Midweek Vespers Sermon May 7, 2020
7 May A+D 2020
Vespers, St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Laramie, WY
Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42
Let us pray.
In Jesus I find rest and peace;
The world is full of sorrow.
His wounds are my abiding place,
Let the unknown tomorrow
Bring what it may –
There I can stay;
My faith finds all I need today –
I will not trouble borrow. Amen.
Martha was distracted with much serving. She had important work to do. She was serving Jesus. Food is necessary to live. Cleanliness is next to godliness. She had an essential job, and she was doing it.
Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet and hearing His word. She wasn’t doing anything. She was being served by Jesus. Jesus’ word is necessary to live. His words clean us. Listening to Jesus is the only essential job.
Martha was serving Jesus, but she needed to be served by Jesus. “The Son of Man came not be to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me!” That’s what Martha said. Martha is doing something essential. She is working to provide food to eat. We need to eat. We need to provide for our own and those whom God puts in our life. Mary is ignoring her essential duties. Doesn’t Jesus see this? Doesn’t He approve more of Martha working than of Mary not working? Wouldn’t He disapprove of Mary not working and leaving her sister to do what is essential?
“Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.”
You are worried because you think that was is needed is your work. You are troubled because you think your work is essential. “But one thing is needed,” Jesus says. It is sitting at Jesus’ feet and hearing His word.
Our nation is arguing about what is essential and what is not. The arguments are about things the government has purview over – our bodies, our jobs, our food, our protection, our economy, our business, our duty to provide for our own. And it’s a part of our earthly life to engage in this discussion. “But one thing is needed.”
Do you believe that? It is a mark of our sinful flesh’s pride that we think that our labor is needed. It isn’t. “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.” (Ps. 127:1) Note here that God doesn’t say that they shouldn’t build the house. He says that unless He builds it, the work is all in vain.
Do you put your work, your money, your job, your health, the government, or the opinions of experts before the one thing that is needed? You do when you are afraid of a disease that can destroy the body, but cannot harm the soul. Faith is not yours to nourish. Faith is a gift from God that He gives at Jesus’ feet, as you listen with Mary to Jesus, while you do nothing, while you don’t serve, while you forget about food and clothing and health and wealth, and seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Because you are of more value than many sparrows. The lilies of the field are clothed more gloriously than with anything you could buy from money your labor earns. No government can give you your food. No prince’s protection can clothe you. But your heavenly Father knows all that you need for your body. And He knows what you need most. He knows that there are not many essential things; no, there is one thing needful. Because there is no end to worry unless you have the one thing needful. There is no end to your troubles as long as you want to keep serving and not be served.
Martha told Jesus to tell Mary to join her in serving. She told Jesus to stop teaching Mary. That is what our worries and anxieties do to us. They make us think that what we are doing is needful, so much so that we will actually want to stop another person from hearing what is needful. The whole nation has worried so much about disease and death that they told Mary to stop listening. They told Jesus to tell Mary to stop listening. That’s exactly what has happened. And we shouldn’t be surprised, because it happens all the time.
We do the same thing when we think that what we do is essential, but what Jesus says isn’t. Except for a few of the older and more vulnerable, we are not risking our lives by coming to Church to sit at Jesus’ feet. But even if we were risking our bodies, it would be understandable for our bodies and souls to come, because there is one thing needed, one thing essential, one thing that will not be taken away from us when everything else we fear we will lose is gone. And that one thing is the voice of Jesus that speaks truth and pardon and peace into our souls, if only we will hear it; if only we will come to where Jesus is, sit at His feet, and listen to Him, and so receive from Him what our weary and heavy-laden souls need.
We need to stop working for a moment. We need to stop concentrating on the best way we can serve, and turn our hearts to humble Mary, sitting at Jesus’ feet, ignoring her sister who is working so hard, ignoring her worries, because she is hearing the words of eternal life.
Come with all your worries, and listen to Jesus. He says, “Do not worry about tomorrow.” Is He naïve? No, He is wisdom incarnate. Come with all your regrets, and listen to Jesus, “Whoever believes in Me will not see judgment, but has passed from death to life.” Is He insensitive to what you feel when you see what you and others have ruined for you? No, He felt all regret, and He tells you that God remembers your sins no more, and He shows you Himself risen from the dead with no regret, and He is yours, and you are His, and you know this when you sit as His feet and listen to Him. Does He not know your fear, He who felt all fear on the cross, the real sting of death, the fear of being separated from God, of losing everything because He claimed it was His own fault, though He was sinless, but he bore it all? He carried all the burden of our worries and fears and pain because the real burden is our sin, and He knew the one thing we need. We need our sins taken away.
Listen to Jesus. This alone is necessary. This alone is essential. Nothing else is. All else has its blessing and beauty and truth because of Jesus and His words of eternal life. He tells you to cast your burden on Him, and He will sustain you. He calls you so gently, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things, but there is one thing needed,” and it is yours for the taking, and it will not be taken away from you. It is the knowledge that God is taking care of your every necessity, and you know this when you know the one necessity, the one thing needful, which is hearing the voice of your Shepherd, in your baptism, from your Bible, from the pulpit, in the absolution, from His own mouth through His minister, giving to you the body that bore your sins and the blood that was shed to wash them all away, to tear death’s fear out of your heart, to teach you to stop working, stop serving, and be served with forgiveness, mercy, peace, the favor and power of God to silence the fear of the devil and to open your mouth to declare His praise, because He has left death dead behind him. Alleluia! He is risen above all that could give you sorrow or pain with flesh and blood like yours, but all pure and clean and sinless and immortal, and your hope is in Him. “Made like Him, like Him we rise. Ours the cross, the grave, the skies.” Ours peace amidst all fear; ours joy in the middle of all sorrow. Ours the one thing we need, the words of Jesus, the forgiveness of our sins, and therefore life and salvation that will not be taken away from us. Amen. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
~Pr. Mark Preus