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Homily – July 17

We all know that person, the one who absolutely lives to entertain people.  They are the ones who seem to always have just the right touch. No detail is too small in their quest to give their visitor a memorable experience.  You have likely been to their house for dinner.  From the minute you arrive, you get the sense that they have been planning the event for weeks.  Everything has been thought of; the food, the wine, the decor, even down to the seating arrangements, complete of course with hand-lettered place cards.  Nothing has been overlooked in their zeal to provide you with a magical experience.

It has been my experience that the folks who do this usually fall into two categories.  The first make it appear effortless, as if this is the way they live life daily, with a full china set and the good silver at breakfast on a random Tuesday.  The second do the same amount of work and achieve the same amazing result, but it is clear that it is an almost herculean effort to pull it together.  The result for this person may be the same, but you get a glimpse behind the curtain to see how frazzled it makes them, and they often times can’t relax and enjoy the time with their guests as they are far too preoccupied with the work needed to pull it all together.  They seem far more focused on providing the experience and in the process, lose sight of the time they could (or should) be spending with their guest.

Martha would seem to fall into the second category.  Jesus arrives in their town and Martha is thrilled when he chooses to accept her hospitality.  Imagine how jealous the other women in town will be when they hear that Martha gets to have such an important guest in her home!  This will be the talk of the town for years to come, and Martha is determined to pull out all the stops to make this a memorable experience.

So she goes into overdrive, cooking up a storm, putting out the best decorations, working that magic that makes her the hostess with the mostest.  But all of this takes a great deal of effort and energy.  Martha is working her fingers to the bone when she realizes that she is alone in the kitchen.  She had been expecting her sister Mary to be at her side, keeping up the same fever pitch of intensity in her quest to provide the ultimate experience for Jesus.  But Mary is not at her side.  Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to what he is saying.  This annoys Martha more than a little bit and she gets angry.  Here she is working hard while Mary is taking her ease, just sitting there and spending time with their guest.  Mary has some nerve!

She is so upset that she takes it upon herself to complain to Jesus.  “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?  Tell her then to help me.”  In her frustration Martha does two things here.  First, she makes Jesus the bad guy.  She makes it sound like the fault belongs to Jesus; saying that he doesn’t care that Martha has to do all the work.  This makes it sound like Jesus is insensitive or thoughtless.  Second, she tells Jesus what to do.  “Tell her then to help me.”  I don’t know about you, but I have never been very successful when I have told God what to do.  Likewise, this doesn’t work out the way Martha expects it to.

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is only need of one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”  Not only does Jesus not order Mary to help Martha, he tells Martha that it is really SHE that is wrong here.  Martha has been focusing on the myriad tasks and details in her mind and has been missing out on the one main thing; listening to Jesus.  He basically tells her that Mary gets it, and Martha should follow her example.

Martha was trying to put together a memorable meal for Jesus, to show him how important he was to her and serve him the best way she could.  Yet in her zeal, she had missed the point.  Jesus was not interested in a fancy meal. He had stopped in their village on his way to Jerusalem, on his way to the cross that he knew awaited him there.  His time on earth was growing short and he had much he wanted to tell people.

How often do we make the same mistake as Martha?  We live complicated lives, and it is easy to let our minds become cluttered by the ubiquitous “to-do” list.  We can become consumed by what we are trying to do, even when we think we are doing it for the right reason.  Like Martha, we too need to focus on the one main thing: Jesus.  Not to impress him, not to impress others because we know him, but simply to listen and learn from him.

 

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