Sixth Sunday after Pentecost: Amos 8:1-12; Psalm 52; Colossians 1:15-28; Luke 10:38-42
Some weeks, I think the organizers of the lectionary have it in for me. Our readings start out with Amos, decrying those whose only goal is to make more money, resenting the times they could not sell, using false weights to cheat the poor. My first thought was that he was talking about the US today, not ancient Israel.
We move to the Psalm, which begins with railing against a tyrant who “boasts of wickedness . . .love all words that hurt”. The righteous shall, instead, laugh at him who “trusted in great wealth and relied on wickedness”. They trust instead in the mercy of God.
Paul’s letter to the Colossians provides a summary of the faith, and proclaims the saving work of Jesus. In Jesus “you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled”. You’ll be all right, he says (in effect) as long as you continue “steadfast in the faith”.
We end with the familiar story of Martha and Mary: Mary sits and listens to Jesus, while Martha does the work of the household. Martha wants help, and asks Jesus to get Mary to do so. And Jesus responds that Mary, by listening to him, “had chosent the better part”. True confessions: I dislike this gospel. I’m a lifelong Martha, stepping in to do what needs doing. I am angry at Jesus’s response, which seems oblivious to the fact that the meal for him and his disciples requires someone to work. Every time I read it I think, “Only a man would say this”. Why do we need to make one way better than the other? We need Marthas.
We live in a society which primarily values all the things that these readings tell us to avoid. We admire those with money, no matter how it is made or what they do with it. Oh, you lied? Weren’t you clever! You don’t like what someone has said? Use social media to organize an attack. And we value the Marthas of this world, the ones who get things done. Perish the thought that you sit and listen, doing nothing! Busy-ness is a badge of honor. The church is not immune from this: we take what we learn in our day jobs and apply it to the church, valuing the big budget, grateful for the volunteer Marthas who keep things running.
Yet if we need Marthas, we also need Marys. These readings present a warning not to get carried away with the ways of the world. Money, and busy-ness are not the be-all and end-all. We should not be busy for the sake of being busy. We need to stop from time to time: to think about where we are going and why, to let ideas percolate, to attend to the voice of God. We need to make time to listen.
The psalmist describes themselves as “a green olive tree in the house of God”. An olive tree sits there and produces fruit. Like Mary, it is not consumed by meeting needs, real or imagined. Yes, there is work that needs doing, and we are glad that Martha has done it. But we also need to listen to God’s voice, and consider where we are called. It is as necessary as our work. Not better, but necessary. We each need to be both Mary and Martha.