9th Sunday of Pentecost
July 21, 2013
Fr. Philip Eberhart
(click title for audio)
There is probably no better object lesson for us in the USA
than the lesson of this morning’s gospel in the story of Mary and Martha. Two very different approaches to Jesus
are contrasted here, and Jesus clearly welcomes one and rebukes the other.
The contrast between Mary and Martha is one which many of us
in the west struggle with in our own spiritual lives. Some have called it the contrast between being and doing. Some have said that one is wrong, the
other right, but Jesus does not condemn Martha for her work, he condemns her
for her distraction. It lesson
seems to be a lesson in priority, rather than right or wrong.
So often there is a false dichotomy made between the inner,
relational side of our life in Christ and the outer, work of the Kingdom. In the story Martha is doing the things
she is doing “for the Lord.”
Directly, in fact – she is serving him and his entourage in her
home. This was something that was done
everywhere that Jesus and the disciples went – they ate together in the homes
of Peter, Matthew, here with Mary and Martha in Bethany, and even in the home
of Zaccheus, the repentant tax collector, probably among many others. Preparation was always a part of the
work that was going on behind the scenes, up to and including their stay in the
Upper Room in Jerusalem.
This isn’t a story of how wrong preparation is, or working
for the Lord in His Kingdom.
The point that Jesus makes here is one of priority. What comes first?
So what does come first?
Is relationship easier or is busy-ness easier? I think for us in the west, it is
almost always the later. But the
problem for us comes in that much of our busy-ness is not Kingdom related, its
just “life” related. So much is
that the fact, that we often overshadow our work in and for the Kingdom of God
with pursuits that have much less value.
Like the contrast that Jesus makes between sitting at His feet and
hearing His words, with the work of preparing the meal and the table. We usually find it much easier to do
the later, and often leave off doing the former.
I think, rather than belaboring the point this morning, I
want to turn to our passage from Colossians to refocus our attention. This section of Paul’s writings is
perhaps the clearest and most poignant description of the pre-existent nature
and stature of Jesus Christ that has ever been written. Our need is for an
enlarged view of who Jesus was, plain and simple. Of who Jesus is, still today, and from the gospel reading,
that Jesus still today, desires for us to sit at His feet and listen and learn
from Him in our spiritual lives.
Fritz Ridenour, about two decades or more back, wrote a book
entitled, “Your God is Too Small.”
I think that we often suffer from that malady today, in that our view of
our own problems and immediate circumstances gain prominence in our
perspective, because they are nearer and more immediate, as over against the
larger (and unseen) view of who God is IN CHRIST and what he has done through
Christ in our lives.
Who He is, What He’s done and our Response are all captured
in these three short and powerfully written paragraphs:
WHO HE IS
Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were
created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers
or powers-- all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is
before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the
body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he
might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of
God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself
all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of
his cross.
IKON of the Invisible
Think of
it, God made visible. Isn’t that something that you’ve always
wanted to see?
Jesus said, “I am in the Father and the Father is IN
ME.” He was not “Like” the Father
as we sometimes imagine a representation of one thing to be LIKE that which it
represents. Jesus was not a sign
from God, He was God! God Himself!
The creator came to be a part of His creation.
When I was in
seminary, our Catholic Theology professor, said it best one time: Imagine that you had an ant farm. And
you loved your ants, but you could not get that truth, that reality across to
them. You had created an
environment in the ant farm where they could flourish and grow, but you wanted
them to know of your love – even to know you as you knew them. How would you do it? The only way, really – is to become an
ant!
Jesus is the IKON, the image and the person through which we
can glimpse the love and life of the Almighty God. From the creation of the world to its immediate powers and
principalities, rulers and kingdoms, all created “through Him and For
Him.” And not only created
by but “held together” by Him.
Ever wonder if He can hold your life together?
Paul goes on, “He is the head of the church, His body
(that’s us!) – He is the beginning, raised as “firstborn from the dead” –
why? So that ‘He might come
to have first place in everything.
And here is the piece de resistance: IN HIM ALL THE FULLNESS OF GOD WAS
PLEASED TO DWELL, THROUGH HIM GOD WAS PLEASED TO RECONCILE TO HIMSELF ALL
THINGS, BY MAKING PEACE THROUGH THE BLOOD OF HIS CROSS!
All fullness … reconciling all things … making peace through
His blood.
And what are we to make of these things? So what?
Paul goes on regarding our response and what Jesus has done:
And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind,
doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so
as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him-- provided
that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without
shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been
proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.
Paul tells the Romans, in chapter 5 that while we were
“powerless” Christ died for us. While we were still sinners – Christ did for
us, before we could do “for him.”
John tells us that we love as a response , “because He first loved
us.” Both our grasp on what Jesus
has done and our response to what He has done are necessary.
HE HAS PRESENTED YOU HOLY AND BLAMELESS AND IRREPROACHABLE
Can you imagine!
Just take this week and think about those three words. This is what Jesus says about you! This is how Jesus sees you – how God
sees you through Jesus blood!
What now?
I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in
my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake
of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God's
commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,
the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has
now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great
among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ
in you, the hope of glory.
Paul’s personal calling and commission from the Lord is a
direct response to this revelation of who Jesus is. If you recall the encounter he had with Jesus on the road to
Damascus – a life-altering encounter and what I call, his Arabian Seminary
experience, where, in the Spirit, all of this came clear to him – for three
years! Paul’s response, we might
think, is different that mine needs to be. I’m not an apostle or the author of 2/3 of the NT!
True that … maybe.
What is your response?
What is your calling as a result of all that you’ve come to know of
Jesus and his sacrifice on your behalf.
Do you sit at his feet to learn more of Him? Do you make yourself busy as a result of that revelation –
busy about the business (not the busy ness) of His Kingdom.
You see Mary and Martha are not opposites – one right and
one wrong. Both were close to and
serving Jesus, according to their gifts.
What Martha did not recognize is that the priority at the moment for her
and for Mary was this “better part” – the task was to be “With Him.”
We have seasons when we need to be With Jesus – to sit at
His feet and to ask Him to open our eyes to His real greatness and power. This comes through His Word – listening
to Him, as Mary was doing. For her
and for us, this is the ONE THING NEEDFUL; it is out of this position at Jesus
feet that all else necessarily flows.
It is as we gain a knowledge and the perspective of Jesus
Himself on the world, and of Jesus over and above the world; of Jesus as head
of the Church – of us, His body;
It is as we gain an experience of being IN HIM – of our
position IN CHRIST, holy and blameless and irreproachable before him – It is
there, that we respond in servanthood.
We then take up the role of Martha, as worker in the
Kingdom. When we spend time with
Him we gain His perspective on the world and the work we are called to. When we spend time with Him we see His
priorities, and begin our work from a place of rest in Him, rather than working
ourselves to exhaustion and blaming everyone around us for it.
Paul ended the passage we read this morning with these
words, and I will add on one more, last and very important verse:
It is he whom we
proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may
present everyone mature in Christ.
For this I toil, struggling with all HIS energy that He powerfully works
within me.
And so we come back to
the revelation of Jesus from the first:
It is BY HIM that all
things hold together! Jesus is the
power – the glue – behind the universe and He – He Alone – is the glue that
holds you and your life – me and my life -- us and our life,
together.
Let us commit to spend
time at His feet, listening and learning of Him. From there all else flows.
Amen.
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