LAKE JAMES

NORTH CAROLINA

Proper 11 C + July 22, 2007 + St. Paul’s Church, Lake James

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Re-reading the Gospel for today reminded me of a very different experience some years ago when I attended a conference of priests and laity at the University of York in England. Although the agenda for the conference included consideration of some of the most controversial issues then facing the Anglican Communion, it was a perfectly delightful time because virtually everybody there was in agreement – we all saw things the same way! I found myself wishing the whole Church could do the same - especially since I was sure that we at the conference were correct in our views! Then, I came home, back to the deep divisions over those particular issues still raging in the American Church. It was depressing. But then, turning to the Bible, I was reminded that disputes are nothing new in the life of the People of God. We just heard about one in today’s Gospel!

Three adults, two sisters and a brother, admirers of an itinerant rabbi from Nazareth, lived together, and had invited him to visit them when he came to town. To their great joy, he had accepted! It’s not hard to imagine the preparations which had taken place – the housecleaning, the careful planning of the meal, the shopping for food, the setting of the table – and then, Jesus arrived! But even after his arrival, Martha, wasn’t completely satisfied with the way things were. Wanting to honor their guest, kept bustling back and forth, checking on this detail and that, while her sister Mary just sat in the living room talking with Jesus. It’s not hard to imagine Martha giving a last-minute check to be sure the silverware was “just so” and the napkins properly folded and in place, and a hundred and one other similar concerns, all the while getting angrier and angrier at Mary who was cheerfully ignoring everything else while she listened to Jesus. Finally, when Martha just couldn’t stand it any more, she burst out with her complaint: “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Please, tell her to help me!” But instead of saying “Mary, your sister has a point – you ought to share in the housework,” Jesus answered “Martha, you worry about so many things! Mary has chosen better than you – her priorities are the right ones, not yours!”

Have you ever wondered how Martha felt when she found herself on the receiving end of Our Lord’s rebuke? At the very least, I imagine she was surprised – she had been so sure that she was in the right, not Mary! (Have you ever felt that way?)

Anyone who is familiar with the Bible knows that there is a consistent pattern in it of family and community controversy. In the very beginning, there is not just argument, but violence when Cain murders his own brother, Abel. Further in the Bible, we read of the treachery of Jacob toward his brother Esau, and in the next generation, the jealousy and cruel treatment of Joseph by his brothers. Nor is such behavior found only in the Old Testament. Think of the great battle between Saints Peter and Paul. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes about it saying “When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he was so obviously in the wrong!” And then, twisting the verbal knife a bit, Paul proudly adds “And I did it so that everybody could hear me!”

Another example of controversy in the Church is found in the bitter breakup of the friendship which had existed between St. Paul and Saint Mark after Paul angrily refused to have Mark go with him on a missionary journey. Mary and Martha have plenty of company, don’t they! The Bible doesn’t say what Martha thought, or did, after Jesus so gently (but definitely) rebuked her, but the story does suggest that, from then on, at least she would have known what she should have done, and therefore, what she should do from that time on. Still, knowing what one should so, and doing it are quite different things, as we all know so well! That’s why, in last Sunday’s Collect, the Church prayed that God would not only help us to know the things we ought to do, but also that we would be given the grace to do them. I doubt that any of us here this morning would deny our need for help in both categories!

Do you remember a play by Samuel Becket entitled “Endgame?” It’s a tragedy in which the characters seem to talk endlessly about the misery of life. They play cruel tricks on each other, largely just to get their minds off the agony which is their daily reality. Many who have seen the play consider it depressing, yet I read an interview with a prominent psychiatrist who said that he had brought one of his patients to see the play. The patient was a 16 year old girl, so seriously depressed that she had attempted suicide several times. When asked why in the world he would bring someone like that to that particular show, the doctor explained that the play opened new possibilities for his patient, by showing her other people with whom she could identify, people with feelings like hers and who shared similar problems. From the play, she learned that she was not so different from many others, and that, if they could learn to cope with life, she might be able to do so as well. In other words, the psychiatrist worked with her by beginning where she was rather than where he thought she should be.

That’s the way God works with us. God begins where we are, even if where we are is a state of sin, even if where we are is a state where doubt battles with the desire for belief. God starts with our present reality, whatever that is, and builds – if we let Him.

Like Mary, we can devote time and energy to God, listening, learning, and growing, or, like Martha, we can bustle around, preoccupied with one lesser thing or another (and that includes busyness in church as well as outside it). We can even use our busyness to keep well protected against any meaningful meetings with God. The choice is always ours, but, thank goodness, so is the always-present love of God for us. If we want to keep avoiding God, we can, but when, through relationships with others, crises, significant events, prayer, or even by hearing a sermon on the subject, our defenses fall away even for an instant and we find ourselves face to face with God, the record gets set straight as it did with Martha, and then, the choice is left to us.

I have no idea what Martha did after being corrected by Jesus, or how she interacted with Mary the rest of that day – or the next day, week, or year. I do know that next Sunday, July 29^th, is the feast of Saints Mary and Martha together, which at lest implies that the two sisters were able to heal their rift and go on with life as disciples of Jesus. Likewise, June 29^th is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, giants of the faith who went beyond their estrangement to work harmoniously as leaders of the early Church. The Bible also records that Esau and his brother Jacob were reconciled, as were Joseph and his brothers. It doesn’t always, but it can happen!

My sisters and brothers in Christ, we are living in a time of great turmoil, both in the world around us with the threat of terrorism lurking who knows where, with a war on drugs which seems to go on and on without much sign of progress, with poverty and homelessness on the increase, and all sorts of terrifying illnesses striking here and then there. At the same time, our beloved Anglican Communion is facing an uncertain future with the possibilities of all sorts of realignments or even becoming subject to endless rounds of battles in the secular courts, leaving everyone the loser. I have no crystal ball by which to predict what will happen, but I ask you to remember that just as Martha and Mary, Peter and Paul, and all the others who lived through bitter controversy with family or friends, that all of them were, just as all of us are, loved by God. That, in the Church at least, we are not faced with a war between good and evil people, but with differences, differences which, while of the utmost importance, are, nonetheless, differences within the People of God. So, let us pray for unity – and charity - in the Church, for the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit, strengthened by the promise of God that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church. Your vocation and mine is still to be faithful Christians, led by conscience, and strengthened by God’s grace. The future is not bleak, the way ahead will be made clear. Why, because God is still God!

+ In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The Reverend Alfred T. K. Zadig, Sr.

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