Psalm 52; Luke 10.38-42
I have a friend!
He grows sunflowers … he’s been doing it for years … and every September 11, early in the morning,
Every year, my friend does this quietly, anonymously … he needs no recognition … the doing of this deed is sufficient … his wife and children know, and I know, too. And most of all, he knows … in his heart of hearts, he knows … this is a good deed!
He’s a passionate man … passionate about sunflowers, and passionate about gratitude …
He inspires me …
He inspires me to be passionate, about faith, hope, and love … passionate in grace, mercy, and peace … maybe it’s just to read a book … or have lunch with someone I haven’t seen for awhile … or sign up for a course, watch a good movie, take a day trip … pay attention … pay attention to the news, to the world in which I live, pay attention to what’s going on, who’s making the headlines, who’s making the noise, who’s telling the truth, and who isn’t.
To be passionate about the things of life, things that make a difference, things that count … things centered in the earth and its wonder … the people and cultures of our world … a full moon on a clear night, the welfare of the church and the truth of the gospel.
Last week Sunday we focused on the word Justice …
Today, the word is Passion … the second of our three-part series, J.P.L … Justice, Passion, Latitude.
If Justice is what we do.
Passion defines our commitment …
Passion … the deep and abiding energy of care …
Focused by the love and care of God.
God cares deeply about God’s creation … God is passionate about you and me … the birds and the bees … the lily of the field, Zacchaeus up a tree, the children at the edge of the crowd.
Commitment … care … concern … passion.
Not all passion is good.
Those who stormed the Capital on Jan. 6 were passionate all right, but their passions are of a world-view very different from mine, a world-view of fear and panic, bitterness and rage, religious domination, racial supremacy, homophobia, guns and scaffolds.
Christ and his passion is the model we follow … that of Jeremiah and Amos, John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul, Mary and Lydia … a thousand examples of compassion, wisdom, courage, and sacrifice … doing the right thing … careful thinking and sound solutions to the ills of the day.
The word passion is often associated with the suffering of Jesus … his trial, his crucifixion, his death … his passion.
Passion involves a deep and profound self-giving … giving ourselves to a cause, a purpose, a need … to those we love.
Love creates a cross …
To love God with all that we are, to love our neighbor as ourselves … with Christ at the center.
Think of it visually … two vectors … Christ at the center.
The vertical bar - rooted in this earth, stretching toward heaven … the horizontal bar spreading wide around the world … Christ at the center … through Christ, heaven and earth, held together … through Christ, the world of need and hurt, embraced.
To follow Christ is to be with Christ at the center of the cross.
Jesus invites us to carry our own cross!
We turn now to the story of the day … a tale of two sisters.
It’s Martha who welcomes Jesus into her home …
It’s her sister, Mary, who sits at the feet of Jesus.
Mary is a disciple … in a world restricted to men … Mary breaks convention.
Martha is uncomfortable, to the point of anger.
Martha asks Jesus: Don’t you care? Don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself. Don’t. you. care?
Tell my sister to get into the kitchen with me to make lunch; tell her to dust the mantle, sweep the floor, wash the dishes … tell her to get off her duff and do something.
Jesus responds pointedly: 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.
Preachers and theologians have complimented both Martha and Mary … softening the response of Jesus … suggesting that we need both Martha and Mary … we need Martha in the kitchen, and Mary at the feet of Jesus … we need both of them, because both of them are right, in their own way and world.
That’s true, in general - there’s work to be done - material work, hands-on-work, some assembly required … grocery shopping, lunch to be made, dishes to be washed and put away … we go to work, mind our business, pay the bills, do what we can.
Yes, to all of that.
But the point of the story is this: Martha’s mistaken … Mary makes the right decision … in that critical moment.
Nothing wrong with Martha … but in the moment, she missed the boat … she focused her energies in the wrong direction … she fussed with her many tasks when she should have been at the feet of Jesus.
Martha’s passion was misdirected … which is why she’s upset … when our passion is misdirected, it never works.
Nothing more is said in the story …
I wonder …
Was Martha afraid to get outta the kitchen? … after all, a woman’s place is in the kitchen, isn’t it? If not in the kitchen, then in the laundry room.
Women had their place in life, and it wasn’t as a follower of a rabbi. Women didn’t go to seminary; women didn’t sit at the feet of a teacher.
A problem still present in our world:
Women denied opportunities of learning and work … suffering the loss of dignity … “men only” - the rule of the day in many a culture, and in much of Christianity.
To this day, issues of equal pay are still debated.
In conservative churches, women are denied their place in God’s kingdom … their voices silenced in the face of abuse and discrimination.
Conservative Presbyterians still believe that women ought not to be ordained to ministry - “men only.”
Around the world, women are treated as second-class human beings, or worse. Beaten and maimed, shunned and killed - in too many places, Christianity fails … fails to embody the passion of Christ.
Maybe Martha was afraid to step outta the kitchen.
Yet, her frustration is evident …
How many women gave up their dreams?
Because church and culture said “No!”
Women in ministry often had that calling early in their life … but they didn’t see women in the pulpit, so they had no model to follow … if they said something about it, they were likely told, “it’s for men only.”
Barriers have fallen in the last 100 years … women finding their voice … opportunities to explore their gifts.
We have more ground to cover, progress must continue, and still to be wary, wary of those who discredit women and take away their rights. As far as I can tell, the struggle is not about to end.
Today, we are called by Christ to be passionate in our commitment … nothing lukewarm here … nothing lackluster … nothing halfway will do.
We have models to follow!
Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Rosemary Ruether, Dietrich Bonhoeffer … they knew how to work; they weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, but they knew when to sit at the feet of Jesus, and they didn’t take “no” for an answer.
Sunday morning at Westminster - at the feet of Jesus … to learn of God, recalibrate our souls … ask deep questions … think things through … seek the wisdom of the Holy Spirit … open ourselves up to the grace of God … pray and ponder … seek and find … in the far corners of our souls.
Here and now, in this place, in this moment, right now: we’re Mary, we sit at the feet of Jesus … tomorrow, we’ll be Martha, with many tasks to do.
Hallelujah and Amen!
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