Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen.
When you hear the word “service,” what do you think of? What sorts of things come to mind? Maybe you think about service at a restaurant, or a frustrating endless customer service phone call. On a Sunday Morning, you might find yourself thinking most especially about the “worship service,” and think about how we “serve God” in our lives. We even have a special term in the Lutheran Church, the “Divine Service” for any service in which the Lord’s Supper is given out.
In our Gospel reading today, we find ourselves hearing a story that’s all about “service.” Jesus has come to the house of these two sisters, Mary and Martha, and immediately the differences between the two are apparent. You can imagine the scene as they walk in. Martha gets right to work over in the kitchen, gathering ingredients and clearing spaces, while Mary immediately sits down at the feet of Jesus listening to him as He teaches and speaks. This must have gone on for some time, as Martha worked up enough nerve to say something to Jesus: “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?” From Martha’s point of view, there is so much to be done! Jesus is here, likely with a whole gaggle of twelve disciples or more following along, along with the fact that where Jesus goes other people are sure to show up. The numbers are growing and there are mouths to feed! Martha is likely beside herself with all the food she feels she needs to prepare. “Surely Jesus, wise teacher that He is, will listen to reason,” Martha may have thought, “He’ll tell my sister to get over here and help me.” Yet Jesus, ever the one to surprise people with His reactions and answers, doesn’t tell Mary to help her sister and get to work cooking for her guests. Jesus actually encourages what Mary is doing.
“Martha, Martha,” Jesus says. “You are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Much like other times when Jesus corrects His followers, His Words are not always easy to hear, but they are always good. Like a toddler being given medicine, I don’t imagine that Martha liked Jesus’ answer, but it was still true, and still good for her. Jesus was not just admonishing her, but inviting her to Himself. By sitting at the feet of Jesus, Mary recognized the importance of what was set before her. Her Lord and Savior, Jesus, was right in front of her. The Words of the mouth of Christ Jesus are life-bringing, restorative, and gifts given directly from God. When Jesus speaks, it truly is the only thing that matters in the whole world. God, in the flesh, was right in front of her. Mary rightly discerned that the Spiritual food of these words far exceeded any food they would prepare in their home, and that this time spent with Jesus was special. In correcting Martha, Jesus pulls her away from her distracted, obsessive “serving” to be “served.” The busyness can wait, because, just as her sister Mary recognized, when Jesus is there, He is all you need.
Martha was not wrong to want to serve. Many people in the church know just how essential it is for someone to stand up and do the thing that needs to be done. I’ve known saints throughout my years in the various congregations I’ve been part of who were so essential to the daily work of the church that when the Lord called them Home to Himself some things in the church stopped getting done simply because no one in the church knew how much that member really did behind the scenes. We serve because the Lord uses us as His hands and feet to continue His Church on earth. But sometimes, our desire to work hard and do things ourselves can get in front of the service that our Lord Jesus Christ gives us. We want to do things that feel important, that make us feel like our work matters, when really we are breaking the First Commandment by putting our trust in ourselves to make things happen and seek credit for our hard work. Our importance and significance does not come from our own actions or accomplishments, but from the identity that is given to us by God Himself. We are declared His own children in our baptisms, marked with His name and washed clean of our sins. We are given the ability to come to the king of the cosmos and ask anything of Him as a little child asks their father for anything, like my son reaching up to me, unable to communicate just what he wants but still trusting I will take care of him.. Our whole life, everything we have, comes to us from God Himself in spite of every sinful intention and action on our part. He knows not just what we want, but what’s best for us. Even more importantly, our Lord Jesus feeds us, washes us clean of our sins, and provides for us here at His table each and every Sunday! If we become absorbed by our own service to others and focus solely on what we ourselves are doing even in service to God Himself, we can blind ourselves to the good things that He gives freely that are right in front of us. And so, in worship, our Lord invites us to set that aside. He invites us to come to worship not because He likes the attention, but because He wants to give the attention, to lift us up and restore us. We are invited to come away from all of our Martha-ing to be Mary for a while, to sit at His feet and receive, to be served.
As I mentioned, in our Lutheran Church, we put a lot of emphasis on “the Divine Service” And rightly so! This is where the Lord of the Universe, the Creator and Redeemer of all things, makes Himself truly, physically present so that we may eat His own flesh and drink His own blood! We take part in this Holy Supper, this Mystical Communion, not just with those around us, but with all Christians on Earth. And that’s not all! This table that you come up to every week, it’s only half of a square, and that’s for a reason! Every time we partake, we join all those on earth AND all those who have gone before us to be with the Lord in paradise. We pray with all the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven because He has brought us here to be with Him. The very Word made Flesh that Mary sat at the foot of is right here before all five of your senses. And just as Mary received the Word, we too receive these precious gifts of Word and Sacrament. We take that term “Divine Service” from the old German phrase “Gottesdeinst,” meaning “God’s Service.” Everything here this Sunday morning is all about Jesus and what He has done for you and what He will continue to do for all eternity.
When we come here and receive our Lord’s “Divine Service,” we put the world away for a moment. We stop listening to all the things that nag at us and make us anxious, all those things that distract us and pull us away, all the good intentions that we get all too wrapped up in, to receive the one thing that is necessary: the Holy Word of Jesus. That Word which forgives you all your sins, that is preached to you for the healing of your soul, that is bound to the bread and wine for your receiving of the Supper, this is the one thing needful. The world around you will not slow down any time soon. Wars will rage, politics will divide, false teachings will continue to spread, bills will add up and relationships will break. The Lord’s words of “Do not be anxious about anything” often seem impossible to follow, but he does not promise to take the things that bring such anxiety away. Instead, until the day that He returns and brings us all home to Himself, He has promised to provide something to sustain and keep us, to bring relief to our sufferings and care to our brokenness.
Now and always, our Lord Jesus calls us to remember that one thing is needful. He calls us to come and rest at His feet, to listen and be served. When we get distracted, anxious, and wrapped up in the world, He forgives us and brings us to Himself to be filled and restored. Thanks be to God that we, His children, are given such divine service.
In the holy name of Jesus + Amen.