The Mary-Martha Complement

John 10:37-42

38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. 40 But 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." 41 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."

This is a great day! Today we are installing Judy Durff as the Associate Minister of Spiritual Formation at the Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church. This is an event that was likely unimaginable when this church was founded 50 years ago – a female minister with the exclusive assignment to guide the congregation’s spiritual development.

The word “spirituality” has a strange sound to many of our ears. What does it remind you of? Monasteries, New Age Religion, Some baldheaded Holy Moley taking up money on the street corner of the bizarre spiritualist that is a cross between a 60’s hippie and a Pentecostal?

Surely these rather offbeat images do not suggest the kind of call you (your minister, the search committee, and you as a congregation) have in mind for the Reverend Judy Durff. By spirituality we mean “the experience of God that occurs either instantaneously or over a period of time that becomes the organizing principle of your life and manifest itself in transformed living.”

Even if you don’t have the definition down, I want to affirm that you are right on target in what you are doing today – emphasizing spiritual formation. Spirituality is one of the most pervasive and hottest topics in the culture today. A strong interest in spirituality can be found in all the branches of Christianity and the other World Religions – prayer, meditation, contemplation, retreat, vision, personal transformation are as common as breakfast food.

To give an idea of what I mean -- In preparation for this installation I decided to do a little experiment – I Googled the words “experience of God,” “spirituality,” “spiritual formation,” and “transformation.” Here are the number of hits that I received:

Experience of God 110,000,000

Spirituality 90,800,000

Spiritual Formation 60,000,000,

Transformation 12,800 000

Because most of us think of wealth as holding more importance and interest than religion, I decided to Google “Acquire Wealth,” and I had only 16,300,000 hits. There were more than 7 times the hits for “Experience of God” than acquiring wealth. The numbers of articles available on these themes is simply overwhelming – so many that my little desktop calculator couldn’t register the total -- 273 Million Plus.

I make no pretense of this being a scientific study, but I am claiming one thing, “there is an enormous interest in spirituality today and it is not all within the walls of the church.” It is filling cyberspace, it pervades the culture, it finds its way into popular magazines and conversation. Any church that is relevant to the hunger of the persons both within and beyond its walls will help people with their experience of God. One day I believe you will look back and realize what a great day this is for LOPC?

Having affirmed the rightness of your discernment and the direction that you are taking as a congregation, I want to look with you at one persistent issue that will be with you in all your endeavors, an issue that is embedded in our text for the morning.

(Read the Text Here)

Jesus’ headquarters was in the Galilee. He had traveled a good many miles to get to Bethany, the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Stopping at the home of his friends, he knocked on the door. Martha came to the door and welcomed him. Anxious about of getting the meal ready, she disappeared into the kitchen while her sister Mary sat at Jesus feet listening to him. (This morning I will not seek to determine which Mary this was – the Mary who poured perfume on Jesus feet, and the Mary who was at the tomb, or Mary Magdalene of Di Vinci Code fame.) Just be satisfied today with “Mary the sister of Martha!”

After a time of scurrying around in the kitchen, Martha came into the sitting room and said to Jesus, “Do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work?” Jesus responded that she, Martha, was distracted by many things and that Mary had chosen the better part.

What did Jesus mean “the better part?” Does he mean that Mary has chosen the best welcome? The beginning point of her life? The source of creativity and energy? The goal of all our activity? In what way was she choosing better than Martha?

Quite honestly, I’m sympathetic with Martha. She is a sensate, practical, hands-on person, eager to have the food prepared so that she, here sister and her brother could sit down with Jesus for dinner. Is there no welcome in her work? Is there not energy in serving others? Is it not better to do than to dream? Is the goal sitting down or standing on your feet getting things done? Mary, on the other hand, placed herself at the feet of Jesus, gave him complete attention and she was enamored by who he was and what he said. She sat entranced in his presence.

Jesus said to Martha that Mary had chosen the better part. Is it better to pay attention to Jesus? Is it better to sit at his feet and listen to him? Is it better to give your time and affection to him? Apparently, Martha did not think so.

This visit of Jesus in the home of Martha and Mary has become more than a friendly visit with friends. The Mary/Martha Story has deeper implications than a little spat between sisters. In the long tradition of the church, this story has come to symbolize two types of spirituality – Active and Contemplative, Active Spirituality that is busy with the tasks at hand and Contemplative Spirituality that centers on the awareness of the Presence of God.

