This morning, we hear the story of Martha and Mary. A small dispute between siblings is not uncommon. I remember my arguments and fights with my older sister. It seems at first what Martha is doing to Mary is nothing more than typical sibling rivalry. Martha tries to triangulate Jesus in her dissatisfaction with Mary by telling on her that Mary is not helping her at all. Martha is unhappy and quite upset that she’s doing all the work while Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus. But let’s not judge Martha as petty or small-minded or jealous. Mary sitting at the Lord’s feet and listening to his words means much more than just sitting next to Jesus and listening to him. It is Mary’s decision to become Jesus’s disciples.
In the time of Jesus, women’s social roles were limited, meaning they were not able to do what men could do. So it’s not too surprising why Jesus only selected the twelve men as his disciples or why only the twelve disciples were named and recorded in the gospels if we consider this sociohistorical context. What matters to us is that Jesus welcomed all at the end. Having been born into the patriarchal system of his time, Jesus learned to break that framework by listening to the socially marginalized such as the sick, gentiles, and women. Historically, St Luke is considered to have been a gentile himself. Biblical scholars pretty much agree on that his gospel account and the Book of Acts was written for the audience that included both gentiles and Jews. Mary’s decision to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his words closely is a radical and seemingly provocative move. She chooses to break free from her old role of women in her time. When we hear a sermon on this story of Martha and Mary, almost always the focus is on what is really important for us Christians between action and contemplation. Often, it is said that listening to the Word of God is more important and must come first than any action or service of hospitality. I remember in my Korean American church community, this pastor loved today’s gospel lesson to complain about those who did not attend the entire service. They were mostly women. They came to church early to prepare lunch and left in the middle of the service to prepare it again for others. The pastor simply didn’t like the fact that they weren’t fully present until the end. So he used to use this gospel story as a weapon. Listening to God’s word, yet in this case, listening to his sermon is more important than preparing lunch for the entire church community. Obviously, he is very wrong about the gospel message. Now, let’s focus on how Jesus responds to Martha’s complaint. Also, keep in mind this saying of Jesus is more important than what Martha at that time was about to hear since Jesus’s words to Martha is what we’re left with! Jesus says to Martha not in a rebuking manner but in a loving, kind, and compassionate way, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” As Jesus recognizes Martha has many tasks and she is worried and distracted by them, he understands where her frustration comes from. He gets it. Yet, he sees something much deeper and more essential in Martha’s case. He says, “There is need of only one thing.” Now, what’s tricky is his saying of Mary choosing the “better” part. Many pastors get caught up in this “better” and apply it to Mary’s intention to listen to Jesus’s words. I’m not convinced if that’s what Jesus actually meant. Jesus’s emphasis is more on that need of “only one thing.” Jesus teaches Martha she doesn’t need to focus on many things but only one thing. That’s what Mary did. Why is Martha distracted by her many tasks? Is it because of her workload? No. The fact is that she has many tasks. What disturbs her, however is not that she has many tasks. She gets frustrated as she looks at Mary. Can we say that it is Mary who upsets Martha? No. It is Martha who chooses to feel frustrated, angry, and pissed. She can, of course, choose to feel otherwise. She can choose not to feel upset. She can choose not to be bothered by whatever Mary does. But this is only possible when she owns her decision to serve Jesus and his friends. This is only possible when she becomes the master of her feelings and thoughts. What I mean by Martha being the master or driver of what goes in her mind is that she realizes her God-given free will to pick and choose her behaviors, thoughts, and feelings rather than being enslaved and imprisoned by them. What Jesus would’ve expected from Martha, that is, focusing on only one thing, is that Martha is not bothered by whatever Mary does for herself. This requires that Martha has willingly decided to provide hospitality. She has freely chosen to exercise her spirituality of welcoming and serving guests out of her own desire. When she owns and becomes responsible for what she has chosen to do, she wouldn’t even have to look at Mary and compare herself. There’s no reason for Martha to complain about Mary to Jesus. Which means there’s no reason for Martha to have her egoistic desire to change someone in the way she wants. This might sound like “Martha should mind her own business.” In a way, it is but how she can do that is what’s most important. Mary does what Martha doesn’t. That’s not so much about sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to his words but her determination to do what she has decided to do. Mary realizes that it is her life of which she becomes the driver or master. She chooses the better part of being the master of her own feelings and thoughts. She doesn’t stop there but goes beyond, which is to make the right choice to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to him. As she takes the ownership of her life, she chooses to commit herself to become Jesus’s disciple. This choice to devote her entire life to Jesus will never be taken away as Jesus declares. All this decision and action of Mary is empowered and made possible by Jesus who sets her free from all kinds of social and spiritual obstacles and regulations that used to enslave her. Seeing Jesus, meeting him, encountering him always brings eternal freedom to us because he is God incarnate. Martha’s spiritual state may be what St Paul talks about in the second lesson. He says, “You