“Provided that ….”

Merritt Island Presbyterian Church

July 17, 2016

Colossians 1: 15-23; Luke 10:38-42

Sermon:      “Provided that ….”

You’ve probably heard sermons before based on this morning’s Gospel lesson:  the Martha/Mary saga.  A lot of sermons on this reading focus on Jesus’ response to the situation.  Some commentators suggest that the Good Samaritan parable – which is in this same chapter in Luke – should be juxtaposed to this story contrasting the story of the religious people who didn’t translate their faith into faithful action and this story in which Martha is all action and Mary sits piously at the feet of Jesus listening and learning.  In Christ there is a balance.

Something happened last weekend to move my thoughts in another direction:  bullying in the name of faith. 

Carol Howard Merritt is a pastor, theologian, writer and the author of two books that have offered constructive models for those trying to do ministry in the 21^st Century.  Her journal articles and columns are widely read and she is a popular speaker.  Last weekend she posted the following on Facebook:

“I’ve been speaking regularly for a decade now and this strange thing happens almost every time.  I almost hate to bring it up … but it’s so common.  A woman, 10 to 20 years older than me, takes me aside for a lecture about everything I am doing wrong.  Often the woman is very angry at me.”

“…happens almost every time.”

Carol’s post received 367 comments, most from women pastors who expressed similar hurts and frustrations experienced in their own churches.  Sixty years ago this year was when the PC(USA) ordained our first woman pastor.  Sixty years later women pastors are subjected to more senseless criticisms and displaced anger than their male counterparts. 

In the Gospel story, Martha isn’t just cleaning the house.  She’s also complaining and bullying her sister.  Her’s was a society in which hospitality was all-important.  Picture this.  Jesus has come into Martha’s house as a respected guest.  Martha is busily seeing to all the little details that cause a hostess to fret.  There is no indication in this story that the house belonged to Mary in any way.  It was Martha’s house.  Mary – who happens to be her sister – has seated herself at the feet of Jesus listening to his teaching. 

There are a couple of different possibilities here.  Martha may have been upset that her sister as a family member wasn’t helping out with the hospitality chores.  On the other hand she may have been upset that this Mary – a woman – had seated herself at the feet of the master instead of doing the more expected womanly chores of the house.  Women weren’t supposed to sit at the feet of the rabbi.  The social norms prohibited that. 

We know that throughout his ministry Jesus ignored prejudicial social norms especially where women were concerned.  Martha not only tries to bully her sister, but she does it in the widely utilized style of bullies throughout history, she tries to draw Jesus into it:  “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself.”

In contemporary lingo we call that triangulation:  attempting to draw a third party into the dispute and add authority to the complaint.  It’s kind of like when someone accuses you of “not listening” when what they mean is you’re not doing what they want you to do and so you go to a third party and complain that the target of your bullying has a fatally flawed decision making process. 

“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself.”  She’s really urging Jesus to tell Mary to do what Martha is demanding that she do.  In a very gentle and gracious way Jesus tells Martha that Mary is doing what needs to be done. 

In other places Jesus strongly chastised people for bullying and gossiping that is really just an indirect form of bullying.  He saw them as serious deviations from the loving life of faith that he proclaimed.  Claiming faith in Christ is only proved out in a faithful life lived as Christ commanded. 

The writer of the letter to the Colossians is trying to address faithful living.  Scholars don’t agree on whether Paul himself is the author of this letter or whether Paul dictated the letter to someone who later edited it, or whether a disciple of Paul wrote the letter in Paul’s name.  Two things are clear:  the theology is that of Paul and the uncertainties are around minor aspects of grammar and word choice.  For example there are somewhere between 25 and 28 words that don’t show up anywhere else in Paul’s writings.  As I said:  the theology is that of Paul. 

Like your pastor, I’m a lectionary preacher, and the way the lectionary breaks up Colossians is one of the things that frustrates us.  The letter is only 4 chapters long and needs to be seen as a whole.  It’s nearly impossible to talk about any one part of the letter without referring to the context found in another part. 

The church at Colossae was facing a couple of religious and intellectual challenges to its underpinnings.  The uniqueness of Christ was being challenged – not head on – by an alternate view that spoke of many aspects to knowing the nature of God.  Jesus became one among many.  The completeness of human redemption by the act of God in the person of Jesus was being challenged – again not head on – by an alternate view of redemption through special rituals or works.  Both of these ideas could easily worm their way in the Christian congregation because to some they might seem friendly.  As I said they didn’t challenge head on but more cunningly tried to slip in unnoticed as alternate ways of interpreting the Gospel. 

And there was a third issue that deeply concerned Paul that undermined the open and inclusive love of the Gospel.  People started to talk about having special knowledge that gave them a special relationship with God.  “Faith” became an inactive noun that one could hold to themselves and set them apart from everyone else.  The radical commandment to love one another in real time was replaced by an unshakable human construct that required nothing more than intellectual assent and willingness to be part of a special group. 

In verses 15 through 20 we read this marvelous testimony of who Jesus was.  It’s in the form of a statement of faith or perhaps even a hymn.  In verse 20 it reaches its climax:

“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”

In other words, Jesus has already accomplished everything we need to re-enter the grace of God.  Through Jesus’ life and sacrifice “God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things … by making peace through the blood of his cross.” 

We have been restored to the presence of God.  All of us.  We don’t have to do anything to earn it.  It’s so available to everyone that it is certainly not a basis for exclusivity or arrogance on our parts.

Well, there does appear to be one catch.  There is something required of us.  Our redemption has been obtained.  We have been greeted into God’s loving presence.  Now how do we act when we get there?  Is God’s presence, God’s reign, God’s kingdom really where we want to be?  Do we really want to live as if God’s kingdom really does come here among us as in heaven? 

If you want to call yourself a Christian then you have to live as a follower of Christ.  If you say you have faith then you have to live a faithful life.  And it’s not a life of arrogance and exclusivity.  It’s not a life of bullying and tearing down one another.  It’s not a life marked by petty resentments that cause us to tear one another down.  It’s a life marked by love and the ways in which we build up one another for the glory of God.  It’s a life that recognizes that the church – the body of Christ – is defined by scripture and revelation not by personal preferences and consumer choice. 

That’s why after this marvelous hymn to the sufficiency of grace given to us by the Lord, Paul adds:  “provided….”  “provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith.”  Provided that you live like you are in the Kingdom of God.  Live like you are a part of the body of Christ.  Live to bring joy to Christ and glory to God. 

We call ourselves Christians.  The church is not a building or a choir or a preacher or a club.  The church isn’t about a right ritual.  It isn’t about holding up your arms or not.  It’s not about intinction or communion in the pews.  It isn’t about standing or sitting at some right moment.  The church is the body of Christ.  It is the visible presence of Christ in the world today.  It is proof of the Gospel.

“…provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard….”  So that with Paul we may proudly say that we have become servants of Christ’s Gospel and we become seen by all the world as nothing more and nothing less than the body of Christ.

Let us pray:  Almighty God, Your Son has opened for us a new and living way into your presence. Give us pure hearts and constant wills to worship you in spirit and in truth.  Let this gathering be for this community a rich and vibrant part of Christ’s living body so that the praise and the glory go only to Him;  through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.