6th Sunday after Pentecost 2025

Sermon: 6th Sunday after Pentecost 2025
Texts: Luke 10: 38-42, Colossians 1: 15-28, Genesis 18: 1-10
Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Just a few days ago, I had the blessing of helping with the 3rd iteration of the ELCA’S Young Adult Advocacy Program in NYC, where we discussed the role of the Lutheran World Federation and how all of us are part of this global communion of churches. All of us bring our diverse gifts, our differences of culture and language to the work of living the gospel of Christ. As part of the LWF’s Peace Messengers training, we were taught about the ecosystem of social change developed by Deepa Iyer. Basically, this chart details how positive social change is manifested when we learn to identify our gifts and roles. Some people might be visionaries, others storytellers, disrupters, builders, weavers, among other roles. The work to achieve equity, justice, liberation and solidarity is not accomplished in isolation, it cannot be done by one person and their limits. It takes a community that work together, and therefore we should enter the work of serving the neighbor knowing that we do not do it alone. In the same way, Jesus does not send us to live out the gospel alone. We are a church together when we embody our best God given gifts and use them to praise God together. I alone do not make the church happen, beloved! First, it is God of course who brings us together in common mission. But then we have all of us, I as minister of Word and Sacrament, Lenae playing the music, the Altar Guild preparing the table and beautifying the worship space, the ushers giving out bulletins and collecting the offerings, then the acolytes and our crucifer Martha, who leads us to worship by carrying the cross. And of course, our church council leaders and the different committees in tech, Christian Education, Confirmation, and so much more. We all bring something unique and indispensable to the work.

In today’s text, we witness to a similar uplifting of gifts, the text highlighting two different styles of discipleship represented in Martha and Mary. We have this wonderful domestic snippet between Jesus and the two sisters. I can assure you that many of us have lived a similar scene. We have a busy Martha, making sure everything in the household does not fall apart, to make it nice to receive their honored guest. And then there is Mary, who is at the feet of Jesus, completely absorbed in listening to His teaching. Now Martha is getting a bit overwhelmed with all the tasks she has taken on, and like anyone who is doing all the work, she complains to Jesus: “Hey, tell Mary to come help out!” But Jesus shifts the conversation a little bit, gently reminding Martha about what is essential. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, but few things are needed—indeed only one. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” There is no vehement condemnation of Martha’s multitasking. On the contrary, in this text we are presented with two valid forms of Christian life, what the church usually calls the active life and the contemplative life. The active life is marked by works of service, the doing of the word. The contemplative life is the spiritual life, the inner ear of our life dedicated to prayer and connection with God. Jesus just wants us to know that whichever path we take in serving God, to be reminded that we do it because we want to enjoy the Lord’s presence, to fulfill our roles and use our gifts in such a way that deepens our relationship with God and allows us to spend time with Him. In Him we have our being, our wholeness, our salvation, we should not let our busyness distract us from that essential aspect of seeing God in our workspace. If we are just busy, busyness can become like an end in itself; then we lose the true meaning of working, which is to sustain ourselves, serve neighbor, and praise God with our work. We are always in need of that reminder from Jesus: “Only a few things are needed, indeed only one”. To be at the foot of Jesus, to just be in His presence and rest.

In many ways, those who dedicate themselves to the active life should never be without the contemplative side. And those who dedicate themselves to prayer and contemplation should never be without serving and acting. In developing whichever style of discipleship we are called to, we can be nourished by those aspects we focus less on. That is why in a church we need those who engage in social ministry as much as we need those who engage in prayer. We need the whole ecosystem of discipleship in our midst! And in the end, if we have our sights put rightly on God, then we have the “one thing” necessary that makes us whole. Then we can, like Brother Lawrence wrote, cook for the greater glory of God, to clean the house for the glory of God, to welcome the stranger for the glory of God, to feed the hungry for the glory of God, to worship Him for His greater glory, to uphold compassion and mercy for God’s glory, to uphold human rights because it glorifies God to do so, to pray because He loves us, cares for us, sustains us. We can mark our lives with the one essential thing, to see Jesus in every loving act, or in every silent moment of prayer. To make space for Him in the midst of so much mental and spiritual clutter. It does not need to be anything big, not every day is a feast. Perhaps it is the first five minutes of the day, perhaps it is during our break and we thank and ponder on Him. Perhaps it is before we sleep, we render the hours and our rest to Him. Our discipleship is a constant letting go of all the trifles that create busyness, and instead reach for the essential: the God of love revealed in the face of Christ. With this simple clarity of the “one thing”, all the different roles and gifts we bring to the work of God’s Kingdom gain their clarity. May our many gifts reveal the face of Christ to each other and those around us. May they be beacons of the hope that God brings. Let us pray: