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Learner and DoerJuly 22, 2007 Eighth Sunday after Pentecost As I was preparing my message this week, I discovered that the last time the story of Mary and Martha was preached at Christ Church, Cathy Gilliard was in the pulpit. Since I was not present on that Sunday, I decided to see what she had to say. I learned she was a good preacher, told the truth, and that I didn’t disagree with a thing she said. Anyway, included within Cathy’s musings three years ago was her opinion that Martha was probably older than Mary. She reasoned that Martha behaved like the eldest sibling based on our modern understanding of birth order. People who study such things tell us that first-borns and “onlys” often grow up to be responsible types. For instance, checking this out in Wikipedia I read, “Firstborns are typically believed to be serious, conscientious, directive, goal-oriented, aggressive, rule-conscious, exacting, conservative, organized, responsible, jealous, fearful, high achieving, competitive, and anxious.” [1] While we have too little information in our short story this morning to deduce very much, it’s tempting to conclude that Martha was the older sister given her evident penchant for fulfilling the obligations of appropriate hospitality and behavior for a woman in her time. She’s also irked that Mary hasn’t “done her duty”, so to speak. Youngest siblings are thought to be more easy-going risk-takers, so Mary’s behavior seems compatible with being the youngest by sitting at Jesus’ feet – an attitude thought to be unbecoming for a woman of her day. Old Jewish commentary said this: “Let thy house be a meeting-house for the Sages and sit amid the dust of their feet and drink in their words with thirst...but do not talk much with womankind.”[2] Mary here is behaving like a male. She neglects her duty to assist her sister in the preparation of the meal, and by violating a clear social boundary, she is bringing shame upon her house. By convention of the day, responsible Martha has several reasons to be concerned. Well, I’m uncertain how useful it would be if we knew for certain that Martha was the elder. I mean, I don’t know if that makes us any smarter about what the story means. The fact remains we need both types of people, irksome as it may be for parents, and siblings, and friends, and churches, and businesses, and every other sort of social organization. We need responsible people with gumption and follow-through, and we need risk-taking rebels who see beyond the rules, regulations and customs of the day. Sort of odd to consider that sitting at Jesus’ feet and drinking in his wisdom was akin to disruptive behavior, but that seems to be the case. Still, Jesus’ larger point appears to hinge on discerning when it’s time to listen and learn and when it’s time for action. After all, last week we read the story of the Good Samaritan in which the despised Samaritan extended himself, risked himself, on behalf of a beaten man left for dead on the side of the road, while the pious religious types couldn’t be bothered and walked on by. He bound the man’s wounds, took him to an inn, and in paying the fee, instructed the innkeeper to continue his hospitality. Jesus ended this story by telling the lawyer who was quizzing him that in order to gain eternal life this is the sort of love he should do. The emphasis was on the doing. “Do this and you will live,” [3] Jesus said. Luke follows this up immediately with a story about emphasizing the sitting, not the doing. Mary is praised for “doing the better part” by sitting at Jesus’ feet, but only after Martha lodges her complaint. Without considering the Samaritan, we might come to the erroneous conclusion that Jesus preferred the intentions of slothful but spiritual academic types over that of workaholics who are constantly busy with many things – or that study with a minister trumps housework, or any work, for that matter. But as Fred Craddock points out, if we censure Martha too harshly, she may abandon serving altogether, and if we commend Mary too profusely, she may sit there forever. There is a time to go and do; there is a time to listen and reflect. Knowing which and when is a matter of spiritual discernment. If we were to ask Jesus which example applies to us, the Samaritan or Mary, his answer would probably be “Yes.” [4] Both the Samaritan and Mary stepped out of their expected roles to do the better part. Surely one of the lessons is that whether we’re in the business of loving God or in the business of loving neighbor, if we follow Jesus’ script, we’re bound to stretch ourselves in ways we didn’t expect or even find especially comfortable. We will do the unexpected thing for us. If we’re doers, we’ll find ourselves needing to sit and listen and ponder and pray. And if we’re spiritual types, more apt to be found worshiping and studying, we’ll find ourselves needing to engage in tangible action. The fact is, mature faith is a function of both. Preacher Thomas Long tells a story about Grace Thomas. Grace was born in the early twentieth century as the second of five children. Her father was a streetcar conductor in Birmingham, Alabama, and so Grace grew up in modest circumstances. Later in life, after getting married and moving to Georgia, Grace took a clerking job in the state capitol in Atlanta, where she developed a fondness for politics and the law. So, although already a full-time mother and a full-time clerk, Grace enrolled in night school to study law. In 1954, Grace shocked her family by announcing that she wanted to run for public office. What’s more, Grace didn’t want to run for drain commissioner or for the city council: Grace ran for governor of the state of Georgia. There was a total of nine candidates that year – nine candidates, one issue. It was 1954 and the issue was Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark decision that mandated a desegregating of schools. Grace Thomas was alone among the nine candidates to say she thought this was a just decision. Her campaign slogan was “Say Grace at the Polls!" Hardly anyone did, though, and Grace ran dead last. Her family was glad she got it out of her system, except she didn’t and so decided to run for governor again in 1962. By then the racial tensions were far more taut than they had been eight years earlier. Grace’s progressive platform on race issues earned her a number of death threats. One day she held a rally in a small town and chose as her venue the old slave market in the town square. As she stood there, Grace motioned to the platform where once human beings had been bought and sold like a product and she said, “The old has passed away, the new has come. A new day has come when all of us, white and black, can join hands and work together.” At that point a red-faced man in the crowd interrupted Grace’s speech to blurt out, “Are you a communist!?” “Why, no,” Grace replied quietly. “Well then, where’d you get all them galdurned ideas!?” Grace pointed to the steeple of a nearby Baptist church. “I learned them over there, in Sunday school.” [5] Now, I suppose it was possible that the man who asked whether Grace was a communist also went to Sunday school somewhere and never learned the lesson Grace did. The reason for that we have to leave for other sermons to consider. For our purpose today, it’s enough to say that its evident Grace sat at the feet of Jesus where she learned that no one was outside of God’s redemption, that everyone was loved beyond time and measure, that no prescribed cultural roles should prevent God’s love from stirring up righteous trouble, and where she also learned that this love was meant to be acted upon in the world. I have no idea whether being second born had any impact on her development. What is obvious, though, is that Grace was a learner and she was a doer. She was a doer and she was a learner. She was loved and she loved. And I’m thinking that’s the way this Christian religion is supposed to work when its living up to the intentions of its founder.
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