Charles J. Tomlin
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
July 18th, 2010
A police officer pulls a guy over for speeding and has the following exchange:
Officer: May I see your driver’s license?
Driver: I don’t have one. I had it suspended when I got my fifth DUI.
Officer: May I see the owner’s card for this vehicle?
Driver: It’s not my car. I stole it.
Officer: The car is stolen?
Driver: That’s right. But come to think of it, I think I saw the owner’s card in the glove box when I was putting my gun in there.
Officer: There’s a gun in the glove box?
Driver: Yes, sir. That’s where I put it after I shot and killed the woman who owns this car and stuffed her in the trunk.
Officer: There’s a BODY in the TRUNK?
Driver: Yes, sir. (Hearing this, the officer immediately called his captain. The car was quickly surrounded by police, and the captain approached the driver to handle the tense situation.)
Captain: Sir, can I see your license?
Driver: Sure. Here it is. (It was valid.)
Captain: Whose car is this?
Driver: It’s mine, officer. Here’s the owner’s card. (The driver owned the car.)
Captain: Could you slowly open your glove box so I can see if there’s a gun in it?
Driver: Yes, sir, but there’s no gun in it. (Sure enough, there was nothing in the glove box.) Captain: Would you mind opening your trunk? I was told you said there’s a body in it.
Driver: No problem. (Trunk is opened; no body.)
Captain: I don’t understand it. The officer who stopped you said you told him you didn’t have a license, stole the car, had a gun in the glove box and had a dead body in the trunk.
Driver: Yeah, I’ll bet the liar told you I was speeding, too.[i]
There is so much of the human condition unveiled in this humorous story, but when we realize how close this is to the human condition, the humor is lost.
Think about 19 year old Colton Harris-Moore, the so called “barefoot bandit”, who for 2 years eluded police after multiple break-ins. This rant included stealing airplanes and crashing them, until he was finally caught in the Bahamas last week. The news reports not only talk about the following this young bandit has had on his Facebook internet page, but it also told us about the abuse he suffered from his mother and that he has been stealing since he was 12 years old. This is one of those stories which reveals how broken humans can become from the inside out. They said, when the Bahamian police opened fire on this motor boat to shoot out the motor, as they came to the boat the young 19 year old was rolled up on the bottom of the boat in a fetal position.[ii]
The human soul has wonderful potential and possibility to live and be a creative force of life; but our souls can also become confused, broken and lost, even within our own bodies. Knowing both our potential for good or for evil, and our need to keep our own lives on track, wouldn’t be great if we had some type of technology to monitor our spiritual health?
Right now the FDA has already approved a wireless, water-resistant sensor which you wear like a bandage to provide instant monitoring of a person’s physical health. Can you imagined your body being monitored constantly by a gadget that reads your heart rate, respiratory rate, bodily fluid levels and your overall activity---whether you are getting enough exercise or not? Then, can you also imagine all this information being constantly transmitted to a central server for analysis and review by a doctor and then by you as well? Think of not just one or two, but hundreds and thousands of people wearing such devices so that all kinds of medical situations can be predicted or prevented by early warning signs being sent to your doctor and the medical team that are constantly monitoring your health? This might sound like Star Trek, but the capabilities of such technology, called PiiX (pie-ex) are already being tested and perfected as the exact algorisms are being generated to provide “predictive” information. It will be part of the great coming effort to move science from being majorly “reactive” to being primarily “proactive”, preventative and much less expensive as well as more life-saving.[iii]
This “smart-sensor” could be a great advancement for monitoring and maintaining physical health. It could tell us when we need to exercise more. What foods or nutrients we need to take in and what foods are killing us. But what about monitoring our spiritual health? It’s one thing to kill your body by an unhealthy life-style, but what about killing your soul and dying within, long before you’re dead? Isn’t it just as tragic to watch people neglecting their spiritual health and not realizing that they are playing with fire? How many people have become spiritually passive and then one day, without realizing it, they are caught in their own moral and spiritual demise? Isn’t there some way to monitor our spiritual health and take our spiritual vital signs just as we do for our physical body?
Today’s short story concerning Mary and Martha is a story that can work as a “sensor” for the examination of our spiritual lives. It is a short story, but it leaves a long impression in the mind and heart. Who can forget Jesus looking into Martha’s worried and over stressed heart and saying; “there is need of only one thing.” (Luke 10: 42). Here we already hear an echo of some of Jesus greatest spiritual recommendations for a hurried, harried, distracted life: “Seek first (or strive after, NRSV) the kingdom of God and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matt. 6. 33).
