I heard this
phrase earlier this week, referring the story of Martha and Mary. No explanation was given. I thought it was an apt title: Their Home is Our Table.
As readers,
Luke invites us into a home in Bethany, specifically the home of Martha, Mary,
and Lazarus…at the exact time when Jesus is staying with them. We enter into an
intimate domestic scene. They were not the ones to open the door to us, they
have not offered us hospitality; we are only observers, invisible. The
household is going about being a household. There is a guest - Jesus a close
friend, one who is closer than a brother – and probably not seen as a guest but
extended family. There is hanging out, relaxing, and conversation. There is the
preparation of food and drink. There is nattering, complaining, and teasing.
As observers
we eat stories like this up!
Luke’s story
has become a table of conversation for centuries; fueling many a duel about a
woman’s place – at home, at church; and feeding a moralizing opposition between
action and contemplation. It has also been reinterpreted to focus on Jesus
acting contrary to cultural norms: alone with women who are not his relatives, he
allows a woman to serve him, and teaches a woman in her own home.
Consider
for a moment, that Luke invited others into your home yesterday. People enter
into your intimate domestic scene. You did not open the door to these people,
you did not offer them hospitality; Luke’s audience were only observers,
invisible. Yesterday, your household was going about being a household. What would the observer have noticed? In the heat, were you wearing less than acceptable
clothing to be seen in by others?
Perhaps you had words with another family member? Did anyone display a
moment of jealousy or passion? Were you acting lazy or anxious? Dropping into
your conversations, what would people hear? What were you reading or doing? Did you indulge in guilty pleasures? Ignore
the cat, hang up on a telemarketer…?
Being privy to
the intimacies of your household yesterday, what story would observers tell,
and what table conversations would they have about you?
What
I appreciate about Luke’s domestic moment with Jesus, Martha, and Mary is its
ordinariness. Their intimate household scene is honest and could be in any
household. The story is relational. This scene allows us table conversation – a
place to start- to contemplate: the emotions involved in relationships, the
human struggle for balance and managing polarities, wrestling with tensions of
being and/or doing. I also appreciate
the safe place that Luke describes in his domestic scene. The characters are in
many ways free- free to live outside cultural norms, to be themselves, to
express their feelings, to speak their opinions- all in the presence of Jesus.
Last Sunday I
returned from the National Assembly of the ELCIC. When meeting in Assembly 150 delegates, from
across the country, come together under one roof. We gather as members of a family; a Lutheran expression within God’s family. The
Assembly floor is our home. Home is created in our opening worship, as we
covenant to worship and work together. In house, there is discussion, debate,
differing opinions, emotions, a way of proceeding through business, a code of
conduct, opportunity for learning and challenge. Everything we do is in
relationship. Our theme, Called to a Journey of Reconciliation: is the
Biblical story. In the story of Jesus, Martha, and Mary, the domestic scene is
all about the intricacies of relationship; in house, in the culture, in
reflection by future generations; including relationship with God, with others,
with ourselves, with tasks at hand. This is our home, others come to the table.
Guests were
invited in relation to their specialties and the specific table conversations we
hosted.
In our conversation
on the Journey of Reconciliation with Creation, with guests Dr. David
Sauchyn and Dr. Mary Vetter, our home was filled with scientific data from
climate researchers from the University of Regina, data used as food for
thought as table conversations reflected on the churches relationship to
creation. Dr. Sauchyn made it clear that science produces data and information,
that households are the context and that wisdom and knowledge, and thus action
come from conversation around the table. The take away for me, the challenge I
keep chewing on, -dare I say the word’s of Jesus in our midst- were the words
of Dr. Vetter’s, that in a world where humans feel deserving, that they have
earned the right to consume -- as a
faith family the most important virtue to instill, the way to living out of
faith, the theological conversation of today is this, “Teach the values of restraint.”
Relationship
was on the mind of Rev. Dr. Martin Junge, President of the Lutheran World
Federation, also an invited guest at the table. He spoke of our relationship with
the 75 million Lutherans in the world, 148 member churches, in 99 countries; a
global communion … on a common journey of renewal. We strive to put our faith into action within
and beyond the communion, and seek God’s Word and Spirit to guide us.
Liberated by
God’s grace, a communion in Christ living and working together for a just,
peaceful, and reconciled world. He reminded
our household that, “God’s mission is not about numbers.” It is about relationship through “liberation,
transformation, and new life.”
When
we met in our own house, we were invisible observers in the home of our
Anglican siblings who were meeting in their General Synod. Invisible observers
getting our updates by text, Twitter, news feeds – all observers of the
intimate happenings of a group of faithful people trying to figure out where
the Spirit was leading them. There was lots of emotion, passion, debate,
decisions, proposals. We only caught
scenes of their domestic life together. At the end, we remain with them at
their table, and they at ours, as we continue in our Full Communion relationship;
living and working together warts and all.
Perhaps
the most filling and nutritional food brought to our house was by Bishop Elizabeth
Eaton, National Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. She shared with us, in an honest, yet tongue
and cheek way, how the ELCA household lives and practices faith amidst the
politics and social lean of the United States. She is Bishop of a large church, diverse in
table conversation, a variety of actions and inactions, walking a line of
entering other houses and speaking truth without being crucified. Her observations of the ELCIC, of our
household, is that we are BOLD! She only
wished she could say the same for her house. When our household met in Assembly,
she said we faithfully worked toward bold responses to address the state of the
church and issues in the Canadian landscape.
Our home is
now someone else’s table. Assembly happenings are available for the world to
access via documents, live streams, sermons being preached today, delegate
reports, and stories that continue on social media. Others will take moments of
our intimate household time together and interpret scenes for their own purposes.
It is out of our hands how our deliberations and actions will be interpreted. Our household is sharing documents with our
partners, writing letters to government bodies, continuing justice and mission
work--- we are purposefully expanding the conversation outside our doors. We the ELCIC are committed to four vision
priorities: courageous innovation, reconciled relationships, being one body
working together, and being empowered disciples.
Reflecting on
Luke’s account of the domestic scene of Martha, Jesus, and Mary- I come away pondering the intricacies of
relationship and what it means to be a household. What it means to be a faithful
household in reconciled relationships with each other- even when holding seemingly
conflicting perspectives, and also in reconciled relationships with society,
with creation, with those who are observers. Thanks to the table conversation exhilarated
by invited guests, the ELCIC -that is us as a whole-, has been challenged;
guests were Jesus speaking in our midst. From Assemblies intimate domestic scene
-our home for a few days in July- take these snippets, wrap them together and
be:
Liberated by
God’s grace, a communion living and working together -
Strive for a
just, peaceful and reconciled world. /Teach the values of restraint./ And
respond boldly.
Liberated by
God’s grace, a communion living and working together -
Strive for a
just, peaceful and reconciled world.
Teach the
values of restraint. /And respond
boldly.
