“In the stillness within the action sits the Beloved who is not distracted by many things, but only wants to sit awhile with you.” (Steve Garnaas-Holmes)
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 16 C
Texts: Luke 10:38-42; Amos 8:1-12; Psalm 52
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Don’t pit these sisters against each other.
Both love Jesus, and both have the unspeakable joy of having Jesus in their home with them, loving them in return.
But the two sisters are important to us. For many of us, Martha’s experience is our own. We are busy beyond belief in our lives, anxious and troubled about many things, not having enough time to do what needs to be done, or even knowing what needs to be done. Having a few moments to sit quietly and listen to the voice of Christ sounds wonderful; but for many of us, it feels unrealistic to expect it.
So what is the “better part,” that “one thing” Mary chose that Jesus encourages Martha to choose?
In a poem for Martha called “One Thing Is Needed,” pastor and poet, Steve Garnaas-Holmes gives us a glimpse.
There will be the clutter and clatter of pans
the rumble and jumble of traffic and trains
the brambles of papers and lists and calls
the beaten paths, the errands, the chores.
You don’t have to rattle and run with them.
You can do one thing at a time.
You can stop
and sit at the feet of the moment,
pay reverent attention to whatever it is,
and listen to the silence beneath the hum,
and simply be
in the presence of the presence.
In all your doing that you surely must do,
you still can just be.
And your being
will become what you do.
In the stillness within the action
sits the Beloved
who is not distracted by many things,
but only wants to sit awhile with you. 1
This is what Martha’s missing: Jesus’ presence in her busyness.
She’s doing what she must do: hospitality demands the guest be served, cared for. Jesus just sent out 70 women and men in this very chapter and invited them to seek hospitality, to be open to people welcoming them into their homes and feeding them. Martha is doing the right thing, the good thing.
But she’s “pulled away” from Jesus by her work, Luke says. She’s anxious and troubled. She’s doing the thing the poet says she “surely must do.” But she’s unhappy.
Jesus invites her to see that in that doing, in that “clutter and clatter, rumble and jumble, beaten paths, and errands, and chores,” she can find Christ with her by listening to the “silence beneath the hum.”
Martha was missing where her spirit was in that good work she was doing. She missed the presence of Jesus in her home. She missed listening to God’s voice in the midst of her busyness.
In the stillness within the action
sits the Beloved
who is not distracted by many things,
but only wants to sit awhile with you.
This is God’s gift: in the stillness within the action your beloved Christ is waiting. And we need this.
We hear Amos today decrying the destruction of the poor and the needy by the powerful, and we share his anger.
What our nation, founded on the values of freedom and justice for all, is doing to our siblings, to God’s own children, at the border, is a crime against humanity, a sin against God, and a horror that future generations will pale at hearing.
Amos speaks what we sometimes wish would happen, what we shouted with the psalmist we wanted to happen: God’s utter judgment against the perpetrators of this, and the ruin of all who trample on the vulnerable.
But if you and I do nothing, we know Amos would say we are complicit. But what can we do? All we know how to do is be angry and frustrated, while feeling powerless to effect change.
What if in the midst of all that we could find the one thing Jesus offers Martha? Listen in the midst of our impotence and frustration, for the still voice of Christ calling to us? Find the silence beneath the noise and hear God?
In the stillness within the action
sits the Beloved
who is not distracted by many things,
but only wants to sit awhile with you.
This is God’s gift: in the stillness within the action, your Beloved Christ will give you answers, and guidance for your loving service.
It’s not just the terrible things happening in our country, either.
Today, being busy is the new status symbol, not how much money you make. In social media, among friends, everywhere in this country, people are running themselves ragged and bragging about it. People are filling every hour of every day with activity, working overtime, barely finding any rest, drawn away and troubled by all that needs to be done. As if their value comes from being overworked and overdrawn.
Just as Jesus loved Martha in her stress, so Jesus loves you in yours. But Jesus also suggests that if your life is keeping you from hearing God’s voice, you’re missing the one thing you need.
Whether it’s taking fifteen minutes a few times a day to sit and be quiet, without phone or internet or television, or saying “no” to some things simply to give yourself the gift of time, there are places in the midst of the frenetic busyness where you can stop and listen for God. And even in the middle of the busyness that you have to do, you can, like Martha, keep your eyes and ears open.
In the stillness within the action
sits the Beloved
who is not distracted by many things,
but only wants to sit awhile with you.
This is God’s gift: in the stillness within the action, your Beloved Christ will give you rest.
And notice, part of Martha’s problem is anxiety. We know about that, too.
On top of the world’s pain and our hectic lives, many of us also are anxious about many things. Whether it’s depression, or clinical anxiety, or a general dread, it’s hard to find peace when you’re carrying such burdens. Some of us struggle with grief over missing loved ones, fear of future problems, sadness at broken relationships. Sometimes those voices are so loud you can’t even hear yourself, let alone God.
In the stillness within the action
sits the Beloved
who is not distracted by many things,
but only wants to sit awhile with you.
This is God’s gift: in the stillness within the action your Beloved Christ will give you peace.
We do get Mary moments, too.
Every Sunday here is a respite of a few hours apart from whatever brings anxiety and troubled hearts. Here we literally sit at Christ’s feet and are blessed and filled and loved. We remember we are forgiven. We remember we are not alone. And we remember that together we hear answers for how we are called and sent to be God’s love in this world of suffering and pain.
But Martha is often our everyday life, and that’s your joy today: in the stillness within whatever overwhelms you, causes you anxiety and fear, God only wants to be with you. And in that stillness, help you find your way forward.
And either way, Martha or Mary, Jesus is for you. Jesus is in your house. That’s the one thing, the only thing, worth knowing.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
1 Steve Garnaas-Holmes, “One Thing Is Needed,” published in the Shalem Institute’s 2017-2018 annual report, page 9. https://shalem.org/about-us/annual-report/