So, with this as our directive, let’s think a few moments, from this story of Martha’s distractions and Mary’s actions, about the most basic elements of a healthy, Christian spirituality which can help us monitor the health of our own souls. Because it is one thing for the soul and for a church to have a past, but only good health can give hope for a future. But before I continue, I want to remind you of the well-known slogan the United Methodist Churches uses to advertise their ideals and values. On the UMC sign you often see these words, “Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Open Doors.” Long before I ever saw this used by the Methodist I was using the same slogan as the outline for a healthy Church spirituality, replacing the word “open arms” instead of “open doors”. But it’s all the same perspective, and most importantly, as we are about to see it is the prescription of a healthy spirituality as illustrated in today’s text.
OPEN ARMS TO MAKE ROOM FOR OTHERS
At the “heart” of our Baptist spirituality was once a great slogan I heard much as a child: “Whosoever Will May Come!” Much of the greatest moments of our religious past was being a people whose spirituality was focused upon having open arms and open doors to make “room” for others.
Isn’t this also what was at the “heart” of Jesus’ own spirituality? The one thing that made Jesus stand out is that he was a man “for others” and this becomes clear in this text as Jesus “makes room” for Mary who “sat at Jesus’ feet.” (vs. 39). This one of the powerful moments in Scripture, because at that time, it was illegal for a woman to be “taught” or educated at all. Even Martha, her sister takes offense to the moment, as Jesus makes room for Mary.
Do you realize that not only the ministry of Jesus but also the ministry and mission of the early church was remarkable, not simply because of what the church was, but because of what the church did. It made room for sinners, Gentiles, outcasts. The core of the church’s ministry was about “them” and it was never about “us.” It was a ministry based upon who could be “included” and not built upon who was “excluded”. It was built just like the best religion is always built, when it preaches “whosoever will may come.”
Right now, in my study I’ve got three new books I’m trying to have time to read. They are books about being church with a future. One of these books has a disturbing but needed title that catches attention. The book is written by World Vision CEO, Richard Stearns, who claims that in most churches today, “There is a Hole in the Gospel”. Instead of taking the gospel to the “whole world”, he claims there is a great danger that the gospel we live and preach in our churches has a “hole” in it. Especially in our evangelical churches, where the emphasis has been on saving souls, Stearns claims we’ve turned the ministry of saving and rescuing souls into a ministry of saving and assuring our own souls. He claims, we’ve turned saving “faith” into a kind a “kind of spiritual fire insurance” for ourselves rather hearing the gospel as a call to life-saving mission in the world. Stearns even goes on to suggest that the most 16-29 years old are leaving the church, not because they aren’t spiritual, but because they think the church is out of touch with the real world. They say, we’ve wrongly directed our ministries to be about what we are “against” rather than directing them toward “who” or “what” we are for.
Whether or not you agree with Richard Stearns and his concern about there being a “hole” in the gospel, there is little doubt that the early church was both spiritually concerned and socially concerned. Time and time the gospel story and the church’s story is a story of Jesus and the disciples coming in contact with human needs that were both physical and spiritual. There was never simply work of spiritual salvation among people unless there was a healing and hope for meeting real human needs, whether it was helping the cripple, feeding the poor, or reaching out to the outcast. The early church was more about “making room” for others than anything else. Even as Jesus prepared to leave, he told his own disciples…. In my Father’s house are many rooms…..” Having and making room was the core of Jesus’ ministry and if we want to be a church with a future, as well as with a past, we too must be about open arms, open doors and making room---for “whosoever” will.
OPEN MINDS TO SPEND TIME WITH JESUS
But how can we be a church that “makes room” for others? There is something else this story can tell us: More than anything else, Mary wanted to be a disciple of Jesus, but Martha was “worried and distracted” (vs. 41) by so many things. Here we see the deeper problem Martha has in her own spirituality. She can’t make room for Mary to be a student of Jesus, because isn’t a student of Jesus herself. She hasn’t made room in her own heart to spend time with Jesus for herself. Jesus says the reason is that she is “worried and distracted” by “many things.”
We all know the dangers of “distractions” in this day of cell phones which people carry around with them at all times. With all this wonderful technology that can so greatly simply our lives, isn’t it amazing how more complicated even less “connected” we can feel we are so “connected” all the time? A story is told that a guy walks in a roadside rest stop and enters a bathroom stall when he hears a voice saying: “How’s it going?” Feeling a little strange about having a conversation in a bathroom stall, finally he answer’s “not bad”. Then, he hears the voice again ask: “How are you doing?” Realizing this was just a little too weird, he still answers, “Well, I’m going to Colorado”. The next words he hears are the person saying: “Hey look, I’ll call you back, every time I ask you a question, there’s an idiot in here answering me back.
