American Church in Paris - Sermons

ACP HOME - Sermon Archives - Past ACP Sermons

"The One Thing Needful" by Dr. Alex Aronis 22 July 2007 Texts: Luke 10:38-42; Colossians 1:15-28 © 2007 Alex Aronis

The story of Mary and Martha has always held a certain fascination for me. When the Lord emphasizes the fact that there is only one thing needful, that gets my attention!  I listen up to learn what that “one thing”  might be.

The story of the Good Samaritan, which we talked about last week immediately precedes this story, and I think the two stories together illustrate the first and the Second Commandments. As we saw last week, the Good Samaritan illustrates the Second Commandment: love your neighbor as yourself, and the story of Martha and Mary illustrates the First Commandment-- Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all of your soul, and with all of your strength, and with all of your mind.  

1.     A Look at Martha

Let's begin by looking at the story itself. Verse 38  says that  As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.

a.     The Gift of hospitality

Martha had the wonderful gift of hospitality. It's a beautiful gift.  It involves opening your home to others, sharing your resources and your friendship with others. The Bible urges Christians to extend hospitality even to strangers. Carol and I have already experienced warm hospitality here in France. It’s a very important tradition in Greece, where my parents were born. When I was growing up, if someone stopped over, even for a casual visit, they would always be offered cognac, Greek olives and feta cheese, and a delicious baklava that my mother baked and seemed to always have on hand.

b.     Distracted and Anxious

Martha was preparing dinner for Jesus and his disciples, and v. 40 indicates that she was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. —cooking and carving and setting the table.  Of course, proper presentation was very important. Everything had to be just right for so special a guest. Martha hardly knew what to attend to first. 

And to make matters worse, she found herself frustrated over the fact that her younger sister Mary was with Jesus,-- sitting at the Lord’s feet, --enjoying his company, -- listening carefully to His words.

As far as Martha was concerned, she was doing the really important thing,  -- getting a delicious meal together. And she kept wondering: why Jesus didn’t tell Mary to do what any self-respecting woman would have done in that culture?. Excuse herself so that she could help out in the preparation of the meal.

c.     Assertive

This bothered Martha so much that she came to the Lord and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” (40)

She is saying “Lord, you can see how busy I am, and here is my younger sister, sitting in the parlor with you, ignoring her responsibilities as one of the hostesses.  She should be helping me. You know that, -- and yet you continue to talk to her, -- and she continues to listen. I’m disappointed in her. But, frankly, I am also disappointed in you. You don’t seem to care that she has left me to do the work by myself.”

She calls him “Lord,” and then proceeds to tell the Lord what to do.“Lord, here’s what you need to do: Tell Mary to help me!" Sometimes we offer prayers like that. Lord, do this; Lord, change that; Lord, give me this; Lord, take care of that. But the Lord values humility. It is the person who humbles himself, who will be exalted.

This Martha is quite a woman: She is assertive -- That is, she is has a forceful personality, and we can admire her for that.  But, Martha is also resentful.  She has feelings of  bitterness and anger. And Martha is judgmental. She clearly implies that the Lord is insensitive –“don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?”

2.     Jesus’ Response

a.     Gentleness

Let’s look at Jesus’ response. Luke 10:41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, He begins by calling out her name, twice. There is gentleness here. It’s almost a caress -- “Martha, dear Martha.”           

Even though she is critical and demanding, notice that he does not get defensive with her. Nor does he scold her. Instead he gives her an honest assessment of her condition. “you are worried and upset about many things.”

Jesus doesn’t call into question her activity, --but her attitude.  She is “anxious and troubled.” She is “fussing and getting herself all worked up.” It’s her inner state of being that is the problem, not her activity.  She is showing respect for Christ in her activity, and that is to be commended, but she is becoming increasingly agitated, resentful, and anxious, and Jesus points that out to her.

In the spiritual life there are two objectives that we need to cultivate. The first is an increase in self-awareness, and the second is an increase in our knowledge of God. We have to know ourselves, and we need to know God.  Jesus was helping Martha know her inner state of being, and now he turns to the need for her to know God.

b.     Priorities

Jesus says “only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." (10:42)

Only one thing is needed--  What is Jesus talking about?  He’s talking about the First Commandment - loving God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind.  We might say it this way, that he is talking about a personal relationship with God. That is what human beings must have. Nurturing that relationship, deepening it, strengthening it must take precedence over everything else. 

3.     Making the Application

a.     History of Russia

This is true of individuals, and it is also true of communities and it is also true even of nations. We see this clearly in the history of 20^th century Russia. Alexander Solzhenistsyn in his 1983 Templeton Address made this point in the following story:

He said, “Over a half century ago, while I was a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: ‘Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.' Since then I have spent well-nigh fifty years working on the history of our revolution: in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own towards the effort of clearing away the rubble left by the upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some sixty million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: “Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this happened.”

It would be good, wouldn’t it, if our modern, wealthy, sophisticated, Western nations were to hear and consider that prophetic word, that analysis and warning.

It is so easy for us to forget God.  Martha had forgotten God, and He was sitting in the next room. As our New Testament reading says so clearly and eloquently, Jesus is the image [ei˙kw»n] of the invisible God —  Through him -- that is Jesus -- all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, . . .  all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:16-17

Christ is referred to as the Image, the icon, of the invisible God. What does that mean? It means that he is the exact likeness of God. As he himself said to Thomas, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” When we look at the character qualities of Jesus: his attitudes, his wisdom, authority, power, we are looking at the nature and being of God-- perfectly revealed in Jesus.

