What a female-orientated Sunday it is today! Not only do you have a female preacher, but the lectionary provides us with a story of two women as well. How one-sided can you get? But is this story really only about women? 0h, it has often been used that way. Women have been classified by it: She is a hard worker: a real Martha! She is a dreamer, who rather sits and listens ignoring the work there is to be done. A typical Mary.

But does this only apply to women? It seems to me that we are confronted here by two types of PEOPLE. The do-ers and the dreamers; the active and the non-active ones; the practical and the contemplative ones.
And one thing is certain: those two opposite types inevitably get on each others nerves and frequently clash!
In this story it is Martha's frustration over Mary's absorption in what Jesus is teaching, her total disregard for the work that has to be done, that makes Martha explode. And the fact that Jesus not just excuses Mary's behaviour but calls it "a better choice" must have added fuel to the fire. No doubt it has annoyed many good hostesses ever since the bible was written! For where would we be without the practical, active people, who look after our comfort, provide us with things to eat and be drink and who are the ones who end up cleaning and washing up after the guests are gone? Martha's complaint certainly is not exaggerated! Jesus and his 12 disciples dropped in. Wonderful! 13 extra people in the house; 13 extra mouths to feed! That creates some work, that asks for some organising skills and that needs some planning! And than to have your sister blithely sitting down and doing nothing is incomprehensible, offensive and insulting. In short: It's NOT FAIR!!

As you must have noticed by now: I have a lot of sympathy for Martha. And I am not ashamed to confess, that I am one of those who got annoyed by the fact that Jesus did not back her up.
But surely this story has not been included in Luke's gospel just to put down practical and active do-ers. Or to glorify those who forget all about waiting duties, if some-one or some-thing manages to engage their total interest.

Luke did not write his gospel as an eye-witness, who tells it ALL. Luke never knew Jesus personally. As he writes in his introduction he carefully studied all these matters from the beginning and thought it would be good to write an ORDERLY account. His story of Martha and Mary follows in the same chapter as the parable of the Good Samaritan. Why connect it with this parable? Is this story too meant to convey a deeper meaning, beyond the evident incident? It will be worthwhile to dig a bit deeper to find what message is hidden in this story.
It is likely that Martha considered Mary's behaviour not just a form of laziness or neglect, but downright presumptuousness. Girls and women had no part in religious discussions or religious teachings. BOYS were educated first by their fathers and later on by the Rabbi.
Only boys when they grew older were accepted as members of the Synagogue. Women sat in a separate section and were to keep silent. If there was anything they wanted to know, they were to ask their husbands about it. Women were the workers, who should concern themselves only with practicalities. That was the accepted place for them: society's status quo.

For Martha this is no problem: that is how it has always been and that is how it ought to be and she fully expected Jesus to implement this rule and send Mary back to the kitchen.
But Jesus does not follow man-made rules. His values are different. Not only did He allow Mary to listen in: He says that she chose the right thing. Not the right thing maybe according to the accepted code of conduct for women, but the right thing in God's estimation. And here we have already one thing, that is still relevant in this day and age: the established rules of society are not necessarily the same as God's rules. Certainly not when it involves gender-bias. We may think, that in our enlightened society gender-bias hardly exists any more. But discrimination against women still exists, even in our country, but so does discrimination against men. (Insert example.)
We still tend to think of certain work as "women's work" or "men's work"; of certain recreations as typically women's or men's. How many male knitters do you know? How many women would love to learn boxing? And how many men dislike going to a female doctor and how many women don't feel comfortable if they are attended by a male nurse? We all have our preferences, for we are all products of our society, as long as we remain open-minded enough to see those preferences for what they are -just preferences- and not allow them to harden into prejudices. Whenever and where-ever we meet gender-bias we are faced with the challenge: is this still a personal preference or is this a fixed prejudice? Our attitude towards members of the opposite sex should be constantly questioned and challenged, for it is so much easier to think: that is how it has always been, that is as it should always remain.

There is already a second point that springs to mind, when we observe Martha: She is so busy with all that has to be done, with getting frustrated and angry with her sister, that she does not hear a word of what Jesus is saying. She has no time to listen at all!

And is this not a warning to all hard workers, to all those involved in "good works"? It is so easy to become overloaded, to take on more than one person can cope with which results in having no time for listening, for re-charging your own batteries, for communicating with God and those near and dear to us. If that is the case than we should MAKE time to tune in what God is saying, to stop and think about all that God has done. And the same with tuning in to those close to us. It has often been the case with church workers, that they were away so much to meetings or so busy planning or writing minutes or whatever, that their children's problems were brushed aside. I remember a young family that used to live in our area,
where the marriage ended in divorce. "Well", the wife said: "It hardly makes any difference: he was away on an average 4 to 5 nights a week, and on weekends there were often conferences or camps or whatever. The kids hardly knew their Dad!"

So we find a CHALLENGE in this story and a WARNING. We are encouraged to challenge accepted standards and not say automatically: But it has always been like that! And we are warned against our busyness overriding all our other concerns.
But there is one more thing to note. Jesus does not agree with Martha, but He does not condemn her harshly for her absorption with practicalities and also not for her anger with her sister. He does not agree, but He does UNDERSTAND. He understands her limitations and her problem as well as her reaction. And He lovingly puts things in perspective: "Martha, Martha you are worried and troubled over so many things!" You can just about see Him shaking his head over her lovingly. He knows her and He loves her as she is. His rebuke is not a harsh one, putting her down, but a soft one:

0 Martha, there is so much more to life than organising, working and worrying. The world will not come to an end if you too would sit still for a few moments and listen to my words of joy and peace! For you too are included, despite the fact that you are "just a female".

And so we have a CHALLENGE, a WARNING and LOVING REASSURANCE that despite our limitations, our fixed ideas and all our other imperfections, God loves us AS WE ARE. There is plenty of room for improvement and we should not be complacent about that side of it. But God loves us here and now. He values us even in our totally unimproved state. That is why He challenges, warns and reassures us all at the same time. His wisdom is freely available to us to sort out our prejudices; his strength is freely available to help and support us in times of need. His love is always there, freely given to be joyfully received and returned.
What a great and wonderful God we have! Praise be to His Name! AMEN

Back