Listening and Doing

Luke 10:38-42






Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

I must admit to being somewhat ill at ease when it comes to today’s passage from Luke.  I thought about avoiding it entirely and preaching on one of the other lessons from the lectionary but was drawn back to it.  I do realize that the Bible isn’t there to make me feel comfortable.  It may be comforting at times but it’s not always comfortable.

To understand this passage we have to look a little more closely at the context in which the gospel writer, Luke, places it.  Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem, where of course he will be tried and executed as a criminal by the powers that be.  Immediately preceding this passage, a lawyer asks Jesus about how he can go about inheriting eternal life.

Jesus talks about loving God and loving neighbor.  In other words, Jesus talks about relationships and how important they are.  On this journey to Jerusalem, Jesus is trying to teach about what it means to be a disciple.  What it means to follow.  Then Jesus ends up telling the lawyer, and the rest of us, the parable of the good Samaritan in which a stranger, a hated stranger at that, does good toward one who is injured along the road.  It’s a tale of doing good deeds and taking action when others have not done so.

Then we reach today’s passage in which Jesus stops by at his friends’ home, the house of Mary and Martha.  We know from other passages that Mary and Martha had a brother, Lazarus, but he is not mentioned this time through.  While at their home, Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and listens to his teaching while Martha busies herself with all that goes into hosting a beloved guest.  When Martha complains to Jesus that Mary isn’t really helping out at all, Jesus takes her down a peg in telling her that Mary has made the wisest choice, which is to sit and listen to him.  He seems to belittle Martha for all her busyness in the process.

Those who make their livings commenting on the Bible have pointed out that Luke has a particular emphasis throughout his gospel on hearing AND doing.  So this passage this morning must be read in that light.  And that’s why its proximity to the story about the good Samaritan is so important.

Certainly the Samaritan is a doer.  He stops to help an injured traveler and does a lot for him: providing care there at the roadside, transporting him, paying for his continued care and so on.  It makes us wonder how that story can immediately precede this one about listening?

It precedes it because both are important.  You can’t have one without the other: it’s listening and doing.  It’s not either or.  Jesus lays it all out here one, two, three:  be in right relationship with God and neighbor, do good works, and listen with all your heart.

So why would such a story make me ill at ease?  Well, of course, what makes me uncomfortable is that door over there. [pointing at the kitchen door]  That door and thousands upon thousands like it across Christendom.  And all the hours that are wracked up behind those doors. And all the doing that happens that’s just like Martha’s busying of herself. 

No preacher in his or her right mind is going to get up this morning and, using this text, tell people to stop all their good works, whether it’s in the kitchen, at the coffee hour table, in the food pantry, at the homeless shelter or anywhere else for that matter.  Too much good comes of all the doing that goes on in churches just like this one that to misinterpret this passage would be a major mistake.  And I don’t believe that Jesus was saying that either.

But Jesus was making a point with Martha that day.  And once again, we have to look at context to understand.  A woman’s place, in that day and place, was definitely not at the feet of a teacher.  A woman did not get the benefit of a teacher, none-the-less one of Jesus’ stature. He had his disciples for that, always men.  But Jesus always made a point of speaking with women, something unheard of in his time.  And Mary, in sitting at his feet, was breaking convention along with him.

Jesus was not discounting the work that Martha was doing.  He was saying however that Mary had seen an opportunity that is rarely afforded her and took it.  And she was rewarded for her decision with Jesus’ affirmation of her choice. 

Taken together, the parable of the Samaritan who helps his fellow traveler, along with the story which took place in Mary & Martha’s home, brings us back to Luke’s emphasis on hearing and doing.  We need both. 

We need to listen: by studying scripture, by attending worship, by conversing with each other, and by all the other ways that we can listen in the broadest sense of the word.  And we need to act:  we need to be doing the good works that all that listening calls forth from us. 

And of course, all of this springs out of the right relationships that Jesus set forth with the lawyer:  to love God with all one’s heart, soul, strength, and mind and to love your neighbor as yourself.  From there we move into the listening and doing that is so important. 

Don’t think that what happens behind those doors isn’t important.  Or if you do, don’t try to use today’s passage as your excuse for the way you think.  Our calls are clearly to listen and to act.