Am 8:1-12, Lk 10:38-42

18 July 2004

“Reforming our Faith, Part 2”

(“It’s Us, Not What We Do”)

            This is the second sermon in my series on the Reformed faith.  I’m basing this on chapter 2 of the Book of Order.  Today’s focus is:  “Covenant life marked by a disciplined concern for order in the church according to the Word of God.”  The idea of covenant is really central to our relationship with God.  It is because God makes that agreement, that binding of self, with us that we are enabled to share in the divine, eternal life.  That covenant with God flows into all of our other relationships, especially the church.  There’s no better example of covenant life than that.

            Many of us (if not most of us) don’t often think of the relationships in which we bind ourselves to each other as covenants.  Maybe it’s just me, but “covenant” sounds so…serious!

As members of society, there’s a certain level of covenant involved, or else everything falls apart.  Certainly marriage is a covenant.  Sometimes boys make a covenant with each other, as blood brothers.  (I say “boys”—do girls become blood sisters?)  And what about the mafia?  I don’t know if they ever use the word “covenant” to describe the…ties that bind them!  They have their own ways of making an offer you can’t refuse!

            Amos, whose spat with Amaziah the priest I mentioned last week, had some stuff to say about the corruption of covenant life in Israel.  Our Old Testament reading gives us a sample of his complaint.  The prophet speaks of those “that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land” (v. 4).  The warfare between the “haves” and the “have nots” is one that continually damages societal covenants.

            Amos lays into those greedy merchants who chomp at the bit, barely able to restrain themselves until the sabbath is over, so that they may continue gouging their customers.  There are the characters who think to themselves, “We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice deceit with false balances” (v. 5).  Corruption comes in all shapes and sizes.  Whether it’s the butcher who leaves his thumb on the scale, or their own version of Enron, there seems to be no shortage of shady dealings.

            According to the prophet, this flagrant disregard for each other comes at a high price.  He speaks of a coming “famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord” (v. 11).  We can live our lives without regard to the word of God, but it’s like facility with any language:  use it or lose it!

            A certain hardening of the heart sets in, a searing of the conscience.  The scripture speaks of wandering “from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it” (v. 12).  Some would say that this is a picture of us today, in a country flooded with Bibles.

            Sometimes we actually hinder (inadvertently, one hopes!) those who seek the Lord’s word.  Our gospel reading in Luke 10 speaks to this.  It comes right on the heels of Jesus’ encounter with the lawyer, to whom he tells the parable of the Good Samaritan.

            This is the story of the visit to the home of Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus.  It’s the familiar tale, stereotypically told, of the one sister who slaves over a hot stove and does all the work—and the other sister who’s lounging around, unwilling to so much as lift a finger to help!  In this case, it’s Martha who becomes exasperated with Mary, and with Jesus, for letting her get away with it.

            Verses 41 and 42 have the response of Jesus.  “Martha, Martha, 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 from her.”  Jesus isn’t chewing her out.  He repeats her name to show that he speaks in love to her.

            It’s not that Jesus doesn’t appreciate Martha’s efforts for him.  In his book, The Compassionate Christ, Walter Bowie says this:  “The trouble with Martha was not in what she did, but in what she failed to see.  She meant only to be devoted, but what she had let herself become was just distracted.  She forgot that preparations in the kitchen could have their real value only as they contributed to the comradeship of other people.  She acted as though the best thing she could give to Jesus was something special to eat.”[1]

            The Greek word for “distracted” in verse 40 is periespato (periespato), literally, “pulled from all directions.”  I don’t suppose anyone here can identify with that word?

            There’s another dynamic going on here.  This is a classic case of triangulation.  Martha has a beef with Mary.  She tries to enlist the aid of Jesus to solve her problem for her.  (The lines between the people form a triangle.)  This happens all the time in life—and the church definitely isn’t immune to it.  X has a problem with Y and wants Z to intervene on X’s behalf.  The key is for Z to be a non-anxious presence, to not let the anxiety of X (or Y, for that matter) to be contagious.  Jesus models this kind of non-anxious presence in responding to Martha.