were once estranged and hostile in mind…” Martha is distracted and disturbed by her own choice without knowing she made that choice. She is enslaved by her feelings and thoughts that are out of her control. She's estranged from herself. She becomes a slave of her temper or her habit of missing the mark. Being aware of oneself, noticing one’s movement of thoughts and feelings, however, is being awaken to oneself. When Jesus says the kingdom of God is not above or somewhere in heaven but among us, it requires our awareness of sins or habits of missing the mark as well as the Original Sin that is socially transmitted to us, the Sin that we haven’t committed ourselves but into which we have been born, In this reality of the Original Sin and our continuing habit of missing the mark, Jesus has come to us. Encountering Jesus in this midst is how the Kingdom of God breaks in among us. St Paul thus says, “...you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him-- provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.” My friends, I ask you to consider three things to take into contemplation and action this morning. Ask the Holy Spirit to encounter Jesus again and again who sets you free from imprisonment of inessential and unnecessary matters. This is also to acknowledge God’s gift of free will in each one of us through Jesus who shows us his free will to obey God’s will. Look into yourself what habits of missing the mark, that is the habit of estranging yourself from yourself, from others, and from God while keeping in mind Jesus is the one who makes it straight, who makes you holy, blameless, and irreproachable before God. And lastly, commit yourself, your whole being to Jesus. Align your will and intellect to Jesus freely, lovingly, and faithfully with the help of the Holy Spirit. Your commitment to become a servant of the gospel of Jesus Christ will never be taken away from you. Because you have chosen not just the better part but the best. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our stress (or emotional suffering if we want to call it) happens when we want to have it all. Life doesn’t allow us to have everything we want. If we choose one thing, then we are to let go of the other. For example, when you buy a car, you are there to choose one unless you’re very wealthy. You might have several choices and narrow them down to two or three and then one. You can’t have it all. Even if you’re fortunate enough to have two cars, you can’t drive them all at the same time. In today’s gospel lesson, this is what the lawyer is struggling with. He wants to have it all. He asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He already knows the answer to his own question. It is to do the law of God that will grant him eternal life. Whether he truly believes he can physically live forever or not, eternal life is only possible in the presence of God. With the grace of God, one’s continuing awareness of God’s eternity can be experienced in one’s action. Doing God’s law, not just memorizing it or understanding it, helps one live in God. So, the lawyer knows what to do to inherit eternal life, and he answers, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
I said earlier that the lawyer is deeply bothered both by his own answer and Jesus’s advice to do what he says. Go love God and your neighbor as yourself! Loving God would be actually easier since God isn’t physically visible in our eyes. But loving my neighbor as myself? He wants to inherit eternal life but doesn’t want to do what’s required. He wants to have eternal life without having to love his neighbor as himself. He wants to have it all even though he can’t. He has to choose one way or the other. The problem arises from his desire to live eternally and not do all the work. So, he asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” not because he doesn’t know who his neighbors are but to get away from them. Jesus doesn’t respond to his question right away. Why? Because his question is wrong to begin with. Instead of correcting him, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. As we know, there are many lessons in this parable but I want to focus more on Jesus's question to the lawyer. His question is completely different from the lawyer's. His question is his response to the lawyer's question. The lawyer asks, "Who is my neighbor?" while Jesus asks, "Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" There’s a radical difference between these two questions. The question, "Who is my neighbor?" centers around me. Who can be my neighbor is up to me. I'm in control of picking who. It is so self-centered and self-serving. Jesus's question, "Who is neighbor of the man who was beaten and robbed?," on the other hand, suggests a different perspective. It’s not up to me to decide who my neighbor can be. It's up to the ones who are suffering. Rather than who qualifies to become my neighbor, Jesus throws this question to the lawyer and us this morning, "Do people in suffering consider me as their neighbor?" We don't choose our neighbors but the oppressed and vulnerable. Therefore, we don’t help out people in need because we have decided they are our neighbors. We reach out to them in order to become their neighbors and continue to do so until they consider us as their neighbors and friends while accepting we cannot push them to see as their friends. It requires humility and patience which are the fruits of charity, love, compassion. My friends, this is the essential nature of the Christian mystery, incarnation. God can choose who can be his neighbor, yet he doesn't. Because his love is kind, gentle and never coercive, he asks whether he can be our neighbor by going downward to where we are, by becoming human like us, by becoming himself the Good Samaritan. He lets us choose whether he is our neighbor or not. He lets himself be in our hands. We might take for granted to see ourselves capable and competent to do what the Good Samaritan does in the parable. But this can never motivate us to do it in the long run. If we simply take Jesus’s saying to “go and do likewise” as it is, it becomes a duty or an obligation. This doesn’t move our hearts. Instead, we ought to see ourselves as robbed and beaten first and meet Jesus