Year C

Luke 10: 38-42

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

The Image of God That Changes Lives

It is the year 50 A.D. Two people run into each other on the street corner. After getting reacquainted, one remarks, “Why don’t you come over to the house tonight?” “Oh, what is happening at your house tonight?” “Well, we are having a little get-together. Just a few folks who are followers of Jesus of Nazareth like me.” “Who is that?” the other person replies. “Well, Jesus was a preacher. He preached and taught for a short period of time before he was taken prisoner and crucified. Then God raised him from the dead.” “Did you say that God raised him from the dead?” he asks. “Yes, God raised him from the dead.” “I see” comes the hesitant reply. “Did you see this Jesus after God raised him from the dead?” “Well, no, I didn’t! But I talked to someone who did,” she replies.

“I’ve never heard or read about this. Is this written down anywhere? “No not that I know of!” Well, if this is some kind of new religion, do you have a statement of belief, a creed, or something like that?” “Well, no.” “Do you have a temple or place of meeting?” “We just meet in homes or whenever we can. We may not have a formal statement of faith but what we do have is a story! We have this wonderful story about a man named Jesus who lived as no one ever lived, was killed and God raised him from the dead.” “That’s all you have?” “Yes, and there are a lot of people whose lives have been changed by this story. Mine has. Why don’t you come tonight and hear for yourself about this amazing man.” 

The early church took a story of a carpenter and changed lives. Out of that way of life they turned the world upside down. Yet, it’s easy to forget just how basic and undeveloped this time was in the early life of the church. They had nothing but a few hymns, a story passed on orally, and the evidence of the lives that God had changed through faith in that story. Actually, much of the New Testament was written in personal correspondence to answer basic questions such as: “Who is Jesus?’ and “How is a Christian to behave?”

Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae was written in an effort to counteract false teachers in the church who were teaching that salvation was available to those who possessed certain knowledge and was not dependent upon grace. This group was called “Gnostics” after the Greek word for knowledge. They believed that Jesus was not the unique Son of God but was just one of many in a hierarchy of angels. In an effort to address the Gnostic false teaching, Paul opens his letter to the Colossians using a passage that belongs to an early Christian hymn or liturgy as a way to counteract this false teaching.  This great Christ hymn in today’s reading tells us who Jesus is. He is not one of many.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and earth…all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” His work is “to reconcile…all things” to God by means of his sacrificial death,…making peace by the cross.” It is a gift from the very Son of God, the mystery of God’s heart unwrapped for the whole world to see. Christ, the human face of God, the icon of God continues to be a gift for those who know him through faith. This is the faith in which Paul urges the Colossians to remain “stable and steadfast” in what they were taught. If they understand the knowledge they have received from Christ, Paul’s prayer is that they will live according to the hope in Jesus Christ that it reveals, that it witnesses to world.

Paul reminds us that Christ is the true image of God and the one we put our trust in, and like Mary’s example, we are to sit at his feet and trust in his love. This famous story of Martha and Mary today in the gospel has produced many contrasting reactions. The text seems very clear. Mary seizes the opportunity to sit and listen to Jesus. Martha is behaving as the host. As a result, she gets frustrated by Mary’s lack of help and asks Jesus to intervene. The great surprise of the text is that Jesus gently rebukes the pot-and pan wielding Martha while affirming the spiritually- hungry and studious Mary. In an age when it was commonplace for women not to be educated, it seems Jesus is being unreasonable or radical.

In fact, in Jesus’ day, the rabbis had a saying: “It’s better to burn the Torah than teach it to a woman.” So it was that women were kept back from the center of things in the Jerusalem temple. But Jesus as usual went against the grain of his time and refused to denigrate women. Rather he ennobled them and affirmed their gifts and calls to ministry. What is also important to remember in this section of Luke’s gospel is that Jesus has set his fact to Jerusalem. This whole section of text is dominated with a sense that the time he has left to teach and commission is rapidly coming to an end. Knowing this, he issues Martha an invitation to “Stop worrying about the many tasks, instead come and join your sister and listen to me.” 

Jesus is proposing a new way of doing things that will make the whole story different. But does this suggest that the life of contemplation is preferred over the life of action? Hardly! The critical point in this test does not so much “put down” Martha, as it honors Mary’s ministry of the word, a ministry Luke in his gospel consistently elevates to a place of priority alongside the action of the good Samaritan, a story that comes just before the gospel text today, who assists the victim left in a ditch. He is a model for loving one’s neighbor. Jesus is suggesting that the proper role for a woman is that of a full and faithful disciple. The question here is how to balance the competing demands of actively serving God and of being ministered to by God.

We see this competing of demands of welcoming guests and staying close to listen, in the story today of Abraham, Sarah and their visitors. The Lord approaches Abraham as he is seated at the door of his tent. He sees three men, and he invites them to lunch. He gets busy to provide them something to eat but stays close by so that when they are ready to speak he is ready to listen. What he later learns is that the three were actually two angels and God. Many theologians have come to believe it was the Trinity that visited Abraham and Sarah that day.  They came to deliver a message and leave a blessing. God’s purpose has always been to reveal to all the fullness of God’s glory. This glory was revealed in the fullness of time in the face of the man-God Jesus Christ who longs for our company. Jesus longs for us to sit at his feet to focus on the word of God and then longs for us to take that message of healing grace out to those who need to see God’s love.  

We are reminded in the lessons today that we have a God who has been, is, and always will be trustworthy. We have a God in whom we can place our lives and who is always there for us. May we keep our ears open to God’s call as Paul did who tells us that all creation comes through Christ who has shown us God and may we keep our hearts open to God’s love as Mary and Martha did who show us what our priorities should be… to sit at the feet of our teacher, and when we do, we will find work soon enough. So I hope you will consider allowing this story to change your life.