“Martha, Martha! You’re anxious and upset about so many things, but only a few things are necessary—really only one” (Luke 10: 41-42). Our Gospel reading today might be a short one, but even with only a few verses, I am immediately hit with all the ways that I am a Martha. It’s like an instant flashback to when I was in middle school and high school and my dad would tell me to worry less because I worried so much that I would worry if there was nothing to worry about. I am grateful now, for the various ways that we can recognize and manage anxieties in our lives. We’ve come a long way in the past few decades. And, I think that at times, we are all like Martha, at least a little bit, worried about more than we need to be.
I look at the world around us today and it seems completely understandable that we might be anxious and upset, like Martha. We are still trying to live in a world with COVID-19, our country is experiencing tension in almost every facet of our functioning, wars are raging around the world, our climate continues to change in ways we have never experienced. And, those are just some of the big things. It’s hard not to look at everything happening in the world and feel an overwhelming sense of anxiety or frustration or anger. Yet, Jesus calls Martha back to what matters the most, relationship with Jesus, even as the world spins on and other peoples’, namely Mary’s, actions are beyond her control. Jesus is reminding her that she does not have to be in charge of or in control of everything. That it is okay, and even necessary, to rest.
I’ve been wrestling with this Gospel a lot this week because Jesus calls out Martha’s anxiety, but I also don’t think that Jesus is telling Martha that she is any less worthy because she struggles with her anxieties. I kept thinking about how ELCA Pastor Emmy Kegler, after writing her book All Who are Weary: Easing the Burden on the Walk with Mental Illness, created stickers that said “Jesus saves, so does therapy” and “Hope takes many forms,” which included an image of both a Bible and a prescription bottle. In a world where many people and Christians have been scolded for their anxiety or depression, etc. or told that they just didn’t pray enough or have enough faith, Pastor Kegler is telling the world that the both/and that we Lutherans love, is true in this case too. I read what is happening with Jesus in today’s Gospel in that vein too; Jesus is inviting Martha into both. An invitation into a life where she can acknowledge her anxieties, but can also be in a relationship with Jesus, hearing that she does not have to go through these struggles alone. She does not have to be defined by her anxieties, but they are not something that makes her any less deserving of love either. After all, humans experience some form of anxiousness at different points in their life.
And, I know for one thing, I want to be conscious of how we intentionally and unintentionally shame Martha. Because, I have been in many devotion periods with colleagues who whenever we read stories with Mary and Martha, they ask everyone which of the two they are, with this implied understanding that Mary is better than Martha. It’s similar to how I often hear Sarah judged and shamed for laughing about the news that she will have a son in those verses after what we hear from Genesis today. I for one, completely understand why she would laugh at that.
While leading Bible Study at Foss this week, we also studied this Genesis reading, and I asked my residents in attendance how they would respond if God came to them tomorrow and told them that they were going to have a baby in a year. Many of them laughed too. Because what is being promised to Abraham and Sarah is something that has been deemed impossible in our worldview, yet it is not impossible in the eyes of God.
I think that is one of the reasons why I love studying this Genesis reading. Sarah is doing everything society would expect her to be doing, namely preparing the food and staying out of sight in the tent while Abraham converses and eats with their visitors, much like Martha and Mary in today’s Gospel. I think too about how we are told that God appeared to Abraham as these three men, representative of our Triune God, but we truly know that it is God when they ask: “Where is Sarah?” (Genesis 18: 9). I find it odd that they do not go find Sarah to tell her that she will bear a child, but I think it points to the fact that God already knew she was listening. I’ve come to think, or perhaps hope, that maybe God is giving her a little bit of time to process this news before she has to talk to her husband about it. But, the fact that the visitors ask for Sarah, when her name had just changed from Sarai in the chapter before, tells me that God knows Sarah and sees her, even when she is dismissed by others as too old or simply as out of sight. God sees her and knows her by name. Just as Jesus truly sees Martha.
So, as I have been wrestling with how to talk about these Scripture readings today in a way that doesn’t shame us for the things we carry with us, I keep coming back to this reminder: God sees us and knows us by name, and God knows the things that we carry close to our hearts. The worry and the shame, the fear and the anxiety, all the things that we might not care for others to see. Yet, God does not see us as any less worry of love or care because of those things, in contrast to how societal messages can try to make us feel. God does not offer judgement, but companions on the journey, to love and support one another; companions that truly know us.
When I was interviewing here to be your pastor, I talked about how one of the things I love most about my call to ministry is that I get to walk beside people through this journey we call life. I see that as one of the greatest gifts of how we minister to one another; we show up and love each other and help carry the anxieties and burdens that lie heavy on our hearts. And, we are seen for who we are, not just who people want us to be. Because it’s hard to change some of those things sometimes, to let go of the fear and worry. But, they are also not the only things that make us who we are.
I think back to when I would be the recipient of all those lectures about how I need to worry less or be less stressed, and I can honestly say that they usually had the opposite effect. I felt even more worried because I felt like there was something wrong with me, like I was failing as a person. Which is why I have spent so much time wrestling with the readings for this week, because I do not want any of you to even unintentionally hear that you are not enough because of any part of who you are. We get to laugh when things seem impossible or worry when things aren’t going as we had planned or when the present and the future seem terrifying, but those are also not the only things that are important in life. It’s the both/and that we talked about earlier. We get to feel those feelings and we are still called to deeper relationship with the world and with God. So, as I will say many, many times over our life of ministry together, I am so glad that you are here, that you are a part of this community, whether it is for only one day or for many years to come. Because, we wouldn’t be the same without you and I’m so grateful that we get to be companions on this journey together.
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Sunday July 10th, 2022 Worship