who himself is the Good Samaritan. He doesn’t pass by us when we suffer. He’s moved with compassion (ἐσπλαγχνίσθη). He reaches out to us, goes out of himself (extasis) and bandages our wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. He doesn’t leave us abandoned. He takes care of us, giving his entire self. Love heals. But it’s not the end of it. Love elevates us to share in the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which we do by loving God in our neighbors. Because we were once beaten, robbed, saved, healed, and made whole by Jesus our Good Samaritan, we know what it’s like to receive that love and compassion. Our experience of pain and suffering and our remembering of that experience, which can be metaphorically imagined as “our healed scars” help us be compassionate to and empathize with those who are suffering. Our act to go and do likewise is then simply our response to Jesus because we first received that healing and salvation from him. As we respond to Jesus’s love, we enter the life of the divine love which is God’s eternity. When we love our neighbor as ourselves, we join the presence of God who is love. Then happens the friendship of charity in which God communicates his happiness and joy to us. In a way, those who are beaten and robbed, those who are suffering in the world are the way for us to enter the eternal life of love in God. As we see Jesus in them, we become the body of the Good Samaritan, Jesus Christ to them. So, when you see those who are suffering or struggling, remember your own suffering and struggle in which God came to you and healed you. Let your hearts be filled with gratitude to God who heals, restores, and gives you life and love. Only then, see what you want to do about them. Only then, we can do what Jesus our Good Samaritan tells us this morning, “Go and do likewise.” Only then, we will truly live this life in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. In our diocese, we have heard so much about “going local.” Going local is a different way of thinking about participating in God’s mission. Rather than imagining too broadly or unrealistically about God’s mission, we start from where we are. Also, instead of waiting for people to come to church by making our church activity attractive, we go where people are. This is the basic theology of going local that we join God who is already working in our neighborhood. Saint Agnes’ Food Pantry ministry can be a good example of going local. In a strict sense, we’re not physically going where people are. People actually come where we are. But the reason is that we are using our resources to meet people’s needs. Then, the essential nature of going local isn’t so much about changing our geographical ground of God’s mission but about meeting spiritual needs of people in our neighborhood. But for what? We want them to come to our church and become members. We don’t have to shy away from this very desire that we want our church membership to grow in number. There’s nothing wrong with this. Why is it wrong to share with our neighbors what we think is the best for life? Isn’t it a godly thing to share the best thing with as many as people?
This is a difficult task. Imagine we’re in a marketing industry. We need to have a dialogue with potential consumers what their needs are about a certain product. We interview them. We come up with something that might fulfill their needs. It might fail. Try again. Say, luckily we develop the best product that people love. Yet, this is not it. We have other competitors who might have a similar item like ours. Then, we try to differentiate ourselves from those companies. I bet we find this example too familiar since we are on the side of consumers who are dealing with so many of the same products that are manufactured by different companies with different brand names. In a way, all religious denominations are in this competition. You might think this example a bit blasphemous but let’s be honest. Churches are in a religious business. And The Episcopal Church isn’t doing so well. Perhaps, I’ve chosen the wrong career path. As we all know, more than 50% of the parishes in our diocese are dwindling. This phenomenon isn’t just limited to our diocese. It is happening to all the Episcopal parishes and to all other denominations. I’m going to be more bluntly honest with you on this going local or any kind of mission work. I sense there’s a huge stress on parishes that are dwindling whenever our diocese comes up with a new missional initiative. I think people are genuinely interested in any kind of local missions in which they feel connected and engaged with their local communities. Yet, small parishes like ours don’t have much energy or people to initiate it. At the same time, this lack of interest of lack of human resources to do any missionary work must not be something to be judged. What I’m more worried about is what this leaves behind such as a feeling of defeat or helplessness or even guilt so that there’s no theological imagination on our part about how we can actually join God’s mission. There are many diverse ways to participate in God’s mission. Yet, there’s one substantial condition or prerequisite for those who desire to join God in our communities and in the world. What I would call this prerequisite is the “evangelization of self.” So what is this evangelization of self? It is actually my term I have come up with. Imagine that your body and soul become the gospel of Jesus itself. This is not something you become who you are not. Complete opposite. Evangelizing one’s entire self is to become authentically who you are meant to be in your baptism with Christ. There’s no mask to put on to be someone who you are not. Bring your authentic self to wherever you are. In this way, your entire presence becomes the presence of the gospel of Jesus. Becoming ourselves should be the easiest thing to do, but for many reasons, this has become the most difficult task. We tend not to like ourselves much. We are very often hard on ourselves. We don’t see ourselves in the way God sees us as baptized. We have such high expectations for ourselves. When we don’t meet them, we chastize ourselves. We unconsciously believe we’re born perfect, even though we are perfectly