All things were created by him and for him. Martha herself was created by Him and for Him.   From this perspective, you can see why Jesus would say, that Mary, who was sitting at his feet listening to him had chosen what is better.  42”One thing only is essential,” he said, “and Mary has chosen it .”

And dear friends, so must we. If we want to do the one thing that is essential, we must learn to listen to him, spend time with Him, abide in Him, adore Him. All of the other things in this life may be very good and even necessary, but they are secondary to the one thing only that is essential.

b.     The Reformers

We need to keep coming back to this. The Reformers--we have three of them surrounding this pulpit -- Luther, Calvin, and Wesley, and we could certainly also add Pope John 23,  and Martin Luther King Jr., and most of all the Apostle Paul -- all urged Christians to put Christ first, to be Christ-centered, that is, to be Christocentric, --to put Christ before you, Christ behind you, Christ to the side of you and to realize that Christ is in you.

A wise and ancient source, St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), who is acknowledged as one of the preeminent authorities of the Western Church in the theology of the spiritual life, insisted on meditating on the humanity of Jesus. She urged Christians to think about “the favor God granted us in giving us His only Son.” Meditating on any part of God’s inspired Word can be beneficial, but meditating on the Gospels, especially, promotes intimacy with Christ.

c.     Why This Is Difficult for Modern Persons

For several decades I have been urging people to do this, but many find it difficult to make it part of their daily routine. There are a number of reasons why this is the case.  One of them is this.  Almost every TV show we see, almost every movie that we watch, almost every books that we read is operating on the assumption that we don't really need God.

Check it out, --the next time you are watching a film. The hero or heroine will not pray, or go to church, or read the Bible, or talk about God.  Instead, they are portrayed as attractive people with plenty of courage, strength, and confidence, -- all without God's help.   They obviously have no need of God.

Jesus says, “Without me you can do nothing.”  But Hollywood celebrities and sports heros and smooth talking politicians and, sometimes, even clergy say, “If you make up your mind, you can be anything you want.” And the emphasis is on the word “you.” “If you make up your mind, you can do anything you want.”

Is that true? If it is, why bother to seek after God? If you can be strong, independent, self-sufficient and in control of all the problems that come your way, why do you need to get into a recovery program? Why do you need prayer, why do you need anything but determination and will-power?

Many years ago St. Augustine told us why. He wrote, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.” There is  a restlessness, an emptiness, a tenseness, an edginess  without God. That is why, -- in spite of the movies, we seek after God. And here’s how we can find him?  . Jeremiah 29:13  says,  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. It takes focus; it takes concentration; it takes desire!

d.     A Pastor’s Personal Experience -- Earl Palmer

One of my favorite preachers, Earl Palmer of the University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, Washington, tells the story of how he found his anchor for the ministry. He accepted Christ when he was a university student at the University of California at Berkeley. He attended a Bible study and got really excited about the Bible. So he went to his pastor, Dr. Bob Munger, and said, “I like what you do, and I think I would like to become a minister.” Dr. Munger said, ”Well you will have to go to seminary.”  And Earl said, “All right.”  And so he made plans to go to Princeton Theological Seminary.

But some of Earl’s friends were worried about him. They were worried that he would go liberal if he went to Princeton, because some of the other young men who went to Princeton had become liberal, whatever that meant. And so they tried to prepare Earl for the Princeton experience by sending him for two-weeks at a Navigator conference in Colorado Springs.  It was a great time for Earl. He met the founder of the Navigators, Dawson Trotman, and Lorne Sanny, and also the founder of Young Life, Jim Rayburn. He was sent there to get armed for Princeton so he wouldn’t get him swept off his feet by questionable theology.  And it was a great experience.

But what really got Earl anchored for Princeton was not the NAV conference but a conference the week before at Forrest Home in the hills of San Bernardino, California, where Henrrieta Mears and also Richard Halverson spoke. Halverson was at Hollywood Presbyterian church at that time. Later he was pastor of 4^th Presbyterian Church in Washington DC and later became the Chaplain for the US Senate. 

Earl says that the very best preparation for seminary was when Dick Halverson spoke to a group of persons who were getting ready to go to Seminary. This was the best thing that happened not only to get Earl ready for Seminary but also to get him ready for ministry the rest of his life. Earl says for emphasis -- “and I’ll never forget what Dick Halverson said.”

Here’s what he said: “Now when you go to Princeton or whatever seminary you go to, --what I want you to do, --most of all, --is to stay close to Jesus Christ! Stay close to Jesus Christ…. and then throw your mind open to learn everything you can learn. Don’t be armed against it. Learn everything you can learn. But stay close to Jesus Christ. And Earl  said, “That kept me. It kept me then, and it keeps me now. It’s what keeps me going-- staying close to Jesus Christ.”

Conclusion: WITH CHRIST

That’s good advice for you university students, for you business people, for you tourists, for the whole world.

Mary made a decision: to stay close to Jesus Christ.  May we do the same.  May we value His person more than anyone in the whole world. May we value his words  more than any other words that have ever been spoken.

To his disciples -- to you and me --  Jesus says, "Sit at my feet and devour my teaching. Stay close to me. Learn to be WITH ME so that you can become LIKE ME, so that you can give yourself in service FOR ME. And remember, --the top priority is being WITH, --WITH ME. AMEN.