One Thing

Luke 10:38-42

Is anyone here a multitasker?

Do you – on purpose or by accident – do two or three or more things at the same time?

There are plenty of studies out in the last year or so that suggest that multitasking is exhausting, ineffective, and maybe even bad for your brain.  But it’s still an incredibly popular practice.  I heard a commercial this week for a waterproof smartphone, so that – I kid you not! – “you can text in the shower.”

The simple forms of multitasking are like watching TV while you cook dinner; more advanced forms usually involve multiple electronic devices at the same time, and/or children. 

It feels powerful, sometimes – can make us feel needed and important.  Or it can feel like the only way to get through the day. And sometimes we don’t even realize we’re doing it.

Martha probably didn’t.

Martha is a remarkable woman.  It’s unusual in Biblical Israel that a woman owns her own home, and invites the rabbi over. So Martha is probably the sort of woman who’s a leader in her community and successful in her work.  She might even be the Sheryl Sandberg of her time and place.

And while her sister Mary sits to listen to Jesus (most likely breaking some gender barriers of her own!), Martha is busy juggling all the preparations for a feast to honor her guest.

Then because sibling dynamics were not much different two thousand years ago than they are now, Martha finally gets fed up and complains to Jesus that Mary isn’t helping.

The next part of this story drives me a little crazy every time:

Martha, Martha, Jesus says,

you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away….

I can’t stand for this story to have winners and losers, and it does sound like Mary wins.

And if Mary wins, the easy moral of this story is that the best thing to do is sit quietly and listen to Jesus – which, I will admit, sounds pretty attractive when my to do list gets long.

But I don’t think that’s exactly what Jesus means.

When Luke describes Martha as “distracted” he says she’s “pulled away,” drawn in many directions.

In other words, Martha was multi-tasking.

She’s probably been trying to listen to Jesus, be part of the conversation with the guests, while she’s juggling meal preparation and the small acts of hospitality to make everyone comfortable: Wine to drink, water for sore and dusty feet, oh that pot is boiling…what did he just say?

Martha is frantic about hospitality.  And this story is exactly about hospitality.  About welcoming Jesus.  Because for us, as well as for Martha and Mary, the practice of hospitality is a lot like the way we relate to God.  Because hospitality is about being present, and acts of love.

And so Jesus gently reminds Martha – and us - that only one thing is necessary.

There’s nothing wrong with Martha’s work to prepare a meal for her guests.  To do that one thing, to prepare a feast, can be a holy and generous act of hospitality, love in action.

The trouble is that Martha is trying to be all things, rather than to focus on her gift of hospitality.

Mary’s choice to sit and focus her attention on Jesus was an act of generous hospitality.   But it wouldn’t have been if she’d been working on the grocery list in her head, or doing whatever it was that we did to avoid boredom before smartphones.

There is need of only one thing, Jesus says.  One thing, with focus and love, to welcome guests or God.

Think about that now, because this gospel, this sermon, depends on your ability to focus on one thing, at least for a while:

Think about being a stranger, or a guest.

What “one thing” says hospitality and welcome to you when you go to a new place?

Think about your own gifts, your own life.  Are you a cook, a gardener, good with music, or arranging space, or listening, or….

What “one thing” do you love to do, that you do best to welcome or care for someone?

And think about Calvary.

What “one thing” could we do here to care for visitors, or to care for Jesus?

Those things are the gospel, the good news God has for us and for the world, just as much as anything that happens in the stories of Jesus that we read.

In fact, we don’t really know how the story we read today ends.

We don’t know if Martha sits down, relaxes, and listens to Jesus, and they just eat cold snacks when they get hungry.

Or if she starts a fight with Mary, and goes back to the kitchen angry and frustrated.

Or if she goes back to the kitchen, glad that Jesus appreciates her one thing, and focuses her love on the very best meal she can share with him.

But I hope it was the last one. 

I hope she heard from Jesus what I do, today.

That it’s not how much you do, or exactly what you do, but how you do it.

That hospitality and relationship thrive when we focus on the one thing we love to do for others, letting go of the anxiety about doing everything.

Neither Martha, nor Mary, nor you nor I need to do everything.

We don’t earn relationships with Jesus – or anyone else – by doing more.

There is need of only one thing,

one generous, focused, loving thing at a time,

and the one thing that is love will never be taken away.