Proper 11 - G - 2013 - The Passive Reception of Christ

The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

July 21, 2013 - Pastor Adam Moline
Genesis 18:1-14          Colossians 1:21-29      Luke 10:38-42

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text today is from the Gospel lesson just read, especially these words, “Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”  Thus far our text. 

Dear friends in Christ.  Today’s text is about worship, about how we interact with God.  What do we do in the presence of Jesus?  What do we do when Christ is close to us, what’s our response to his presence, what’s our posture of worshipping God incarnate?  In fact, what does true worship look like?  That’s the question that our text today answers for us. 

In our text, we see two sisters, who invite Jesus into their home.  Martha, the first sister, runs around the house getting everything ready.  She bakes the food, she cleans the dishes and more.  She’s the one who made sure the turkey was out of the freezer, she’s the one who made sure the china was cleaned.  She’s the one who put together the grocery list, and stopped at grocery store to purchase all the items.  She’s on the ball, she’s a go getter.

And then there’s the other sister, Mary.  Mary lets Martha do the cooking, the cleaning, and the serving of the food.  In fact she doesn’t help with it at all.  Instead, the text says that she sits at the feet of Jesus listening. 

Martha gets mad at her sister, and rightfully so!  How often have you gotten mad at a spouse, or coworker, or friend who wasn’t doing their fair share of the work load?  It happens all the time.  So Martha goes to Jesus and says, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”  Its as if she says, “Tell her to get up and stop being lazy, and help me!” 

But Jesus responds “Martha, Martha.  Relax.  Your sister Mary wants the one thing that’s necessary, she wants what I have to offer.  My Holy Precious Word.” 

It’s the Word of God that Mary wants.  That’s why she is sitting at Jesus’ feet.  Its why she’s not helping her sister, it’s why she’s not working at cooking, cleaning, or anything else.  She wants the Word of Christ, and nothing will take it for her. 

Dear friends, don’t you see, the same things is true for us.  We are distracted by so many things in this world.  How will I pay the bills?  Who will care for me when I’m sick?  What will happen to my mother or father?  We get stressed out.  We get overwhelmed.  Our blood pressure goes through the roof, as every day we try to find a way to make sense of all that needs to be done in this world.  This world, and its sin is exhausting!

And then, on Sunday mornings, we come to church, and what do we want to do?  We want to serve Jesus, we want to do something for Jesus.  We want to praise him, we want to cry out to Christ, we want to accept him in.  We come to church each week, wanting to do something.  Wanting to earn something as we do in every other aspect of our life, to work and receive our reward.

And yet, the truth is, dear friends, that Mary had the right idea.  The reason we come to church is not, and should not be to work, to do, or to serve at all.  At worship, we ought not be Martha’s but Marys.  We come here to this place to sit at the feet of Jesus and to receive from him.  Here in this sanctuary, our job is not to do anything, but instead, to passively hear his word, and collect his gifts. 

And as we hear Jesus’ words, and as we sit here at the feet of Jesus, the gift we receive is forgiveness of sins.  We receive life.  We receive salvation.  All while not working or earning a thing, but instead sitting here and hearing God’s Word. 

Martin Luther put it this way, coming to worship is like coming with an empty bag.  As we hear God’s word, we receive into that bag, forgiveness of sins.  As we receive the Lord’s Supper, we fill the bag with life and salvation.  As we remember our baptism, and as we hear the sermon, our bag is filled even more, all from sitting at the feet of Jesus, and hearing his word. 

Then when we go out into the world to do our daily work and struggle, we run into sin at every corner.  We get in a fight with our brother or sister, and we reach in the bag, and pull out forgiveness to share with that person.  We swear on accident when we get caught speeding, and we reach in and pull out forgiveness.  And as we go through out our week, we empty out our bag, and need to return to church to receive from Jesus again, to sit at the feet of Jesus with Mary. 

You see, that’s what this faith is, its not working for Jesus, it’s not serving Jesus, but rather hearing his word, and being forgiven.  That’s why we’re here.  That’s what we do.  And when we hear his word, we are connected to his cross.  We get what he earned by his own death and resurrection.  We get what he earned by shedding his blood.  We are washed clean, all by hearing his word, and believing it. 

So what do we do in worship?  What do we at the feet of Jesus?  We sit and receive?  Why do we come to church?  Not to give, but to get.  What’s our worship posture?  To open up our arms, and get from Jesus.  There’s nothing better than receiving from Jesus, no amount of work can overcome it.  Amen.