Don't Just Do Something. Sit!

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
July 22, 2007; 8th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 11, Year C
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(Luke 10:38-42) -- As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named 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. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."
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I have "Martha days." You know the kind of day I'm talking about. Too much to do and nobody to help. I can sometimes hear an interior voice saying, "Lowell, Lowell, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing." And usually that doesn't make me feel any better. "I know it," I say to that voice. "But I've got to do these this stuff or it won't get done; and it's important!" And so I slog on in my own version of Martha's kitchen, only now in addition to the anxiety of trying to do too much, I've got the added burden of knowing I'm not choosing the "one thing." I'm just working stupidly harder. So I'll say to myself, "When I get over this little hump, things will be different." And I throw myself into the flurry.

Just about that time Chuck will come in the office and smile, "Well, I just finished my sermon for Pentecost 15. I'm off to the golf course." At times like that I'm glad that my desk is to messy for me to find something to throw at him.

It's not that what I'm doing is not good work worth doing. Martha's cooking a meal for her family and their special guest is good work. It's when the spirit of the doing turns just a bit, and I become "worried" and "distracted." The Greek word that our translation renders "worried" means literally "drawn in different directions"; and the word for "distracted" means "confusion," or more literally, "to make noise, uproar, or disturbance" like a crowd would make. Anxious; troubled. Working, but drawn in different directions with too much noise in your head. Do you ever get that way? It feels like an unholy mess.

A meal is a holy thing. To prepare a meal can be a delightful exercise of creativity offered as a gift of love for family and friends. When it happens like that, you're "really cooking." That's what we say when someone has hit the zone of happy productivity. "They're cooking." But what began for Martha as a gift for a friend, turned into an opportunity for her to be miserable, and probably get mad at herself for being miserable, and then to look around for someone else to project her unhappiness on. "Jesus, don't you care that she's left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me."

Notice. Jesus doesn't criticize Martha's labor. Presbyterian minister Nancy Becker puts it this way, "It isn't work that Jesus objects to; it is a hard-hearted, judging attitude that often grows out of work when it is done for the wrong reason and in the wrong spirit. It isn't that Jesus doesn't want us to work hard. But he wants our work to be filled with that quiet sense of joy that comes from serving him in whatever tasks he calls us to." (Nancy D. Becker, The One Necessary Thing; sermon in Lectionary Homiletics)

"Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her," Jesus tells Martha. What is that "better part"? The picture we are given is of Mary sitting at Jesus' feet.

Now there are a couple of ways to think about that. One that speaks to me has to do with contemplative practice and a contemplative approach to life. I can tell the difference between those days when I spend twenty minutes in Centering Prayer in the morning and those days when I say, "I've gotta do this first." Unless I practice opening up to the spaciousness of sitting at God's feet, I lose the spaciousness. I've got a friend who will say almost aggressively, "Don't just do something. Sit!"

There are other ways to feed the soul. For some it is gardening or golf; for others it is getting out into nature; some paint or read or write or enjoy music. My grandparents sat on their front porch. Sometimes Grandma would bring peas to shell, and we'd sit on the porch shelling peas. That was fun. It was a leisurely, contemplative way to prepare a meal. Time stood still.

The classic text of Christian spirituality The Practice of the Presence of God tells of Brother Lawrence's experience of the presence of God as he spends eighty years in a kitchen cooking and, later, repairing sandals. "I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of [God], and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before [God], who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God." He found a way to do what he called "our common business" wholly for the love of God. Brother Lawrence retreated to a place in his heart where the love of God made every detail of his life of surpassing value. Together, God and Brother Lawrence cooked meals, ran errands, scrubbed pots..." all for the love of God. (Quotes from Wickipedia)

Christian mystics and Buddhists call this an attitude of mindfulness. It is the opposite of "worried and distracted by many things." Mindfulness is counter cultural. We were raised in a culture that taught us that we had to work hard to earn our acceptance and approval. If we became competent in some things, we began to tell ourselves we are indispensable, no one else will do this right. We turn our labors toward good things, but we insist on doing those good things our way; we become control freaks. And too much of a good thing is still too much.

There is another way.

I found these lines from an unknown poet:

A man I know has made an altar of his factory bench,
And one has turned the corner of his store
Into a place of sacrifice and holy ministry.
Another still has changed his office desk
Into a pulpit desk from which to speak and write,
Transforming commonplace affairs
Into the business of the King.
A postman makes his daily round
A walk in the temple of God.
To all of these each daily happening
Has come to be a whisper from the lips of God,
And every common circumstance a wayside shrine.


A colleague of mine in Connecticut visited with a widow who was battling a lost sense of meaning since her husband's death. She didn't know what to do with herself. My friend asked her, "What do you do that comes fairly easily to you, and when you have finished, you have more energy than when you started?" She said, "Nothing that I can think of. But I'll see what I can come up with." Several days later she returned, saying, "Now you may think this is silly, but I know what I do well. I set a really nice table. I know how to coordinate foods and flowers, placemats and napkins, and make it all turn out beautiful and delicious." "Great," he said. "Now how can you turn that into a ministry?" "I don't know," she said, "but I'll get back to you." Several days later she returned, saying, "I've got an idea. I see all of those people working in those offices downtown, and I feel sorry for them. My husband worked close enough to home that he could come home for lunch every day. I would set a nice table, and we sat down together and had some of our best times eating lunch with each other. I'd like to do something like that for these men and women who work downtown near our church."

With that she started a weekly luncheon at the church that attracted a large business clientele. Many remarked that her meal was an island of peace and hospitality that brought gladness to their week. Her work brought meaning and new energy to her life. The lunch was so appreciated that it continued in her name for years after her death. (remembered from a conversation with Terry Fullam)

How we work is a spiritual issue. Will we be worried and distracted, or will we choose the better part? Some of it is influenced by what we do; more significant is how we do what we do. If we want to feed and serve others, we need to feed and serve our own souls first.

So, the next morning that I feel the urge to hurry up and get to work, I'm going to listen to the voice of my friend. "Don't just do something. Sit!"
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