A mother once told me that she wanted her daughter to be a complete Christian, so she named her Martha Mary. I have often wordered why she put the Martha first.

As we read the Gospel for today I sense an underlying sympathy for Martha in some of the housewives of the congregation. It just doesn’t seem right, somehow, for one sister to be in the kitchen doing all the work of getting the meal while the other just sits and talks with the guest.

This sympathy is not limited to the housewives here today. I have only the initials (M.K.H., quoted in the Salvation Army magazine) of the person who wrote this verse, but I suspect that a lot of other initials could be added to it in spirit:

Lord of all pots and pans, since I’ve no time to be
A saint by doing lovely things, or watching late with Thee
Or dreaming in dawnlight, or storming heaven's gates
Make me a saint by getting meals and washing up the plates.

I suspect, too, that there are many men who share this sentiment, for whom Rudyard Kipling spoke when he wrote the following lines:

And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed -
they know the angels are on their side.
They know in them is the Grace confessed,
and for them are the Mercies multiplied.

They sit at the Feet - they hear the Word -
they see how truly the promise runs.
They have cast their burden upon the Lord and -
the Lord he lays it on Martha’s Sons!

Modern Christian Americans are mostly "doers." We place strong emphasis in the church on the idea that what counts is what we do for Jesus. Some would even go so far as to say that it doesn’t matter so much what we believe - it’s what we do that matters. Of course, that’s somewhat like saying that it doesn’t matter so much what the farmer plants - it’s what he reaps that counts.

We read with a little reverent skepticism that our Lord tells Martha and us that Mary has "chosen the good portion." However, like all the words of Jesus, these words are sound and true - then and now - in the living of the Christian life. They are words that our fast-paced, often-frantic twentieth century needs to hear.

The coin of the Christian life has two sides: listening to Jesus and doing for Jesus. Jesus sets the priority in the Gospel for today.

Note first that worship is the central act of religion. A missionary was on a fast-paced journey to his station, with the assistance of some native baggage carriers. He was surprised one morning when they sat quietly in a circle and refused to move on. When he asked them why, they replied that they needed to let their souls catch up with their bodies.

A man assigned to the New York office of his company for a year went faithfully each Sunday to hear a famous New York preacher. He was surprised to hear him tell that same story twice within a few months. He said to the preacher, "That must be one of your favorite stories."

This was the reply: "I tell that story to the congregation twice a year. If there is anything a modern New Yorker needs to hear, it is something like that."

To sit at the feet of Jesus, to experience the joy of personal fellowship with Jesus, to sense the presence of our Lord is surely the richest privilege and the highest blessing of our faith. It floods the soul with joy and bathes the inward self with the refreshing streams of life. Worship is the central act of religion.

On his return from vacation, a pastor visited one of the elderly women of his congregation. He asked her what she thought of the sermons his substitute had preached. She said that they were helpful and refreshing. He asked her what the sermons were about and she told him she couldn’t actually remember.

"Oh, my," the pastor said. "That’s just as if you took this wicker basket down to the spring and filled it with water. By the time you got back there would be no water in it."

"That’s true," she replied, "but the basket would be a whole lot cleaner."

How do we sing it? "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." (Psalm 51:10) This is what worship should do. To sit alone, or with others in the body of Christ, at the feet of Jesus - to sense his presence and hear his words, floods the soul with joy and bathes the inward self with the refreshing streams of life.

Or, to change the figure of speech, at worship the fires of the Christian life are lighted and fed. At worship we find and renew the reason for and the inspiration to live a life of Christian service to other people. Worship is the central act of religion.

Turn now to the other side of the coin of the Christian life - the relation of the exalted experience of worship to the mundane, practical life of Christian service. Listening to Jesus should issue in doing things for Jesus by loving and serving other people. We are not told whether Mary helped Martha with the after-dinner cleaning up when Jesus had gone, but we would hope that such a kindly, helpful relationship with her sister would be one result of sitting at the feet of Jesus.

There is a chapel somewhere in Wisconsin that has a stained glass window over the entrance, showing the figure of Jesus with open arms. Some, seeing it for the first time, remarked, "How meaningful! He seems to be inviting us in to worship."

"That’s true," the pastor said. "He is indeed inviting us in to worship."

When the service was over and the same person was going out the door, he looked up at the window again. There was the figure of Jesus, with the same invitingly open arms. "Look!" he said. "Now he seems to be inviting us out."

"Right," the pastor replied. "The Jesus who invited you to worship now invites you out into the world to serve other people in his name."

Our Lord is greatly interested not only in what goes on in the church, but in what goes on in the office, the home and the factory. That’s where people spend most of their time. That’s where the Christian life is to be lived.

A mother, listening to the bedtime prayers of her small daughter, heard the listing of requests for blessings that children often offer - Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa and on and on. She was surprised, however, to hear the child conclude her prayer with these words: "Now, Jesus, what would you like for me to do for you?"

The little girl had grasped the relationships of the Christian life: conversation of the heart (worship) with Jesus issues in the desire to do something for Jesus.

One of my radio listeners was inspired to write and send to me the following verse:

Dear God,

Each day,
When I come to pray
I ask so much of Thee.
In supplication
I bow
But seldom stay to see
What you might ask of me.

Today
Dear God,
When I come to pray
Beseeching Thy love and care,
While I’m there
Give me courage
To stay and see
What you might ask of me!

To be doers of the Word and witnesses to the Word is not only the fulfillment of our faith, but the mandate of the Master. Our Lord needs his Marys and his Marthas too.

The desire, the determination and the courage to serve our Lord comes from communion with him. The first priority of the Christian life is to sit at the feet of Jesus - absorbing through worship, Bible study and prayer what he is amid what he teaches. All else follows that.

Our heavenly Father, grant that we may learn to love Jesus deeply and worship him. Amen