SERMON, PROPER 11C, LUKE 10:38-42

How do you hear scripture? How does scripture speak to you? For some of us, we need to study. Maybe the daily offices are important, or some kind of organized bible study to help us pick up the flavor and nuances of scripture is how you best learn and hear.

Maybe you hear best while sitting and listening. Hearing the lessons read every Sunday and the occasional good sermon might work best for you. Maybe this lets you "inwardly digest" scripture. You go home thinking about what was preached and think, "I've never thought of it that way," or, "That's interesting, I'll have to think about that some more."

Regardless of which method you prefer, or which method works best for you, both methods consist of two parts -- hearing and following (or doing).

Today's gospel is, in my opinion, one of the harder ones to parse out. Some feminists label this passage as "sad" because Martha is rebuked for offering hospitality and seeing to her duties. And Mary, although praised for listening, is a silent character in this story and ignored as a possible apostle. She has no voice and she receives no commission.

Others will offer an overly simplified cartoon of the two women. Martha is portrayed as running around like June Cleaver on steroids, not taking time to really pay attention to anyone or not willing to sit and relax. I actually have a grandmother like this. Mary, on the other hand, is sitting doe-eyed at Jesus' feet in rapt attention, feeding off "every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."

I think this is a good example of why we need to consider the whole text and not simply focus on particular passages. Individual passages can inform, sure, but they can't be used in isolation. If that were the case, women wouldn't be allowed to braid their hair or wear jewelry, and slavery would still be legal. So we need to look at the whole and try to discern the totality of the message. Doing that lets us see topics like social justice, unity and inclusivity, and other things, that we might miss by strictly focusing on particular passages.

Why am I talking about this? Because I think that in order to get a proper reading of the Martha and Mary story, you have to go back to the Good Samaritan story from last week. The lawyer, remember, wanted to define the boundaries of who his neighbor was. So we have the two gospels in our mind: the lawyer and the Good Samaritan, and busy Martha and passive Mary.

The lawyer studied scripture. He knew the law, as evidenced by his answering Jesus correctly -- love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. His problem, though, was that he wanted to have things fit into his understanding of the law: who is my neighbor? He was so caught up in studying the law and trying to make things fit into the law that he missed the point. The point being not who is my neighbor, but who are you a neighbor to; and then going out and doing likewise, essentially living the law in his daily life.

One of the things I mentioned last week was offering radical hospitality. Doing things for others by being more concerned with their welfare than with what you get out of it. But we can carry that to an extreme. We can get so wrapped up in doing things that we forget why we are doing the. Or simply put, the doing outweighs the reason.

That would be Martha. She is offering hospitality, yes, but she is so busy with her tasks that she misses the why of what she is doing. And we can't assume that Mary wasn't helping, but we can assume that she recognized she had to slow down and listen.

However, neither can she just sit there and do nothing. She can't spend her time sitting. She can't simply agree with Jesus and say, "Oh, that's a good idea," or, "I've never thought of it that way before." If that were the case, she would just be warming her pew.

We need to look at these two gospel lessons as a whole. We need to recognize that to know the scriptures and what they have to say requires diligent studying, and know that it isn't about fitting life into the scriptures but fitting the scriptures into life. We need to also recognize that there is a time for radical hospitality, or even basic hospitality, but there is also a time to relax and listen.

Are we to study? Are we to sit and listen? The answer is, "Yes." But we also need to do. Study. Listen. Do. Like scripture, and like these last two gospels, it's an all-encompassing activity. Don't focus on just one aspect of discipleship. Don't focus on just one aspect of scripture.

Study. Listen. Do. That's what these two lessons as a whole are telling us. Look at the whole of scripture and discern what it is saying completely. Incorporate all three to become a wholly complete disciple.