"Faith and Works"

“Faith + Works”

March 16, 2025 Cobleskill United Methodist Church 

Pastor Anna Blinn Cole

Second Sunday of Lent 

Luke 10:38-42

38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40But 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.’ 41But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’

For Lent this year I decided it would be good for me (and for my family) to take Facebook off my phone.  And a week and a half in I have to say it’s been an adjustment. I hadn’t realized how many times if given a moment of downtime I would just automatically open it and scroll. And scroll.  And scroll.  For what?  Filling the time.  It’s been good for me so far.  

But because I use Facebook to do church work, I gave myself permission to still use the platform when I’m on my laptop.  Give yourself an inch and your bad habits take a mile.  What this meant in practical terms is that when I opened my computer last night to work on my sermon, the social media gravity pulled hard on me.  

Fortunately, the scrolling wasn’t all for naught last night as I happened upon a really amazing meme that I want to show you. 

Before I show it to you, I’ll just preface it by saying this Lent we are exploring the spaces between seemingly opposing ideas to discover the connections that unite them.  We’re looking at “everything in between” in hopes that shifting our perspective away from rigid polarities can help us see a wider spectrum of how God is and who God includes.

As I said last week, we are breaking down the boxes that have been established around us.  Why?  Because Jesus did this, too.

So, this is the image I came across last night. 

In this picture everyone, it seems, is working to draw boundaries and borders and divisions.  But Jesus flips the pencil over and erases them.  

It’s a perfect image for what we’re talking about. 

What Jesus is doing here is important and here’s why.  Because in your own life, I guarantee it, there have been times when you have been both the person drawing the lines and the person trapped inside the lines.  Let me say that again: There have been times when you have been the person drawing the lines, and times when you have been the person trapped inside by the drawn lines. 

We have a great story today from the Gospel of Luke that highlights this perfectly.  It’s the story of Mary and Martha: two sisters who have welcomed Jesus into their home as he is traveling with his disciples.  

The story is familiar and classic. The women have different priorities.  For Martha it’s logistical preparations, making dinner, cleaning the house, setting the table.  For Mary, it’s soaking up wisdom from Jesus, sitting at his feet and learning from a man who didn’t push women away from the conversation.  

I’ve preached this story several times before and I confess, I’ve always taken the more traditional understanding.  That the story seems to pit the two women and their two priorities against each other.  Martha is frustrated that Mary won’t help her when there is obviously stuff to get done.  It’s not every day you have the Savior of the World drop in to your house for dinner.  

We can relate.  We know what it’s like to feel pressure to make things as good as they can be.  But we can also relate in another way.  We know what it’s like to be working hard while others around us are working less hard.  We can understand that frustration.  But can we not also understand Mary’s perspective.  How often do you have Jesus in your house?   

The story, as it’s been translated through the years, sets up a dichotomy between these two women that culminates in Martha begging Jesus to intervene…  to tell Mary to get up and help.  Jesus responds, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and you’re distracted.  There is need of only one thing.”  We’re waiting on the edge of our seat: which sister is going to be right?  Most translations go on to have Jesus saying: “Mary has chosen the better part.”  But this is where I learned something this week.  In the original Greek language that this gospel was written in, the wording is slightly different.  Instead of Jesus saying Mary has “chosen the better part,” Jesus says that Mary has chosen the “good portion.” Jesus also uses the Greek word for word “ministry” when he names what Martha has been busy with.  It's a slight shift of wording, but the meaning moves pretty dramatically.  When we strip away centuries of interpretive translations, we see Jesus highlighting both women as doing good things.  Two women whose approaches aren’t in contrast with each other.  Two women whose differing priorities complement each other.  

Sometimes we’re called to the busy work of ministry.  The food order packing in the food pantry.  The pancake flipping for church dinners.  The furnace fixing in the basement.  The youth group logistics for a lively group of teenagers.  The errands for a homebound neighbor.

And sometimes we’re called to sit around a table and read Lamentations together.  Or wake up early and do nothing but sit in silence with God.  Or take a phone call from someone we know needs to talk.  Or stand in solidarity beside the one who holds a sign for peace on the street corner.  

Sometimes we’re called to logistics.  Sometimes we’re called to presence.  And Jesus is actually not here to say one is better than the other.  Jesus is here to flip his pencil over and erase the lines that cause us to judge one another for doing things differently.  We can each be doing what we are called to be doing and it can be right and good even when it’s different.  

And so at that point when Jesus says, Martha, Martha, you’re distracted by many things… it’s not that her preparations of dinner and housework are distractions—they are called ministry—it’s that she is preoccupied with judgement for her sister who is not helping.  It’s her judgment that has distracted her.  

Too easily we let this story set up black and white binaries.  That we’re either this way or we’re that way and that ultimately one is better than the other.  But we lose Jesus’ true meaning in translation, literally.  We’ve translated into this passage a dichotomy that was never meant to be there.  Jesus affirms both sisters for their unique role.  He erases the lines between right and wrong faithful action when Martha gets distracted.  Be faithful to Jesus in the way that makes sense to you, and don’t judge others who do it differently.  

As a big C Church, we’ve gotten distracted often during our long, long history by drawing boxes around what is right and wrong faithful action.  You could say it’s been a preoccupation of the church to draw these lines.  Mary’s belief in Jesus and Martha’s good works for Jesus are right at the center of the Church’s debates.  One of the largest schisms in the history of the church (The Protestant Reformation) occurred, in part, because of judgements around which was the most needed: strong faith or good works.  Martin Luther who led the split believed depending on good works for salvation was a slippery slope.  He asserted strongly that faith alone was all that was needed.  His judgement went so far as to propose taking out passages of the Bible that talked about the importance of good works, like the Book of James.  

All of it is a false dichotomy, though.  You cannot have fullness in Christ without doing good works on his behalf.  You cannot grow deeper in your relationship with Christ without a growing belief.  When we think one way is right and the other way is wrong, we get trapped into a very narrow understanding of a God who is actually quite broad.  

Perfectly timed for writing my sermon last night, our conference bishop, Bishop Hector Burgos posted this on social media: 

Mary is not wrong.  Martha is not wrong.  The spectrum for how to serve the Lord is a wide spectrum that has room for many types of people and many gifts.  The better question, and the one Jesus truly asks is, are you distracted by what you think should be right and wrong from truly seeing what might be good, but different approach?  

Diversity is a strength.  Never a weakness.  

You each got playdoh in two colors because not only are each different people serving God in different but true ways, each of us has the capacity to be both Martha and Mary at different times in our lives, sometimes even in the same day.  And ultimately, our inclusion of both approaches, strong faith and difference-making actions help us to be better disciples of Jesus.  

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Anna