imperfect. I’ve used a rather fancy term, “the evangelization of self” to talk about something that isn’t new at all. We usually call it “being born again” or “conversion” which involves a genuine experience of repentance in which we accept and acknowledge we somehow missed the mark. This experience of one being evangelized, one’s soul reformed, restored, renewed, revived, and resurrected isn’t just an instant event that takes place. It continues throughout our entire lives. This is a process and a journey that we continue to be on. In the lessons we hear this morning, we have two biblical images being naked or stripped away. Let’s look at Naaman. He is not just a soldier. He’s a command of the army of Syria who won the battle over Israel. He is also favored by the king. The Scripture, however, is quite realistic that this great man in favor of the king isn’t perfect. He suffers from leprosy. It makes him vulnerable yet opens his ears wide enough to listen to what the young servant girl from Israel says about the prophet Elisha who can cure him. Naaman uses his political influence to get what he wants. He has full support from the king. He can easily enter the land of Israel. He takes ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten sets of garments for his medical treatment. He probably thinks that much is more than enough. It turns out that much is never enough. It is rather useless. It’s not going to help him get better. Also, his horses and chariots are completely useless. All his wealth and military power cannot get him what he really wants. They are nothing but baggage or garbage (?) to be thrown away. Elisha doesn’t demand anything from Naaman. He simply tells Naaman, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” Naaman who is full of pride, missing the mark of what is most important to him, gets outraged. He feels disrespected that this prophet doesn’t even give him proper honor and respect. He feels belittled. It just shows how greedy and self-centered he is in that he wants everything to be done his way. But once again, his vulnerability of being ill opens his ears wide enough to listen to his servants. They rationally suggest to him, “If the prophet had commanded you to do something difficult, would you not have done it? How much more, when all he said to you was, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” Naaman finally goes down and immerses himself seven times in the Jordan. He is stripped away of everything which he believed could get him what he wants, that is, becoming whole, becoming who he is without leprosy. In order to be healed, cured, and restored, he has to give up everything. He has to die first to live again. This is the mystery of the resurrection. For us Christians, the Jordan river also has a significant meaning. It is the river where Jesus was baptized and the voice from heaven declared he was God’s beloved Son. In our baptism, we die and live again with Jesus. In Jesus, we also become God’s beloved children. We are immersed in the water of God’s grace and love through Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit. We are restored. This is what I call the evangelization of self. Without this recognition and consciousness of our own baptism, we have no authority or power to join God in our world. This authority or power is not of what Naaman brought to the prophet Elisha. It is not of wealth or political or militant power. It is the authority that comes from the grace of God. For us to see this authority coming from God, we are stripped away of everything. So, that’s why we “Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals.” We bring ourselves alone. We bring our presence alone. We bring our restored, resurrected selves alone while seeing God with our faith and joining his mission. This isn’t easy at all. To really see ourselves completely naked and stripped away before God through our baptism isn’t easy. And joining God in the world isn’t easy either. Jesus himself knows this very well so he says, “I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.” What this means is that we are going into the animal kingdom. In this animal kingdom, lambs are crucified and killed. Wolves eat them. Yet, we are not to eat them. In this animal kingdom, our stripped away selves, our baptized selves bring the presence of the kingdom of God. Wherever we are, the kingdom of God is proclaimed in the very midst of the animal kingdom. We are to proclaim peace. We are to eat and drink with those who welcome the kingdom of God, those who are sick and tired of the cruelty of the animal kingdom. We are to cure the sick, meaning we are to bring reconciliation and healing to the world. So with this evangelization of self, where are we going? Where is the harvest of God? We can say, “Let’s go local.” Well, I would like to suggest, “Let’s first go into ourselves.” In other words, let’s ask the Holy Spirit to evangelize us. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to show us what marks we have missed in our lives, how often we attack ourselves, how we love to hate than to love, how frequently we intend to be unaware of sufferings around us, or how indifferent we are to others. No purse, no bag, no sandals in the midst of wolves, my friends. St Paul thus confesses, “May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” No self-deception, no self-hatred, no pride, no wealth, no political power or fame. But just our naked selves. Our presence. God doesn’t need anything but us. Our presence is all God wants for his mission. Don’t you find it exciting that others see in our presence God’s kingdom in this animal kingdom? We don’t really need to do in this business of God’s mission. We bring our presence in which we show God’s love, forgiveness, and compassion. When others experience in us God’s presence, they will wonder how we can do that, where we receive that authority or gift. May God use every single one of your presence to be God’s dwelling place. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. |
Paul"...life up your love to that cloud [of unknowing]...let God draw your love up to that cloud...through the help of his grace, to forget every other thing." Archives
January 2025
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