Obligation or Love? (Luke 10:38-42)
Introduction
I remember one Sunday morning when I was serving as the Associate Pastor of a Community Church in Dunedin in Florida. My wife and I had arrived just a few minutes before the worship service was to begin.
This was much later than was usual for me and as she unbuckled the baby from his car seat I straightened my tie in the mirror and watched something that I had never before seen with such intensity.
Sure, I had seen people go in and out of church lots of times. But that morning there was something very different. It was though God was allowing me to get a sense of the burdens that we carry with us all week long. It was as if He wanted me to know just how heavy and cumbersome those burdens can be.
As I watched the people filing into the church building from their sedans, trucks, and minivans, it occurred to me that each one carried their own invisible burdens. Some carried the burden of guilt for past sins. These hoped that by regularly attending church they would convince God to forgive them.
Countless others carried the load of present failures and disappointments as they filed into the church building. I imagined them wondering if they were worthy of God’s love or even the love of other people.
As I sat watching all of these people, many of whom I knew well, making their way into the church that Sunday I was struck with the sense that so many of us come to church, pray, and generally live out our Christian faith largely out of a sense of obligation rather than a sense of love.
Transition
While duty is clearly good and it is right to honor our obligations, this morning I want to encourage you toward something greater. Rather than only experiencing the Christian life in a stoic – duty bound – way, I want to suggest to you that it is possible to live out the Christian life as we are compelled by the beauty of God’s love for us.
Scripture
Many interpret today’s Scripture to mean that Jesus discourages us to handle our earthly obligations.
Some have wrongly used this passage of Scripture to justify an ascetic lifestyle. They skew the words of Jesus to justify a disconnected Christianity that sees engaging the world’s here and now problems as unspiritual and even idolatrous.
But that is not the message of Jesus at all. In the very same gospel Jesus is seen taking time to pray in order to be filled with strength for upcoming action. The message is not that Martha is an unspiritual busy body while her sister Mary is a spiritual giant.
The real issue at hand is attitude. Mary had chosen to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to the master. She loved Jesus and she wanted to be near Him while Martha, on the other hand, was distracted by her many legitimate obligations.
Jesus is not saying that it is wrong to handle our obligations. Certainly the Scriptures teach us to be diligent in the work that God has given to us. In Proverbs 18:9 it says, “Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.” (ESV) Undoubtedly, Martha’s working to feed Jesus and the disciples was not the problem.
Jesus is making it clear that our attitude is as important as our actions.
God isn’t looking for a bunch of robots their Sunday best wondering the streets doing good works with a frown on their face. If we do right things as we complain about it, how that supposed to please God or tell the world about God’s love?
He wants to show the world, through us, the beauty of His love. God is looking for faces to smile through and hearts to love through.
Your Heavenly Father is asking you today, “Will you be one of those whom I can love the world through.” Let your hands do His work! But don’t stop there. Let others see His love inside of you. Let them see it in something as simple as a smile, or something far greater – a life lived loving God and people.
The following words were written on the tomb of an Anglican bishop in the crypts of Westminster Abbey:
“When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country. But it, too, seemed immovable.
“As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.
“And now as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize: If I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family.
“From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country and, who knows, I may have even changed the world.”
Engrained Misconceptions
For many of us it’s difficult to have a right attitude about our service to God. It is awfully difficult to let God love the World through us if we don’t even know just how much God loves each one of us to begin with. How can we share something that we don’t have?
In his book, “The God we never knew,” Marcus Borg speaks about his childhood memories of the Pastor in the church where he grew up.
He tells the story of Pastor Thorson who was a finger-shaker. He writes, “He was a finger-shaker. I am not speaking metaphorically but literally: he actually shook his finger at us as he preached. Sometimes he even shook his finger as he pronounced forgiveness of sins… By the end of my childhood,” he continues, “my image of God – as a supernatural being who was a finger-shaker – was part of a larger ‘package understanding’ of Christianity.”
How many of us are just like Marcus Borg? How many of us have an ingrained misconception about God’s character? Is the god you serve a finger-shaker? Do you believe that you are forgiven, but feel like it was a lucky escape?
Did you come to church this morning out of a sense of obligation or love?
Exodus 34:6 says, “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” (ESV)
Psalms 42:8 says, “By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” (ESV)
Billy Graham said, “God proved his love on the cross. When Christ hung, and bled, and died, it was God saying to the world, ‘I love you.’”
Knowing His Divine Love
For us to move from obligation to love in our relationship with God and others, we have to learn to experience the divine. Christianity is not intended to be a dry theological discussion. Nor is it merely a list of do’s and don’ts.
Henry H. Williams wrote, “A great deal of what passes for current Christianity consists in denouncing other people’s vices and faults.” Christianity is not the sum of its doctrine; it is a vibrant relationship with Christ.
Learn to experience God deep within your very soul. Learn to know the voice of God comforting your hurts and compelling your actions.
Listen for His loving voice in your life and respond to it. Good actions and right living should flow out of the depth of God’s love inside of you. Good actions and right living are not how we please God; they are how God responds to a hurting world through us.
Conclusion
Attitude is as important action. To a very large extent our attitude determines our reality. If we see the world as a negative place then it will be. If we see it as a place filled God’s goodness and opportunity then it will be.
Learn from the lesson of Mary and Martha. Be steadfast in your obligations and fulfill your responsibilities. But do so out of a sense of appreciation for wonder and beauty of God’s love. Be careful about being distracted by too many obligations. Be filled with love.
Let us pray.
