What a great week this has been! Our gardens are beginning to produce food for the Grow and Share program. We were blessed to host two families as they seek to overcome homelessness with the help of Family Promise.

We’ve been gloriously, effectively active! Is there something wrong with that? Are we missing the mark? Typical understandings of Mary and Martha suggest that we have. “Contemplation is where we should focus,” some say. “As for action, well, we’ve all got to start somewhere.” But Jesus taught us that the summary of the law, the whole kit and caboodle of the spiritual life is “love God” and “love neighbor.”

Add to the equation that Luke puts the story of Mary and Martha right after Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan, and we gain an entirely different perspective from the typical one that says that Mary has it all right and Martha is all wrong. We discern that action and contemplation are not opposed to one another; they are not two paths from which we can choose; rather, action and contemplation go together. It’s not either/or, it’s both/and. “The goal of the Christian life is the active life lived contemplatively.” [For] '“The broader our love for neighbor,” Gregory insists, “the higher our love for God.””

Martha gets a bad rap. We hear: Luke 10:41-42 (NRSV) But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;42 there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

We hear that and we infer that what Martha is doing is the problem. It’s bad to be busy. We should all clear our calendars, turn off our cell phones, turn away from our computers, ignore our email, cancel our commitments, and mellow out in the marvelous mystery of God.

We’ll get mellow in a minute, but that’s not what Jesus is saying to Martha. He is not rebuking her for what she is doing. He is inviting her to a new way of being.

Just because we’re busy doesn’t mean that we must be distracted; distracted from what? Distracted from God, from being aware of God’s loving presence in everyone, in everything, always and everywhere.

Martha is loving her neighbor; at least, she’s trying to, but she’s fallen into the perennial spiritual trap of being so caught up in the work of the Lord that she’s lost sight of the Lord of the work. She’s working harder; she’s not working smarter.

Southerner’s have a wonderful expression for what results: She loses her religion. She’s mad as “heck” and can’t take it anymore, and in her anger, she gets distracted; she crosses the line; she imposes on the neighbor she should love; she loses her religion.

Hospitality is a central virtue in Middle Eastern culture. We’ve been emphasizing hospitality at each Presbytery and Committee meeting by reflecting on Genesis 18:1-8 when Abram and Sarai welcome three mysterious guests and invite them to stay for a meal. We westerners are overwhelmed at the thought of literally dropping everything and spending an entire day preparing a feast for unexpected company, but Moufid Khoury, a Palestinian Christian, who serves with me on the Committee on Ministry, has taught us that this is exactly how things are in the Middle East. It’s expected. Guests arrive and you treat them like you would like to be treated. You serve them first. You don’t eat until after your guests have eaten and while they eat you are their servants. That’s hospitality Middle Eastern style. That’s what’s expected of Martha and Mary.

Martha has lost her religion. Luke 10:40 (NRSV) 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.”

Have you ever been a guest somewhere and the host and hostess got into a squabble? If that wasn’t uncomfortable enough, they tried to drag you into their squabble by taking their side?

That’s not appropriate here. It is incredibly inappropriate in the Middle East. That’s just wrong, but that’s what happens when we lose our religion; that’s what happens when we get distracted from the presence of God in this person at this time in this place.

Martha lost her religion. She got distracted. She’s not the only one, so what can we learn from this? How can we progress down this spiritual path of action and contemplation when we act up, act out, and in general act lost?

A critical spirit is a spiritual red flag; we’re in trouble. When we want Jesus to straighten them out, when we say, “Don’t you care that I’m the only one doing all the work?” prayerfully consider, have we reached the limit of our love for our neighbor? Perhaps we are the ones who don’t care. Perhaps we are the ones who need to repent, to change, to straighten out, so that after we’ve lost our religion, by God’s grace, we can find it again; we can love more; and get back on the path.

It’s not bad to be busy; it is dangerous to be distracted. When we discern that we are distracted, consider it an invitation to a new way of being; an invitation to find our religion and love our neighbor as we love our God.

Martha’s melting down, but meanwhile Mary’s mellow. She’s sitting there at Jesus’ feet, listening to everything he says, soaking it all in, and cherishing this time to just be with Jesus.

It all sounds so good that we don’t notice that Mary’s being a bad girl. Martha’s got a point. Mary should be helping. That’s what’s expected. Furthermore, this whole “sitting at the feet of Jesus” thing is reserved for a rabbi’s disciples, who by definition could only be male. Mary is a woman who is acting like a man!

Great expectations can give us a Dickens of a time! We can be trapped by the roles and obligations we’re supposed to fulfill. Martha is distracted by what she “has to do.” Mary is not. Mary is focused on the “one thing” that is most important – enjoying the presence of God.

Contemplation is “attentive regard for God alone.” “As we turn inward, we begin to understand what motivates us, what leads us to God, and what takes us awayfrom our deepest longings.” We discover a centeredness where the sound and fury subside; there is peace; there is calm; there is quiet; there are no distractions, and we can at last hear the wisdom of God.

So how can we know when we should roll up our sleeves and be active and when we should settle ourselves down and contemplate? This requires what John Cassian, a great teacher in the time of Augustine, called discernment, “the mother of all virtues…. Discernment is the only virtue that will us help do the right thing at the right time for the right reason the right way.” Discernment helps us find the proper balance between action and contemplation so that we overcome our tendency towards either/or solutions and discover the both/and so that we are living active lives contemplatively.

Richard Foster writes, “Perhaps it would be helpful to consider how we might begin to bring Cassian’s insights into our everyday experience. I would suggest we begin right where we are. In the jobs we have. In the families we are in. In the ordinary tasks of laundry, work assignments and family responsibilities. We, of course, do not leave these tasks behind; instead, we engage in them contemplatively. That is to say, we undertake our daily routine in a listening, attentive spirit. Whispered prayers of guidance and discernment accompany our everyday tasks. “Teach me, Lord, how to work prayerfully.” “Show me new, creative options to this family situation.” “Guide me, O God, and give me the grace to follow where you lead when I’m tempted to go astray.”

It’s not bad to be busy. It is dangerous to be distracted. We weren’t created to be human doings; we were created to be human beings. Learn to discern the difference. Begin right where we are. Live active lives contemplatively. Do the right thing the right way at the right time. Discover the balance that being in God’s presence as we are doing God’s will creates in our lives.

Start where you are. Begin now. Journey down the path of Christian devotion that affirms the spiritual life as action and contemplation. Amen.