            There’s something we need to understand about binding ourselves to God and to each other in covenant.  This is true whether we’re a member of the body of Christ or a member of a married couple.  When we’re called into covenant, and we truly respond to that call, eventually the worst in us comes out.  We can’t hide it for long!  We see each other, as they say, warts and all.  (Can I get an “Amen” from anyone who’s been married a long time?)  That’s not for the purpose of humiliation, but for the purpose of healing.  That is why God calls us to commit to each other in the bonds of faith, in the bonds of hope, and in the bonds of love.

            The more we grasp the importance of covenant, the more we understand something else.  And it’s this:  Jesus is most concerned about us, not what we do.  While Martha is committed to providing hospitality for Jesus and his disciples, she doesn’t seem to understand what her sister does.

            This in no way should be read as a devaluing of work, but, as it’s been said, “what Jesus wanted most was that the minds and hearts of those he loved should be open to the great realities of God which he was there to share with them…When all is said and done, when all the framework of existence which work can build is finished, the meaning of life is fulfilled only when a soul takes time to come into touch with another soul.”[2]

            There’s something about Martha’s hospitality that bears examining, something that may be uncomfortably familiar.  Brian Stoffregen points this out.  “The nature of hospitality for which Jesus seeks is realized in attending to one's guest, yet Martha's speech is centered on ‘me’-talk [4 times in that one verse].  Though she refers to Jesus as ‘Lord,’ she is concerned to engage his assistance in her plans, not to learn from him his” plans.[3]

            She sounds a little like churches that are so focused on their own problems that they forget why they even exist.  Stuff like, “we need more members, so that offerings will increase, so that we can make the budget.”  That really is a case of putting the cart before the horse.

That’s a challenge we face.  I’m speaking of something worse than the church being forced to close its doors.  I’m speaking of losing the vision of what we as Christians should be about.  It’s from there that the other bad stuff flows.  I’m talking about simply failing to reach out—of failing to speak with our neighbors and other people we encounter about something more important than the weather!

Pastors face a similar challenge—and that is, to not become chaplains.  I’ll explain.  Chaplains, whether to a military unit, a hospital, a campus, or some other organization, have a strictly defined field of ministry.  They serve a certain resident population.  Pastors have to balance their call to serve the membership of a church, while not losing the vision that is common to all Christians—that of reaching out beyond the boundaries.

You know, I’m barely scratching the surface of this business of the covenant life!  And then there’s the “disciplined concern for order in the church according to the Word of God.”

As you might have guessed, living a covenant life doesn’t come automatically.  It requires effort.  That’s certainly true of one covenant I’ve already mentioned briefly, marriage.  A good marriage takes work.  It can be helpful to consult an outside source.  Here’s the FYI / commercial part of my sermon.

Banu and I have been certified to present various inventories for both premarital and married couples.  The one for premarital couples is called “PREPARE.”  The one for married couples is “ENRICH.”  There’s also one for couples over the age of 50 called “MATE,” which is an acronym for “Mature Age Transition Evaluation.”  Each inventory has a variety of questions, dealing with different areas of life.

Now, I should say:  Banu and I are not certified as marriage therapists.  Still, I have been surprised, considering the rather simple approach the inventories take, at how effective they are.  And you need not believe that your marriage is on life support to benefit from this.  No marriage is perfect; any marriage can be “enriched.”  So if you’re interested, talk to us.  Enough said!

Certainly, marriage isn’t the only covenant that requires effort; it isn’t the only one that requires a commitment on our part.  If it is to mean anything, church is the same way.  And I’m speaking of more than being a good worker, of getting involved in things.  It seems there’s an element of the cart before the horse here, as well.  Jesus wants us, not what we do.  The “Martha” in us is important, but without the “Mary,” we’re just distracted, running around.

Our focus last Wednesday night was worship and why we do it.  As we abandon ourselves, as we truly give ourselves to the worship of the Lord, we are changed.  We may not even realize it at the time.  Some of us gave testimony to experiences in worship and how they had changed us.  We can’t do that if we’re distracted.  We can’t do it if we’re trying to figure out how we can triangle somebody into a gripe we’ve got with someone else.

Worship is the source, the wellspring, of our spiritual life.  Without it, we wander from sea to sea; we run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord in vain.  It gives us the strength to live the covenant life.

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