Back. Good morning, everyone.
My name is good morning. I'm Annabelle Edward, and I am
so honored to be here with you all this morning.
Let's pray before we begin. Lord, we thank You for this time
to hear Your word. Open our hearts and our minds to
receive Your truth. Speak through me, Lord, and let
every word bring glory to You. May your Spirit move among us
today in Jesus name, Amen. Now let's dive into our passage
today. It is Luke 1038 to 42.
Jesus visits Martha and Mary. As Jesus and his disciples were
on their way, he came to a village where a woman named
Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary who
sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.
But Martha was distracted with all the preparations that had to
be made, so she but so she came to him and asked, Lord, don't
you care that my sister has left me to do all the work myself?
Tell her to help me, Martha. Martha, the Lord answered.
You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are
needed, or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better,
and it will not be taken from her.
This is the Lord of the Lord. Sometimes life can feel like
you're being pulled into so many directions.
I know I have been feeling this a lot as I prepared for this
sermon. I'm a full time student at the
University of Guelph, worked 2 jobs on the side, try to spend
time with friends, go to church, and sometimes make it out to a
few Christian events on campus with the Christian group I
joined. Thank you.
I am being. Sometimes it feels like I'm
being divided up to into parts, trying and more often than not
failing to do everything. And I know I'm not the only one.
Many of you most likely have so much to do at work, at home, at
church, with the kids, at school.
There are 1000 expectations, things that need to get done,
time you just don't seem to have.
And these aren't necessarily bad things either.
I am blessed to go to a university, work during the
semester, have friends, be a part of a church community, and
have the privilege to go to a Christian group on campus.
Most likely this is the same for you.
That all the things that are filling up your calendar are
good things, but the accumulation of everything can
sometimes feel like you're being pulled apart in so many
directions. This is likely how Martha was
feeling. Martha had a lot going on.
Not only did she have Jesus in her home, Jesus, but everyone
who comes with him. There were a lot of preparations
that needed to be done. All good and necessary things
that need to be done when you're hosting people in your home.
But the accumulation of everything like in our own lives
our stressing her out, pulling her in 1000 directions.
Jesus clearly lays this out by saying to Martha you are worried
and upset about many things. 2 words worried and upset that
literally translate to being pulled apart in many directions.
I think that's why we feel so drawn to Martha.
Like, OK, Mary is doing what Jesus says is better, but come
on, Martha isn't wrong, is she? There's a lot to get done.
Again, think of all the people that are in her house.
I for one now know coming out of Thanksgiving that it can take a
small army to feed one. Yes I had these same thoughts
all the but if this applies to my life, is Jesus saying to just
quit my job and pray all the time?
Because that doesn't feel quite right either.
That is not what Jesus is saying in this passage at all.
He's not saying that Martha is bad and wrong and Mary is the
epitome of all that is good and everything a Christian should
ever be, But Jesus is saying that what Mary is doing is
better. What Martha was doing was not
bad. She knew her role, knew what the
Jewish law required of her, knew what hospitality looked like.
Unlike the priest or the Levites from the Good Samaritan passage
last week who knew all the head knowledge, all the facts of
generosity and service, but did not act on it, Martha was
actively doing it. She was living out her head
knowledge of hospitality and service.
And yet Jesus still says what Mary is doing is better.
Jesus is demonstrating in a powerful way how radically
different his Kingdom is, a Kingdom that is for the outcast.
The Samaritan orphan woman in Jesus affirming Mary's right to
sit at his feet to Martha. He is affirming her right to the
Kingdom of God. And T Wright puts it like this
in his book Luke for Everyone. Mary has quietly taken her place
as a would be teacher and preacher of the Kingdom of God
by sitting quietly at his feet as an apprentice or a student
would. A place that in Jewish custom
was only ever meant for men. Jesus is showing us sneak peek
into how radical his Kingdom is. He is showing that His Kingdom
is for everyone, that the new order he is rushing in will
break long held barriers and expectations.
Not only that, but he's also saying, with this quiet, gentle
correction of Martha, that the Kingdom is not only about doing.
For we can never do enough work enough, volunteer enough, pray
enough, go to church every Sunday enough be pulled enough
directions to ever earn a spot in heaven.
Even if what we are doing is good work, it can never be
enough. Mark 1230 to 31 says Love the
Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your
strength, and with all your soul and with all your mind.
The second is this. Love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no commandment greater than these.
Service is good, loving your neighbor.
Everyone is the call of Jesus, but you get there by first
loving the Lord your God, knowing and being known by Him,
spending time in His presence, sitting quietly at His feet, and
learning from Him. Because of our ticket to heaven
is based solely on our deeds alone.
