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Homily: “Religion — Martha and Mary”

Offered for the Parish of Tazewell County at All Saints, Morton on the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 2016 (Proper 11, Year C)

Baptism today is not a given, hence it is a decision that has behind it a great deal of intentionality. Many people no longer think it is necessary to be baptized. They may have no strong opinions against it, but it is no longer even on their radar. In the not too distant past, to be baptized was more a matter of course, even of social custom. People of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries came by this honestly. There are some commentators today who look at the changed environment in which the Church lives, and immediately say that those baptisms were less genuine, even more superficial, because “everyone was doing it.”

I am not quite of that view. Any time we look at the past, and do so honestly, we immediately see nothing is as simple as it may first appear. There are so many factors to consider when looking at the past and trying to make judgements. History is complicated. Be that as it may, Christians today in our society can no longer expect that the normal social values and Christian values are one and the same; or even, at times close at all. We are living in a time when Christian values, and the Christian way of living, when compared to values and behaviors in wider society, are what some, including our Bishop, call “counter-cultural.”

To be baptized today is an act that is counter-cultural. And so my first remark is to commend Paul and Brittainy, as well as Tim and David, in deciding to baptize young Anna, as well as their other children. It is a choice that flies into, not with, the prevailing winds of society. Baptism is against the grain. To make this choice is, in the technical sense, what it means to be “authentic.” To be authentic is to take control, or begin to take control, of the direction of one’s life. Paul and Brittainy, Tim and David are doing so on behalf of Anna. This is a decision that requires courage, responsibility, and they all are to be commended in making it.

To be baptized is, in a very particular way, to become a Christian by grace. In the very helpful Catechism found in The Book of Common Prayer, what being a Christian involves is described with clarity. The duty of all Christians, of whatever age, gifts, and level of maturity, is to follow Christ; to come together week by week for corporate worship; and to work, pray, and give for the spread of the kingdom of God. We pray that young Anna will grow into her God-given gifts and into a life of Christian ministry that uses her gifts in the world to the glory of God—to be equipped for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ—of loving God and loving neighbor.

To be baptized is to begin the religious life as members of the glorified Body of our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ. To be baptized means we have the ability, given freely as a gift from God, to reckon our entire lives to Jesus. The baptized person can see Jesus as the measure of all things, the pattern to be found in all aspects of reality, always the point of departure.

Now to do that, to reckon our entire lives to Jesus—to find in the choices we face how the light of Christ enlightens us—is not easy sometimes. We forget to include God; we become blind to his light. Reckoning our lives—and the best example of doing this is found in Blessed Mary, the Mother of God—requires both quiet moments of contemplation as well as active lives of serving others, of representing Jesus.

We see both examples in our Gospel reading today. Martha welcomed Jesus and the disciples into her home and served the guests—an example of the active life. Her sister Mary sat at the feet of the Lord, listening. She is the example of contemplation. Now although Jesus tells Martha that Mary has chosen the better way—that is, contemplation, or sheer listening to the Word of the Lord with no distractions—a closer look reveals that Martha is also listening to the Lord. Yes, she is active, perhaps a bit too active, perhaps pride is creeping in, but she is also listening to Jesus. She recognizes that she needs the help of Jesus.

The better way—no matter our lives, our gifts, our responsibilities—is always listening to God, seeking his saving help. What is the better way for Mary is the better way for Martha, and the better way for us. Yet Martha is not a negative example for us, but one very positive and affirming. She welcomes Jesus; she provides hospitality; she talks with Our Lord. She mixes listening and doing, and we are to do the same. Remember she is a Saint, her feast day is July 29, shared with her sister Mary. Saints are the best interpreters of holy Scripture, because their lives express the Gospel.

For as we live our active lives today—our religious lives representing Jesus in our homes, our neighborhoods, our workplaces—when we feel overwhelmed, or stressed out by all of the tasks on our to-do lists, tell Jesus. Talk to him, and bring him your complaints, as Martha did. As is taught in our Collect today, God knows our necessities before we ask, even our ignorance in asking.

So be honest, remember Mary, remember the need for quiet contemplation, away from distractions to hear Jesus—yet be like Martha. Live a mixed life of activity and contemplation, according to your gifts. And when the road gets bumpy, do not edit your frustrations, tell Jesus about them. If it means complaining to God about another person, by all means do so—Martha did! But then, like Mary, and like Martha, have the courage, the patience, and the fear of the Lord to listen to him, to wait for his sign, to be guided spiritually, and hence behaviorally, by him. One of the many gifts of Baptism is the assurance that when we listen to him, at some point in time of his choosing, He will speak.

Cover image “Christus im Hause der Martha” by Georg Friedrich Stettner is licensed under CC BY 2.0 / Cropped from original.