#either way i thought it would be fun to represent her with a similarly masculine hairstyle. gender is fun.

[petitelappin]

Continental Army Pvt. Deborah Sampson Gannett in her wedding dress, 1785.

(aka I can't stop collecting gender non-conforming 18th century New Englanders, and got really excited when I realized a gown I'd saved as reference on Pinterest was, in fact, her wedding dress).

[firstumcschenectady]

“As if Jesus Cared About THAT” based on Luke 10:38-42

In my experience, there is very little in the world more frustrating to the hard workers in church congregations than a sermon dismissing Martha. About 4 months ago the Subversive Women of the Bible Sermon Series celebrated Mary's subversive action of sitting at Jesus' feet and claiming her place as one of his disciples. Today, at last, we get to celebrate Martha's subversive action – and her acts of service!

I think I've been waiting my whole life to preach exclusively in support of Martha, and I've been told by several of you that you've been waiting to hear such a sermon. When the Young Adult Bible Study came back to this text to hear it on Martha's behalf, it rather surprised us. You'd think that 5 verses we'd looked at only a few months earlier would have been sort of boring the second time around, but we've been learning through this study that perspective is EVERYTHING. The story sounded different taking Martha as the heroine, in the same ways that we've been hearing deep wisdom in other stories we thought we knew but had only heard from the male perspective previously.

This story carries a lot of baggage, particularly it carries a history of being read with the world's misogyny. Most Biblical commentators from the earliest times to the present have indicated that Martha's work was less important than Mary's, and associated Martha with the “concerns of the world” while Mary is seen as caring about “the things of God.” There are a few issues with this: in the story Martha is in a traditionally feminine role while Mary is in a masculine one. Celebrating Mary thus became another way of dismissing the work of women. Similarly, associating women with earthiness, worldliness, practical matters, AND negativity perpetuates the view that women are of less value in the world. The contrast, Mary's role which fits into masculine norms, which is presented as Godly, holy, good, and right continues the idea that women just aren't of that much value.

Let's be practical for a minute here. Jesus traveled with an entourage. We know about the 12 disciples who seemed always to be with him, and we reasonably assume that their families were with them. We also know that the crowds around Jesus grew with his ministry. This story takes place on the journey to Jerusalem, so near the end of his year of active ministry according to the Synoptic Gospels. There were likely a LOT of people traveling with Jesus and Martha was offering them ALL hospitality. I mean, I'm thinking 50-200 people??? I know very few humans who can offer hospitality to 50-200 people without being a LITTLE frenetic about it, and even fewer who would be happy to do so without any help.

Furthermore, it is all fine and good to acknowledge that learning about God in study is an excellent priority to have, but it is much easier to make those claims when one is well-fed and has one's with thirst quenched. Any time a person or group of people are given the opportunity to focus on study and learning we can assume that happens because some other person or group of people are doing the practical work of preparing food, drink, and lodging, and errands to support them. The traditional work of women; the undervalued work of this world in caregiving, cleaning, and food preparation; simply have to be done, and it is only because someone else is doing them that anyone is free to devote their life to study (or anything else for that matter).

Sometimes those doing the work are spouses, sometimes they're people being paid to offer services. I recently read a ridiculous article proclaiming how much easier it was to be a self-sufficient woman in a big city because of the availability of take out food and laundry services. The author seemed to miss that the work she wasn't doing was still being done by human beings (and mostly by women of color), that she wasn't actually making her life work on her own, she was merely ignoring in the work involved in supporting her life!

Now, as to the truly radical thing that Martha does, the thing that I will be grateful to Martha for the rest my life: Martha assumes that Jesus cares about “women's work.” She thinks Jesus has a clue of how much work there is to be done to offer this hospitality, she thinks that Jesus will seek justice for her and create a better balance, she thinks the work she does matters enough to interrupt Jesus while he's teaching!!!! Martha herself thinks “women's work” matters, and she thinks Jesus does too. She seems to have a healthy does of self-esteem and a good relationship with Jesus to be willing to initiate this conversation.

Many times in history the work of offering hospitality has been invisible to those who receive it, and it might have been common for women offering hospitality to assume that the men who received it neither knew that it happened nor cared how much work was involved. They would only notice if something went wrong. But Martha, who knew Jesus well, trusted him with reality that it WAS a lot of work and that she needed help, and that he wouldn't laugh at her or ignore her or her concerns. She is the only one of the sisters who speaks, and she speaks to Jesus about her concerns about women's work. She acts as if Jesus cares about women's work, about women's LIVES, and thus about women!!

Now, Jesus may not have done exactly as Martha wanted, but he didn't dismiss her either. He didn't instruct Mary to get up and work with her sister as requested. Jesus doesn't ever tend to do the that he is asked to do when he is triangulated, and this is no exception. But he also doesn't yell at Martha for asking, or make fun of her before the others. Jesus's response supports Mary's right to learn from him, and to make her own choices, without dismissing Martha or her concerns.