The real dangers of being “distracted” in today’s world, is not just with technology? The other day, a saw a news reporter talking about “change blindness”. They put a woman with a “blind” date in a restaurant, and then after the date excused himself for a moment, another came back to change places, but the change wasn’t even noticed. They also experimented with men too, and they didn’t notice either. How could this happen? It was not only something so “unexpected” the expert declared, but it’s also because our minds are so distracted and being wired so differently in today’s world. Who we’re with has become much less important that what we have or what we are doing?
What Jesus says about Mary that is so favorable is that she knew what was the “better part.” The other day, I had to have an ingrown toe-nail removed and the receptionists at the doctor’s office was so sour, from the very beginning, that I almost recommended to by doctor that he either send her to get some politeness training or he get a new receptionist. You could just see “uptightness” and “unhappiness” written all over her face and expressed in her tone of speech. Life is going by her and not doubt, is filled with so many things, but where’s the joy and where’s the skill of social interaction? The joy is being lost in the lives of so many who are “so distracted” and seem to be missing the “better part”.
Jesus also tells us that Mary knew “the one thing that was needed”. Do we? Right now, many churches are trying all kinds of methods to “attract” people to church. Some churches, especial Mega churches, are spending Mega bucks on all kinds of “technology” to try to draw people in. I believe we can and should use technology to enhance our witness, but the truth is, that you just can’t manufacture an experience with God on Sunday unless you spend time with God in the week. No technology, no change in music style or new approach to worship can give you what you don’t have already within.
This is why is it so important for Martha to learn to deal with the distractions, or she will not get to be with the Jesus she loves. Her stuff, even all the good stuff she does to serve Jesus, can get in the way of her own spiritual need, to stop and let Jesus serve her. And Jesus can only “serve her” when she takes time to slow down and sit down and spend time with Jesus. It’s not what she is doing in the kitchen with the “pots and pans” that is her distraction, but it is that she has no time to “stop” and be with Jesus. This is what is “most needed”, not just doing something for Jesus, but the experience of being with Jesus. Someone has said that once, religion was Moses going up the mountain and reporting to others what it was like to talk to God, but that kind of second-hand spirituality will not work any longer, if it ever did. The great need of our time, the “better part” is the experience of being on the mountain with God ourselves. To be “with God” on the mountain, means we must take time to go up to the mountain and make ourselves available to God.
OPEN HEARTS TO WORSHIP JESUS NOW
If you want to have a spirituality that keeps you “fed” and keeps you “focused”, then you must “make room for others” and “spend time with Jesus”, but there’s only one way this will work. You’ve also got to “have heart”. Notice one more thing that appears in this revealing story about the spiritual life.
Did you notice how Martha “welcomes” Jesus to “her house”, then turns to the tasks of being a good hostess, but ends up working in the kitchen with one eye on what she’s doing and the other eye what her sister Mary is doing; sitting at Jesus’ feet? You can’t be completely sure what gets under Martha’s skin, but you can be sure what she is doing isn’t “whole hearted”. Is it the work she has chosen that is bothering her, or is it missing out on what Mary has chosen? While Martha accuses Jesus of not “caring” that she is left with all the work, Jesus reminds Martha that Mary has chosen the “better part” and the text flows as if Martha probably knows this already. The great spiritual discovery Martha makes, and that we should make too, is that the problem is not what Mary has chosen, but what Martha has not chosen for herself. And it wasn’t the kitchen work that was any less of a service to Jesus, but Martha’s own complaint proves that her own “heart” was not in what she was doing. For some reason, she just could not let herself want with her whole heart, what Mary wanted.
Do you recall the words Jesus spoke the Lawyer just before this encounter?? When Jesus asked the man what the law said about gaining eternal life, the lawyer answered that he was to “love the Lord God with ALL HIS HEART, SOUL AND MIND. (10:27). Loving God with all her heart is what Mary does, and what Martha must also do. Martha’s heart must be in it for it to be a work for God. As Billy Graham once wrote: “Our most basic human problem is only one thing. Our most basic problem is not a race problem. Our basic problem is not a poverty problem. Our basic problem is not a war problem. Our basic problem is a heart problem. We need to get the heart changed and transformed” in order to get ourselves going in the right direction.
