Audio of the sermon is here:

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. In other words, we would all like to think of ourselves as Marys, but we are much more often like Marthas, distracted, anxious, troubled by many things. And it’s so easy to get distracted. We have a little device on or near us 24 hours a day that is literally made up of distractions. I remember when I was a child, I could read a whole book in one sitting. I could read pages upon pages upon pages, and there was very little to distract me. Now, I can barely get through a chapter before I have to pick up my phone, and check on stuff that doesn’t need to be checked on. So many distractions. And it’s easy to let distractions turn into anxieties and troubles. We know almost immediately what is going on around the world at any given time. And most of it we have no control over. People feel their lack of control, their helplessness. That’s why people lash out on social media; that’s why they’re often angry: because they have no control over all the things they see going on around them. We know so much, and we can do so little.

            Now it’s not that no good has come out of technology, or the internet, or social media. Obviously, there are good things. But I think we’d be hard-pressed to make the argument that it has all been a net good. That of all the things we’ve gained from being connected at all times, the majority of it has been good. That of all the things we can do, most of it is good. Distractions, troubles, anxieties. That’s the vast majority of it.

            Of course, Martha isn’t distracted with a device that tells her what’s going on everywhere in the world. She’s distracted with much serving. She is like most people in the history of everyone and everywhere, since she knows only what’s going on in her little circle of care. And everyone else, everywhere around the world, was doing the same. It’s almost like God set it up and organized it so that people would care, primarily, for those who were right in front of them! Martha is serving. And that’s not a bad thing. She invited and welcomed Jesus, and probably the disciples, into her home. She is hosting them and serving and caring for them. It is good for each one of us to serve our neighbor. Not only is it good, God commands it. Love your neighbor as yourself. We heard it last week. So it’s not like serving your neighbor is optional, or unimportant, or bad. And notice that nowhere in these verses does anyone say that what she is doing is bad. Jesus doesn’t say anything to her until she speaks to Him. He doesn’t say, You know, Martha, you should probably stop doing that service thing and come and sit here with Mary. What you’re doing is wrong, and what Mary’s doing is right. We can often take these verses this way, sort of how I did at the beginning of this sermon. But that’s not what it says.

            It’s not until Martha comes and stands by Jesus and says to Jesus, Don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all this work? Tell her to help me out! Then Jesus gives maybe the most gentle rebuke He ever gives in the Gospels, if it is even a rebuke. Most of the time, when people oppose Jesus, or test Him, or try to get Him to do something other than what He’s doing, or try to stop Him from what He’s doing, His rebukes are anything but gentle. He calls Peter “Satan”! But not Martha. He says, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. There is one necessary thing. Mary has chosen the good part, the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.

            Perhaps we see in the word “good” the opposite of what Martha is doing, so hers is the “bad” part. But “good” here goes with “necessary.” The one good, necessary thing is to hear and receive from Jesus His living and life-giving words. They are the very words of the living God. So when it comes down to it, and we must choose between some other thing, or many things, and the one, necessary thing, there is no choice. For those who love and follow Jesus, including Martha, the only thing is to choose the good portion, the necessary thing, the hearing of His words. You can consider this in the light of your death-bed, although, of course, not everyone gets a death-bed on which to reconsider one’s life! But if you were on your death-bed, and you knew you were going to die, what would be the one necessary thing? When you can’t remember your family, or what year it is, or where you are, what then? When everything is gone, what will you have?

            That’s how you know what is necessary. If you were to ask most people around about the one necessary thing, especially in the context of the Church, I am confident that people would say that the only reason the Church exists is to help other people. If the Church does not serve people and give people food and clothing and help them in all their physical needs, then it should go away. There’s something to that, of course. James is pretty clear that if we do not serve the needy neighbor who is right in front of us, maybe we don’t have faith at all. John says that if we do not love our neighbor, whom we do see, how can we claim to love God, whom we do not see? God commands care for your neighbor.

But it is still not the one necessary thing. To pretend that it is—and plenty of people do—is to make ourselves into God. Because we think that if we do not serve our neighbor, that neighbor will not get served. As if God were not serving all of us through all of us. If we make serving our neighbor into the one necessary thing, that is idolatry. And people who do believe this run themselves ragged trying to serve every single person. It’s not possible and it’s not necessary, unless you’re God.

The one thing necessary is Jesus, not in the sense that it excludes serving or caring for your neighbor. The point of this is not that what Martha is doing is bad and wrong, and what Mary is doing is good and right. The point is that you cannot substitute anything for the one thing necessary. You cannot substitute your service of your neighbor for God’s divine service of you. Your service is never done. God’s service in Christ is finished and ongoing. As long as you are in this life, you will have someone who needs something from you; or at least you will be someone who needs something from someone else. That’s all good, and it’s God’s good work. But you cannot substitute your unfinished and failed work for God’s complete and sufficient work in Jesus Christ, the word He gives and the forgiveness He delivers, and the life He continually gives and sustains. Both are good, but one is necessary.

And you have been given both what is good and what is necessary. Underneath everything you do for someone else is the Jesus who has done everything for you. Underneath your love for one another is the unfailing and never-ending love of Jesus. In the midst of all the troubles and anxieties of this world, all the many—too many—distractions of this life, do not take yourself away from the one necessary thing, from sitting at Jesus’ feet and hearing from Jesus’ mouth what He gives you today: life, and mercy, and all that is good for both your body and your soul, for you, eternally. He is the one necessary thing, and He will never take Himself from you, or cast you away from Himself. Nothing in all creation—none of those many things—will be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ your Lord. He is your good and eternal portion, and He will not take Himself from you.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

– Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 7/18/25