Pentecost 9 – 17 July 2016 – Year C
Grace to you and peace from our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 10th Chapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 38 – 42
Martha and Mary
38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus
entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And
she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his
teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much
serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister
has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But
the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are
anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good
portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
Today’s Gospel makes me really
uncomfortable. The reason I am
uncomfortable is that Jesus said something in today’s Gospel that makes people
angry. Jesus was conducting a Bible
study in the home of Mary and Martha and He said that Bible study is the one
thing necessary. Check it out for
yourself. That is what Jesus said. Don’t get angry with me. I am just telling you what Jesus said.
Note that Jesus did not say that
Bible study was one of many important things.
He did not say it was one of even a few things that are necessary. He said that Mary had chosen the one thing that is necessary.
Martha invited Jesus to stay in her
home. That’s a good thing, right? Jesus accepted the invitation. That is also a good thing. Then Jesus decided to have a Bible study and
Martha’s sister Mary decided to attend.
That right there is amazing. Rabbis
in first century Israel did not usually teach women. Never the less, here is Jesus giving Mary the
right to sit in on His Bible study.
Here is where it gets nasty. Martha felt it was her duty to scold Jesus and attack Mary for
attending Bible study. She literally
interrupted Jesus and criticized Him for not ordering Mary out of Bible
study. Read the account yourself. Martha said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” Martha literally scolded Jesus and then tried
to order Him around. Read it for
yourself. I’m not making this up. That is what today’s reading from the Gospel
really says.
Not much has changed down through
the centuries. I have been a member of
many congregations during my life. In
every case, there were people who took the teaching in today’s Gospel to heart
and regularly studied the Bible with their priest and the other members of the
congregation. Then there were people who
chose not to be in Bible study. I am not
talking about those who could not come because of their health, jobs, or other
circumstances beyond their control. I am
talking about those who were well able to come and simply stayed away.
I suppose that we shouldn’t really
be surprised then, when those who do not attend Bible study complain and
criticize. After all, if Martha had the
arrogance to criticize the Son of God
for having Mary in His Bible study, Christian teachers should not be surprised
when criticized for encouraging them to attend Bible study regularly as
well. Never the less, in today’s Gospel,
Jesus Himself stated that Mary had chosen the one thing that is necessary.
Now, if you have a problem with the
idea that all Christians should regularly attend Bible study, then
remember: It is Jesus who is telling us
that Bible study is the one thing that is necessary. If you have a problem with Bible study, take
it up with Jesus.
Why does Jesus teach that Bible
study is so important? Jesus Himself
said, [John 5:39] “You search
the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is
they that bear witness about me.”
Here Jesus teaches that the best way to get to know Him is to get to
know the scriptures.
When Jesus prayed for His disciples,
He also prayed for those who would come to faith through their message. Jesus prayed, [John 17:20] “I do not ask for these only, but also for
those who will believe in me through their word.” The Apostle Paul also wrote, [Romans 10:17] “Faith comes from
hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Peter to
write, [1 Peter 1:23] “You
have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the
living and abiding word of God.”
These verses and others like them teach that the Holy Spirit works
through the Word of God. There are no
verses that tell of any other way to receive the Holy Spirit. The only promise God gives concerning the
work of the Holy Spirit is in connection with God’s Word, the Bible.
The Bible is not like other
books. Most books exist merely to
transmit information. Even works of
fiction are just an artfully designed collection of the words, actions, and /
or thoughts of fictional characters and places.
The Bible is not like that. God’s
Word actually transmits its topic.
Yes, the Bible transmits information
like other books. It tells us that the
Son of God took on human flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary and became a man
named Jesus. It tells us that Jesus
lived a perfect life of service to the people in His life. It tells us that although He lived a perfect
life, the authorities arrested Him, and found Him guilty of false charges based
on lies. These corrupt authorities
managed to get the Son of God tortured and sentenced to death by
crucifixion. The Bible tells us that
when Jesus hung on the cross and died, He satisfied God’s wrath against all our
sins. The Bible also tells us that Jesus
did not remain in the tomb, but rose bodily never to die again. It tells us that Jesus ascended into heaven
and will return on the last day to judge all people. These are the facts that The Bible transmits
to us.
