"Don't You Know Your Place"

July 21, 2019    Luke 10: 38-42

The story of Mary and Martha can be interpreted in many ways.  One in particular looks from the perspective of who was right and who was wrong in this situation.  Making a judgement call on what is wrong and what is right is not always that easy.  Especially when it involves a person who has been nurtured in a particular culture.  Wright and wrong is often determined by culture or your ethnic background and because of this we often do not see things in the same context as others.  

Burping or belching at the dinner table is not something we are taught to do.  In fact most would probably say it’s terrible and improper.  Does anyone know where belching or burping after a meal is considered a complement to the host?  Egypt, Afghanistan, and Saudi Aribia.  In some circles it is considered an insult to the host if you don’t burp. 

Canadians are taught it is disrespectful to eat at the dinner table using your hands, but in India it is their custom.   Now If you ever do eat with your hands in India or at an Indian restaurant, make sure to use just your right hand—never the left, which is considered unclean.  The Modern day Jewish community do no longer follow all 613 customary laws.  248 were do’s, and 365 were do nots.  Today only 126 of the do’s are currently applicable and only 243 of the do nots are still applicable. Man continues to change his rules of right and wrong as we go but God has never changed. Hebrews 13: 8

Martha thinks it is quite clear as to what is right and what is wrong in this situation for Mary. So she asks Jesus to speak to Mary, but Jesus only points out to Martha that Mary has chosen something better.   A key to this stories insight is found in what Mary has chosen. She has Chosen something better.   Jesus also illustrates for us that it is not easy in life to choose something better?   What is that is not working well for you in your life right now?   Now you do not have to answer my question directly, but may I suggest that we all have often chosen the school of hard knocks before we begin to choose something better.   

A modern day Mary night be accused of skipping out of her duties, just sitting around while her sister did all the hospitality work.   Others might see Martha as overbearing and bossy, wanting to control the situation by laying a guilt tip on Mary,  Besides didn’t Mary know her place!!    Have you ever had those words directed at you before?  Maybe not in words but  I have had the stare from father or my mom and I knew exactly what that meant.  Don’t you know your place Simpson?    Doesn’t Mary understand the traditions of her cultures here?

We all know that even today in certain parts of the world, women can be excommunicated, imprisoned, executed, or even stoned to death for trying to exercise their human rights to education and a working life.  Many in the west still think that women should know their place in society.   So what is wrong, the culture, the teachings, or is it that we just do not understand that we are all equal in the eyes of our creator, there is no longer male or female, Jew or Gentile we are all equal in Gods sight.   In this situation, Jesus makes it clear, it is all about choice? 

Martha gets so frustrated that she asks Jesus to settle the matter.  Jesus doesn’t help at all and gives her an answer she is not ready to hear.  Often we do not hear the better choice. 

Folks, I going to challenge you this morning asking you to examine your choices for coming to church today.   We all came I hope with the idea of spending time with Jesus, to open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit, to gain from the wisdom of the text.   We came to unload our burdens and recharge our batteries for next week’s battle right?    Well, unconsciously this might not be the case with all of us.   Some may have come strictly out of tradition, others out of duty and some may have come out of curiosity, just to see what I might do next.   How many of us come like Martha, finding it hard to sit still for the full hour, giving Jesus, God and the scriptures our full attention.  Many of us may have come with the week’s unfinished business on our minds, or maybe we are pre-occupied with things to do after worship hour is over.   I believe Jesus’ teaching is not about who is right or who is wrong, I think Jesus is offering us a deeper meaning and it is about choices.  He is offering Mary the opportunity to be good to herself.   If someone other than you is making your choices, you cannot be good to yourself either.  Making good choices for yourself is no easy task folks and often it require you do some deep soul searching.   You not only need to embrace your gifts but you also need to accept an embrace your flaws.  Self-disclosure requires courage.  Often we choose what we think we want or need, only to be disappointed or find ourselves in difficulties.   Choice, is a double edged sward it cuts two ways.   Some yield a reward and others will offer us a learning experience.    Having the ability to choose was not meant to destroy life or relationships, but if I am paying attention, it will tell me something about what is right or wrong for me.  Jesus is offering Mary guidance to make good choices and He wants to guide us too.   Sometimes we choose to please others because we don’t want to cause a fuss nor do we want to be seen as a disappointment to family, church or friends.  Other times it is because we don’t want to be misunderstood as being selfish.  Then there are those among us who find it difficult to hand out an appropriate no, or even an appropriate yes.   We are instructed by Jesus to love ourselves so we can offer the same to a neighbor.   Folks it really is all about choosing something better.  

So then, Mary has made her choice and Jesus concurs, Mary has chosen something better.  In both cases neither is right or wrong.  One sister is struggling with this situation more than the other, because Martha insists she knows what is right for Mary.  In doing so, she breaks one of the cardinal rules of self-awareness.  You can never really live your life through another, nor can you change anyone except yourself.    Any person who doesn’t understand this teaching, will continue to always want to change others.    