If discipleship and spreading the gospel to all nations is
solely based on our own knowledge and strength, we will
never get there. We need God, Matthew 722 to 23
says. On that day many will say to me,
Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name, and cast out
demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?
And then I will declare to them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, workers of lawlessness.
I never knew you. This is why knowing and being
known by Jesus is vital. Jesus didn't look at Martha and
tear her down because of how she was going about being
hospitable. No, He gently told her that what
her sister was doing was better. He's saying stop striving to
earn what you can never earn because we can't earn our way
through good deeds or prophesying in Jesus's name or
doing many mighty works. Service and hospitality have
value. Don't get me wrong, this is not
a sermon to tell you to stop volunteering at church or
helping your neighbor until you know for sure that you are known
and know God. As Fred Craddock says, there is
a time to go and do. There is a time to listen and
reflect. If we only listen and reflect,
we will sit there forever. And if we only go and do without
knowing and being known by God, how can we possibly pursue His
Kingdom? So of course going and doing as
the Samaritan did is good, but we cannot go and do without
continually pursuing, knowing and being known by Jesus,
sitting quietly at his feet. David Jeffries says it well when
he says well. Active service of the Lord
coupled with love of 1's neighbor is the hallmark of the
disciples life. None can long be practiced, none
can long practice it rightly, without sitting at the feet of
the Lord. At this point in the sermon,
you're probably sitting there and thinking, amazing, OK, that
I need to know and be known by Jesus.
Got it. Great, But how?
What does that actually look like?
And really, how does this apply to my life on a random Tuesday?
All fair questions, all ones I asked myself.
In fact, I was going through some old notebooks other week
and I found something that I must have written when I was 11
or 12. I wrote I want to be closer to
him, Him being Jesus, but how? How do I meditate in him?
Do I just sit there? I laughed when I read this,
mostly because I guess someone told 11 year old Annabelle that
we must meditate in the Lord and I was so utterly confused.
But also because this resonated with me during my sermon prep
because it shows that we all have these questions.
See, little me knew the facts, knew that I wanted to be known
by God, that I wanted to know Him, that I wanted a
relationship with Him, But I didn't know how to actually do
that. Little me like us was asking but
what does spending time with Jesus, knowing and being known
by him actually look like? I like to think in actionable
terms. Things I can do today, not wait
for the perfect moment cause let's be honest, there never
will be 1. This can look different for each
one of us because we're all at different stages and phases in
our life. As I mentioned, I'm in the
middle of university, desperately trying to keep my
head above all the coursework and midterms that all seem to
happen on the same week, which is not ideal.
But so in this part of my life, an actionable thing that I can
do individually to spend time with Jesus is listen to Lectio
365, a daily devotional app, on the way to the bus, on the bus
to school. And now maybe there is a better
time and where and when I'm listening to it is not ideal or
free of distractions, but it is a solid time where I can sit and
listen to God. It's a guided prayer that gives
me a few minutes every day to intentionally spend time at the
feet of Jesus. For you, this could like go look
like going for a walk in nature, finding a quiet place in your
house to read your Bible, listen to worship, music, prayer.
What works for one might not work for another, and what works
for you in one season might not work for you in another season.
But intentionally carving out time to sit at the feet of Jesus
is crucial. And in carving out this time, we
build a strong foundation, a strong relationship with Jesus.
Building a strong foundation, filling up your cup to then go
and fill up others, it is a fundamental practice to the work
of the church. Burnout is real and it is hard.
If we do not have this strong foundation of knowing and being
known by Jesus, it is a slippery slope into complete burnout.
Martha was doing all the right things, serving and being
hospitable, but she did not have the right foundation.
Instead, she was saying in her confrontation to Jesus and her
sister, Look at all that I am doing.
Haven't I proven myself? We do the same thing.
Look at all this volunteering I have done, all this work I have
done all in order to try and continue to prove ourselves,
prove that our hearts are in the right place.
This is not a healthy cycle for volunteering at church or
anywhere is good work, but we have to build a strong
foundation on knowing and being known by Jesus, filling up our
cups to then go and do it out of want and love, not out of guilt
and a wish to prove ourselves. So we talked about things that I
personally, you personally can do, but let's not forget that
Mary wasn't alone. In fact, she was probably in a
room of most likely all of Jesus's disciples, a community
of people who wanted to learn and grow in their faith.
So well yes, having quiet time to pray or listen to, in my case
Lectio 365 is great. It doesn't always have to be
alone, as Matthew 1820 says. For where two or three are
gathered in my name, there I am with them.
Community is just as crucial in our journey of knowing and being
known by Jesus. I don't know about you, but I
have struggled to put in the work to know Jesus, to sit at
his feet and spend time with Him.
