Modus Operandi

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Chruch in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday July 18, 2010, the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Amos 8:1-12
Psalm 52
Colossians 1:15-28
Luke 10:38-42

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

Iron Chef America is a show on the Food Network which features two things I like most in my TV shows, it’s a cooking show and it’s a competition. It’s competitive cooking! According to the show’s Japanese lore, Chairman Kaga once had a dream where the most famous chefs in the world come together to compete against one another for the honor of being named Iron Chef. When this show came to America, the Chairman’s nephew took over the reigns of Kitchen Stadium where he hosts great chefs doing battle.

When the show begins, the Chairman enters Kitchen Stadium and introduces the challenger chef who will compete against one of five Iron Chefs who specializes in any one of several cuisines ranging from Japanese to Mediterranean to American Southwest. After the competing chefs are brought together, the cover is raised off of the altar and the theme ingredient is revealed.

The theme ingredient can be any food, meat or fruit or vegetable or grain even; there’s no limit to what has ended up on the altar. The ingredient has been as small as grains of sugar and as large as an elk. There have also been battles with themes like “farmer’s market” and “Thanksgiving.”

Then, after the secret ingredient is announced, the chairman cries out with a flourish “And now in the words of my uncle, Allez cuisine!” and the battle begins. At this moment, the chefs and their sous-chefs grab the theme ingredient and wage culinary war. Food flies, knives are brandished, steam rises, and flames sear the air in kitchen stadium. People are moving with hot food and sharp implements, unsafe at any speed, preparing a five course meal for the judges.

I can just see Martha in this situation. Suddenly and without warning, Jesus, presumably with his disciples since they were traveling together, knocks on the door of the home of Lazarus. Since Lazarus is a friend of Jesus they expect to be welcomed. His sister Martha opens the door to find the weary travelers seeking hospitality. She welcomes them into the home which is shared not only by Lazarus and Martha, but their sister Mary.

As soon as the weary pilgrims come through the door, Martha is off like a shot. It’s as if the cover has come off of the special theme ingredient and the Chairman has cried “Allez cuisine!” Immediately she’s pulling things out of the pantry and the garden and the blast chiller, she’s sharpening knives and stoking the fire. The fatted calf is about to be sacrificed as an offering to the Lord, dinner is set for at least fourteen, and her sous-chef is nowhere to be seen. Where’s Mary? She’s hanging out at the Chairman’s feet feasting on his every word.

I imagine Martha might have been pretty passive-aggressive about her displeasure too. She could be chopping the veggies with extra vigor, slamming the oven door, maybe even talking to herself in a voice that wasn’t meant for just herself. Finally, ticked off to the nth degree, she demands the Chairman to tell her sister to get off her tail and help out in Kitchen Stadium. Martha wasn’t wrong making her request either, hospitality had been a part of the Hebrew tradition since the days of Abraham and Mary was hanging with boys.

Then Martha might have overstepped her bounds, just a touch, when she asked her Lord, “Don’t you care?”

“My sister has left me in the kitchen to prepare a banquet for you by myself, don’t you care?”

“Don’t you care?” There’s a question for the ages. “Don’t you care?” Well, what Jesus says next is not the answer we probably aren’t expecting. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things and there is need of only one thing.” Jesus cares; it’s just that he doesn’t care about the same things Martha cares about.

We should take a moment and back up lest we blame Jesus without warrant. We need to be warned that Jesus is not scolding Martha for providing hospitality for her family and a cast of thousands. Jesus is not going after the servant Martha, the one who provides for her Lord. Jesus is talking to the over-busy Martha. He’s talking to the woman who is worried and distracted. He’s talking to a woman who is multitasking like she has six arms.

I was watching The Today Show on Friday with Marie and Enrique Iglesias was doing a show at Rockefeller Center. The most amazing thing is that a solid chunk of the crowd wasn’t watching the show; they were watching the backs of their phones and other video recording devices. They weren’t taking in the music. They weren’t enjoying the show. They weren’t even enjoying being ten yards from a major pop star and a couple thousand of their closest friends. They were recording it so that they could post it on the internet for the world to see. As of last night, over 2,200 videos were returned when I used the search terms “Enrique Iglesias Today Show Video” on YouTube.[1]

The same search on Google returned over 140 million hits and did it in four-tenths of a second.[2]

We multitask. We can’t just be at a show, we have to record it. We can’t just have an opinion; we have to post it to our blogs and our Twitter account and our facebook page. It’s the way we operate, it’s our modus operandi. Our world has become an interconnected mess of web and text and phone and video. We can’t just sit and be still, abide in the presence of the Lord.