I admit, he says Mary has made the better choice. Furthermore, his answer MAY imply that he thinks Martha is making things more complicated than they need to be. But he doesn't tell her stop! He doesn't instruct her to sit down and let the work go undone. He doesn't actually imply that the work Martha is devoting herself to is unimportant. He backs up Mary and her choice, and refuses to ask her to leave. He supports the more radical option, the person acting out of the norms society puts people in. He gently chides Martha.

But his words leave a lot of space for interpretation. Or, to say it with more integrity, Luke's words placed in Jesus' mouth leave a lot of space for interpretation. As intriguing as I find this story, as much as it is the second time I'm preaching on it this year, I do need to tell you that the Jesus seminar puts Jesus' words in black. That means they don't think there is any chance that Jesus actually said them. These words indicate Luke's perspective on Jesus and Luke's understanding of how Jesus acted in the world. That means that they fit how an early Christian community understood Jesus, which makes them very important, but doesn't mean that they actually fit something Jesus said. Nevertheless, the story has been used for all of Christian history to make sense of our world, and I think there are new lessons in it that can make it richer, so we are going to keep working with it.

The words attributed to Jesus leave a lot of space for interpretation. Some have said it means that Jesus thought Martha should cook only one dish. Some say it had more to do with her actions of serving than cooking. Most commonly people have said this has nothing to do with cooking or serving but is instead about the world vs. God. (Eye roll.) As if God and the world are entirely separate and don't inform each other. (Sigh.) Some, though, suggest that the thing Martha is chided for is the kind of energy she brings to the work. Jesus is not upset at her choices to serve or to be hospitable (which makes a lot of sense since in other places those who welcome Jesus are praised), but rather for being worried and distracted. The Africa Bible Commentary offers a beautiful example of this perspective:

“the name Martha is an Aramaic one that means 'sovereign lady', 'ruling lady' or 'lady'. The name helps to emphasize Martha's autonomous, well-off and dominate position. She is the hospitable mother of the house who welcomes a preacher and performs the practical tasks that the visit demands. In fact, her work is repeatedly described as diakonia, which would later become a technical term referring to serving at the Lord's table, proclaiming his message, and providing leadership in the church. Given that diakonia is presented positively everywhere else in the NT, it is difficult to see that here is should suddenly represent a mistaken choice. Rather what Jesus disapproves of is the way in which Martha goes about her work, with fuss and agitation. We do not need to separate the gentle, listening, self-surrendering Marys and the pragmatic, busy Marthas. In other words, the Mary in me ought not to repress the Martha, and the Martha in me ought not to repress the Mary.”1

Ah! The freedom of that idea! The recognition that each of us have within us the prayerful scholar AND the hard-worker! No single person is fully one or the other, and the balance between them exists within each of us. That's much more realistic that separating them out into two groups of people, and even better, the commentator suggests that and that neither part within us need to judge or repress the other! Extended this idea out even further, to counter the common readings of the passage, it serves to remind us that the stereotypical attributes of both gender identities ALSO exist within each of us, and need not be repressed either.

In this perspective, I'm not entirely sure what Jesus most wanted for Martha. What was he hoping would happen next? What did she need? Was she to make a self assessment and simply stop working if she wasn't enjoying it? Was she simply to check her attitude at the door? Was she to figure out what would make things more reasonable (without demanding action of her sister) and figure out how to offer the hospitality without running herself ragged? I'm not sure. But I think that some of those are within the answer.

I have said it before, but I've gotten feedback that it needs to be heard more often: doing work we resent does NOT build up the kindom of God. There are many jobs within the Body of Christ and there is much work to be done to build justice and peace into the fabric of societies, but we don't get there doing work we hate and resenting it. That leaves us all with several options:

We can stop doing work we can't find joy or meaning in.

We can check in with ourselves to find out why we do what we do, and assess if we think our reasons are worthwhile.

We can rebalance what we offer to the world so that the way we offer it brings joy or meaning to us and thus into the world.

There is much work to be done, Martha has that right! But there are a lot of ways to do it (or not do it)! If you are doing things you hate out of obligation with resentment, stop!!! The kindom of God needs joy and meaning, gratitude and delight. Please, don't give gifts you resent. It will do more harm than good!

Martha believed that Jesus cared about women's work, and it seems she was right. Now all of have the responsibility that Martha has after Jesus speaks to her: to figure out what gifts we will offer and how we can do so with joy, meaning, gratitude or delight - OR to stop giving those gifts so we can find ourselves free of distraction and worry. May God help us find our way. Amen

1Paul John Isaak, “Luke” in the Africa Bible Commentary, Tokunboh Adeyemo, general editor (Nairobi, Kenya: WordAlive Publishers, 2006), page 1226.

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Rev. Sara E. Baron

First United Methodist Church of Schenectady

603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305

Pronouns: she/her/hers

http://fumcschenectady.org/

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