Daily Lesson for October 21, 2016

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Luke chapter 10 verses 38 through 42:

38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

A while back I preached the memorial service of a very beloved woman who was the older sister in a very fun-loving family. My text was Mary and Martha as she was definitely the Martha in the family.

At the end of the service one of her two sisters came up to speak. "Yes," she said, "my sister was a Martha in the kitchen while I and the other sisters were Marys out in the living.

"But let me tell you," she went on in a very lovingly joking and self-deprecating tone, "if we had been in the kitchen Martha would have sent us out anyways, saying we weren't doing it the right way."

Now here, I thought, is a woman who knows Martha.

Martha has taken it pretty hard over the millennia. Too hard, really. As the sister at the funeral demonstrated, tone is important. I believe the tone in which this story has been preached has been much harsher than the tone Jesus took with Mary that night in her house.  I know I was guilty of that for at least the first two times through the lectionary cycle. I mean, I really let Martha have it.

Then something dawned on me as I was preaching against Martha one Sunday. And what dawned on me was that I sort of kind of really really needed Martha for setting up the reception after the service. And I needed her for the potluck after church the next Sunday. Oh, and I needed her for the anniversary the weekend following.

Maybe Jesus' tone with Martha was a little softer than I'd first heard it. No, not just maybe -- Jesus' tone with Martha was definitely a lot softer than I'd first heard it.

The last time Mary and Martha came through the lectionary was this past summer. This time I used Gary Chapman's book on the Five Love Languages: Words of Affirmation, Acts of Service, Receiving Gifts, Quality Time, and Physical Touch.

I said I thought Martha's love language was the act of service. She loved to set a table, cook a meal, and have company over, I said. Her mistake, however, was expecting her sister Mary to feel and so the same. Martha invited the company over, the scripture says.  But it was Martha's mistake to assume that Mary would find the same pleasure and meaning in serving that she did. Martha's mistake was expecting Mary to speak her same love language, I said.

I said it. But I said it very softly and lovingly and in a gentle and jocular tone because there was a potluck to follow . . .