Author Sam Keen, in his provocative little book called Apology for Wonder, tells us the lesson he learned as young boy swimming in the Indian River inlet on the Delaware coast. Keen says that swimming there was very tricky, because the outgoing waters from the bay met the incoming tides waves from the ocean, and so the currents were very irregular arid there were often very strong movements of the water. It was very dangerous to swim there. But he learned that if he just relaxed and yielded to the outgoing currents, and let them carry him well out into the sea, then he could swim across the current and find a calmer place below the inlet to swim back to shore.
The lesson is, says Sam Keen, "When swimming in turbulent waters, wisdom lies in knowing when to relax and when to struggle."
Today we are going to engage in a dialogue between the when to relax and the when to struggle.
Some of us are on the relaxed end. Maybe it’s weariness, maybe it’s laziness, maybe it’s something deeper. But some of us are at a time of life in which we want some space, we want some quiet. We want peace and calm, and that’s all we want. We’re on the relaxed end.
But some of us are on the struggling end. Maybe it’s energy, maybe it’s ambition, or maybe it’s something deeper. But some of us are at a time of life in which we just want to move. We want to get it done. We want to see accomplishment. We’re in the struggle.
Says Sam Keen, "When swimming in turbulent waters, wisdom lies in knowing when to relax and when to struggle." Wisdom lies in knowing what time it is in our lives.
This is the first Sunday of the summer. The word "vacation" has crept into our vocabularies. There is a shift in the tempo of life. School is out, families begin to plan for time away.
Even the church shifts into a different pattern. After five tremendously busy but wonderfully rewarding nights of Bible School, after several months of a Capital Stewardship Campaign, after lots of special events and activities, even the church changes its tempo at least a little. I say "even the church", because, as many of you know, we are caught up in a tradition that is on the go and in the groove. You have heard me quote the nursery rhyme, slightly altered: "Mary had a Little lamb; it would have been a sheep. But it became a Baptist, and died for lack of sleep!"
It’s time to think about this pattern of activity. It’s time to think about what time it is in our lives. It’s time to reflect on relaxing and struggling, because, "when swimming in turbulent waters, wisdom lies in knowing when to relax and when to struggle."
Here is the story of two women who, in their encounter with Jesus, teach us about relaxing and struggling.
Luke 10:38-42
I suspect you may be thinking, "Oh, it’s pretty obvious where the pastor is going with this one. Obviously we are supposed to be like Mary and spend our time learning and praying. And equally obviously, we are supposed not to be like Martha; we are not supposed to be working at piddling little mundane tasks instead of coming to church and sitting in Sunday School." You are saying, aren’t you, "I know what he’s going to do with this text, this sermon"?
Well, in the words of the late, lamented Johnny Carson. "Wrong, Bible breath!" Wrong. That is too easy. There is a lot more here than that.
One interpreter says that we should be wary of this passage. He says that we should not make a cartoon of this scene, "Martha up to her eyeballs in soapsuds. Mary pensively on a stool in the den, and Jesus giving scriptural warrant for letting dishes pile high in the sink." He goes on, "If we censure Martha too harshly, she may abandon serving altogether, and if we commend Mary too profusely, she may sit there forever. There is a time to go and do; there is a time to listen and reflect. Knowing which and when is a matter of spiritual discernment."
"There is a time to go and do; there is a time to listen and reflect. Knowing which and when is a matter of spiritual discernment." And remember, "When swimming in turbulent waters, wisdom lies in knowing when to relax and when to struggle."
I
Now some of us are Marthas, and we count on staying busy as a way to order our lives. We believe that if we just keep busy, that in and of itself will give us meaning.
There is an awful poem by Rudyard Kipling about "filling the unforgiving moment with sixty seconds’ worth of distance run". Isn’t that awful?! Unforgiving, indeed! What a compulsive business that is! But a lot of us are Marthas, who need to be busy, very busy, in order to feel that we are worth anything. We think that if we are busy, it tells the world that we are focused, purposeful.
But there is an interesting word that the Bible uses about Martha. It says that Martha was distracted by her many tasks – distracted. Jesus Himself says, "Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things." What does distracted mean?
It means that her attention is diverted from where it ought to be. It means that busy as she is, believing that she is focused and concentrated, that she is not focused at all. She is distracted, she is anxious, she is frantic. She is just busy being busy. And she has lost touch with what is most important. She has forgotten how to be still and know that He is God. She has stayed busy with good things yes, but has left behind the better things.