A few years ago, I would read my Bible every morning.
In fact, I remember a conversation I had with someone
where I could. I told them that how drastically
this changed my days, that I could pinpoint the days where I
forgot with how much more anxious I was.
But somewhere along the last few years I stopped and it felt
exponentially harder to start up again instead of just letting
the business consume my life. It was not until recently that a
mentor of mine challenged me to try again.
I was telling her how hard I found it, that I knew I wanted
to spend intentional time with Jesus, that I knew I felt so
much more at peace when I did. But without someone actually
holding me accountable, it was easy to let that be the thing
that slipped through the cracks when life got hectic.
She was actually the one that introduced me to Lectio 365, and
to be honest, I sort of just started doing it because I knew
she'd probably ask about it the next time I saw her.
But accountability and community is not a weakness.
It does not reflect that you're not strong enough to do it
yourself, Hebrews 10/24 to 25 says.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love
and good deeds, not giving out meaning together as some are in
the habit of doing, but encouraging one another,
pursuing, knowing and being known by Jesus doesn't have to
be a journey we go on alone. In fact, the Bible clearly say
it's that encouraging one another is crucial as well.
I know I will continue to struggle in this journey of
learning and spending time at the feet of Jesus, but I also
know that I have a community of people who are on the same
journey. We are not meant to walk this
walk alone. That doesn't mean that it is
easy. Today, maybe now more than ever,
people find themselves tackling loneliness and isolation.
Our country greatly values individuality.
We have a culture that thrives on it, but we need community.
We need a village. We need it for our everyday
lives, and we need it for our walk with Jesus.
And a village isn't just gonna show up on your doorstep.
Actively building it is key. Taking actionable steps is key,
just as we take actionable steps in our relationship of knowing
and being known by God. Mary did not wait to be invited
into that room. She sat herself right at the
feet of Jesus and surrounded herself with the people there.
Do not wait to be invited. Build a village that supports
one another in this walk. Take actionable steps.
Go to a Bible study. Invite over those friends you
haven't seemed to have time to see.
Volunteer or food cupboard and meet other volunteers.
Find and be a mentor. There are so many ways to build
community, and actively building this village brings that
accountability, that care, that support that.
We need a place to wrestle with those questions and dive deeper
into knowing God together. Both having private moments with
God and making time to sit at the feet of Jesus together in
community truly shape our relationship with Him in
extraordinary ways. But also both building, building
this community, building this strong foundation and knowing
and being known as Jesus. Being known, knowing and knowing
Jesus in community and individually helps us move
forward in the going and the doing.
We want to be a people who go and do a people of welcome,
hospitality, generosity. The common thread of all of Luke
so far has been about hospitality, the Good Samaritan
speak, Jesus speaking to and healing outcasts, feeding the
5000. It is fundamental.
It is the call of the Church, but it cannot happen well
without knowing and being known by Jesus, and it cannot last
without a community intent on knowing and being known by God,
Ruth Barton says in her book Sacred Rhythms.
How had I gotten this far into the spiritual life without
anyone having told me that it was OK to stop talking and to
stop doing and to just be in God's presence?
When we get so caught up in the doing, we forget that loving the
Lord our God is our greatest commandment.
When we feel like we are being pulled apart by the many things,
we forget the most important one.
We must pursue knowing God to pursue His radical Kingdom.
Because Jesus is Kingdom, is radical.
It is transformative. It brings in outcasts, gives
voices to the oppressed, loves thy neighbor, every neighbor.
Christian hospitality needs to be one that is radical, but it
also is why we must know Him, because how can we possibly
pursue his Kingdom without him? We individually and we the
church need to be radically hospitable, just as Jesus's
Kingdom is radically different. But to do so, we must know and
be known by Jesus. We must spend time in His
presence. And the even better part, He
wants it too. He didn't correct Martha to tell
her she was wrong. He did it to show her what was
better. He wanted to spend time with
her. Just as he wants to spend time
with us. Jesus desires to spend time with
you, me, us. The God of the universe wants to
know us wholly and completely. He wants a relationship with us.
We individually and we as a community are not alone in
pursuing, knowing, and being known by Jesus.
He is right there beside us. So today, what is one thing you
are going to do to seek out knowing and being known by God?
And who is one person you're gonna tell about trying it?
Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for this time
together. Lord, I pray that each one of us
is able to dive into knowing and being known by youth this week.
Lord, we want to know you and you want to know us.
You want to spend time with us and we are forever grateful for
this God. As we seek you this week, speak
to us, speak through us. Let us be your people of
generosity and hospitality and welcome.
Thank you in Jesus name, Amen.