July 20, 2025

Season After Pentecost, Year I/C

Pentecost 6

Luke 10:38-42

Does the conversation in Mary and Martha’s home sound familiar?  Guests arrive for dinner, perhaps a holiday meal, and one family member is rushing around cleaning the house: they’re in the kitchen preparing the meal, setting the table, making room for the inevitable surprise guests that show up, getting the cat and dog out of way, while another is talking to the guests, catching up, being welcoming.

And then the family member working themselves into a stroke blows up.

“Why. Aren’t. You. Helping????”

So.  Are you a Mary or a Martha?

I was raised in a house full of strong women and one brother.   They were always doing something, always in motion, competitive in everything.  

So, guess who wasn’t a Martha?

I used to get “why aren’t you helping??” a lot.

Of course I knew what was good for me; I helped with the household chores, but I did them as quickly as possible so I could get back to whatever I was doing, which usually was reading one of the ten-allowed books I checked out of the Rodeo Library, or drawing castles and princesses in a giant newsprint tablet and eventually disappear into the EllenSphere. My mother loved baseball. On most Saturdays and holidays, the family would go down to the baseball field to play a couple of innings, but I would just want to stay home and read or draw.  On several outings, I tagged along– not by choice, as we were short a fielder. My mother drew the line at carrying books and paper tablets out to left field. She took the book and paper, handed me a mitt, and off I went.

Few, if any, fly or ground balls were caught.  But we won.

Societal norms were quite different in first-century Galilee.  Women were expected to take care of the children, the house, do the laundry, shop for food, fetch water from the well, and prepare the meals.  They just didn’t sit down at the visiting rabbi’s feet. Come to think of it, that was the norm for women’s work until the last century, but throw a nine-to-five job onto the pile.

Yet, when we hear Martha’s complaint and Jesus’ response, are we, given the teaching and actions in the season’s previous gospel lessons, getting conflicting messages regarding listening and service?  Is Mary’s place at the feet of Jesus more important than Martha’s attention to the meal?  Is a contemplative focus superior to an active one? 

I don’t believe so.

In a recap of what happened before Jesus arrived at Mary and Martha’s, he shows us that the two are not mutually exclusive: Jesus sent out the Seventy with specific instructions on what how they were to act and what to say as they enter a service of proclaiming the gospel, he answers the lawyer’s question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” with a definitive response that requires listening to what he’s saying and thinking, and tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, to illustrate how one serves Jesus by serving others. He healed, and he taught, and he expected his students to listen to his words. 

Imagine Peter listening.  He did.  Eventually.

It is this deacon’s opinion that the story of Mary and Martha is an illustration of the types of ministry we are called to through Christ.

One is “go and do,” the other is “sit down and listen.”

The Word is not the same for everyone in every situation or need.

Sometimes we are just so busy and caught up in daily life as we know it that we don’t hear the Word.  It is when we realize what we’re doing that we’re given the opportunity to sit at Jesus’ feet and listen and learn; we should take it.  It is never too late. And when the call comes, we take action.  We feed the hungry, clothe the needy among us, offer assistance required by the moment and immediacy, and make good trouble to speak to all kinds of social injustice, as so many millions of Americans have been doing.

Mary and Martha were doing exactly what they should have been at the time.  Mary, in an act unknown for women in her society, sits at the feet of Jesus to listen and learn.  This is the act of a disciple.  Martha, for her part, demonstrates discipleship through her numerous tasks, including the offer of hospitality.  Perhaps on another day, their roles would be reversed, or they do a bit of both.

Remarkable women.

I close by commending to you the extraordinary women honored in today’s Episcopal calendar: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Jenks Bloomer, Isabella Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman.  Each of these women listened and served.  They risked their lives and the condemnation of their society to work for women’s rights, freed slaves, began programs to assist the poor, educate children, spoke against inequality, preached, and lived out the gospel.

Whether you’re a Mary or a Martha doesn’t matter.  What matters is that you go and do, and sit down and listen.

Rev. Deacon Ellen L. Ekström

© 2025