A good many of us are Marthas. I know there is a lot of Martha in me. If I’m not doing some kind of task, I feel a little guilty. If I’m not marking stuff off of my checklist, I feel lazy. I suspect a lot of us are Marthas. Just got to keep moving.
I had a supervisor once who delighted in telling his staff that he wanted the kind of worker who would kick up a cloud of dust even while sitting in the chair. That’s Martha talking!
When I was a seminary student, around the campus there was a retired professor, Dr. Gaines Dobbins. At one time he had taught all of the courses in church administration and religious education. Dr. Dobbins took great delight in informing us that after he retired, it took fourteen professors to teach what he had taught all by himself? That’s Martha talking again!
My wife and I almost never go to the movies. I don’t think we’ve seen one film in the last six or eight years. Why not? Because if she’s going to a movie, she wants it to be fun and relaxing, she wants escape fare. But if I’m going to a movie, I want to know, "Does it have a message? Is it uplifting? Is it a justifiable use of my time? Is it about anything? You see, Martha does not get to the movies very often, and keeps Mary from going too!
But what’s Martha’s problem, really? Martha sounds like she’s a voice for justice: "My sister has left me to do all the work by myself". She sounds like she’s just offended because it’s not fair. But something deeper is going on.
Martha is trying to avoid facing her own emptiness. Martha’s frantic work, Martha’s agitated busy-ness, is nothing more than a way to avoid facing the spiritual void inside.
It helps to know that in the Jewish world in the time of Jesus, the kind of spiritual conversation going on between Jesus and Martha’s sister Mary just did not happen. It was considered completely out of place for women to show interest in spiritual things. And it was just unthinkable that a self-respecting rabbi would waste his time discussing anything with some pretty airhead. And so Martha is reacting here. She is saying, "Look, I’ve done what I’m supposed to do. I’ve fulfilled a woman’s duty, I’m doing the right things. But my sister is over here breaking all the rules."
Martha’s world has pushed her into a box, has forced her into a role. Martha’s world has oppressed her, and she has tried to avoid that. She has tried to repress her spiritual longings. She’s played the game the way society said to play the game, and all of a sudden her sister Mary is getting away with breaking the rules. I believe it all exposes the spiritual emptiness and oppression in Martha’s life.
Now Jesus tells her that she is distracted. Not focused, just frantic. Distracted, off the mark, diverted from what is really important.
One of the characters in Garry Trudeau’s "Doonesbury" comic strip is always talking about working on his tan. "Working" on his tan. Now I recognize that in this congregation that may be very hard to identify with. In fact, it is meant to be a parody of our self-indulgent generation ... that anyone could think of entering tanning contests and maybe even growing a championship body burn. However, you know, there just may be a time for working on your tan, a time for relaxing, a time for thinking, for reflecting, for waiting.
For, "When swimming in turbulent waters, wisdom lies in knowing when to relax and when to struggle."
II
But now let me go on quickly to put in a good word for Martha and let me offer a word of caution for Mary. Let’s turn this little story to a different angle and see it from another perspective. Let’s say something on behalf of Martha and warn the Marys among us about something else.
When you do get into spiritual exploration, it does need to produce something practical. When you do become a Mary and stop and relax and listen and learn, at some point you do need to roll up your sleeves and help Martha in the kitchen.
Jesus says to Martha, "Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part." The better part, but not the only part.
Now I have to be honest with you and tell you that this text is obscure. The scholars tell us there are no less than five different readings of this saying. And so we can’t make too much out of it. But I believe it is legitimate to hear Jesus saying something like this:
"Martha, what you are doing is all right in and of itself. But Mary has chosen to do something more fundamental, more basic. And you need to do what Mary does in order to keep doing what you are doing."
Let me try that again. It may be all right to be busy. It’s all right to be active. But learn first who you are, learn first a spiritual foundation, and then go and use that to do your work. If you first have a focused life, then your work will not be frantic, it will be purposeful.
Now the Bible scholars also tell us that the way a story is placed in the Scripture is a clue as to the way it is supposed to be interpreted. Luke puts the story of Mary and Martha right squarely between the parable of the Good Samaritan and the Lord’s Prayer. That means that on one side you have a story, the Good Samaritan, that says go and do, go and do the right thing. And on the other side you have a story, the Lord’s Prayer, that says, learn to pray, learn spiritual things. Right in between you have this story of Mary and Martha. It is a bridge, it is a link. It says, learn and do, both. Reflect and act, both.
