Sermon - The Practice of Being Present

Preached on July 21, 2013 at First Congregational Church of Tallmadge, Ohio, UCC.

Scripture: Luke 10:38-42

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “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.”

Sermon

In the gospel according to John, Jesus says to his disciples “you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

I wonder if there is a truth embedded in today’s passage from Luke that we need to hear, a truth that has the power to set us free. It is the truth Jesus tells to Martha: “You are worried and distracted by many things.” Is that true of us? And might the telling of that truth set us free?

Jesus is welcomed into the home of two sisters, Mary and Martha, and Martha goes to work doing…well, doing who knows what: preparing food to share with their guest, making the home more presentable for company. The text doesn’t say, so maybe she’s returning calls from the office or catching up on email. At any rate, she’s distracted by many tasks, probably to do with hospitality because she thinks her sister should be helping. So there’s Martha, making preparations, banging things around louder than necessary to get Mary’s attention.

But Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to his words. And let’s take a little side trip here to notice that Mary has taken the position of a disciple, a reminder to us that Jesus taught men and women, and didn’t care much for customs or traditions that excluded some people in favor of others. He approves of Mary adopting the role of a disciple. We do well to remember this.

Martha can’t stand it anymore. She has waited for Mary to get up and help, and she has finally become convinced that Jesus, at least, should not tolerate the obvious unfairness. “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?”

And Jesus says “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things.”

Is that a truth that is needed by our culture today?

Is that a truth that we need to hear?

I remember the story -  I don’t know if it really happened this way, but I know that this story is true – the story of a father who was at home taking care of his five year old daughter and doing that thing where part of your mind is aware of your child and what she’s doing but most your brain is paying attention to the thing that you wanted to be doing. His daughter was in the talking mood, and the father thought he was getting by pretty well with enough of the “hmm-mms” and “oh, you did?” to show that he was listening, which he really was not.  Finally, the child stops her story, grabs her father’s head between her hands and says  “Dad - listen to me with your eyes!” It was the only way the she knew to tell the difference between distraction and really being present.

And that’s what this truth is about. It’s about our ability to practice being present in this moment, present to the people we are with, present to ourselves, to our thoughts and intuitions, present to the Spirit of God doing something new in our lives. The tragic warning of this story about Martha and Mary is that the very living Christ could visit my home and even then I can be distracted. Could it be that God comes near to us, and we are too distracted to notice?

You are worried and distracted by many things: A truth that will set us free. Not a message of judgment, not to point fingers and say “you should know better!” but just to tell the truth, and in telling the truth, in naming the reality that we are distracted by many things, the truth sets us free of our distractions, sets us free to practice being present with God right here. Right now.

Mary was be present with Jesus. She was able to recognize and be thankful for the presence of God in her home, and she responded by listening.

Martha could be present to Jesus as she went about her work of hospitality. It is very possible to practice the presence of God in the midst of activity. The message here is not that it is better to be quiet than it is to be active. This passage reminds us that we need balance. Mary is present to God in her listening, and Martha could be present to God in her activity, in her service and hospitality, the way we have all known people to be graciously present for guests even as they are busily attending to the work of hospitality.

But that’s not what Martha’s doing. She’s not being present to anything except herself and her worries. “Don’t you care that Mary has left me to do all the work by myself. Tell her to help me.” Me, me, me. That’s why Mary has chosen the better part, because she is present to Jesus. This is the way that the Samaritan traveler was fully present to man who had been robbed on the side of the road, even as he was very busy in tending his wounds and taking him to the inn. That parable is side by side this scene with Mary and Martha in the gospel of Luke, so surely Jesus is not telling everyone to stop their activity and sit in contemplation of God all the time, he just told the lawyer to go and do likewise, like the Samaritan.

This isn’t about contemplation or activity; it’s about the practice of being present, whatever we are doing: being present to God by being present to others, and even to ourselves.

I remember learning about Brother Lawrence, a monk in the 1600’s who discovered the practice of being present in the midst of service.  Brother Lawrence lived in a monastery, and, although he joined the monks in the times of prayer and worship throughout the day, where he really felt present to God was in the small mundane daily chores of the monastery: doing laundry, tending the gardens, washing dishes. He wrote that prayer doesn’t have to be a set apart activity in which we say words and quietly listen in meditation. Prayer can be the context of whatever we are doing. While we’re doing whatever it is that occupies our time, we can be present to God, not as the background to what we’re doing, but the grounding of what we do. There is a difference between being busy with many tasks and being distracted by many tasks.

The practice of being present to God will look different for different people. If you are like Mary, then it will be a quiet and still time of contemplation, prayer, meditation. If you are more like Brother Lawrence, then it will be helpful to have your hands engaged, your attention focused on – it could be anything: preparing dinner, yardwork, making music, exercising – there is no right place to practice being present, and no wrong place either.

How about the checkout lane at the grocery store? I try this sometimes, because I have noticed that I hate waiting at the checkout line. Most of the time, I deal with this by getting really good at getting through the checkout lane quickly. And I am good. I know which one to pick. I scope out the items in people’s carts, estimate time to scan, and put odds on the amount of time different people are likely to fish for their wallet or talk up the person working at the register. I can even sense when another lane is about to be opened and I can position myself in readiness.  I want to get through there fast. Sometimes I think I’m too good. There are not that many times when I am legitimately in a hurry. What if the checkout lane is a place to practice the presence of God? What if the checkout lane is a time to be thankful, a time to show graciousness to others, a time to practice being patience, and a time to recognize God’s presence in every place, and in every person?

Life does not consist of what we get to live when we finish all the things we have to do. Life is how we do all the things we have to do.

You are worried and distracted by many things. It’s true. I bet it’s true of all of us in different degrees. God sets us free. God sets us free from worry. God sets us free from distraction. God sets us free from missing the gifts right in front of us because we were looking elsewhere, or not really looking anywhere at all.

God frees us to be present moment by moment, so that we may know God and respond to each moment with our compassion, our joy, our love.