July 21, 2019

6th Sunday after Pentecost
Genesis 18:1-10
Psalm 15
Colossians 1:15-28
Luke 10:38-42

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one
who calls us to love both God and neighbor. Amen
 
When Jesus is pressed to summarize his teaching
 it boils down to love of God and love of neighbor.
 These two things are most important,
 
and while this seems simple enough
it can get confusing
because as much as we claim otherwise
 we humans are pretty bad at multi-tasking,
 we tend to focus on one thing at a time
 Yet Jesus calls us to both,
and he gives examples of both.
 
 Last week we heard the story of the Good Samaritan
who embodies love of neighbor
by stopping to help a man left for dead
on the side of a dangerous road,
 
 in the story the Good Samaritan
is contrasted with a priest and a Levite
 who when they choose their own way of loving God
 rather than helping their neighbor
turn out looking not so great.
 
this week we hear of Mary
 who embodies love of God
 by sitting at Jesus’ feet
 listening to him teach.
She is contrasted with Martha,
who, busy loving her neighbor in her own way
 comes off looking not so great.
 
 we tend to see these contrasts
 in terms of right and wrong,
one better than the other,
 
 but it’s not that one person is better than the other,
 it’s the choices they make in the moment
that Jesus comments on,
 Jesus needs both the priest and the Good Samaritan
both Mary and Martha as his followers.
 
As a disciple
 Martha embodies the hospitality
that will further the kingdom.
 
 When Jesus sent the 70 out to share the good news
 he told them to depend on hospitality
 of the kind that Martha offered
 welcoming people into her home
and caring for their needs.
 
As a disciple
 Mary embodies the devotion to Jesus’ teaching
 that will further the kingdom.
 
She is attuned to Jesus’ presence
 and hangs on his every word.
Jesus will depend on her
to teach others when he has returned to his father.
 
Jesus needs both Mary and Martha,
 the conflict comes
when Martha gets so caught up in the tasks in front of her
that she tries to make her way of serving
 necessary for someone else,
for Mary.
 
And that’s when Jesus jumps in
and gently chides Martha,
not for serving
but for being so caught up in what she was doing
 that the tasks suddenly became more important than loving God and neighbor,
and for trying to spread her worry and distraction to Mary
 when Mary is doing just fine
at loving God and neighbor in her own way.
  
This past week at confirmation camp
 we spent our confirmation time
 talking about how God made each of us different,
 gave us different gifts and callings
 and how God needs all of us
to further the kingdom in our own way.
 
Some of us like to follow the rules,
some of us like to create new ways of doing things.
Some of us like to listen and study
 and some of us like to get our hands dirty and learn through new experiences.
 
Some of us are good at organizing,
some of us are good at encouraging,
some dream up new ideas and others make those ideas a reality.
 
 None of these ways of being a disciple of Jesus
 are better than the others,
God needs all of them to further the kindom.
 
Where we get into trouble
 is when we prioritize our gifts or ways of doing things over others,
when we expect others to love and serve in the exact same way we do
 or have been doing,
 and getting frustrated when they don’t
 
that’s when Jesus gently chides us
 and turns our attention back to him,
because when we get upset
we forget that it’s Jesus in our living room.
 
Jesus calls his disciples to lives of both and.
 Which means following Jesus
 is more complicated than following a set of rules
 that detail exactly what is right and what is wrong in any given situation.
 
 Instead Jesus has created us as unique individuals
designed to work as a small part of a whole,
 it is up to us to choose how to live out love of God and love of neighbor
using our God given gifts and callings
 
 Sometimes that will look like stopping on a dangerous road to help a stranger,
sometimes that will look like saying the dishes can wait
while spending time with this special person who is here right now.
 
 And while what we decide to do
 will be different for each of us
the common thread is love of God and neighbor.
 
We live in a tradition that recognizes the both and of life.
And while some may find the lack of exactness frustrating
both and catches the truth of life in all its complexities.
 
 We acknowledge that we are both saints and sinners.
And while those two seem to conflict
we know the reality that we are not perfect,
we make mistakes, we intentionally harm others,
 
 and at the same time
we know that in our baptisms
 God has forgiven our sins
 and that nothing will separate us from God.
 Both are true at the same time. Both and.
 
We acknowledge that we need both the law and the gospel.
There are times when we need a good talking to,
 where we need to be shown how we have not been loving God and neighbor,
we need to law to reflect back to us
 our need for repentance our need for God.
 
And then there are times when we feel like we will never be enough,
 that we can never do enough,
that the pain of the world threatens to overwhelm us,
and that is when we need to hear the gospel,
 the good news that in Jesus we are enough,
that Jesus is present in the pain of the world,
 that it’s up to Jesus to save the world not us.
 
We are both saint and sinner
We need both law and gospel
We are to love both God and neighbor
  
And Jesus tells us that
In a world of both and
there is need of only one thing. Jesus,
the way, the truth and the life.
 
when we get worried and distracted
Jesus is there, gently calming us down,
 giving us perspective,
 calling us to return to the one we need.
 
When we are loving our neighbor
Jesus is there alongside us.
 
 When we take time to study his teachings
 Jesus is there pointing out the important parts.
 
When we are torn between both and
 Jesus is present
 reminding us of the gifts he has given us
 and the community that surrounds us,
the community made up of many members
 that is able to both love God and neighbor
in the name of Jesus. Amen