Home        Contact     Calendar    Map        Sermons     Messenger

July 18th, 2010. MLC Ocean View, NJ. H. Fege, D.Min.

Ordinary 16th, Pentecost 8, Gen. 18.1-10a, Ps. 15, Col.1, 15ff. Lk.10.30-42

 

I call your attention to a holy painting. It is called the Old Testament Trinity and was executed by Andre Rulev, a Russian Monk who painted it in honor of his superior sometime around 1411.

It is what is known in the Greek Orthodox Church as an Icon…

The word was used long before the dawn of computers… Icons, in that tradition serve the same purpose as our reading from scripture.

The tradition of Icons as Holy-Art goes back the 3rd century… a long time ago. The original is located in a Moscow Art Gallery. The Old Testament reading begins with “The Lord appeared to Abraham.”

The Hebrew translated Lord is Yhwh and is usually translated God.  “God appeared to Abraham…” as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him... first it was “the Lord” now three men and in vs. 3 it is “my Lord” again…

When God comes calling translations cannot contain Him!

Sarah, busying herself with an impromptu command performance in the kitchen, for none other than The Holy Trinity!

She overhears a conversation that would make any woman either cry or laugh… depending on the particulars. She laughs…

For Sarah the particular was that she is 95… She hears that she and her man had better start looking for baby furniture. Preferably a crib without the drop-down front!

But that is another story. When God comes calling the heat in the kitchen becomes too much.

What ties the Old Testament and the Gospel together is that the fire in the kitchen becomes a Holy Fire that is all-consuming.

I fear that Martha has gotten a bum rap. The New Revised Standard Version reads… “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.” 39f.

The Greek in that sentence has a little three letter word ‘kai’ between Mary and “was sitting” the word kai means also.

So the sentence could read: “Mary, who also was sitting at the feet…”

This could mean that both Mary and Martha initially at least, were sitting at Jesus' feet and listening.

But Martha got up and began her preparations for a meal. It is at some point after that we hear that   “Martha was distracted by her many tasks…”

Which made me think how much easier it is to be a man. Your last name stays put.

Wedding plans take care of themselves.

Auto repair shops don’t try to hood-wink you… no pun intended.

You don’t have to wait in line for a public toilet... usually.

Hair styles don’t change often.

You don’t have to buy a new purse with every new suit. 

You never have to ask for directions… and if you invite new members over to eat at the parsonage… no sweat.

Jesus drops in on Mary and Martha, also the home of Lazarus, although he is not mentioned in the story.

And before anyone knows what happened, Jesus gets triangulated… a dynamic that counselors know all too well.

It is not a good thing to be caught in the middle between two opposing sides.

We are told that Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet. That little bit of information may not mean much to you but in that time and place it was as revolutionary a thing as when women where first admitted to ordination.

As a matter of fact is was illegal in Jesus' day for a Rabbi to teach a woman. The position of sitting at a man’s feet was the position of student and teacher…

Two thousand years later I read that the Vatican just updated its stand on clergy sex abuse cases… and puts the offense on the same level as an attempt of a Bishop at ordination of a woman, which is considered a “grave crime.” 

Jesus knew that it was a crime to teach a woman…

That it broke every law of first century Judaism…

And just like the parable of the Good Samaritan the order of who’s right and who’s wrong is reversed.

All the “right” people; Levite, Priest, Lawyer pass by on the other side.

And the wrong person – a Samaritan, does not pass by on the other side but becomes a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers.

So in this story which falls on the heels of last weeks “Good Samaritan” story…

Jesus again ignores the tradition of his elders and set up a Sunday School class for women… if you have not read Three Cups of Tea by Greg Martenso – who builds schools in Afghanistan, you will understand this Gospel lesson with new eyes.

Jesus did this 2000 years ago.  And it wasn’t until 1920 that women in America were given the right to vote…

It was another 60 years before our denomination ordained women…

And we are among some of the more enlightened, grace-filled denominations…

The Apostle Paul is ambivalent on the subject… To the congregation in Corinth he can say that there is neither male nor female, slave nor free, and at the same time say women should keep silent in church, keep their heads covered…

The same Christian community that gave us the New Testament… we know that from other documents called the writings of the church fathers that women preached, prayed in public, and like the men, many of them were persecuted and sent to jail.

As the church became legal under Constantine women's roles became more marginal.

So like Martha, the Church sometimes gets distracted with many things.

We no longer have time to listen to Jesus.

Since I have been here I have tried:

Bible Studies,

Religious book readings,

Adult Classes on Sundays,

WELCA has even tried an evening group for those who work during the day… and always the faithful few attend.

 It seems that most of us, like Martha in the Kitchen and Sarah in the Tent,

we prefer to get “busy with many things” – which by the way we are very good at – like buildings, community club activities outside the church, but choosing the “better part” does not come easy for us.

The fire of Christ is a burning flame that inverts the norm, challenges the status quo,

questions our idea of  “the one thing still needed…”

Bible thumpers, Priests and Levites become characters in a morality play…

While Samaritans, a Mary, and maybe even a Martha, are set afire with a Holy Flame.

What about you?