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Sermon
Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – July 21, 2019
Centenary United Methodist Church
Colossians 1:24-29; Luke 10:38-42 Today we are going to eavesdrop on the well-known
conversation between Jesus, Mary, and Martha. In Bible discussion
groups, it is interesting how people easily choose sides on which sister
to support emotionally. In my experience, the majority of people have
consistently sided with Martha.
Martha was doing everything in her power to make
the occasion of having Jesus in their home a wonderful experience with a
fine meal. She said to
Jesus, "Don't you care that my sister has left all the work up to me.
Please tell her to come and help me."
Jesus responded, "Martha, Martha, you worry about so many things.
Mary has chosen to learn the one thing about what really matters
in life and that cannot be taken away from her."
No doubt, Martha's feelings were hurt by Jesus' response. Those
who were feeling empathetic for Martha's request felt that Jesus could
have handled her differently.
Luke was not there to witness this discussion so we
are left to speculate why he chose to use such an episode. Luke was
obviously illustrating the two worlds that exist side by side.
In the material world people
often find themselves constantly busy as they worry about the details of
so many things. In the
world of spirit, life is about feelings, thoughts, and attitudes that
allow our divinity to be seen by others.
My mother would never have put up with asking Jesus
if her children could help set the table and help in the kitchen with a
meal she was preparing. My
Mom would have said: Excuse me, Jesus!
Dick would you set the table by getting out the knives, spoons,
forks and napkins and put them around on everyone's placemat? Jane, will
you please get out the plates? Ruth,
you get the cups, saucers, and gravy boat, and Roy, you get the salt and
pepper shakers and the salad bowls. Dad, please sharpen the knife and
begin carving the turkey. We have another experience in the Gospels where Jesus was having
lunch with someone. Whatever the
two of them discussed, it was completely life-changing for Zacchaeus.
Certainly, Jesus was teaching something very similar to Mary.
One major difference was that Zacchaeus had a staff that prepared
the lunch for the two of them.
Jesus was obviously teaching what he shared with
listeners during his ministry – let the full potential of your
divinity show up in all of your relationships. Last week, Lois reviewed our first lesson for this
morning and said,
Dick, this passage is just a bunch of words that do
not communicate very well.
How are you going to integrate Paul's words with the Luke passage of
Mary and Martha? You are always reading lessons from the Good
News Bible. Listen to what our people will be reading from the
New International Version that we have in our pews.
She read the passage to me out loud.
I had to agree with her.
Paul had such a brilliant mind that often his words were way
beyond what most of his readers could absorb.
The core of Paul's words in the
Colossian's passage is: God's plan is to make his secret known
to everyone. This rich
and glorious secret which God has for all people is this:
Each person has the potential to share their divinity,
which means that each of us has the ability to share God's Spirit with
everyone. Our task as
servants of the church is to teach people how to make God's Spirit
visible to the world by modeling it in every way possible.
(Colossians 1:27f) There are countless Christians who try to do this
throughout their lives.
They do not easily cave-in to the values of the material world.
Their energy is always flowing away from them in the same way
that God's energy flows. There is a story about a man who lived a very
active Christian life prior to his death.
As he approached the entrance to
Heaven, St. Peter said, "To enter Heaven, you need to have
accumulated a score of 100 points.
Tell me about yourself."
The man began to recite the history of his loving, positive
qualities. He tithed his income.
For years he tutored and trained young minds as a Sunday school
teacher for junior and senior high school students.
He was a modern-day Apostle Paul.
After discussing his goodness, Peter said, "All of that is worth
one point." The man was surprised by such news! Peter asked him to
continue. He went on by providing a remarkable litany of
donated money, support of missionaries, preaching for his pastors when
they were on vacation; on and on he went.
Peter responded, "All of that is worth two points."
In a frustrated voice, he said to Peter, "I have
worked very hard to live what Jesus taught.
My entrance here is impossible, if not totally hopeless if
everything I have done is worth only three points."
Peter said, "You are correct! It
is virtually impossible for anyone to earn their way to
Heaven." The man
lowered his head and said, "I guess my entrance will depend on how much
God wants me." Peter said,
"You have that insight correct.
God's love for you is worth 97 points." Perhaps what Jesus was communicating to Mary is
that her divinity does not show itself with fireworks,
with healing others, with superhuman powers, and with accurate insights
into God's creative plans.
Her divinity will show in her persistent forgiveness of
everyone and everything.
This would be like accepting all life-experiences by offering 97
points just as God did in the earlier illustration. Last week, I told you that the story of the Good
Samaritan was not rooted in fact but rather was a story that was
spontaneously created from Jesus' imagination. His parable was perfectly
designed to fit the needs of a teacher of the Law who asked the
question, "What must I do to receive eternal life?" There is a story about the 16th
President of the United States that equally is not rooted
in any historical event; however, it illustrates a truth.