If you look closer you will see that the real problem Martha is struggling with:  She struggling with control issues.   You see Mary recognizes her need for Jesus and his words, Martha is preoccupied and sees it differently.   The fact that Jesus commends Mary, tell us something about choosing to be good to oneself.    The issue is really never about being right or wrong, it is about knowing you can always choose something better in thought, word or deed.     Let us pray

Experiential Knowing

When I use the word “mystical” I am referring to experiential knowing instead of just intellectual, textbook, or dogmatic knowing. A mystic sees things in their wholeness, connection, and union, not only their particularity. Mystics get a whole gestalt in one picture, beyond the sequential and separated way of seeing that most of us encounter in everyday life. In this, mystics tend to be closer to poets and artists than to linear thinkers. Obviously, there is a place for both, but since the European Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, there has been less and less appreciation of such seeing in wholes. The mystic was indeed considered an “eccentric” (off center), but maybe mystics are the most centered of all, which leads them to emphasizing love as the center, the goal, and the motivating energy of everything.

The word mystic is not a title of superiority. It’s rather that mystics see things differently. Mystics are nondual seers. They don’t think one side is totally right and the other side is totally wrong. They can see that each side has a part of the truth. When people on either side of any contentious issue cannot love one another, it means they don’t have the big message yet.

And what is the big message, the great good news? I try to explain it in my book The Universal Christ. There is a well-hidden Mystery that’s true everywhere, and only the sincere seekers find it. People may have different names for this Mystery, but I don’t think God minds what we call God as long as it helps us focus on our radical unity while honoring our differences. Mystics—and all mature spirituality—recognize that the dignity in people and created things is inherent, equally shared, and objective. “You were chosen in Christ from the beginning before the world began” (Ephesians 1:4). This dignity is not created by moral behavior or sacraments. It’s the universally shared image of God, already present (see Genesis 1:26-27). Humans are just the lucky ones who can bring this to consciousness. Sacraments just help us do that.

Insights by Richard Rohr

July 7, 2019   Galatians 6: 7–16   Psalm 30

In the first 4 verses of today’s reading Paul is speaking to the church folk as a community of faith.  Paul cares deeply about how the members of the church relate to one another.  His message is strong and direct, let us hear it once again:   7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Last week we talked about the fruits of the Spirit and what the attributes or the characteristics of that fruit would look like.   In the afterglow of the service we who stayed to chat, talked about the gifts of the Spirit and it was pointed out by one person that even after listing all the gifts, Paul finally points to one gift that allows all the others gifts to be motivated and mature. Without the gift of love Paul states, I am nothing more than a resounding gong or fan fair.  In other words to get people’s attention focused on me.    The Gift of Love is explained in 1Corhtinthians 13:  13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.   Now to hear in words the fruit of this most blessed gift, you will need to read at home the rest of the story beginning at verses 4-13.  There you will hear all the attributes, the characteristics or as Paul describes it, the fruit of this gift.   

Too often, it seems, interpersonal dynamics and leadership in the church are simply mirroring those of the world.  Too often our mind is divided by dualistic labels,  there is the good people and the bad people.  The rich folks and the poor.  There is no shortage of finger-pointing for whatever is perceived to be wrong, and no shortage of judgment for those we perceived, to have messed up their lives. Too often those experiencing crisis in their lives avoid the church for fear of judgment or being smothered by condescending care-givers who often turn out to be enablers rather than vacillators for healing and restoration. The person or family in crisis grows more isolated, as many churches have all but lost their place in the community as a place of openness,  healing and restoration.

In stark contrast is Paul's understanding of the responsibility we bear, for one another. This responsibility extends to restoring one who has transgressed, but we must do so in a spirit of love, with the fruits of gentleness, compassion, without judgment, without an air of condescension.  “Bearing one another's burdens," means that we to must recognizing our own vulnerability to sin, sharing in the guilt and pain of transgression only then can we begin to fulfil the responsibility for healing and restoration.  Somehow over the years we have forgot that it is not the job of a minister to make a community of faith fall in love with each other.  The myth is that some minister is going to come along and do all that work. We are family, it is our job collectively to "bear one another's burdens," one to the other.  In doing so we will share in the renewal of both church and faith.    

Would you please take a minute to greet your neighbor with a hand shake or a hug and tell them how wonderful it is to be part of this family of faith.    

Paul has seen the church at its best and at its worst.   A church in which the barriers between us and them still exist, who is a slave and who is free.  Barriers between male and female still divide communities of faith.  Paul must still contend with the worldly view, but he has learned to live in a "crucified" relationship to it.  He recognizes that in the death and resurrection of Christ, a new creation has shattered the old world order for those who are willing to live as Jesus lived.  Paul is firm that man-made religious rules or laws such as to be circumcised, no longer have any bearing on their relationship with Christ, but becoming a new creation in Him is everything!"      So where does that leave us in the church today.  In the same place folks.  We need to put aside any obstacle that keeps us from loving our neighbor as we are called to do.   As we will  say once again during the communion service today: In Christ, God breaks down the walls that make us strangers to ourselves, and divides us from one another.  We need to not lift up any name or group above the name of Jesus and we must admit that there is no elite in the eyes of a true Christian including clergy.   For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,   Romans 3:23. Write that passage on your hearts never again to judge a neighbors sins. 

Bearing one another's burdens in this way is a tall order folks, it is a fine line to walk. The temptations of excessive meddling, self-deception, and judging the neighbor are ever present. Yet we are called to be an alternative community of God's grace, mercy, healing, and restoration in an unforgiving world. This is possible only by the power of the Spirit, through it gifts and by its fruit grounded in God's love, then they will truly know us by our love for we have become a new creation in Christ.  Otherwise we are as Paul says, without love as my foundation, I am nothing.    Paul declares, "May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” As you come to the partake in the sharing of bread and drink this morning, let it remind you just what the Master has personally done for you.  Let us pray.