Peter Gomes sermon on Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42)

"In this short, deceptively simple vignette, Martha, who has welcomed Jesus into her home, asks him to tell her sister Mary, to help in the kitchen rather than sitting and listening to him in the living room. But instead, Jesus gently rebukes Martha, saying "Mary has chosen the bettter part." On the surface this Biblical story seems cut and dried: in a domestic dispute, one sister picks a fight and loses. There doesn't appear to be much for a preacher to work with.
At first the Preacher Peter Gomes (minister in the Memorial Church, Harvard University) sympathizes with Martha: "We all know the Marthas, those hardworking people without whom any movement or occasion would starve; churches especially thrive on their Marthas. Who will do the coffee hour? Martha. Who will do the washing up? Martha"
Thus, Martha does what anyone ought to do when a guest arrives: offer material hospitality. No wonder she was "distracted by many tasks" (verse 41). She is "a sympathetic sister for our time because she is in the business of activity and anxiety: the chief preoccupations of our age." . . .
In siding with Mary, Jesus does not say "that society would fall apart without the activity and anxiety of the Marthas of the world." Still, Jesus sides with Mary. She has her priorities right. When Jesus pays a call, Mary understands that the conventional rules of hospitality never apply. Mary knows the value of sitting at Jesus' feet. She knows where she is -- "in the presence of the Master, whose teachings were the staff of her life. . .When Jesus comes to call, things aren't at all the way they used to be, and neither should we be." Thanks be to our Stillspeaking God.