I’m speaking a word on behalf of Martha. Yes, it is important that we have people who will work, who will act. We need people who will do something definite and concrete. And we are speaking a word of caution to Mary, the scholar, the thinker. Make sure that all that thinking, all that quiet reflection produces something that matters. We need to be both Mary and Martha.
As you know, we are working on getting a replacement heating system in this building before cold weather comes. We are in a hurry, understandably. And so we are talking with various engineers. These engineers present us with proposals that charge us hefty fees for their study. Not for hardware, not for plumbing, not for equipment, but for study. And something inside of us says, "No more soft money. No more money for thinkers. We want action, we want hardware." But the truth is, we wouldn’t want a heating system installed by a. jackleg plumber who had not taken the time to design it carefully. We need knowledge, discernment, and then action. We need Mary and Martha.
My parents were both very quiet people. My father worked steadily and faithfully, but always behind the scenes. When the Post Office offered him a supervisory position, he turned it down. He believed that he could not lead or supervise anybody. Once and only once the Lutheran church of which he was a member made him chairman of their Evangelism Committee. I think it was the most painful experience that that church ever gave him. He just could not do the frantic busy work, leadership work, that churches ask of people. But what he did do was quiet reading and thinking and praying. It made him an effective personal friend and witness. Quiet preparation, rightly done, produces a focused life. Not necessarily frantic work. But a focused, effective life.
My mother is even quieter than my father was. She always worked behind the scenes usually as a secretary. Every publication that came out from my home church carried the legend, "Mrs. E. M. Smith, secretary". I used to think her last name was secretary! But now if you had asked her to teach children or to chair a committee or even to offer a public prayer, my mother would have melted down into a puddle.
But because she had sat at the feet of Jesus, because she read and knew her Bible, because she prayed, because she nurtured herself at the deep places of the heart, she knew who she was, she became an effective, focused person.
I am saying this morning that we need to learn from both Mary and Martha. We need to get out of the frantic busyness and focus on our spiritual emptiness. But then we need also, once we are filled, to use what we have. Remember our quotation, "If we censure Martha too harshly, she may abandon serving altogether, and if we commend Mary too profusely, she may sit there forever." And again, "When swimming in turbulent waters, wisdom lies in knowing when to relax and when to struggle."
III
You see, in the end what do both Martha and Mary want? They want the Lord’s approval. Both those who pour their energy into frantic work and. those who lay back in relaxed lives want the same thing. They want the Lord’s acceptance.
Sister Martha says, "Lord, do you not care?" Martha wants the Lord to notice her and love her for what she is doing.
And sister Mary sits at the Lord’s feet and listens intently. Mary wants the Lord to notice her and love her for her attentiveness.
What both sister Martha and sister Mary must soon recognize is that this is a relationship of grace. A relationship of grace. The only way you get the Lord’s approval is by His grace. He just chooses to give it. He just chooses to give it.
Whether you are a Martha, a frantic worker; or whether you are a Mary, relaxed and laid back, the wonder and the glory is that grace abounds. Grace abounds. A loving Lord receives you just as you are. You can’t earn it. You can’t buy it. You can’t impress Him. You just receive it.
For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, lest anyone should boast.
Oh, my fellow Marthas, it’s not by working hard. It’s not by frantic efforts. It’s just because Christ loves you.
And oh, you Marys. It’s not by praying hard. It’s not even by spiritual exercise. It’s just because Christ loves you.
We Marthas, we try so hard to do right. We can hardly forgive ourselves if we have not cleaned every speck of dust and washed every dish and climbed every mountain and forged every stream. We try so hard to do right.
And we Marys, we try so hard to be spiritual. We can hardly forgive ourselves if we have not done our Bible readings and listened to the Prayerphone message and sat through Sunday worship. We try so hard to be faithful.
But grace, grace, grace. Jesus the Christ has come to sit with us and teach us and simply love us by His presence. Grace!
"When swimming in turbulent waters, wisdom lies in knowing when to relax and when to struggle."
Well, yes, and in knowing that grace has brought us safe thus far and grace will lead us home.
