Pastor Michael Harman,
St. Peter LCMS - Newell, IA
vacancies at ...
Immanuel, Pomeroy
First Evangelical, Fonda
Take these as "sermon starters"...
Priorities - from 2001.
Grace and peace to you from our Triune Lord! Amen! The text is the Gospel
from Luke 10:38-42.
Lutheran Worship is based on the idea of service. It is not YOU serving
the Lord, but God serving you! Going to church does not do God any favors.
Nor does it earn YOU anything. Some people mistakenly view the time spent in
God's House as a good work to serve God and win approval and gifts. We go to
church to freely receive the gifts Christ has won for each of us by His
suffering, dying, rising, and ascending. We go to church to be served with
forgiveness, life, and salvation. Yes, in a sense it is a response to His
grace and forgiveness, but unless that grace and forgiveness were given to you
first - nothing can happen.
As I teach the confirmation youth, worship has three dimensions or
directions: first from God, second to God, and finally among each other.
Unless that is the order, it isn't Christianity we are talking about.
Last Sunday, a man wanted to DO something to inherit eternal life. Of
course: to get an inheritance someone has to die, and it usually goes to a
family member; but that was lost on the Legal scholar. In Christian terms, he
thought he could do step #3, then #2, and then God had to bless him for his
service. This Sunday's problem is harder to see, but it actually falls along
the same lines.
Don't get the wrong idea: serving others is very important. Martha's
"many things" were in and of themselves good things. Welcoming Jesus,
providing warm hospitality, and preparing food for Jesus. Earlier in this same
chapter (Luke 10), Jesus sent 70 disciples out to where they would be welcomed
and listened to: and Martha was doing precisely that!
The problem Martha had was one of order, or priorities. She had
forgotten Who had come to serve whom. She believed it was more important for
her to serve others, especially to serve Jesus, rather than to be first served
by God.
Once Martha lost sight of that, she also lost sight of the most important
activity going on in her home. She wanted to rejoice and feel proud in her
service to Jesus. As she focused on herself, her heart became more and more
self-righteous. The way the original Greek from Dr. Luke is worded, it almost
seemed like Martha would rather have been sitting at Jesus feet with Mary, but
she felt obligated to serve. (periespato)
Perhaps you have had some of the same feelings as Martha. There is some
important work to be done: work at home; work on the job; work at a friend or
family member's home; even work at church. Then, as you look around, you
notice other people not helping you. How do you FEEL?
But that's the wrong question.
The real question is: WHY are you doing what you are doing? What is the
reason for you working? (Quo vadis?)
Going back to earlier in Luke 10, Jesus sent out the 70 disciples. When
they came back, they were bursting with joy over what THEY had done: even
casting out demons! Yet that joy was just as mistaken as Martha's grumbling
and complaining. Jesus told those men they should not rejoice in what THEY
did, but in what God had done through them and for them.
Look at this leather work glove. It can hammer nails to build a train
table, turn a torque wrench to do an oil change, pull weeds in a garden, and
many other hard jobs. (pause) I know, you realize I could do those things
without a glove. The glove can only do those things if there is a skilled hand
inside of it. In a very real sense, God's hand can do mighty things in this
world without your help or mine. But He chooses to wear gloves. He chooses to
do things in this world through you.
Martha lost sight of the fact that the Man whose hand fed 5,000 needed no
food from her. Martha forgot that she was like this glove. God was using her
to serve others, including the Man Jesus. The glove isn't important: it is
the Hand inside of the glove that deserves the praise.
((Luther terms this "masks of God" Dr. Veith's book 'The Spirituality of
the Cross' explains it better.))
Mary knew the glove - the service to others - was important. That's
good. We should never lose sight of the need to show Christian love to others
- even as good Samaritans. But Mary knew the message of the Gospel was more
important. That's the Hand that stretched out, nailed to the cross, that
worked her salvation out completely and handed her eternal life.
I think sometimes we are too much like Martha. We get so puffed up with
sinful pride that we feel God can't get along without our service here on
Sunday. Or God needs us elsewhere. We are tempted to stay home on Sunday to
prepare for guests or vacations or farm sales, since God won't need our praise.
This, by the way, is ture: God does not need your praise; or mine; or
anyone's. Christians need to hear that mild rebuke of Jesus about priorities,
and remember Who is serving whom.
But in confessing that we need to hear that rebuke, we find ourselves
sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing His Absolution! We find ourselves
being filled with "that one thing needful" - His love and forgiveness. That is
the genuine goal of every authentic Christian service: what God has done for
us in Christ Jesus.
All the little helps or great works that any person does in this life
mean absolutely nothing to God. With a word, He brought creation into
existence. Whatever strenuous greatness a person can achieve over a lifetime
can be done by God in an instant. The idea that God NEEDS your service or mine
is false. Rather, it is you and me and all creation that needs HIS service.
The writer of Hebrews declares: "without faith, it is impossible to
please God". Hebrews 11:6
Unless we first sit at the feet of Jesus to be filled with faith, our
service is of no eternal value.
Mary believed that. Her faith had moved her to sit at Jesus' feet.
Martha, on the other hand, did not have so strong a faith: she mixed up a
desire to serve with the necessity of being served. She placed earthly food
ahead of a heavenly feast.
We know from God's Word that Martha had faith. She confessed Jesus at
the tomb of her brother - and at Lazarus' resurrection (John 11-12). She
always loved to serve, but she learned that first she had to be served and
filled with Christ's love.
When we are filled with God's love and forgiveness, we are enabled to do
great things for the Lord. Only after the cross of Christ empowers us can we
truly love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength - and love our
neighbor as our self. That is why we are here, in God's House this day being
served at the feet of Jesus in stead of scurrying about attempting to serve
others.
I was once asked: "why do Christians worship on Sunday?" On Sunday
morning, we sit beside Mary at the feet of Jesus. On Sunday morning, we sit
down to hear that "one thing that is needed" before we act as gloves for the
hands of God. God Himself tells us thru means of Word and Sacrament that we
are His beloved people, and that we are fully and forever forgiven.
Forgiveness is the one thing needful.
We start our week by the Lord serving us; then our prayers and praise
return to Him; and then that third dimension of service among others begins to
happen. That is worship; Christian service. Amen.
