By Reverend Laurie DeMott

Because Mary was such a common name in Jesus' time, we can't be certain who that "other Mary" was, but it is at least possible that she was the same Mary who appears in three stories of Jesus' ministry in Luke and John. In these three stories, Mary is the sister of a woman named Martha and Mary is depicted as a "disciple" -- a devoted follower of Jesus. In both gospels, her acts of devotion befuddle and annoy others and yet are praised by Jesus. Let us listen to one of those stories of the disciple Mary from the gospel of Luke.

Last week the youth and I were discussing sibling relationships and I asked, "Do any of you ever plug your ears and say to your brother or sister, 'I'm not listening to you'?" About half of the group laughed and admitted that they did while the other half complained that this was an annoying tactic employed by another sibling. When we took a survey, we discovered that all of the ear pluggers were younger siblings while all of the recipients of ear plugging were older brothers or sisters. Apparently older brothers and sisters believe it is their duty to instruct their younger siblings on correct behavior while younger brothers and sisters believe it is their right to completely ignore such helpful instruction!

Although the Bible doesn't state the birth order of Martha and Mary, they fall readily into the typology of older and younger sisters. An older sister is stereotypically hard-working, diligent, and a wee bit bossy, while the younger stereotypically flaunts the rules, indulges the moment, and gets all of the attention.

As an older sister, I admit I find myself much more sympathetic to Martha in this story than to Mary. There is Martha, sweating over the stove trying to prepare dinner for fourteen people, while Mary is sitting idly in the living room listening to Jesus. I doubt that Martha is in the kitchen because she wants to be there -- she is probably just as interested in what Jesus has to say as Mary is but Martha is also very aware of the rules of hospitality. 'It doesn't matter what I want or don't want,' Martha thinks. 'What matters is that I fulfill the expectations upon me as a host, that I abide by the customs of the day in order to feed my guests.' Yet when she reminds Mary of her obligations, Mary just puts her fingers in her ears and hums loudly leaving Martha with all the work while she goes and sits with the boys. Certainly Martha's responsible self-sacrifice should be commended, and yet it is Mary who gets all the attention; who receives Jesus' kind words while Martha receives only a gentle rebuke. I mean, what's that about?! C'mon Jesus, don't encourage her! There's work to be done in the kitchen.

On the surface, the story of Mary and Martha can be read, and is often read, as a warning to the Marthas among us. Jesus is seen by these interpreters as a contemporary motivational speaker giving stress management advice. Those Martha's among you, they say, who can't put away your Blackberries, who work seven days a week 24 hours a day, who are so busy clattering about in the kitchen trying to do everything that you miss the important moment, you Martha types need to embrace your inner Mary. Remember, tou don't always have to fix a 5 course meal; sometimes we should just turn on the crockpot and come out of the kitchen to relax in the presence of Jesus for awhile.

Well, I suppose that if that is all we get out of this story, that's not an entirely bad thing. In our over-scheduled 'salvation by works' kind of faith, all of us could benefit from a little more time listening to Jesus instead of always doing for Jesus and if you leave here today with a determination to get in touch with your inner Mary and find more time for spiritual devotion, than my work has not been completely in vain! But I acually believe that there is more to this story than a simple warning to slow down. And I think that to stop there would be to sell short the impact of Mary's devotion and the meaning of her discipleship.

To get the full impact of this scene in Martha and Mary's house, we have to flip back a couple of pages in Luke's gospel and read what has come before. In verse 25, Luke relates the story of a conversation between a lawyer and Jesus in which Jesus states that the two most important commandments are to love our neigbor and to love God.

"What does it mean to love my neighbor?" the lawyer pursues, and Jesus goes on to illustrate that love by telling the story of the Good Samaritan. Luke then follows the telling of that parable immediately with this episode describing Mary's devotion to Jesus. Clearly for Luke, the parable of the Good Samaritan shows us what it means to love our neighbor and Mary's focused attention to Jesus models for us what it means to love God.

And for first century readers, both the story of the Good Samaritan and the memory of Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus would have been appalling. Samaritans were despised by most Jews as religiously heretical and ethnically impure, and women likewise were in that same category -- almost less than human. Women were considered the property of their husbands, fathers, or brothers, they ritually unclean half the month, and they were not even allowed into the inner portions of the Temple. These attitudes manifested themselves in a common prayer in later Judaism in which Jewish men prayed, "Thank you God for not making me a Gentile, a woman or a slave."