Who thought this when the first cellular phones had shoulder straps and ran on something a little smaller than a car battery? I can still remember William Conrad as Frank Cannon on TV with a rotary dial car phone having to dial the “mobile operator” to make a connection from the scene of the crime. Not five years ago the iPhone would was a dream coming true and twenty years ago it was science fiction. Now it’s where you can call a friend, shoot a video, read a book, pay your bills, and text your kids. The next version will probably allow us to do it all at the same time.

Martha fusses because she’s over busy. With a good smart phone she could use one application to get the meal catered and another to make sure the silverware is placed around the plate properly.

Yet, Jesus does not discredit Martha’s work at providing for her guests. Jesus does not shame her for preparing food for him and a house full of visitors. This kind of service, this kind of work is important in the kingdom of God. Hey, every “Habitat for Humanity” project includes a group whose responsibility to cook the food for the folks using power tools. Still, some days there’s something more important than doing stuff, even stuff for God.

Martha is worked up over the preparations for the meal that she will share with Jesus. She is so worked up that she is upset with her sister for not helping. She’s so worked up that she is upset with Jesus for not telling her sister to get up and help. She is so worked up that she tells her Lord what to do. She is worked up over the meal when she should be worked up over the guest of honor instead. Instead of participating in fellowship she’s worked up with the details of preparing it. Jesus doesn’t mean to scold her; he just wants to tell her that instead of videotaping his appearance at her home to post on YouTube she should be joining in instead.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman put it this way about a trip to Paris some years ago:

The [taxi] driver and I had been together for an hour, and between the two of us we had been doing six different things. He was driving, talking on his phone and watching a video. I was riding, working on my laptop and listening to my iPod.

There was only one thing we never did: Talk to each other.[3]

He was lamenting because he could remember a day when foreign correspondents often quoted cab drivers. I imagine it’s not just because a cab driver can be opinionated, but because of the dozens of fares brought in from Charles de Gaulle Airport everyday. I imagine cab drivers could be privy to some very interesting conversations. We might call it eves dropping, but to a couple of generations of foreign correspondents it was research.

What a resource, and now it’s lost because the driver is now connected with the world instead of with the person sitting two feet behind him. The columnist lamented that while he had been with his driver, he wasn’t even close to him. He laments that while technology brings us closer together, it tears us further apart. This often leads to what one writer calls “continuous partial attention.”[4] An example: If you come into my study and I’m checking email and looking up who has been to my blog instead of looking at you directly in front of me, then you may be standing only six feet away, but I could well be on the other side of the world.[5]

What is the better part, what is the part Mary chose? Well, theologian John Shea notes that what English bibles translate as “better” is better rendered from the Greek as “good.” Mary has chosen the good. She has chosen what is good. She has chosen who is good. She has chosen connection to God who is “the ground and energy of effective action.”[6] She chose to be with her Lord, at his feet, hanging on his every word. Rather than focusing on the fringes of a life of faith, Jesus invites her to participate and take a load off. Jesus promises that this will not be taken away from her.

Jesus shows us what it means to be present. Jesus shows us what it means to be in the moment, not preparing for the next. He shows us that as important as it is to feed the folks at a Habitat house raising, it is as important, maybe even more important, to be with the family that is receiving the house and the Lord whose goodness makes it possible.

What is better is what is good. In our reading from Luke Jesus does not give us the contrast between one who is doing work and another who lounges. He does not give us a contrast between one who toils and one who is contemplative. He is not even giving us a contrast between a woman who is passive and one who is busy and bossy. Jesus is showing us that being with him is more important than being on our own.

We are people of the book and table. We are people of both word and sacrament. Both are important. Yet, we are warned against being overwhelmed by the details of everyday life so that we might be present with God and with one another. We are warned about being worried so that we might be present with God and with one another. We are warned about being distracted so that we might be present with God and with one another.

Martha asks, “Oh Lord, don’t you care.” Jesus responds, “Oh yes Martha, I care so much that I have come to be with you now and always. Jesus cares so much that he still welcomes us into God’s presence and God is good. We are called to come together, and we are called to come together at the feet of our Lord Jesus, the one who is good who provides us with what is better, with what will not be taken away. That’s God’s way of doing things. That’s God’s modus operandi.

[1]YouTube.com, http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=enrique+iglesias+today+show+video&aq=0, retrieved July 17, 2010.
[2] Google.com, http://www.google.com/search?q=enrique+iglesias+today+show+video&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&startIndex=&startPage=1, retrieved July 17, 2010.
[3] New York Times, http://select.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/opinion/01friedman.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=%22The%Taxi%Driver%22&cst-cse, retrieved July 17, 2010.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Actually, I don’t have a computer in my study at the church. So there’s one thing I don’t have to worry about.
[6] Shea, John, “The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers: The Restless Widow, Year C.” Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2006, 203.