Martha-and-Mary-Living: Pent 9C-2016

Before us this morning is a tableau, a little table set for tea – with fancy tea-pot, cups and saucers, linen table cloth and napkins, a vase of flowers; ready with 2 chairs, a shawl, a book.

When you look at the table set for tea: what do you think, what do you feel, what do you want to do?

This vignette is the story of Martha and Mary.

Preparing, offering hospitality, serving, cleaning up – conversation, reading, reflecting, relaxing --- all of these gifts are part of tea time.  Which of these are you invited to do?

We have heard the story of Martha and Mary many times. 

Martha models: Service, hospitality, and action.  Mary exemplifies: Study, listening, and reflection.

Reflection on the story often focuses on the actions of the two women (one being better than the other), Jesus chiding Martha, and sometimes, speakers reflect a focus not on the actions, but, the heart behind the serving or listening.

What is important about the story that you may not have heard emphasized are facts like: Martha welcomes Jesus into HER home and he accepts.  Jesus welcomes women, Mary, to sit at his feet – meaning invited to learn, and to be a disciple.  Needless to say these facts make the story amazing.  For the contemporaries of Martha, Mary, and Jesus, the actions in this event would be unheard of, even scandalise.

Today, let us embrace the radicalness found in the story, and turn upside down the pitting of Martha and Mary against each other.

The text of Martha and Mary experiencing Jesus presence in their home falls in an interesting place in the book of Luke. It is a story wedged between the parable of the Good Samaritan, which we heard last week; and Jesus teaching the disciples to pray using the Lord’s prayer. The story of Martha and Mary combines the stories on either side, applying what it means to be an hospitable servant and a contemplative learner and pray-er. The predicament of the text is placed in the middle of Jesus commending the ministry of service and the ministry of the Word.

The great preacher Fred Craddock wrote, ”we must not cartoon the scene: Martha to her eyeballs in soapsuds, Mary pensively on a stool in the den, and Jesus giving scriptural warrant for letting dishes pile high in the sink. If we censure Martha too harshly, she may abandon serving altogether, and if we commend Mary too profusely, she may sit there forever.  There is a time to go and do; there is a time to listen and reflect. Knowing which and when is a matter of spiritual discernment. If we were to ask Jesus which example applies to us, [Martha] or Mary his answer would probably be Yes.”

Consider this. Over the years of attending service you have been modeled the ministry of service and the ministry of Word.  You have been participants in Martha-and-Mary-living through the liturgy.   We gather for worship as both Martha and Mary.

Mary is modeled at the times of the scripture readings, the Kid’s corner, the sermon, the prayers of the people.

Martha is modeled in ushering, in the gathering hymn, sharing the peace, collecting the offering.

And then there is the Eucharist – the Holy meal- where Martha and Mary dance together: Martha sets the table, serves the meal; Mary listening and responding to the spoken Word. Together we gather and support each other in sharing a meal, as community through service and Word the space of the meal becomes holy.

Then following eating together, we are sent out as a people to “go in peace (Mary) and serve the Lord (Martha); to serve and to look and listen for God in daily life –-- Martha-and-Mary-living is holding hands with both and forming a sacred space in which to live and move and have being.

Sigurd Bergmann, Professor of Religious studies at Norwegian University of Science and Technology writes:

The Christian God is the God of the Here and Now.  Today, the task of interpreting God is inextricably linked to the task of interpreting the space wherein, whereby and whereupon God acts. To say that God only acts within religious institutions or within the inner most heart of believers is hardly in accordance with a classical understanding of Creation, which maintains that God is ‘the creator of everything visible and invisible,’ and thus can and should be sought everywhere between heaven and earth in constructed as well as natural places. Faith has to maintain an openness to spatial surprises by means of which God can manifest [God’s] presence.

In a world depicted in the horrors of the evening news and described in the headlines of daily newspapers, there is an important task at hand for each of us.  We are called to create Martha-and-Mary-spaces, to provide sacred places.

Focus on the vignette of the table set for tea.

There is an open invitation and a welcome to those who look – come and rest, come and eat, come and relax, come and serve, come and converse, come and enjoy. 

It took less than 30 mins to create this space. It doesn’t take up a lot of space.  It is beautiful and simple.

What kind of sacred, Martha-Mary-living space, can you create and offer to your neighbour?

·         In the church yard, there is a bench tucked in along the foundation beside the Windsor St. stairs.  I happened across a young women, book in hand, sitting on the bench reading, with an orange lily from the garden tucked behind her ear; she looked happy, at rest. The bench was an open invitation.

·         When I run I sometimes I go out and make my route as I go, going down inviting streets – usually places with nooks and crannies; interesting gardens, streetscapes, places with overhanging trees.

·         It’s creating places within your own home that are inviting – places that make one happy, content, at peace. Places where one takes a mug of coffee or a cup of tea.

·         When visiting in apartment buildings and manors, I take notice of the spaces people create around their doors.  Wreathes, little tables, items placed on provided shelves or curio cabinets, welcome mats.  That tiny space can be a moment of pause amidst the drudgery of every day living.

·         Our very persona in public can be, in and of itself, the creator and inviter of sacred space; the demeanor with which we greet others, the openness of space around ourselves, clothes that say “hello” or have us dismissed or unseen.

·         Our presence on social media, can be a created space that invites others, for conversation and reflection, uplifting moments, captured hope and joy, articulated ministry of service and ministry of Word.

On Thursday of this week I open the parsonage porch for ice tea. It will be an expanded version of the tableau you see here today.  The event is yet another illustration of what it means to balance life; to live a Martha-and-Mary kind of living. A space is provided and amidst welcome, hospitality there is a place for rest, conversation, relaxation, fellowship – Holy space.

Over the years, many times, I have entered peoples’ homes and been offered tea.  Each host has their own rituals around how it is made and what constitutes tea and the setting of a tea table.  There has been everything from chipped mugs and used tea bags, to silver tea services and china cups.  I have experience that the setting doesn’t really matter; each host’s hospitality and service [Martha] creates a safe place, that allows for conversation and fellowship [Mary] to turn tea time into sacred and holy space.

For whom will you set a table this week? For whom will you make tea? 

For whom will you model Martha-and-Mary-living?  For whom will you create safe and holy space?  And in doing this replace the horrors, the blood, the anger of world events with a vignette of welcome, invitation --- holy space.  This is a recipe to be repeated as often as the opportunity presents itself; and that is as often as you dare to set the table.