July 18, 2010
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Choosing the better way
Yogi Berra is quoted as saying, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Yogi was more famous for his statements that made people laugh than he was for his skill as a baseball player or manager. But Yogi was right when you come to a fork in the road you do have to take it, you have to choose which path you will follow or if you will take a new way where there is no path. We are confronted everyday with choices and we must make a choice. We decide to pick one or we decide not to pick one of the choices and that is a choice in itself. Today we heard the story of Mary and Martha and many times the story is used as an example of whether we choose to be busy working or whether we choose to sit and listen to Jesus. I don’t think that is the choice we should be concerned about. If we listen to God speaking to us, there will be work for us to do. We can be working and hear God speaking to us. The choice isn’t between working and listening. The choice is how we respond when we are working and serving. Martha could not hear what Jesus was teaching because her head and her mouth was full of concerns and complaints about how hard she was working and how Mary wasn’t helping. We make the poorer choice when we let our service become a reason for us to complain about what others are or are not doing.
I mentioned a few weeks back when my friends from Michigan were visiting that they got me back on track toward ordination. I was so excited to realize my call to ordination had not been a mistake that I threw myself whole heartedly into leading that small Bible study group. Soon we were planning to do weekly worship services. I set about to find a church we could use on Sunday afternoons, and then I set about to create a worship service, I would create the order of worship and I would make tapes of worship music. I would show up an hour before worship and set up the altar and communion elements. During the service I would lead worship, do most of the readings, and operate the boom box for the music. After church I would take down the altar and return our items to storage. At first it was great fun and I felt I was learning so much but then I started to think about why was I having to do all the work. Why weren’t other people helping to make worship happen? I was concerned if the people attending were asked to work on worship that they would stop coming. I thought people would be more apt to come to worship if they weren’t expected to do anything. I finally approached the board for some assistance with worship preparation and with setting and taking down the worship space. The board said there were many people who wanted to help; they just didn’t think I would let anyone help. That was my first lesson in how not to be Martha. My second lesson was probably an even harder lesson. I had to learn to let others do things differently than I would do them. I learned there is not just one right answer to everything. There are many different right answers and just because someone does something differently from the way I do it does not mean it was done wrong. Martha knew how a guest should be hosted and she was not able to consider there might be another way. I like to think of Martha insisting on an elaborate cooked meal while Mary was thinking cold meat sandwiches would do. Sometimes we get so caught up in making what we do impressive that we forget why we are doing it. I have learned it is less important that worship look perfect than that worship be perfect abandon to the spirit of God. If we are worrying too much about doing it right, we miss the opportunity for the in breaking of the Spirit in our worship.
If we are to believe Amos and Paul from our readings today, God is much more interested in the motivation behind our choices than the correctness of our choice. You know, when you come to the fork in the road and you choose one path or another, you may find that path comes back around to meet up with one you didn’t choose. The real concern is why you picked one path over another. Were you looking for the easy way, were you looking to avoid someone that might need your help along the way, were you looking for the path that would bring you pleasure at the expense of another? Paul says we find our harmony with the world, and we find our mending of our lives when we choose the path that Jesus chose the path of service without complaining, the path of centering ourselves in what God would have us do and not worrying about what God is asking of someone else. As I read the Gospels, I cannot think of many examples of Jesus telling others what they had to do. Jesus used parables to help people think through what would be the right answer. Jesus asked people what they thought they should do and then confirmed for them that they knew all along what to do. Jesus challenged those around him as to why they felt they had the right to judge but he did not tell they how they had fallen short. Jesus taught the disciples and then sent them out to do their ministry as each one found it. We are so blessed the disciples didn’t come up with a cookie cutter way of telling the Good News, each one brought the Good News to different people in different ways. They didn’t always agree and they sometimes tried to tell each other what was right but they ended up agreeing that the Spirit moved them in different ways and that each one’s ministry should be honored. We must find the way to live together as a community of faith that allows each to explore their own way of being in service and honor their offering of service without worrying about whether it is the way I would do it. We must offer our own service to God without comparing whether we are doing more than another. When our service flows out of our time of listening to God’s Word and not out of some sense of obligation or self-importance, then we too will have chosen the better way. Amen.
