Sunday Service | Sabbath: September 13, 2020
Important Announcement: Around mid-October, we will be opening up our building again to corporately gather (alongside continued livestream services) at limited capacity. While there will not be children’s activities, and there will be guidelines and boundaries to keep each other safe, we look forward to gathering together again soon!
As Brian opened our service today, he reminded us that though our many in our culture are fighting constantly to “be right”, as believers we remember that it’s okay to be wrong, to be weak. There is strength in our weakness, as Paul testifies to in 2 Corinthians 12. There is strength in our confession that we aren’t always right.
Veronica shared with us about how her and her husband have been trying to practice Sabbath in a world and in an industry that promotes hustle instead. She encourages us who are in the same boat, trying to establish this command in our own lives, to confess instead of beating ourselves up, and commit again to sit at the feet of Jesus, like Mary, and listen to what he has to say to us there.
April shares with us again from Luke 10.38-42 about an interaction between Martha, Mary, and Jesus that invites us to consider what might be hindering, distracting, or blocking us from finding time to be fully present with Jesus.
In both the story of the Good Samaritan directly preceding this one, and the story of Jesus encountering Mary & Martha at their home, Jesus is doing one main thing: Jesus is redrawing boundary lines between people groups, role distinctions, etc, and between people and God. He is making it clear that Jesus is for all people.
3 important things to consider as we look into this story:
The focus of this passage is not women (their roles, their emotions, etc); the focus of this passage is discipleship, value, and calling.
This passage is not saying that being a doer is bad. It’s about priorities.
We have to lean into culture here. The “one thing” that Mary chooses in this passage was not normal. Her decision to be a disciple and to sit at Jesus’ feet was a bold & radical statement.
This isn’t a story about being active or complemplative in our worship, or that being a doer or a be-er is better than the other. It’s a story of broken boundaries where we can be with Jesus because he invites us.
Jesus’ words to Martha are not a rebuke, but an invitation. She’s not in trouble; she is being called to more.
Jesus sees Martha’s concerns and speaks to the more that is available to her, that which Mary has found at his feet.
The more is this: In Jesus’ presence, Martha can find her value not from her doing, but in her being. In Jesus’ presence, she can look him in the eye and see her worth reflected back in them.
This is an important story because this is us too. We are like Martha.
Our lives don’t make space for God, for the invitation to more that he offers, for being like Mary.
Mary dropped everything: every expectation of her, every societal norm, to simply be with Jesus, to listen and learn from him.
Martha, on the other hand, was distracted. As are we. Distraction leads to busyness, to hustle. And in the hustle, we lose sight of the priority: Jesus.
Our busyness is a barrier to Jesus. We have good intentions in our being busy, of course. But if our frets, worries, and activities leave us with no room to be with Jesus, then we will end up distracted, overwhelmed, and angry, like Martha.
We will end up having no capacity for the actions, compassion, and connection that we are striving for, like being a good neighbor.
Mary shows us that trying to be a good neighbor without the source filling us, we are expecting fruit to grow from a tree that has been uprooted.
Note: we can love without being filled up by Jesus, but it will be different.
Mary’s action was an act of Sabbath: to stop, to rest, to delight, to receive God’s love, and to worship.
Getting filled up gives us the capacity we need to be who we are meant to be, to follow through on that reality we are meant to live out.
Sabbath moments give us a taste of eternity.
Jesus wanted Martha to center her heart on being present with him so that she could receive from him and know that she is loved, valued, and affirmed, to know that she belongs.
Luke’s position of these stories alongside one another shows us the boundary lines that we no longer have to operate in.
If Jesus didn’t encounter Martha, she never would’ve known a boundary broken: that she too could be a disciple.
When we are too busy to spend time with Jesus, the result is that we end up stuck as spiritual infants; we miss the opportunity to grow. We run the risk of missing the hope and potential set out for us.
More than anything, God desires for us to be full, whole & healthy versions of ourselves.
Jesus’ invitation was to “come and be with me.”
We don’t know if Martha dropped what she was doing and joined her sister at Jesus’ feet. But we know the invitation of Jesus: “Come and be with me.” And we can know our own response to that invitation.
So ask yourself this question:
What is it that’s blocking your ability to be 100% present with the Lord, to experience God?
A prayer of response:
Lord, help me to see how much I lose when I lose you. My perspective on life and all of life gets distorted when I don’t make space for you, obscuring your love for me. Your love is better than life, and truly I long for more tastes of that love. In Jesus’ name, amen.