conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

sermon: distracted by god

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Sermon: Proper 11 (16) Year C 2007
Community Church of Wilmette
July 22, 2007

Distracted by God

Once upon a time I stressed myself out until I was ill. Yep, sometime during my junior year of college I ended up with some sort of stress related malaise that, according to my doctors, was entirely related to my overloading my academic credits. I could not even tell you now what I was taking that semester. I know that there was theater and music and probably a religion class and some Greek. Heck, I think that Physics may have been in the mix, but I’m not entirely sure. The whole semester was this blur of activity and sleeplessness. Four hours of sleep a night was “plentyfine” for me! I thought I was finally achieving the college dream of astute productivity!

Somewhere in there it all fell apart. Somewhere in the second semester my body just quit on me. It just stopped. The sleep deprivation and high level of activity caught up with me and I ended up in the emergency room. The doctor changed my diet. No more caffeine. It would seem that my seven to ten cans of cola a day were not beneficial after all. No more sugar. I had to steer away from all kinds of things. And, of all the outlandish prescriptions ever offered, I had to schedule in at least eight hours of sleep a night.

Yes. I reminded the doctor that I was in college.
Yes. The doctor showed great pity for my plight.
No. The doctor did not relent. Eight. Hours.

The most amazing thing happened then. My grades improved. Yep. It’s true. Now, there was a great deal of room for improvement, mind you. So maybe it is really no miracle, but they improved nonetheless. To my amazement, I found that I could concentrate in class, retain what I read and then communicate my own thoughts and the necessary information for tests with increased clarity. I also felt better. Sleep cures a multitude of ills. I am convinced.

A lot of things changed for me that year. Relationships shifted. That was the beginning of a very long process or self-discovery. One of the things that happened for me when I slowed down was that I started noticing God more. At this point in my journey I would not have called myself Christian. I would not have called myself much of anything. But there it was.

I started concentrating on God.

In a sense, I found myself no longer distracted by all the coming and going of my busy college life.

I found myself distracted by God.
Today we find ourselves in the midst of the famous story of Mary and Martha. Mary adores Christ. Her adoration is her activity. She is utterly and completely distracted by Jesus…his presence with her and the promises he embodies. Martha, on the other hand, is distracted by every other possible thing around her. She is the Martha Stewart of her day.

Hold on. I did not catch that until I wrote it. Huh. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned there as well. Anyway…going on…

Martha is the ultimate in hospitality. She shall see to your every need. She shall treat you right. She will ignore you to make sure that you are getting what you need. Is that even possible? So Jesus stops her. He calls her out on her anxiety and the various things she uses to distract herself. All her good deeds, her hospitality, her cooking, cleaning, her handiwork…all one big cover-up for her anxiety and troubles.

You know, it’s a difficult task. It’s not that Martha did a single thing wrong. She did everything right. And I imagine that she had been rewarded time and again for the same behavior. She just did them all for the wrong reasons. This is what is so important to realize about this little story from our scripture. It is really easy to say, “Mary was good. Martha was bad.” So, you quit your job, stop making your bed (assuming you do in the first place), never finish a single school paper again, and plop yourself on the floor in some feigned adoration of inactivity. We cannot fall into the trap of saying “I’ll just sit and pray with Mary. That’s it. That’s all I’ll ever do. Someone will feed me, I’m sure.”

As usual, scripture paints a picture that is just a little more complicated than all that.

Martha is an ideal worker. She is doing good things. She is doing what the Law might ask of a woman. She is perfect. Except that she’s not perfect. She’s distracted. Now, Mary on the other hand is caught up in the opposite conundrum. She is not being dutiful. She is not an active partner in offering hospitality. And Jesus wants to reward this? Mary has, as Jesus said, chosen the better part. It is better to make Mary’s choice.

Doing good up to the point of distraction, or worshiping the God that is seated before you…This is a really hard choice. But Jesus makes it clear what the answer is. Adoration of God. Get distracted by God.

