July 21, 2013
Clutter
- Luke 10:38-42
- Dr. Teri Thomas
We returned from Kenya just over a week ago and I have recovered from the jetlag but am still trying to catch up on everything else. So I am sure you won’t mind if I check some email while we talk and I think maybe I’ll listen to some of the hymns John has suggested for August. I really need to organize all these notes I have to talk with Ruth about when she gets back Tuesday. If I don’t write down what someone told me before worship I will forget it completely by the time we are finished. Oh yes, I also need to Google that Mary Oliver poem about summer that asks, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
My life?
Oh, well, uh…
as soon as I finish this note
and pick these hymns
and make this list
then I will think about my life
well, when I figure out what we are having for lunch
shoot, I forgot we are having company this week
well, I’ll go to the grocery, then do the sheets and towels,
and oh, excuse me, I am sorry
what was I saying to you?
Something about life?
Oh.
So much for multitasking.
A recent interview on NPR reported -
The research is almost unanimous, and it says that people who chronically multitask
show an enormous range of deficits.
They're basically terrible at all sorts of cognitive tasks,
including multitasking.
It’s reported that the top 25 percent of Stanford students
are using four or more media at one time whenever they're using media.
So when they're writing a paper, they're also Facebooking, listening to music,
texting, Twittering, et cetera.
Studies show that people who multitask all the time can't filter out irrelevancy.
They can't manage a working memory. They're chronically distracted.
(NPR Report- The Myth Of Multitasking, May 10, 2013)
Several years ago there was a national meeting
of about two hundred clergy from around the country
and representing various church traditions.
They were asked to name what they considered
the major obstacles to people’s growth as disciples.
Without a close second, busy-ness was easily agreed upon as the number one problem
keeping people from growing in their faith.
Busyness keeps us from seeing what is important around us
and keeps us distracted from doing anything about it.
Our busy-ness keeps us distracted from knowing God.
Keeps us from knowing our neighbor.
Keeps us from even knowing ourselves.
Thomas Merton (writer, mystic, poet, monk) wrote-
To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns,
to surrender to too many demands,
to commit to too many projects,
to want to help everyone in everything
is itself to succumb to the violence of our times.
We can call it multi-tasking
We can call it busyness
It is what Jesus calls Martha out for
in this morning’s reading from Luke.
Jesus has come to the home of Mary and Martha.
Martha is busy preparing a meal, setting the table, arranging the dishes,
picking up the kitchen, putting fresh towels in the guest room.
And Mary sits and listens to Jesus.
So as the soup begins to simmer in the kitchen, so does Martha.
She is hot that Mary isn’t helping and she demands that Jesus reprimand her.
Martha is overbooked, overscheduled, and overwhelmed.
Anyone know what that feels like?
And according to Jesus she is distracted by many things.
Distracted.
Distracted by too much.
Distracted from the one thing that really matters.
The problem according to Jesus
is not that Martha is providing hospitality.
Jesus commends welcoming the stranger and service to the neighbor.
Just last week Bud preached on the parable of the Good Samaritan
where the point was: Go and do likewise.
Love is shown by what we do to help. Remember?
The Samaritan sees, goes, bandages, lifts, takes, gives, pays, promises.
But now Jesus is with a woman who is doing and doing and doing –
and all to serve another, all to show hospitality.
But this time, doing doesn’t seem to be the key.
But it is not because of what she is doing exactly
not because she is cooking or serving
but it is because of how she is being…
she is worried and distracted.
The word translated “distracted”, periespato,
has the connotation of being pulled or dragged in different directions.
Martha’s distraction and worry leave no room for the most important aspect of hospitality -- the guest.
Martha tries to embarrass her sister
by asking Jesus to intervene in a family dispute.
She even accuses Jesus of not caring about her
(Lord, do you not care…?).
Martha’s worry and distraction
prevent her from being truly present with Jesus,
they cause her to drive a wedge between her sister and herself,
and between Jesus and herself.
But the point of the story is not to divide Martha from Mary
and Mary from Martha,
not to pit the sisters against each other,
not to choose one over the other.
The story is not about
choosing between Bible study and outreach ministries,
between making time for devotional study
and hands-on service to others.
The story is about keeping our focus on Jesus.
He said, Martha- relax, there is needed only one thing.
The story is about choosing just one thing,
the one thing he is asking of us, or offering to us, just now.
Just before he visits Mary and Martha, in the Gospel of Luke,
Jesus is asked by the lawyer, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
And Jesus asks him, “What is written in the law?”
The lawyer answers,
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your strength,
and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. ”
And Jesus says to him,
“You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”
“Do this,”
Do this one thing:
loving the Lord your God completely,
and loving your neighbor as yourself.
The story of the Good Samaritan last week
showed how we love our neighbor
with actions of compassion and mercy,
by going and doing.
The story this week shows how we love our God.
We see Mary loving God
without distraction, without worry,
no multi-tasking
just resting and listening.
What must we do, we ask Jesus.
Love God and love your neighbor, Jesus says.
Do this one thing:
compassionate action and single-hearted, focused listening.
In this one thing – going and doing and stopping and listening –
we will love God, and love our neighbor as ourself.
In this one thing
we will find life.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Resources:
This One Thing, a sermon by The Rev. Dr. Amy E. Richter, rector of St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Annapolis, Md.
The Myth Of Multitasking, an interview May 10, 2013 1:00 PM on NPR with Clifford Nass, a psychology professor at Stanford University and author of "The Man Who Lied to His Laptop.”