Sermon: Sitting at Jesus’ Feet as Church

This weekend was my first time preaching at the congregation I serve, St. Peter Lutheran Church in Greene, Iowa. The sermon text for the week was Luke 10:38-42, the story of Jesus visiting sisters Mary and Martha.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

I don’t know about you, but I am really glad to have gotten to this day. I’ve been anticipating preaching my first sermon as a pastor for a long time. Four years of college and four years of seminary is a lot of time to think about preaching my first sermon as a pastor!

Before I say anything else, I want to share with you how excited Christin and I are to be here with you, and how grateful and humbled I am that you have called me to be your pastor. Thank you.

Many of you I’ve met in the last couple of weeks, and even more of you I’m meeting for the first time today. I’m looking forward to getting to know all of you as we join together in ministry as the body of Christ at St. Peter Lutheran Church.

As we begin our ministry together, this story of Mary and Martha is very appropriate. In a sense, it frames our calling as a congregation.

One way of looking at this story is to compare Martha and her sister Mary. Mary sits and listens, while Martha does all the work, even complaining to Jesus that Mary’s not doing her part. And she has a point. Things need to get done. Sure, sitting at Jesus’ feet is nice, but someone needs to get the food ready.

This text sometimes is used to pit people against each other. You be a Martha and go make the coffee and do the dishes, while I’ll be a Mary and sit at the table for fellowship, but it’s not a matter of one or the other.

Certainly, doing work and helping people is good. After all, right before this reading, earlier in the same chapter, Jesus tells a story about a good Samaritan, about how important it is for us to help our neighbors, and Jesus tells us to go and do likewise. As a church, we’re here to serve our neighbors, to make a difference in the world in Jesus’ name. Martha is doing well by serving.

Yet in this story, Jesus says Mary has chosen the “better part.” What’s better about what Mary’s doing?

I think the answer is not that what Martha is doing is bad in any way. Serving and showing hospitality are absolutely good things to do. But sitting at Jesus’ feet is better. Listening to Jesus, worshiping, is better.

This story is tricky, because I like what Martha’s doing. In Jesus’ culture, hospitality was extremely important, as it is for us today. You’ll hear me talk over and over about how we can be more welcoming as a church, and how we can serve our neighbors better. Martha is doing good stuff.

But I wonder if perhaps she’s forgotten why she’s doing, why she’s serving. Maybe she’s started to think her primary purpose is to do her tasks, that her value comes from what she does.
Maybe she’s forgotten her value is from who she is as a child of God.

I’ve met a lot of people this week, and one of the first things people say about themselves is what they do, what their job is or was. I do it too. We let what we do become who we are. That’s why we need to stop and sit at Jesus’ feet, to hear that our value in God’s eyes doesn’t depend on how much we do or don’t do.

We need to gather each week in worship to hear that message of God’s love again and again, so we don’t get so caught up in our work—even in good work—that we forget God loves us for who we are, not what we do. That’s a message our messed-up, broken world desperately needs to hear.

Gathering together here, in worship, around this table where Christ gives himself for us—this is our fundamental activity as a church. We come to sit at Jesus’ feet.

If you hear about a church that doesn’t do Sunday School, you might think that’s sad, or you might wonder about a church that doesn’t do anything to support the poor, or a church that doesn’t have a quilting group, or whatever else. But I bet you’ve never heard about a church that doesn’t worship, because worship defines church.

The heart of everything we do as the body of Christ, is gathering and sitting at Jesus’ feet, to praise and give thanks, to listen to the scriptures, to experience Jesus through preaching, baptism, and communion, to offer what we’ve been trusted with for service to our neighbors, and to go back out into the world. We do lots of things, and there’s always more we could do. But before we do anything, we sit at Jesus’ feet and worship.

As our presiding bishop, Elizabeth Eaton, put it, we’re not a social services agency with sacraments. (Video) We’re a church.

Part of my job as pastor is to keep reminding us of our identity as church. This congregation does lots of great service work, and I absolutely want to encourage and participate in that. But as followers of Jesus, our primary call is to sit at his feet in worship.

As I begin my call here as your pastor, I want to ask three things of you.

First, prayer. Please pray for me, and I’ll pray for you. I want to challenge you to take time this week to sit at Jesus’ feet, to just be with him. Maybe you’re better at it, but at least for me, this is a real challenge.

I’ve been your pastor for just a few days, and I’m already learning how easy it is to get caught up in doing good things like preparing for worship and visiting people. For you, maybe it’s work or family activities, or even chasing Pokemon around town. Again, these aren’t bad! But spending conscious time with Jesus is the better part, the most important. So I’ll commit to spending time this week praying for you, and I challenge you to make time to pray as well.

Second, I want to get to know you, to spend time with each other. One of the most beautiful things about church is the community. Christin and I are obviously new to this community, and we’d love to get to know you.
I need to warn you, if there was one pastoral gift I wish I had, it would be remembering names and faces. I am awful at remembering names and faces. I’ve met many of you already, and I’ll meet more of you shortly. And then I’ll probably meet you again. And again. Thank you for your patience as I get to know you!

The nametags help, and we’re going to keep having them, both as I get to know you, and for others new to St. Peter as we seek to follow Mary and Martha’s example of hospitality.

I’d love to get to know you outside this time, whether that’s visiting you at work, going out to eat, or however else that can happen. I want to visit and get to know as many people as I can as soon as possible, so I’d appreciate your help in that.

Third, I ask for your patience as I learn how to live into this calling as your pastor. I have lots of training, but obviously, I’m new at this, and I promise I’m going to make mistakes. And when I make mistakes, I need you to help me fix them. As I told the WELCA group on Thursday, I’m going to do some things in worship differently. Some changes I make will be intentional, and some I won’t even realize.
As I get to know you, I want to hear what should and shouldn’t be changed. I’m not going to please everyone, but I at least want to know when you’re challenged!

I’m here to be a leader empowering and equipping you to do ministry in Jesus’ name. I’m not a professional believer, or some kind of super-Christian who has it all figured out. Don’t expect me to know all the answers or to have the Bible memorized! And like Martha, I’m sure I’ll get worried and distracted by many things, as will you.

I really believe we’re in this together. I’m looking forward to a long and fruitful ministry together with you. I trust God who has called each one of us here is faithful and will continue to work among us and through us.

May God bless our time together, both our time serving and working, and our time sitting at Jesus’ feet in worship.
Amen.