So when Martha bustled about in the kitchen preparing a meal for Jesus and his disciples, she was being a good woman. She following the proper conventions of the first century, taking care of the men's needs so that they could do the important work of religious study while she remained in the background. Mary, however, was not willing to abide by custom and expectation. She pushed her way into the circle of disciples and sat right at the feet of Jesus as if she was one of the men, as if she had a right to think spiritual thoughts, as if she had a right to ask questions of the teacher, as if she had a right to sit among the ritually pure in spite of her suspect purity.

The reactions of the disciples to this show of defiance is not recorded but Martha's reaction is: Martha is not amused. In Martha's mind, Mary was bringing shame on the family. She was horning in where she had no business being, ignoring her proper duties, and embarrassing her sister.

And yet Jesus takes Mary's side. Jesus commends the agitator and rebukes the tradition-bound. Jesus welcomes the least likely to enter his fellowship as a disciple while criticizing the sister who has tried to play by the rules. If we think we have seen this before, it's because we have -- we have seen it when Jesus invites the tax collector into his presence over the protests of the Pharisees. We've seen it when he tells a story of forgiveness for a prodigal son while the older responsible brother gets a tongue lashing. We've seen it every time Jesus welcomes the outcast, the sinner, the ritually unclean, the despised, all of the people on the edges of society that we would rather keep out of our company and our churches while scolding the community insiders, the religiously righteous, the ethically pure, and the rule-keepers. In fact, you'd think we'd seen it enough to finally get the message. In both the parable of the Good Samaritan and the story of Mary, Jesus is teaching us that moral courage doesn't mean abiding by all the rules; moral courage instead means challenging the rules of who is allowed into God's company.

This story does call us to embrace our inner Marys, but not by simply slowing down and smelling the roses. Embracing your inner Mary is to embrace a willingness to cross boundaries. It is to develop the moral courage to break down the walls between people and widen the circle of our fellowship.

Robert Kennedy once said, “Few... are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality of those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change."

Following the rules and abiding by convention may keep us individually safe from censure and give us respectable, even comfortable lives, but it cannot change the world. It will only perpetuate the divisions between people that have become so ingrained in a society that they are accepted without thought and even institutionalized in our laws and our unwritten policies. But frankly, Jesus didn't die on a cross to ensure that you and I would be able to enjoy respectable lives. We can do that without him -- all we would have to do is memorize Emily Post, do what is expected of us, and close the curtains so that we don't have to see all of the other faces we are keeping out in order to maintain our comfortable world.

But if we want our lives to make a difference, if we want to forge a new pathway that others will be able to follow, if we truly want to be disciples of Christ who died so that all of us could live -- we have to be willing to leave the kitchen and dare to enter those places where we are not wanted and where the world tells us we don't belong but to which Christ is calling us.

Ben and Julie Sawyer are members of a church in Georgia who heard exactly calling.

"It was just like a finger in the eye," Julie said of the prodding they felt from God. "We had a strong family life. It kept coming to us that it's natural to serve in an area where you're already strong." Their church had begun a ministry to immigrant families in a nearby apartment complex but the Sawyers felt they were limited in what help they could give from their comfortable suburban home. Consequently, they decided to move their own family into a four room apartment where they have set up a tutoring program to help the children of the immigrants with their homework.

"We felt it was important to move into the community itself because it lends credibility to what we're doing here," Ben said. "The problems and issues and struggles of the community are now our problems and issues and struggles."

"It grabs me every time I drive into the complex," Julie said. "This is important. I need to live here because it's important and it keeps my heart tender toward my neighbors. And I fear [that if I leave], my heart would harden again."

The Sawyers physically crossed boundaries in order to fulfil their call to Christ. We don't all have to leave our houses in order to break down walls and heal the divisions between us. There is plenty of brokenness all around in need of people willing to challenge the barriers between us. May we all embrace our inner Mary and work to develop the moral courage we need to be radical in our love and persistent in our call to follow Christ wherever he leads.