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Sermon Luke 10:38-42; 20 July 2025; Year C, Proper 11
Our Gospel lesson for today is a familiar one—a classic Bible story. The text for today is
Luke 10:38-42, the story of Mary and Martha. Friends, listen for the Word of the Lord:
Now as they went on their way, [Jesus] entered a certain village, where a woman named
Martha welcomed him into her home. 39  She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the
Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. 40  But Martha was distracted by her many
tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to
do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." 41  But the Lord answered her,
"Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42  there is need of only
one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."
Friends, this is the Word of the Lord; thanks be to God.
Two girls, two sisters, encounter Jesus. They get a chance to host Jesus in their home.
Such an honor! And the highlight of this story is the classic balancing act of so many of
our lives even today—balancing being a human being and a human doing. The balance
between contemplation and action.
But we also have a family dynamic at play here in this story. At first, one sister is
listening and contemplating the Words of Jesus—something women in that culture would
generally not have had the chance to do.
The other sister is serving, preparing, and doing many tasks, doing what many might
refer to as the “women’s work.” And she’s distracted by those tasks. But the problem in
the story comes when one sister tries to get Jesus on her side in the distribution of these
household chores. In counseling, we call that triangulation. Trying to get another person
in the triangle on your side so it’s two against one. Something sisters have been known to
do before and since.
And if we can put ourselves in Martha’s shoes, maybe trying to get Jesus on our side
doesn’t always turn out the way we want. Maybe we need to spend our energy getting
ourselves on Jesus’s side rather than getting Jesus on our side. That’s another thing that
has happened before in the stories of our lives. We make a decision before we consult
Jesus on the matter and then try to work that all out. I’ve certainly been guilty of that.
We get a little help interpreting the story this week by widening out the picture. The
passage just prior to today’s lesson is the familiar story of the Good Samaritan. And we
remember the story—a lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus’s
short answer is love God and love your neighbor. Then the lawyer asks, “Who is my
neighbor?” Then Jesus tells the story of a man, a victim of robbers, who lies half-dead on
the side of the road. The priest passes by, the Levite passes by, but the Samaritan binds
his wounds and takes care of him. He’s called the “Good Samaritan.” He was a neighbor

to the injured man because of what he did to help him. Action on behalf of the Other.
Going over and above.
In contrast, in today’s story, the positive note, the teaching emphasis, seems to fall on the
contemplative sister, the one who is just listening and taking in all these things from
Jesus. The one who’s not doing anything.
So is it this? Or that? Is it black or white? Is it right or wrong? And I think the key lies
in not treating today’s text as an “either/or.” Should we either be like Mary? Or should
we be like Martha? Instead of the either/or, maybe we need to be thinking more along
the lines of “both/and.”
Both Mary and Martha are doing good things. But Jesus says the things Martha is doing
have got her “worried and distracted.” Jesus seems to be saying, “Don’t let these things
worry and distract you. Let the main thing be the main thing.”
The answers to so many of the questions of our faith are found hanging in the tension
between texts. Like a good day on a see-saw, these texts serve almost as weight and
counter-weight as we find our way in the life of faith.
So if we apply that approach to today’s passage, on one end of the balance beam, we see
a text that clearly affirms that a woman can sit and listen and study and learn from Jesus.
And that’s an important counterweight in Jesus’s own lived culture.
We also see that what we historically think of as “woman’s work” even today –cooking
and cleaning and serving at table—isn’t a category Jesus will defend or uphold. Jesus
doesn’t rush in and set things for Mary in a more culturally accepted pattern, he lets her
stay. That’s important and probably a little unexpected for Jesus’s day.
And then we also see again clearly that Jesus sets the tone. And that tone is clearly that
we follow Jesus, not that Jesus follows us. Unlike Martha, we need to get ourselves on
Jesus’s side rather than trying to get Jesus on our side. Don’t get the cart before the
horse. And all of those are good take-aways.
But in all these things, all these takeaways, we look for a counterweight. Is Jesus saying
that all the things Martha is doing are unimportant? That the work of hospitality is
insignificant? That the things we do to show love and honor to Christ or others don’t
matter? No.
In the verse immediately prior to today’s passage. Jesus winds up the Good Samaritan
story by saying to the lawyer who questioned him, “Go and do likewise.” The Good
Samaritan is a good example: Go and do likewise. Be a good neighbor by what you do.
Clearly, how we treat each other matters. Serving those in need matters. But so does
sitting at Jesus’s feet to listen and learn and study. In the life of faith which matters

more, our words or our deeds? That sets up an unanswerable question. What matters is
our words and our deeds. It’s both/and, not either/or.
The things we do matter. The things we say matter. The things we listen to and expose
ourselves to matter. And in all these things, we seek first and foremost to honor Christ in
the world. And hopefully, when we soak ourselves in word and deed in what Christ
would have us do, the folks around us have an opportunity to join in that work as well.
Soaking in Christ, and facilitating that in those around us.
And the charge remains: Go and do likewise. In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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