Today’s story about Martha and her sister Mary is another familiar one. We all know Martha is the more "responsible" one, taking to heart her duties as host to her guests. She fusses away in the kitchen preparing food, providing for Jesus who has come into her home.

Mary is the more cerebral one. She sits on the floor at Jesus’ feet and listens to his stories and his teachings.

Martha is upset because Mary isn’t helping her and she expects Jesus to chastise Mary in her place. In Jewish culture of the time, it was not acceptable for a woman to sit at the feet of a teacher in the way a disciple might. A rabbi would never allow such a thing. Women were the caregivers and the cooks. Mary definitely belonged in the kitchen with Martha.

Jesus, however, does not respond to Martha in the way she had expected. He doesn’t condemn Mary, or send her away. Instead, he remarks on Martha’s distractedness and tells her he will not send Mary away into the kitchen. She has chosen to listen to him and she has chosen the better thing to do, he says.

This story is, in part, about the ways in which we welcome Jesus into our lives. Some of us are Martha’s and some are Mary’s, and while the names may be gender-specific, the roles are not.

No faith community could function without both its Martha’s and its Mary’s.

The Martha’s among us are the outwardly busy ones – holding suppers, visiting the shut-ins, making the phone calls, tidying up, preparing communion, doing the dishes, taking home the linens to launder, fixing windows and doors, cutting grass, vacuuming carpet. Try to keep a church building in good repair without a plentiful supply of willing and hard-working Martha’s. It’s near impossible.

Even if we did not have a church building, we would still need Martha’s, because there are the organizational, procedural things to be done – taking minutes, setting agendas, attending to committee work, teaching our children – and on it goes.

We welcome Christ by providing and maintaining a beautiful worship place for the faith community to gather.

We welcome Christ by giving generously of our time and talent to the church.

We welcome Christ through our support of Rural Visions and the Mission and Service Fund.

The Martha’s among us are VERY busy.

And Jesus does not speak disparagingly of such work. But he does remind us that the Mary’s have chosen well. They’re the ones who go to Bible study, who keep a prayer list and faithfully bring names to God in prayer – names of those in special need of care and concern. The Mary’s are the quiet, contemplative ones whose prayers and support sustain us all.

The Mary’s among us turn the welcoming space that the Martha’s have provided into sacred space through their faith and devotion.

In the book, Celtic Parables: Stories, Poems and Prayers, Robert Van De Weyer writes:

"We need people who search for the truth, and we need people to proclaim it. We need people who quietly contemplate God’s love, and we need people to express it. We need people who devote their lives to prayer, and we need people to enact those prayers. We need people who are free from all worldly ties, and we need people to manage our affairs.

We need both Mary and Martha. At times every Martha must become Mary, and every Mary must become Martha."

Everything in life is dependent upon and interconnected with everything else. I’m sure I’ve told you before my story of the retired nuns at the Providence Motherhouse in Kingston who prayed every week for one of my theology classes while we students struggled with difficult and unsettling issues. We were the Martha’s slugging away – not over a kitchen stove, but over a textbook – while the silent Mary’s prayed for us. They got us through that course.

Our church – and indeed our world – could not survive without both Mary’s and Martha’s.

But there is another dimension to this story that we are apt to miss if we focus completely on the two sisters and what they are doing – or not doing.

A slightly different version of this story occurs in the Gospel of John. John has Martha and Mary living in Bethany, near Jerusalem and identifies them as the sisters of Lazarus. They appear to be close friends of Jesus in John’s gospel.

Luke doesn’t mention the Lazarus connection and places the home of the sisters somewhere on the road to Jerusalem but still in Galilee. Jesus seems more like a welcome stranger than a close friend in Luke’s story.

One thing that stands out so clearly in both gospels is the way Jesus continues to break through social barriers.

• He is a guest in the home of a woman. This is MARTHA’S house. It would be very unusual at the time for a man to be welcomed into the home of a woman – a woman apparently with no male relatives in attendance. This would border on the scandalous.
• Secondly, Jesus teaches a woman – Mary – just as he would any of the male disciples. To sit at the feet of a rabbi was not a passive, submissive role. It was to challenge and debate and discuss his ideas with him. That was not something women did. Martha’s complaint to Jesus did not simply reflect her own personal annoyance that Mary was not helping in the kitchen. It reflected the attitude of a society that said that Mary was acting like a man and she should be put in her place.
• While Jesus proclaims Mary as the one who chooses the better way, this is really Martha’s story, located in her home and recording her distress and conversational with Jesus. Although Mary is mentioned, she never speaks.