A story is told of an eminent doctor who successfully saved a sick child. Realizing the service of this doctor was priceless, she took him ahand-made embroidery which was labored over for many hours. When the esteemed doctor saw the gift, he quickly responded in a rather sharp tone to the lady: “Presents do not pay bills and keep up families.” Hearing his cold response, the woman opens up her wallet and pulls out 5 $100 dollar bills. “What is your fee, she asked. His response was $200 dollars. She handed him the money and then departed without a word.[iv]
A world without “heart” is a world where our souls stay unfed and hungry for love and compassion. But how do we move from “worrying and working” and being distracted by “so many things” to taking time to come together and “sit at the feet of Jesus?” How can we find the activity that settles our hearts and saves our souls? In an old Jewish tale, a pupil comes his Rabbi and asks, ”Why does the Torah tell us to “place these words ON our heart not IN our hearts? The Rabbi answers, “because as we are, our hearts are closed, so we cannot place these holy words IN our hearts, so we must place them ON our hearts. There they stay until one day, our hearts break and the words fall in. As the Psalmist wrote, “A broken and contrite heart, God, will not despise.” When our hearts break, God does spiritual surgery on us, slowly healing our hearts and opening us to feel not only our pain, but the needs of others. Only broken hearts grow tender to produce soul saving fruit.[v]
Isn’t this the real goal of Christian spirituality? All the way back to the great prophet Ezekiel was the hope was that one day God would make his people of “one spirit” and give them a “new Spirit” by taking out the “heart of stone” and putting in a “heart of flesh” (Eze. 36.26). The way to spiritual health only comes as spiritual transformation of the heart---not simply a change in the head, in the way things are done, but it is a change that must take place from the inside out. How do we go about this change? What does this story finally tell us?
Do you remember the classic Billy Crystal movie “City Slickers,” where three long time friends face middle age. In their middle-age crisis they find themselves losing their focus and in danger of losing their families.
To reignite the fire in their lives, the guys sign up as “cowboys,” helping a dude ranch move its herd of cattle from high in the hills down to the lower valley. “Curly,” the grizzled old experienced cowboy who leads them, seems to be the toughest, canniest, wisest person they have ever met. Billy Crystal asks the usually tight-lipped cowpoke what his secret is. What makes his life so strong and centered and sure. Curly smiles, raises his grubby, gloved index finger and proclaims, “It is just one thing,” then he rides away to leave these three guys spending the rest of the movie frantically trying to figure out what Curly meant. What IS that “just one thing?”
Psychologists, marriage counselors, relationship gurus of all stripes, warn us not to expect one person to provide for all our emotional, intellectual, and relational needs. We need a variety of relationships, a network of spouses, friends, colleagues from work, basketball buddies, quilting club comrades, children, elders, and peers, to meet all our relational needs. But what might be true for our human connections does not hold true for our greatest spiritual need. Our soul needs only “one thing.” No matter what your denomination. No matter if your spiritual temperament is exuberant, reserved, flamboyant, or meditative. Whether your soul craves cathedrals, or soars under the blue dome, it is all the same as long as we have that “one thing.”[vi]
What is this “one thing” Mary knew, Martha needed to know and so do we? It is that our spiritual health as Christians is never dependent on the “next best thing” but will always dependent on the “one thing that is needed.” This one thing is not a thing, but a who. It’s like when a child came home from the first day of Sunday School. His parents were curious about how things went, and begin by asking him what the teacher’s name was.
“I don’t know. I don’t remember her name.”
“Well, do you remember anything about her?”
“I think she is Jesus’ grandmother.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because all she did was hold up His picture and brag on him.”[vii]
“Well, do you remember anything about her?”
“I think she is Jesus’ grandmother.”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because all she did was hold up His picture and brag on him.”[vii]
When we can say from our deepest heart, “Jesus, you are my One Thing” we have discovered how we keep our spiritual focus. No matter how much “Martha” work we do in this world, if we neglect the “Mary” thing, we will miss the very words our hearts crave to feel and hear. Like that other famous Martha: Martha Stewart, we can only be concerned with “how” the house looks, “how” the food tastes, or “how” the drinks are served. The problem with this kind of life, is not what you get into, but who and what you never get into and most of all, “who” never gets you. Jesus is and will always be the sure way we open our hearts to God, open our minds to the truth, and open our arms to the love that matters most. Amen.
© 2010 All rights reserved Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min
[i] Homiletics Magazine, July-August 2010, p. 30
[ii] As reported on the Today Show, Monday, July 11, 2010. www.today.msnbc.msn.com/id/ 38223150/ns/38220044.
[iii] McKeough, Tim. “A smart sensor.” Fast Company, December 2009-January 2010, p. 66. Fastcompany.com/magazine/141/a-smart-sensor.html.
[iv] From Homiletics Magazine, July 2010, p. 30.
[v] Ibid, p. 28.
[vi] From a sermon by Len Sweet, Christian Globe Networks, from www.sermons.com
[vii] Ibid.
No comments :
Post a Comment