Abraham Lincoln went to the slave block where people were sold to
the highest bidder. He
bought a slave girl. The girl looked at the men who were doing the
bidding. After seeing the
bearded man who bought her, she thought, "Here's another white man that
wants to buy me and then abuse me." Lincoln went to get her.
After making his payment, his first words to her were these,
"Young lady, you are now free.
I purchased you in order to set you free."
She had no idea what "free" meant. She asked, Do you mean that it is okay for me to say what I
want to say and to become whatever I want to be? Do you mean that I can
go anywhere that I want to go? Lincoln said, "Yes, this is what freedom means."
With tears streaming down her face, she said, "Then, I choose to
go with you. I will need someone
to teach me how to enjoy this freedom that I have never had. My whole
life has been one of being told what to do."
Lincoln said: I know.
You are now in control of your life. You cannot follow me.
Your destiny is up to you.
Follow the guidance of your heart and see where it leads
you. Let your love for other people help you to understand them. You are
now free to become the kind of person that you want to be. Always
remember that God is inside of you. Try to think of what God's
love would feel like yourself, and then become that person to other
people. When we read what Jesus said to Martha, we learn the substance of
what he and Mary were discussing.
He said: Martha, Martha!
You are worried and troubled over so many things, but just one
is needed. Mary has
chosen the right thing and that will not be taken away from her. (Luke
10:42f) That one thing that Mary had chosen was how to experience
freedom from worry and fretting about matters in this world once she has
become acquainted with her spiritual identity as an infinite
spirit-being. A major life-issue that we face is that we
know Jesus was absolutely correct in what he taught but we find
ourselves emotionally attached and committed to living in the material
world that is filled with anti-matter. Living in our world brings numerous
responsibilities. We have to buy and maintain our transportation.
Money is required to rent or buy a place to live.
We have to save as much money as we can for the years that follow
our retirement. We realize that our faith, kindness, and compassion
are not going to pay our bills.
However, when we feel the freedom of allowing our divinity
to show up, our lives will become filled with the qualities that almost
guarantee success in the material world no matter what we do or where we
go to earn a living. What they are looking for are the values of showing
up on time every day, being sensitive to the customers' needs, and being
an employee that others find to be an optimistic and enjoyable person to
join their team. Believe it or not, they look for quality attitudes
above everything else. Such
people are not always easy to find.
One day, a Christian theologian went to Japan to
study the Shinto religion.
After being there for a year, he said to a Shinto priest, "I have
studied your religious material and yet I do not find any theology or
ideology in any of it. What
am I missing?" The Shinto
priest paused, as if in deep thought, then gave his response, "I do not
think that we have a theology or an ideology; we dance."
Our attitude about our experience of life
and its people will indicate very clearly which world has the greater
influence over our lives. Are we able to dance enthusiastically
every day because our divinity is showing up in all of our
relationships? After all, what or who can defeat us when we are
able to give 97 points to everyone that we encounter because we love
them regardless of where they are on the learning curve of their
own spiritual journey. We
are free when we let go of many of the values of this world and live by
our divinity that comes from the world of spirit.
CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER
Loving God, we enjoy
using our voices to sing about your presence in our lives.
We enjoy learning about your faithfulness through the experiences
of those who wrote our Scriptures.
Enable us to build on the foundations they placed before us.
Spare us from ever thinking that what has been written or said is
enough. Your gift of new
insight and vision has always come to those who remain open to your
daily presence. We come
today with gratitude for your remarkable world, for each other, and for
the opportunities we have to serve one another.
Amen.
PASTORAL PRAYER All of us thank you this morning, O God, for
planting within us the need in all ways and in all things to reach
beyond where we are. There are so many occasions when we find ourselves
in circumstances wishing that we had more answers, more insights, and
more abilities to cope with life's constant changes. And yet we can almost hear you
saying to us, "If you do not know how to be grateful and good natured
toward all the smaller aspects of life, how can you expect to understand
where your more challenging experiences might lead you?" There are times when we experience
the tyranny of little things. There are times when we waste enormous
amounts of time and energy with worry over issues of life that simply
will not and cannot change because of what we think. All we can do is
change our thinking so that our worrying stops. Perhaps that is your way of
helping us to grow beyond where we have remained for years. So many of
us feel victimized by habits, by attitudes, by coming up with the same
responses, that life has lost its spontaneous qualities. And yet we
confess that we have no one else to blame but ourselves. Lead us to help
one another to experiment with patience, with kindness, with
forgiveness, and with greater trust in you for the outcome of all
things. Lead us onto the paths of righteousness because we are yours. We
pray these thoughts through the spirit of Jesus, who taught us to say
when we pray . . . |