There is another significant implication in this passage. Luke records this story immediately after the story of the Good Samaritan. Think about that story and Jesus’ words to the lawyer, "Go and do likewise". "DO"! Jesus urges him to be active in reaching out to help others. Jesus reminds the lawyer that everyone is our neighbour and that we have a responsibility to help and care for one another.

Isn’t that exactly what Martha is doing? She welcomes a traveler on the road to Jerusalem into her home and immediately proceeds to prepare a meal for him. She is being neighbourly – doing just what Jesus says we must do.

Yet Jesus does not lavish praise on her for this act of hospitality and caring. Neither does he condemn her service. (At the Last Supper Jesus presented himself as one that serves). Instead, in loving tones, he replies, "Martha, Martha" (Can’t you just hear the words and their comforting sound?) "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 from her."

Martha is busy preparing numerous dishes to feed the body while Mary has chosen this moment to feed her soul.

As we are told in the Book of Ecclesiastes,

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;" and it goes on "a time to keep silence, and a time to speak." We might add, "a time to work and a time to listen."

Jesus is not being inconsistent here. He is not saying on one hand , "Help your neighbor", and on the other, "don’t help your neighbour, just sit down". He is affirming and blessing both. Jesus calls us to actively respond to human need. He is also calling us to be still, to listen, and to learn.

One of the most difficult things to do is to just sit and "be". We are a society of doers. As a minister, I find it challenging sometimes to sit quietly and contemplate the Scriptures. I find my mind racing along with all the things I should be doing and it’s often hard work to focus and be still.

But I know that if I don’t take the time to "feed my soul, my spirit", the other things I do, I do to little effect and without real purpose.

These are the things – the prayer and contemplation – that identify us as a church. They are what separate us from our local service clubs. The Lions Club, Kiwanis, Rotary, etc. all do good work to help others. They support the Food Bank; they organize relief and assistance when a family suffers a tragic loss. They develop and support programs for our youth. They do all the things that God expects of us.

The difference is that WE do these things in response to Christ’s call on our lives and to God’s commandment to love and care for one another.

And so, to equip ourselves for this task, we turn to our God in prayer. We read and contemplate the Scriptures, to receive the spiritual food we need. We listen for the Word of God.

The Rev. Dr. Frank Meadows, a retired United Church minister, tells this story:

"A minister of a neighbouring church was telling me just a few days ago of an experience he had quite recently in his own church. He had been in his study in the church, reading and making some notes. It was a hot day but he had his window air conditioner on and he was quite comfortable. One of the men of the congregation was outside mowing the lawn. After a while, he came into the building to get a drink of water, and he walked past the open door of the study. He stopped, looked in (sweat dripping from his chin) and said, "Is this what you call work? Is this what we pay you to do?" My minister friend thought that the man was trying to be funny, but he said he felt guilty nonetheless. Maybe he should be out there, helping to mow the lawn, instead of inside in an air-conditioned study, reading and making notes".

This story of Martha and Mary shows us that it is important to cut the grass, but it’s even more important to listen to the Word of God. Our society has taught us well that if we don’t do something that raises a sweat, then we’re not really working. We need to relearn the necessity and benefits of contemplation and stillness.

Our job as Christians is discerning when to do the one and when to do the other. Being Christian involves, among other things, a sense of timing.

There are times when we need to be about doing God’s work in the world. If a neighbour loses their home in a fire, we need to be there to offer assistance – to help them find emergency accommodation, food and clothing, to walk with them through their shock and sorrow. It is not enough to say, "I’ll pray for you". Prayer is a most important and necessary part of your care and concern for them, but action is also needed.

There are times when the greatest thing we can do for someone is to pray for them. There is an amazing comfort and sense of peace that comes to you when you know someone is praying for you. To know that you are cared for to such a degree that another person is lifting up YOUR needs and YOUR concerns to our God, brings such joy to one’s heart. And the one who prays to God will receive the guidance and support necessary to do the "things" that must be done.

God – and the church – needs both Martha’s and Mary’s to grow God’s kingdom here on earth. There are times when God needs us to be a Martha and times when God needs us to be a Mary. But we must always remember that to be a Martha, we must first be a Mary.

It’s all in our sense of timing.

Amen