Distraction Problems

Dr. James Mayfield
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

July 18, 2004

Text: Luke 10:38-42 (also see John 11-12)

In the memorial service sermon Jerry Smith preached at annual conference this year he quoted an old saying: "The main thing is to remember the main thing is the main thing." In the midst of all that is demanded, expected and desired, we are easily distracted, and we lose sight of the main thing. Before we are aware of what we have done, we have replaced the main thing with things that are important but not the main thing.

This is the problem presented in the passage we read today. In my imagination, I think Jesus' visit to Martha's home may have gone something like this. At first there was the usual kind of conversation any of us have with guests when they first enter our homes. Martha and Mary welcomed him. He probably thanked them for inviting him, and they began to visit about this and that, perhaps commenting on the weather. Then one of them may have asked Jesus how his ministry was going. How had the people been responding? Then, at some point, the conversation probably shifted gears and moved beyond a surface account of where he had been and what he had been doing. Because the primary theme of Jesus' message was that the kingdom of God was at hand, I am confident that is what they talked about. Just what did he mean when he said the kingdom of God, the reign of God is near? Mary was probably asking the kind of questions a student or disciple of a rabbi would ask. After all that is the way Luke saw her. When Luke wrote that Mary sat at Jesus' feet and listened it was like me saying: "I have sat at the feet of teachers such as: Albert Outler or Carlyle Marney." Mary was relating to Jesus as a disciple, a student.

As I imagine the scene, Martha sat there growing more and more restless and having trouble focusing on what Jesus was saying. She was distracted by her need to serve Jesus and do all that a good host was expected to do. Perhaps while Jesus was telling a parable to explain what he was talking about, Martha suddenly remembered something she needed to be doing in the kitchen, and so I imagine her leaving the conversation in order to go and do what she believed must be done in order to serve Jesus as a good host. Luke tells us she was distracted by many tasks.

We can understand her. Many of us have behaved this way when we have had some special guest in our home. We know what it is to be so focused on doing all we think a good host ought to do, we are unable to get to focus on our guest, to get to know him better and enjoy his company.

I imagine Martha was excited and honored to have Jesus in her home. And her way of responding was to serve him by doing all she could to make his stay enjoyable. So, she got busy in the kitchen. To serve Jesus the way Martha wanted, there was a lot to do, and to get it all done on her schedule she needed Mary's help. I can imagine Martha resenting her sister for taking the role of a disciple rather than helping her. One would think Mary would be alert to her sister's desires and needs. If so, Mary chose to ignore Martha rather than interrupt what she was learning from being with Jesus.. Finally Martha's frustration boiled over and she said to Jesus: "Mary is leaving me with all the work; tell her help me."

"Martha, Martha," Jesus said, "you are worried and distracted by many things. You have lost sight of the main thing, and Mary has not."

Now wait a minute. What is the writer of the Gospel of Luke trying to tell to us? The story that immediately precedes this one, is the story I dealt with last week in which a student of religious law asked Jesus what he must do to inherit, to experience eternal life. As that situation unfolded, Jesus told the parable of the good Samaritan, as a way of explaining what we are to do -- the way we are to live. We are to go and do works of compassion for neighbors in need, just as the Samaritan had done.

Then, in the very next story that Luke tells he seems to say just the opposite. Martha is busy going and doing trying to serve the needs of Jesus and he mildly rebukes her for being so busy going and doing. Is she not doing what Jesus had told that student of religious law to do?

Jesus told Martha she was missing the best part. Or in the words of Jerry Smith's sermon: She had become distracted by many worthwhile things and forgotten the main thing. The main thing is to live in harmony with God. The main thing is to allow Christ to shape the way we live. The main thing is to be in a right relationship with God as revealed in Jesus. Jesus told Martha that she was so busy and distracted in her going and doing she was missing the main thing. She was substituting doing good and worthwhile things for being in relationship with Christ.

The story about the lawyer and the Samaritan and the story about Mary and Martha are not contradictory. They are complementary -- each completes the other. We need both; at least I need both because some of the time I am like the student of religious law in last week's story. And when I am, I tend to avoid the demands of the Gospel by seeking refuge in a safe kind of Bible study. There are times I need to hear what Jesus said to that student of scripture: "You want the kind of life God is offering? You want to receive, experience eternal life? Go and do like that compassionate Samaritan."

But then there are other times when I need to be reminded that in Martha's scurrying about thinking she was serving Jesus she was actually drifting away from him. It is easy for me as a pastor to be so busy doing church work, I lose sight of what the church really is -- the Body of Christ. I can become so involved in carrying out what I see as my Christian duties as a pastor that I drift away from sitting at the feet of Christ.

It is easy to be so busy, we do not pause to listen and learn. Too busy to pause, our prayers become like hurriedly written emails sending out requests and instructions to God. We don't want to engage in prayer that is more like a phone call because conversations take more time; they require us to listen to what the Other has to say. So, being busy doing good and worthwhile things we do less and less listening when we pray. To listen, to seek to discern what God is saying takes time but we have so much to do, so many good and worthwhile things to accomplish we just do not have the time. And so for us, prayer becomes little more infrequent verbal emails which we can easily do on the run, without having to take time to listen or to make the effort to discern what God is saying.

I readily identify with Martha. She was so focused on what she was convinced she needed to do in order to serve Jesus, she did not have time to be with Christ when he was right there in her home. Like Martha, I too often lose sight of the main thing. That is when I find myself substituting my going and doing good deeds for living in communion with Christ. I become so distracted in doing the good deeds I think I ought to be doing, I ignore what I need in order to be -- to be the person God intends me to be. I allow myself to be so consumed by what I see as my duties, that I find myself doing deeds of compassion without any sense of compassion.

When I live this way, it is not long until I experience burnout and the resentments that come with burnout. Rather than responding to the need of others as an opportunity for experiencing what it is to fulfill my God given purpose, I see their need as another imposition and burden; and I deal with it out of a grudging sense of duty. Resentment soon follows, and my resentment often takes the form of complaining about those who are not helping me get it done. "Tell Mary to get in the kitchen and help me."

In the story we dealt with last week, Jesus said to the man and any of us who do more talking about the faith than actually living it: "Get involved in life the way that compassionate Samaritan was involved. Go and do as he did."

The story we read this week offers us the counterpoint. To Martha and to those of us who become distracted by all our worthwhile going and doing Jesus said, "You are so busy you have no time for me; sit down; receive what I am offering: listen and learn how to live -- really live, not just do."

God, do not let us forget the main thing is living in communion with you. When we forget and bog down in talking and speculation, help us be more like the good Samaritan. But when, like Martha, we find ourselves consumed in going and doing, help us be more like Mary. Amen.

Pastoral prayer:
God, we recognize and confess that all too often we commit ourselves to doing more than we should and the result is we neglect or make only half-hearted efforts to do what is most important in your eyes. Guide us so that with the time and energy we have, we do what you want us to do. God, sometimes our overload is not of our choosing. Problems of health come to us or to those close to us. Situations and circumstances over which we have no control place burdens on us that are heavier than usual. Sometimes those we most dearly love make destructive choices and the consequences not only impact their lives, but also ours. God, when our burdens are heavy, give us the physical, emotional and spiritual strength we need to face what must be faced and the power to move on. Rescue us from the temptation to indulge in self-pity and do not let us fall into the quagmire of bitterness. Keep us focused on you and reinforce our confidence in you and our confidence in the power of your grace. Enable us to deal with our burdens as Christ dealt with his. Teach us to pray and not merely say: "Our Father …"