8th Sunday after Pentecost ~ July 22, 2007

Dear friends in Christ, our text today is a very familiar one to us of Mary and Martha and Jesus coming for a visit. I think it is familiar because it rings so true in our daily lives. We have been in situations like theirs where one person seems to be doing all the work and the other appears to be reaping the reward.

We can all picture this event in our lives. Guest are scheduled to come over and we spend time getting ready for their visit. In our household we spend a few days before getting the house clean and then the day of the visit we spend getting the meal ready. Now, this is a stereotype but probably fairly true for most people, when the guest arrive, I, as the husband, great them and spend time with them as my wife finishes the meal in the kitchen. Is that fair? She works in the kitchen while I spend time with the guests. Wives or those who are spending time in the kitchen – don’t you get at least a little jealous that the other person is getting to spend time with the guests? Sure you have! So we can relate with Martha.

We know what it is like to Martha and be stuck doing the work while it appears that someone else is reaping the reward. So don’t you wonder what Jesus is doing here scolding Martha? Isn’t it Mary that is being lazy? But our Lord turns the tables on our preconceived ideas of what is most important. Now don’t misunderstand this text, Jesus is not saying Martha’s work is wrong. In fact, without Martha’s work there would be no meal for them to enjoy. It is just that Martha has got the “cart before the horse” In Martha’s worry about getting everything “right” she has failed to stop and listen to what was more important – the words of Jesus our Lord.

Too often we forget to listen before we act, and that can get us in trouble. We too often think more highly of our work then of why we are doing what we need to do. God gave us two ears and one mouth but we often use our mouth and actions more that stopping and listening.

This is very true in our human relationships. Isn’t communication a vital part of building good relationships? And isn’t it one of the things that usually breaks down or causes the most grief? How often have we heard it said, “They didn’t really listen to me.” when it comes to our relationship? In my pre-marital sessions I spend time with couples working on their listening skills and conflict resolution skills. Often times the cause of conflict is because both sides haven’t really listened to the other side. Listening, focusing in on the other person is important. We know that to be true in our earthly relationships.

And if that is true with our human relationships don’t you think it is more important with our relationship with God? But how often have we found ourselves saying, “When I get more time I will read my Bible, or go to church more often, or attend a Bible Study, or pray?” What we have done is placed our work before listening to God. And usually when we do that we find ourselves going off in the wrong direction. But when we spend time listening to God then the “work” of our life flows from what we have heard. We need to listen first and then act. Again, I am not saying that we stop “working.” We need to always be in action for the Lord. But to be in action we need to first spend time listening to God and then acting on His will for us. Back to our human relationships, how many times have we done something we thought was right for another person only to learn that it wasn’t because we didn’t listen to what they needed? We can do the same with God. We need to listen and then act.

This became clear for me when I was on a mission trip to Mexico many years ago. For the people we worked with building relationships was very important. It was the thing to be accomplished first in all matters of life. We spent time working on the construction of a church building while we were there. In our mindset we felt that we should work first and then spend time with the people. Let’s get the church done as soon as we can and then we will have a place for people to meet, we reasoned. The problem was that we would only be there for 10 days and there was so much work to be done that we could fill every waking moment with construction work. If we did that then we would miss the opportunity to get to know the people of the neighborhood. This was vitally important for the life of the church – develop the relationships and then build the building for them to meet. Often while we were working children would come to check out the worksite. It would have been easy for us to say come back later when we are done with our work, but it was more effective fro outreach if we spent time with the children and then got back to work. You see if we only focused on the building then when it was accomplished there would be no one to fill it. But if we focused on why the building was being built, for people, and spent time with people, then a relationship would be started that would continue after the building was done. If it took longer to build the church that is ok if relationship were being built in the process.

The same works here in America. When it comes to Evangelism we need to listen first and then respond. One of the action words of our mission statement is Reach, but to truly reach out with the Gospel well we also need to Care. Too often when we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ we think we have to get all the words right and we have to get them out as soon as possible. We don’t want to waste any opportunity! But too often we miss the boat because we haven’t listened to the person we are witnessing too. We often turn people away because they don’t think we care about them and their lives. But when we take time to listen to them first we get to know who they are, show them care and understanding, and then through the power of the Holy Spirit we will know how they need to hear the Gospel. Listen first and then action.

And what is even more amazing in our life are the open ears of our Lord. You see we will fail to listen well and we will act in ways that are not what we should. But God will never fail to listen to us and respond according to His good and gracious will. He heard our cries for salvation and sent His Son Jesus to be our Savior and He continues to listen to us. Interesting that next weeks Gospel lesson, and sermon, will be on the Lord’s Prayer. We are called by God strength to listen first and then act, may we spend the time sitting at Jesus feet and then go our in response to the Gospel and work in the world for our neighbor. Amen