Year C
 Genesis 18:1-10a
 Psalm 15
 Colossians 1:15-28
 Luke 10:38-42

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre…  and he looked up and saw three men…  one Hebrew commentary I have…  says that as in some Canaanite literature…  as was often the case…  the deity was accompanied by his two attendants…  but Abraham doesn’t even stop to ask them who they are…  he immediately begins to extend Middle Eastern hospitality…  becoming a Martha as it were…  bringing water so they can wash the dust off their feet…  and promising refreshment before they continued on…  and he runs around…  asking Sarah to take three measures…  not of any old flour…  but of choice flour…  so she can make cakes of bread…  and he takes from the herd a calf that is tender and good…  and he serves the three curds and milk along with the calf that had been prepared…  this was not…  by the way…  a kosher meal…  and like a preeminent host…  like a fine waiter…  he stands by while they eat…  against the possibility that something else might be needed…

Abraham and Sarah didn’t have any advance notice of their visitors…  but they rose to the occasion…  they put on their best…  and likewise…  when many of us are expecting guests…  whether for dinner or an evening visit…  we may ask about any beverage and food preferences…  or allergies…  we tidy up the house…  we clean the guest bathroom if there is one…  and put out fresh towels…  we know how to be hospitable…  but there is risk in being hospitable…  there is risk in being welcoming…  over and over again in scripture…  we read stories about Jesus welcoming and eating with those who others would not…  but we sometimes ask ourselves…  how well do we know these people…  how well do those we know…  know them…  are they people we can trust…  letting them into our homes…  or given the chance…  will they look in our medicine cabinet…

But this time…  it’s Martha…  a homeowner…  who welcomes Jesus…  and we suppose the disciples too…  into her home…  and offers them hospitality…  while her sister Mary sits at Jesus’ feet…  and listens to what he says…  or teaches…  or simply basks in his presence…

And the text says…  Martha was distracted by her many tasks…  and since one of the meanings of the Greek word that’s translated as distracted…  also means…  to be driven about mentally…  and so I think the nugget here is less about the number of tasks for which Martha feels responsible…  and more on Martha’s state of mind…  she laments…  Lord…  do you not care… that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself…  and her words remind me of Mark’s version of the Stilling of the Storm…  in Ch. 4:38…  when the disciples cry out…  Teacher…  do you not care that we are perishing…  forgetting perhaps…  that with them was the One…  who in the beginning…  separated the waters from the land…  turned chaos into order…  and who even the winds and the seas obey…

But unfortunately…  again…  we have been set up by the translation itself into a shallow meaning and rigid duality of sorts…  of believing that what Mary is doing…  is better than what Martha is doing…  of wondering why…  even though it was Martha’s home…  why Mary didn’t just jump in and help her sister…

But the Greek word…  agathos…  which the NRSV translates as better…  can also be translated simply as good…  and if it’s not better…  but just good…  then it also becomes difficult to believe that what Mary is doing…  sitting at Jesus’ feet…  being more of a contemplative…  is better than what Martha is doing… and when we think about what Martha is doing…  rushing around as Abraham did…  and being more of a householder… is worse than what Mary is doing…  or not doing…

Now there’s an expression in one of Hinduism’s sacred texts…  the Bhagavad Gita…   which has a parallel in Christian thought…  in the Sanskrit it says…  Yogas-thah kuru karmani…  which means…  Established in Being…  perform action…  in other words…  first become established in the Ground of Being…  in the silent presence of Wisdom…  of the Christ Mind…  and from that state of being…  from that place of knowledge…  then act…

And while it may be possible to think of Mary as aligned with thoughts and prayers…  and of Martha as aligned with actions…  when we understand that our actions arise out of our inner awareness…  then we can understand that the more awake we are…  the more our actions will honor the archetypes of both Mary and Martha…  and be more in line with God’s will…  and God’s justice…  for all people…

The Rev. Phil Hooper…  Curate at Trinity Episcopal Church in Fort Wayne…  Indiana…  writes…  when we hear Luke’s Gospel today…  we might still ask ourselves…  which one am I…  Martha or Mary…  busy or mindful…  striving or tranquil…  perhaps…  even as you hear the question right now…  you can feel the pressure of needing to have the right answer…  to measure up…  to choose the better part…  but before you get too lost in all of that…  let me tell you…  spoiler alert…  it’s a trick question…  it’s a false choice…

It’s false…  quite simply…  because it is not the choice that Jesus…  by way of this text…  asks us to make…  Jesus is not pitting the sisters against each another…  nor is he creating a hierarchy of types of disciples…  the duality that we read into the text is our own creation…  borne of our own desire to make the world more comprehensible…  and perhaps more controllable…  through categories and labels…  we do this all the time…  in ways both benign…  like the roles we take on in a group of friends…  and destructive…  like the reductive stereotypes that continue to harm people at the margins…

But this is not Jesus’ agenda…  when he tells Martha that Mary has chosen the better part…  he is not challenging Martha’s personality…  nor is he even rejecting Martha’s present busyness…  but is instead gently calling her back to the fullness of herself…  reminding her of both the Ground of her Being…  and the telos…  which means the intentional endpoint…  of all of this good…  hard…  and necessary work…  namely himself…

Martha lives and serves…  as we all do…  in the name of Jesus…  the One who has knocked upon her door and who now abides in the midst of her activities…  the cooking and the cleaning and the mending and the tending of small daily things…  all of this holds the possibility of divine in-breaking…  but only when those things are done in mindfulness of God’s ever-present love…  that mindfulness is what we must bring to the table as disciples…  and so Jesus simply wants Martha not to lose sight of him…  knowing…  as he does…  how easy it is to become…  worried and distracted by many things…

And we too are called…  not to a rigid duality…  but a fluid and dynamic one…  one that waxes and wanes as we take care of ourselves…  and those around us…  from a place of deep silence…  our need for self-care…  for the physical…  emotional…  psychological…  and spiritual aspects of ourselves…  is paramount…  but the need for each of us to become Established in Being is critical too…  because we cannot offer an unconditional welcome to those who are different from us…  we cannot offer in God’s name what we do not possess…  but when we invite Jesus into our inner reality…  we can experience this boundlessness as our true Nature…  we can welcome everyone…  resting in the certainty that God protects us in our vulnerability…  so that we too can lavish hospitality on each and every one who knocks on our door…  as though they were Christ himself…