I really get Martha. I want to do the right thing…and I often do them for the wrong reasons. Do, that is, and not be the right thing. I do things to alleviate my anxieties about performance and productivity. I do things in order to feel important and an active part of a community. I do things so that I will feel included. So much is wrapped up in my doing that has absolutely nothing to do with being Godly.

I would rather do the things that seem to matter, whether that is all the class work from college, the bands and choirs and the AIDSRides from my previous work, or the committees and meetings and programs and meetings and programs, programs and programs of a so-called successful ministry.

And I would rather be some cantankerous and colorful person, channeling my anxieties into humor or activity. I don’t want to be known for my adoration of Christ. I mean, that’s just creepy, no? To be known for my adoration of Christ? God forbid!

Jesus points this out to me…this sin of misplaced priorities. Mary has chosen the better part.

Kyle Childress, a Baptist minister said recently in response to a question about just how busy a pastor needs to be: “Who do you think you are? Are you so important that you have to be busy at every moment? No one is paying you to be busy.” That is a bit of a paraphrase…

But he raises a good point for all of us. Is the world going to come screeching to a halt if we stop and adore God? It’s a hard feeling to shake. It is a difficult piece of Christian discernment to figure out when we are simply being busy and when we are doing good works. Faith without works is dead. Works without adoration is nothing but misplaced activity.

It is a difficult bit of Christian discipline to make time in our days our weeks, our lives…for Christ. We must become distracted by God.

Kyle gets distracted by God. He has a discipline of porch sitting. He meets with people on their porches…and they talk about Jesus and their lives. They make time to muse and pray. They share their days, their worries and concerns. This has become such a strong part of Kyle’s ministry that his congregation recently built a porch on his house specifically for the discipline of porch sitting. And people come…just to sit and to be distracted by God. Kyle drinks a lot of iced tea and coffee.

And he told another story…He was young man and new to ministry when he had a chance to meet one of the organizers of the march from Selma to Montgomery. It was at a prayer meeting. In walks this man with scars on his legs from the police dogs. So, to honor him, Kyle and the others asked him to begin their meeting with a prayer. And, as Kyle said, they were all expecting this fierce social consciousness raising prayer, this “Git ‘er done!” moment. In stead, they heard a man thank God for a long litany of simple things like getting up with the sun and the love of his friends and the hope that God provides.

He was distracted by God. Utterly and completely distracted by God.

Being distracted by God is not like being distracted by a video game or a long list of tasks set out before us. Being distracted by God allows us to begin to see the world through God’s own eyes. It allows us to see what is important. So, when we act, it is not out of a reactive stance, an anxious stance. No, it is simply a movement of adoration to God.

This is what Paul means when he says “pray without ceasing.” This is why Christian contemplatives, monks, and nuns build in their Rules nine times for prayer each day. Mother Teresa of Calcutta would not have been able to do the work that she did without such prayer…a constant devotion and adoration of Christ. She was always distracted by God. And this allowed her to find Jesus in the eyes of the people living in the sewage of a city.

Finally, this is why we have two prayer services a week here at Community Church. It is not to make sure we have alternative opportunities for people to join us. It is so that I am reminded why it is that I am here. I am to be formed as Christ. I am to be in adoration of Christ, the God who created all things, and the Holy Spirit who sustains me. The noon prayer service is time to be distracted by God so that I may learn to always be so distracted.

If we do not allow for these times to be distracted by God, will we ever truly encounter one another? If we spend our time being busy, ending up in some emergency room with a doctor prying the caffeine out of our clenched fists, will we ever have time and vision for porch swings or noon prayers or marches when injustice comes?

If we are to participate in the merciful and just reordering of the world, we have to make time for it in our own lives, our own hearts.

We have to make time for ourselves to be reordered. We must still ourselves somehow…

…and allow ourselves to be distracted by God.

Amen.

Posted by tripp at July 22, 2007 07:39 AM