However, unlike all other books, the Bible does not stop there. It is the Word of God. The Holy Spirit has promised to work in,
with, and through God’s Word. Because
the Holy Spirit has promised to work with God’s Word, God’s Word does not just
tell us about Jesus. God’s Word actually
is Jesus transmitted to us by the
Holy Spirit through the Word. God’s Word
does not just tell us about forgiveness.
God’s Word actually is
forgiveness transmitted to us by the Holy Spirit. God’s Word actually is salvation transmitted to us.
God’s Word actually is
eternal life transmitted to us. The Word of God is God at work.
That is what it means that the Word
of God is a Means of Grace. The Word of
God is the way God actually gives Himself to us. The Word of God is not a static source of information. Instead, [Hebrews
4:12] the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow,
and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
You see we are not able to travel
half way around the world and almost two thousand years back in time to the
site where Jesus earned salvation for the entire world. We cannot travel to the cross outside First
Century Jerusalem where Jesus shed His blood to take away the sin of the
World. Instead, the Holy Spirit
transmits the forgiveness Jesus earned for us on the cross into twenty-first
century homes and places of Christian
Worship across the world via the very Word of God that Jesus says is the
one thing necessary.
We should not be surprised at this
for Genesis chapter one tells us that God created the world by the power of His
Word. In a similar way, His Word creates
faith in us. It also sustains that
faith. As the Holy Spirit inspired the
Apostle Paul to write, [Romans 1:16]
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to
everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
If the Word of God is indeed that
powerful … if the Word of God really is the means by which the Holy Spirit
actually gives salvation to us … If, as Jesus says, the Word of God is the one
thing necessary, then we would expect Christians to ask questions at their
Church like, “Is there a way that we can have some sort of Bible study more
often?” If Christians really believed
what Jesus said about the Word of God being the one thing necessary,
congregations would drive their priests into happy exhaustion as they taught
class after class; feeding their members on the good food of God’s Word. Christians would look forward to retirement
because then they could attend an extra Bible study or two every week.
The simple fact is this: God
delivers His blessings through His Word.
When Jesus says Bible Study is the one thing necessary, He is teaching
Martha, Mary, and us that God delivers His blessings through His Word. God delivers Himself through His Word. When anyone
encourages you to attend Bible study, they
are only encouraging you to receive more of God’s blessings. They
are only encouraging you to get more of God’s power, more of God’s
forgiveness, more of God’s salvation … they
are encouraging you to get more of the God who took on human flesh and
sacrificed Himself for your eternal life.
God’s Word has only benefits for those who are in Christ Jesus.
There is a theological term that
applies to today’s Gospel. That term is
“Gospel Imperative.” A “Gospel
Imperative” is something that sounds like a command, but is really
something we already want to do. For
example: A hungry family has been milling around the house for about forty-five
minutes waiting for something to eat.
Finally, the head cook sticks her nose out of the kitchen and calls,
“Come and get it!” Strictly speaking,
this is a command to come and get it. Never the less, no one complains, “Oh no … now I got to go and eat!” Instead, they immediately comply with the
orders of the head cook. They come and
they get it … not because of the order, but because they are hungry.
It is the same way with Bible
study. Our spirits are hungry. God feeds us through His word. It is the means by which Jesus reveals
Himself to us and showers us with His gifts.
We passively receive His blessings as He serves us. This is especially true of the blessings of
forgiveness, life, and salvation that Jesus earned for us on the cross. Jesus wants us to have these gifts. That is the reason He taught that His Word is
the one thing that is necessary.
The Son of God has prepared the
meal. He has said, “Come and get
it!” Hungry souls come and get
forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.
Amen
The love and peace of our Great
Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus. Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment