It's Your Choice

July 21, 2013 It’s Your Choice Colossians 2:6-19 Luke 11: 1-13 10th Sunday after Pentecost Year C Create your own Adventure books While preparing for this sermon, I discovered these really cool story books – they are called choose your own adventure books. You read the story to a child, and in the middle of it, you start to ask questions of what the child wants to happen next. Depending on how they respond, you read a different section of the book. Even though you read the same book, you never really read the same story to the child. They get to choose how the story ends. I am always looking for Christian education resources – and I like this one, because it is important to help our children to make healthy choices. This book is entitled Always picked last, it is about a fairy who tries to do something so he wont be picked last in games. It is a little long, so I wont read it to you. Gospel a story of choices But actually it doesn’t matter because our gospel lesson is a lesson about making choices. Background information to the story Jesus is on the road to Jerusalem, and along the way he stops by his friends, Mary and Martha to have a good meal, and to have a place to do the teaching he is desparately trying to do before he gets to Jerusalem. Even though we hear about Mary and Martha all of the time, This story only appears in Luke. As tradition would have it, the oldest girl always inherited her mother’s house. Martha is believed to be the oldest, because she had the obligation of keeping the house and offering hospitality to those in need. In greek, the name Martha means mistress of the house. And it is Martha who asks jesus to do something about her sister. Martha is doing all of the work, and Mary has decided to sit down and study with Jesus. When you think of this story – how many of us think of ourselves as Martha? How many think of ourselves as a Mary of the church? I think that we do a disservice to ourselves and to the church when we follow the traditional interpretations of this story. When I was at the Methodist church in Jamaica, I found it interesting that there was a whole body of service to the church called women’s work. In others words the women were supposed to do the cooking, and the cleaning, and childcare in the church. While studying, administration, and worship were thought of as the work of men. So in this story we go into this whole debate about what a women’s role is in the church. But the disservice goes further than than – because we start to debate which is better, faith or works; is it better to be active or comtemplative; do we choose between giving steadfast love or studying the word of God. But none of those are fair choices, and you really cant choose one without the other. But I also think the ways that we interpret this story is a disservice to Jesus. First of all in all of the stories that I know about Jesus. Jesus is not one to turn down hospitality. If someone is cooking for him, he is not going to tell them to stop. He wants to eat. For some reason in this story, we tend to belittle Martha and uplift Mary. When Jesus never says that Martha is wrong and that Mary is right. He never says that what Mary is doing is more important than what Martha is doing. But for some reasons we want to be judgemental. Jesus doesn’t say that Mary was better than Martha. Jesus says that Mary had a choice, and that she was right for making a choice. Verse 42 says Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken from her. Jesus does not judge between them. As a matter of fact, in my life, some days I am Martha and some days I am Mary. And it takes both action and comptemplation, faith and works, cooking cleaning and bible study to make a well rounded servant. It is really not how we serve, it is the attitude in which we serve that makes a difference. Martha was serving out of obligation, and Mary had found freedom. I read someone that Mary means a free spirit. That is what the gospel is all about – finding the freedom to chose a life of salvation. The pastor God cannot do without A pastor of a large church tells how he had gotten caught up in serving out of obligation. As the pastor everyone depended on his presence. One day he felt that he was getting sick, but he felt that there was no way that he could stay at home, because the church was expecting him to be present. He felt that God needed him, and that he could not afford to be sick. He showed up to church that day, but he felt awful. That night he prayed to god that he would got better, because he could not afford to be sick. When he fell asleep, he had a dream that God was worried about God could do without him. And that if he died tomorrow, then the work of God on earth would just continue without him. He realized that serving God was a choice, not an obligation. As a matter of fact, it was not his choice to serve God that mattered, but it was God’s choice to use him that made all of the difference in the world. I might need to say that again – serving God is a choice. A choice that we have the freedom to make. But it is not our choice that really matters, it is God’s choice that makes all of the difference in the world. The glorious, omnipotent all knowing all powerful God chooses us to spread love throughout our lives and throughtout the world! That is amazing. That is the lesson for us this morning in Colossians. Just think about it, if you had to choose a group of people to best represent the church at a very important meeting who would you choose? Would you choose a child who never sits still in church? Would you choose a teenager who walks around all the time with his pants hanging down? Would you chose a baby who cries all of the time, would you choose a young girl who is more concerned about her texts on her cell phone then she is in talking to those around her? Would you choose an adult, who is too busy at work to bother to come to church? Why or why wouldn’t you choose these people to best represent the church. Especially when in reality Jesus has chosen them all? If God chooses them, who are we not to accept their gifts? God chose them and God chose us. to be faithful, to be willing grow to Christian maturity, to be in service to God. As a matter of fact, any choice that we make in the name of Jesus Christ, Christ has the power to reconcile, redeem and use for the building if his kingdom. Colossians 1:28 says – it is he whom we proclaim, warning everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. If Christ chooses the likes of us – then we can make sure that Christ is in all of our choices. Amen. ____________________________________________________ There Is Always a Load Limit Dr. John Anderson tells about a cartoon that appeared in the NEW YORKER magazine. Approaching a small bridge plainly marked, "Load Limit 8 tons" was a truck, also marked on its side, "8 tons." When the 8 ton truck was about in the middle of the bridge with the 8 ton limit, a bluebird lighted on the top girder. At that point the bridge gave way and crashed with the truck into the river below, to the obvious surprise of the bluebird. The bridge was built as indicated for 8 tons; the truck weighed exactly that. The bridge could hold up under its load limit, but not under 8 tons and one bluebird. Of course, this story is wonderfully ridiculous. Most bridges could stand up under their load limit and several thousand bluebirds extra. But, to be sure, all bridges have a breaking point somewhere "that point at which the bluebird would be just much too much. But, friends, it really isn't the bluebird that breaks it down. It is the fact that 8 tons are already present. We all have bluebird troubles, don't we? We are all burdened by the facts of our lives which load us to the point of "load limit." We let little things get the best of us, little bluebirds of nothingness, tiny bluebirds of no importance, but just the thing to bring us down. Every person has a limit and we would do well to watch for the warning signs of one bluebird too many. There is always a load limit. Arthur E. Dean Windhorn, Sermons.com Worry has been defined as "a small trickle of fear that meanders through the mind until it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained." Unknown __________________ Humor: When Anxieties Finally Come True For several years a woman had been having trouble getting to sleep at night because she feared burglars. One night her husband heard a noise in the house, so he went downstairs to investigate. When he got there, he did find a burglar. "Good evening," said the man of the house. "I am pleased to see you. Come upstairs and meet my wife. She has been waiting 10 years to meet you." William Marshall, Eternity Shut in a Span __________________