From the days of the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the 3^rd and 4^th century who camped along the Nile – some 10,000 of them – this passage has been looked upon as model of Active versus Contemplative Spirituality. The unknown author of The Cloud of Unknowing refers to this story to illustrate two types of spirituality. And Father Thomas Keating in his book Open Mind, Open Heart references the same passage in the same manner. In fact, every spiritual writer of note has so interpreted this text of scripture.

I chose the topic, “The Mary/Martha Complement,” quite consciously. It is important for us to see that Spirituality is not either Action or Contemplation, but it is both Action and Contemplation. These two principles don’t fight with each other; they complement each other. Martha needs Mary and Mary needs Martha. Without practical action, contemplation is little more than self-centered pleasure or worse, an escapism; but without contemplation, social action is empty of power and burns itself out..

Perhaps two illustrations will make clearer what I am saying. When I was professor of Christian Spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA, I taught a class in basic spirituality for first year students. For one of the classes I took the students to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers. In one of the classes that I there was a young man who was indignant that 43 monks would lock themselves up and do nothing to alleviate the pain and suffering of the world. He saw them as wasting their lives. He considered it to be the worst kind of escapism. Many variations of this young man’s response to contemplation can be heard. What a waste! Self-centeredness! Navel-gazing! Illusory! – The Mary Factor.

But there is the other side – practical action, the Martha Factor. A few days ago I had lunch with a friend deeply involved in spiritual formation. She is herself a deeply spiritual woman and does workshops, consultation and spiritual direction. She told me about several counter-cultural groups who live in communes and devote themselves to Social Justice Issues. They were on the street marching, protesting, writing letters, and making phone calls to expose the evils of the society. You know what happened? They ran out of gas. Their energy was depleted because they lacked contact with the source of their passion. So they invited Julie to work with them in discovering the Mary side of their ministry.

Neither Mary nor Martha is the answer. They belong together; they complement each other. To complement mean to make complete. Action complements Contemplation and Contemplation complements Action.

The Mary/Martha complement not only resides in movements, in various organizations of the church, it is in each of us. There is a Mary component in all of us – the hunger for solitude and silence, for intimacy with God. And, there is a Martha component within all of us – the awareness of the need to act, to do, to achieve. Just as the church and other groups must find the complementarity of Mary and Martha, so must each of us!

This personal aspect of the Mary/Martha Complement brings us to the task of the morning. Judy Durff is a woman who has discovered and nurtured both the Mary aspect of her life and she has expressed it as a complement of her Martha aspect. In a very simple way I want to illustrate these two modes of spirituality that I have seen in her.

If first met Judy a little over 10 years ago. She was a new associate at LCPC in Pasadena. She told me that she had been placed in charge of my month long visit to her church as a scholar in residence. She then asked me a most embarrassing question: “What is a Scholar in Residence?” I responded that I didn’t know, but that if she would work with me, we would discover what it was and do it! Besides, nobody in your church knows what it is either; it will be whatever we tell them it is!

She agreed and She, Phil Branson, and I met in Ontario, CA to design our month together. I asked her what the church needed; she responded and we began there. Judy and Phil drew up the plans. When I got to La Canada every day of every week was planned for me. I knew where I was to be from early morning to late in the evening and I had a good manager who rode herd on the plan. That’s how I met Martha in Judy!

Over the past 10 years I have seen Mary more fully emerging in Judy. It has been a beautiful sight and I have celebrated many glorious break-throughs with her but I want to focus on the most recent. Your search committee visited with Judy and invited her to accept a call to this church. She thought about it and said, “No.” After a few months they came back to her and said, “We believe that you are the one for us.” So the Mary in Judy sat at the feet of Jesus listening. She listened through a “clearness committee” who asked her hard questions. She listened through the counsel of friends who pointed out the providence of God in the events. She listened in silence for three day, seeking to hear the Voice of God. When she put together the data of these various “listenings,” she concluded that God was indeed calling her to LOPC. And, that is why we are gathered here today to install Judy Durff as the associate minister for Spiritual Formation.

In Judy Durff Mary and Martha have hugged each other and kissed.