one way of being over the other and diminish one in favor of the other.
 
I believe those interpretations miss the point.
 
While Martha provides generous hospitality, and Mary practices devotion, that isn’t what matters in this story.
 
Our relationship with God is not dependent on what we bring to the table. We are beloved by God because God says so, not because we have done anything to earn our salvation, to merit our welcome or to deserve the mercy we are given.
 
While the story compares Martha and her sister Mary, and the ways they are different, God isn’t favoring one or the other. Service is praised in Luke’s gospel. Martha doesn’t turn away the guests at her door, and she doesn’t suggest they come back at a more convenient time. She doesn’t ask for more money or groceries to prepare.  Instead, she gets to work to meet the needs in front of her.
 
What Jesus calls out is Martha’s frustration and distraction. When she becomes anxious and overwhelmed, she turns in on herself and away from her guest who is Christ himself.
 
We know from Scripture and from our life together that, for some, discipleship is lived out in the details of the common life, and for others, in service to the Word.[i] Both are needed. But Jesus reminds us that the center of any discipleship practice is Christ.
 
Anytime we do anything, we are called to do it in Christ’s name and for God’s glory, not for ourselves or not for own recognition. We are called to share the light of God shining from within us and we are called to share God’s abundant love with others.
 
God creates each of us with our unique gifts and abilities and there are many different ways of living our lives of discipleship. “New occasions teach new duties.”[ii] We must identify when we are called to engage in service and when we are called to sit and listen. We aren’t bound by a binary choice of one or the other. We can do both.
 
What the story tells us about God is
that God always meets us where we are.
 
God comes into our lives to be in relationship with us. Not because we make the softest cookies or the most savory barbecue, or even the best coffee. And not because we can recite the name of the books of the Bible or the Apostle’s Creed from memory.
 
God wants us to draw near that we may know God, and experience God’s grace for us.
 
To know we are loved even when we have nothing to offer; in baptism we are brought to the font by parents and we are given the gift of welcome because of what God has done, not us.
 
To know that at the altar, the table we gather around is not mine or yours, but God’s; God is the host, inviting us to be fed and nourished, sustained from one day to the next.
 
Wherever we are, we are in God’ presence, and we are welcomed and loved just as we are.
 
May we always find our place with Jesus, trusting that we are loved because God says so and for no other reason.
Amen.

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[i] Douglas John Hall. “Proper 11.” Feasting on the Word Commentary: Pentecost and Season after Pentecost 1 (Propers 3-16). Kindle, 662.
[ii] ibid, 661.