Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. Luke 10:38-39

Two weeks ago we had the story of the disciples being sent out two by two. We realized that they needed to go empty handed. The Gospel would grow and flourish when it was received from someone who came with nothing to give except the news of God’s love. They were to look to the who ever would provide hospitality for them.

Last week we had the story of the Good Samaritan. He had eyes to see with compassion and acted with grace. His compassionate service was held up to us as an ideal for life.

Now we return to hospitality. But it is a little confusing. The one who is fussing around providing hospitality to Jesus and his friends who have come empty handed is not held up as the heroine. It seems that we have a contrast between good honest hospitality and service on the one hand and sitting doing nothing on the other. Were not the Priest and the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan found wanting because they had done nothing.

Margaret Guenther says, “In Luke’s account (10:38-41) Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and listens to his teaching. This is not a position of subservience, but rather the position of the pupil or disciple. There is much that is left unsaid in this brief passage, yet the depth of spiritual intimacy is clear. I find myself wanting to know more, to flesh out the story, and to learn the particulars of Jesus’ teaching and her learning at his feet. The scene has been the subject of many bad sermons contrasting the behaviour of Mary with that of her practical, housewifely sister. If nothing else, it is an invitation, particularly to women, to claim the posture of receptivity and learning and to open themselves to the work of discernment”. 1

So part of what is happening in this story is an invitation to move away from archetypal notions of what a woman should be doing. Just as last week we moved from archetypal racism relating to the Samaritan. Mary has chosen to embrace the moment of Jesus’ presence and to sit as a disciple at his feet. You may have expected the men to do that leaving the women in the kitchen do the work. Jesus extols Mary’s boldness to choose discipleship even for herself, a woman.

Martha has allowed her distractions with service and hospitality to get in the way of this wonderful opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus, to listen to him and to learn. I like to think that we would choose to sit at Jesus’ feet but I suspect we are often worrying about all the things that need to be done.

However, the real contrast is with those that Amos and the Psalmist chastise. These Hebrew people who ought to know the will of God seem to have consciously chosen to ignore God’s word. So much so that Amos prophesies a drought of the word of God.
The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. [12] They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it. Amos 8:11-12

To Amos God seems to be totally fed up with the people of Israel.

The psalmist is equally cutting.

1 Why, you that are powerful, do you boast all the day long:
of mischief done to those that are faithful to God?
2 You contrive destroying slanders:
your tongue is like a sharpened razor, it cuts deceitfully.
3 You have loved evil, and not good:
to tell lies, rather than to speak the truth. Psalm 52

So the strongest contrast for us is those who choose to abandon the word of God and all it’s implications for life. I suggest that probably all of us here have chosen like Mary and Martha to welcome Jesus into our lives with gracious hospitality. Perhaps like Martha we have allowed various distractions to cloud our relationship, with Jesus, our devotion to him.

What do we need to do in the 21st century to sit at the feet of Jesus?

I want to suggest two things to help us sit at Jesus’ feet. The first is to simply enter into silence in our prayer times. I suspect that the worries we bring to God, our words and all the other ideas buzzing around in our heads are as much a distraction as Martha’s meal preparations.
In his little book Word into Silence, John Main says;

In a deep creative silence we meet God in a way that transcends all our powers of intellect and language.

We know that God is intimately with us and we know also that He is infinitely beyond us. It is only through deep and liberating silence that we can reconcile the polarities of this mysterious paradox. And the liberation that we experience in silent prayer is precisely liberation from the inevitable distorting effects of language when we begin to experience God’s intimate and transcendent dominion within us. 2

Needless to say it is not simple to choose deep silence as a way of prayer, we have to set aside time and be prepared to quietly and patiently set aside the distractions. One of the early Church fathers John Cassian recommended using a simple word like Abba to focus the mind. He said the purpose of such silent meditation is so that we can become “grandly poor”.3 Like the disciples going out two by two with no bag or purse, we are invited to go into the presence of God, to sit at the feet of Jesus with a grand poverty of silence.

Another important way to be attentive to Jesus is to look for the face of Christ in all people we meet. I suggested last week that as we go to the man by the side of the road to assist we will discover it is Christ there in need. No doubt the Priests and Levites of Jesus day were insulted at his suggestion that a Samaritan would see with compassion in a way that they failed to. All sorts of prejudices get in the way. In our story today Mary, a “mere woman”, was held up as having sufficient faith to give her whole self to listening to Jesus. I think Jesus invites us to see beyond our racial, cultural and gender prejudices to offer hospitality with profound attention to all we meet.

The Good News is that when these habits of silence and seeing Christ in all, become away of life for us neither Amos nor the psalmist will be able to find fault. When we see Christ in those we meet we will have no desire to steal from them or treat them in any way except graciously. As we enter into silence in our prayer time we will begin to see the whole of creation sacramentally pointing to Jesus. We will learn to abhor anything that destroys the beauty of creation.

There are other ways, especially through the reading of the Gospels that help us to sit at Jesus’ feet. But I feel the silence and the vision of Jesus in others brings us into such a relationship with Jesus that the Scriptures in turn gain a new depth.

Remember, the main contrast for us today is not Martha’s hospitality and service opposed to Mary’s discipleship. The main contrast is between people who turn their back on God as against those like Mary who are enthralled by every word.
Certainly Martha’s distraction got in the way as they will for us. We can choose to enter into silence and seek to recognize Jesus in people around us. In so doing we will be more like Mary, sitting enthralled at Jesus words. The Gospels will be like a rich banquette for us.

Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, we desire nothing better than to welcome you into our lives. We desire to give ourselves in service for you. Give us confidence to be still and quiet in your presence. Amen.

1. Margaret Guenther, Holy Listening, the art of Spiritual Direction. Darton, Longman & Todd, London 1992 page48

2. John Main OSB, Word into Silence, Darton, Longman & Todd 1980, page 7.

3. John Cassian, Conference 10:11, cited in Word into Silence page 11.