Pentecost 6 Year C

Hospitality lies at the heart of our readings this morning. Abraham, sitting by the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day, is visited by three persons. He cares for them, feeds them, and attends to them as they are refreshed.

In Paul’s letter to the Colossians, Paul’s words speak of God’s hospitality offered to all creation, through love, peace and hope realised in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

And in Luke's gospel, which throughout places great emphasis on hospitality, Martha is the host who welcomes Jesus and some of his followers and attends to them.

In May this year, my husband Simon and I walked the first 11 days of a route called the Chemin d’Assise through France, walking from Vézelay in northern Burgundy to the Taizé community. The route was extremely challenging, through the sparsely populated Morvan region, with few places to buy provisions, and long distances between refuges where we could rest for the night.

The organisation who developed and maintain the route provide details of places where hospitality may be offered to pilgrims, but ask that pilgrims do not make contact any more than 1 or 2 days in advance of arrival. So, we set off knowing where we hoped to stay on that first night, but beyond that walking in hope and trust, both of which grew through our 11 days of repeated experiences of welcome hospitality.

After our first day, 24km over rough terrain, we arrived 6km from Delphine’s home. As arranged we phoned and she arrived a short time later in her wee car, and drove us to her home. This was the first of her acts of hospitality that were exceptional and beautiful to receive. Shown to our cool, plainly furnished attic room, we were able to shower, attend to our tired feet, and lie down with nowhere to go other than downstairs for 7pm, where we received an aperitif local to the area before sharing stories from our day and our lives, over a delicious meal.

She waited on us with great generosity and gentleness, her only concern that we received from her what we needed to be refreshed and continue on our way the next day. And she seemed to delight in our receiving of the hospitality she offered.

Delphine offered us something reminiscent of Abraham’s hospitality shown to the three who arrive at his tent by the oaks of Mamre, the three who are often understood by Christians, as the Holy Trinity, but here are simply named as three persons. Abraham runs to meet them, bows to them, offering them water that their feet may be washed, and shade in the cool of the tree to rest. He then offers food, ‘a little bread’ he says, for their refreshment, going on to have breads, meat, curds and milk prepared which he sets before them. And then, verse 8, ‘he stood by them under the tree while they ate’.

Throughout this passage the three visitors are the focal point of all Abraham does, he sees their need, responds in generosity and love, and then stands by the same trees under which they sit - remaining with them, but not crowding them – and attends to their needs. As he stands there, I imagine him seeing their delight, maybe even their relief at being able to rest and be refreshed, and himself enjoying the gift of the hospitality he has been able to offer them.

Being able to offer guests food and rest, and seeing them rejuvenated, is surely one of the most life enhancing experiences for all of us, recipient and giver. It is in giving that we receive.

In some ways, it can appear that our Gospel speaks differently about hospitality. Martha welcomes Jesus into her home that she shares with her sister Mary, and then busies herself with the task of welcoming the guests, almost certainly the preparation of a meal. Hospitality is an important theme throughout Luke’s Gospel, so when Jesus criticises Martha for her busyness in attending to her guests we can assume there is something more than a criticism of her desire to be hospitable going on here.

There are three key verbs applied to Martha in verses 40 to 42 that can help our understanding of this passage.

In verse 40 Martha is described by Luke as ‘distracted’ but the Greek word perispaō indicates a state of being over–occupied, burdened or even oppressed by something. Then in v.41 Jesus describes her as ‘worried’. The Greek word is merimnaō – to be anxious about, to be pulled in different directions, losing focus of what or how we want to do, or be.

And then we have a third word used by Jesus, thorybazō, but translated again in the translation we use, the NRSV, as ‘distracted’, the same as v.40. But in Greek this word has a distinct meaning. Jesus is describing Martha as troubled and confused. So we have a picture of someone whose attention is being so pulled in multiple directions that they can no longer focus properly on any of them and consequently everything becomes confused.

These descriptors of Martha, burdened; pulled in many directions; and confused, contrast sharply with the description of Mary, who sits and listens. On this occasion, Mary, no doubt conscious of the demands of hospitality, has chosen this; to sit and listen, as a student or disciple would sit and listen to their teacher, and as we might choose - even (or maybe especially) when the pressures of life feel overwhelming - choose to sit quietly in the presence of God, and listen.

Did Martha make the wrong choice? I don’t think so. I think the problem that this episode opens up for us is more that Martha is distracted; she loses her way, and in her state of distraction she becomes resentful. She sees her sister not helping to welcome their guests, and out of her resentment she asks Jesus to intervene and tell Mary to get up and help her. In this act that comes from a place of resentment, Martha drives a wedge, first between her amd her sister, and then between Jesus and herself.

Martha has missed out on the one thing needed for true hospitality and welcome – being attentive to one’s guest. It is possible to hear those words of Jesus to Martha less as a rebuke, and more as an invitation, that can enable the damaged relationships to be healed: ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled by many things; there is need of only one thing’.

What is this one thing needed? For Martha to attend to the gracious presence of Jesus, and maybe too to respond to his need of nourishment? Or maybe on this day, what Martha needs is to stop being busy and burdened by all there is to do. To stop, and to listen to his words, knowing that she is valued not for what she does or how well she does it, but for who she is as a child of God.

Listening - receiving God’s Word. And doing - serving others ... Both of these are vital to the Christian life, just as inhaling and exhaling are to breathing. But it’s true that very often we, in our distraction by many things, can forget to breathe in deeply, and receive the breath of life by listening to God.

This Gospel story in Luke is left suspended. We do not know what happens next. Are Mary and Martha are reconciled? Are they able to enjoy the meal that has been prepared together? Do the disciples get up and help (as Jesus does for them later by the lake, preparing fish for breakfast on the beach), and allowing Martha finally to sit and give her full attention to Jesus, and be refreshed within herself?

We do know that Jesus invites all of us who are worried and distracted and pulled in many directions by the demands of life, to set aside time to rest in his presence, to hear his words of comfort and truth. And when we sit and listen at Jesus’ feet, we come to know, deep down within us, that we are loved and valued as children of God.

We are renewed in faith, and through stillness and focus on God, we are strengthened for service, no longer burdened by the false belief that it is all down to us.

By gracious attention to Christ - our guest who is also our host - we receive abundant gifts, and are enabled to continue to be hospitable to others, to be the hands, feet, ears and voice of God in our world, and all of this, by the grace of God. Amen