Keeping Your Focus

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost - Proper 11-Year C

June 21, 2013

Luke 10:38-42

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. 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." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

One of the important aspects to many different things in life is finding a center, or centering yourself.  We employ all sorts of words and phrases in order to express finding that center.  In martial arts, especially in Aikido you need to find and focus on your center, and use that central force in your moves.  Many eastern religions and philosophies use meditation and chants to assist a person in finding their central point or being.  Often, regardless of what the activity may be, we will often pause and calm ourselves, find our center before beginning.  You see it in athletes of all kinds as they pause moments before they begin in still silence focusing, concentrating, finding their center.  I think about high divers who pause for a moment before launching themselves into the air.  I think about the basketball player at the free-throw line that pauses before sending the ball through the hoop.  I think about the archer who breaths deeply and quiets their body before shooting their arrow at the bullseye.

Finding your center, your calm place, your happy place, is important in athletics.  Without pausing  to quiet the mind and body, the arrow would not fly straight, the basketball would clang off the hoop and the diver could very easily belly flop.  But it’s not just athletics.  I remember when I was in college and had a big music performance, I would pause in quiet silence, soaking it all in and striving to find a place of calm in order to allow myself to perform best.  There are many times when the time I spend at the altar at the beginning of the service in prayer is also a time of centering myself, calming myself, clearing my mind of unnecessary thoughts,  so I can be fully present in worship.

Life itself often needs to be centered.  In the next week I need to find the time to take my car in to have the wheels balanced.  They may be round, but their weight is not centered.  At certain speeds I get a rather uncomfortable shake that passes through the steering wheel into my hands.  The shake doesn’t always happen at exactly the same speed, and it seems to come up without warning.  At lower speeds, I can’t feel it; at speeds higher than the shake, it also seems to disappear.  Yet, it’s still there, hidden by how fast the wheels are turning.  My tire’s need to be balanced, they need to be centered; if I don’t I will eventually cause damage to my car.

Life is a lot like that too.  There are times when we go along without a care in the world – everything seems fine, hunky-dory.  Then suddenly, out of the blue we find ourselves out of balance, shaking as we go.  Go a little slower and the shaking disappears, go a little faster and the business of life hides how out of balance we are.  We all need to find our center in those moments, or risk coming apart from being out of balance.  We find ourselves in those moments being pulled in different directions, seeking to find that place where we can be centered between all the forces pushing and pulling, dragging and shoving us here and there.

In our text about Mary and Martha we see someone being pushed and pulled off center in different directions.  That’s what the Greek (periespato) really means when we read that Martha was ‘distracted’.  Martha was out of balance, she had lost her focus she was spinning off kilter and out of control.  Jesus’ words to her about Mary choosing the better part in contrast to Martha’s distraction can easily be understood to be words advising her to refocus herself, to concentrate on what is of importance.

Now, there are many ways to think of what is of importance.  This text has sometimes been used to elevate study of the word and meditation above that of service.  This text has sometimes been used as a critique on the role of women in the church.  But, this text (as with most texts) is about relationship; our relationship with God and God’s with us.

Rather than dwelling on the specific acts of Martha and Mary, let’s look at their motivation, their focus, the reason they are doing whatever they are doing.  At the beginning of the situation, Martha invites Jesus to her home; probably because she wants to be of service.  He’s passing through, he could use a place to stay, a good meal to eat, a cool glass of water.  She invited him into her home, and she heads to the kitchen to work – probably whistling, and in joy and happiness that she can serve Jesus in this way.  Mary too is happy.  Thrilled to have the opportunity to spend time at Jesus’ feet listening to his teachings.

But then something happens, Martha is no longer happy.  So what happened?  Let’s look at her words.  Martha complains that she has to do all the work herself.  Her focus has shifted.  She is no longer focused on serving Jesus, she’s focused on how hard she is working in that service.  Her focus is no longer Jesus, it’s herself; she’s become distracted.  If you think about it, she’s trying to turn the focus away from Jesus to herself, how hard she’s working, all that she’s doing.  “Lord, do you see how hard I’m working?, and all by myself.  Isn’t that wonderful?  Don’t you think I’m worth praising and thanking?”

Martha is a wonderful example for us of what can happen when we lose our focus.  It’s not that the work she was doing was any less important than the time of reflection that Mary was involved in.  It’s not that work is somehow bad, or that reflection is somehow better.  There wasn’t a problem until Martha got distracted, pulled in different directions – pulled between focusing on Jesus and focusing on the work she was doing.

This passage comes directly after the parable of the Good Samaritan, and I think Luke put them together for a reason.  In the parable we are shown the importance of service and good works.  Jesus lifts up the selfless service of the Samaritan as an example to be followed.  Then in these verses, we read of Martha and her service and Jesus points out a truth.  The work we do in service to our neighbors, even to the Lord himself, must be done with a focus, must be done in faith, if they are to lead to life in Christ.  Mary’s better part was her continued focus on Jesus.

As people of God, we know the importance of service and good works.  In the second chapter of James we read how faith without works is dead.  It’s a verse that is lifted up often as calling us to live out our faith in service to others.  Here, in this passage, we see the contrary is also true, that works with faith is also dead.  Without faith, all that we do, no matter how good it might be is not going to win God’s blessings. 

Faith and works are both necessary parts of life in Christ.  As I talked about in the children’s time one without the other really doesn’t work very well.  But they both need a focus.  To continue with the jump rope imagery from the children’s time, I can hold both ends of the jump rope and swing them in unison, but unless the goal is to jump over the passing rope, all I’m doing is creating a breeze.  But, if the focus is on doing what the jump rope is designed for, when I swing both ends, when I focus and jump, everything works well.  But, I must maintain my focus.  When my focus lapses, when my swinging of either side of the rope lags behind, or one side is swinging faster, when I don’t jump, the rope bumps up against my body, and the rope stops.

The focus of our faith, the focus of our service, is Jesus.  We serve others in love out of thankfulness to God for the love and service that was first shown to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  We look to God in faith, in belief, because of the life, death and glorious resurrection of Jesus.  Jesus is the focus, our reason for doing what we do, for believing what we do.  It is the better part.  To have our focus on anything else, regardless of the depth of our faith, regardless of the nature of our service, is to be like a jump rope swinging around without being jumped.  It might be pretty to look at, it might be awe-inspiring, it might even be inspirational.  Only when we maintain our focus on Jesus do our faith and our service swing together in coordination.  And that is the better part.  Amen.