Posts Tagged ‘emerging church’

Whose ministry – Mary’s or Martha’s

July 19, 2025

Pentecost 6 – 2024

Luke 10:36-42

Marian Free

In the name of God who calls us to different roles and responsibilities and who encourages us to use our different gifts and abilities in the sharing of the gospel. Amen.

I am sure that I don’t need to tell you that Peter, James and John were part of Jesus’ inner circle. They were witnesses to his transfiguration and were close to him in the Garden of Gethsemane. Peter identifies Jesus as the Christ.  It may surprise you to know that these three are largely absent from the Gospel of John. In that Gospel, the significant players – those with a speaking part – are Andrew, Phillip and Thomas. This leads to the conclusion that peter, James and John played a significant role in the communities behind the Synoptic Gospels but not in the community from which the Gospel of John emerged.

The different characters suggest that in the emerging communities behind the Synoptic gospels Peter, James and John were people of some significance but that in the Johannine community others – specifically Andrew, Phillip and Thomas – were leaders for it is these three who have speaking roles in the fourth gospel.  

In a similar way, if women are given a significant role in a gospel it suggests that they also had an important role in the emerging church.  In a society in which women were relegated to the margins, the fact that they are mentioned at all is significant. This is most clearly demonstrated in John’s gospel, in which nearly half a chapter is devoted to the role played by Mary Magdalene as a witness to the resurrection. What is more Mary is given the responsibility of telling the disciples that Jesus is risen which making her the Apostle to the Apostles. 

It seems that at the time the gospels were written the memory of those who played foundational roles in the early communities is still fresh. Even though the church is settling down and conforming more to the world around it, women who played important roles in the early communities cannot easily be written out of the story.

This is particularly evident when it comes to the sisters Martha and Mary who are mentioned twice in the gospels – here in the gospel of Luke, and in connection with the raising of Lazarus in John’s gospel. In both accounts the women are depicted as women who make up their own minds and in John it is Martha not Peter, who identifies Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. 

Unfortunately, thanks in part to our translators, in Luke, the roles of Martha and Mary are domesticated and circumscribed. It is easy to read the account of Jesus’ visit as a silencing of both women – Mary who passively sits and listens and Martha who is described as distracted. The translation and the subsequent stereotyping of the two women creates a binary between action and contemplation that continues to this day and suggests that the role of women is either passive listening or busy organising.

The account of Jesus’ visit to the home of the sisters takes up only seven verses, so there is much that we do not know. We do not know for example how old the women were, what their financial status was or why there is no male in their household. Nor do we know if Jesus turned up alone or (more than likely) in the company of the twelve, whether he dropped in for a meal or planned to stay for a day or two. What we do know is that the culture of the time placed a high value on hospitality – think for example of the man who wakes his neighbour in the middle of the night so that he can have some bread for an unexpected guest.

Clearly, in the absence of a brother or husband, Martha is the householder. It is her responsibility to ensure that Jesus and those with him are made welcome and fed. As the householder, she naturally expects Mary to help.

Our translation leads us to believe that Jesus chides Martha for her preoccupation with getting ready when in fact Jesus may be offering her sympathy in recognition of the demands of her ministry. Margaret Wesley translates verses 40 and 41as: “But Martha was overwhelmed by many ministry responsibilities, so she came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the ministry by myself? Tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are going to so much trouble and you have so many responsibilities to worry about!” 

But does Jesus chastise Martha for wanting to determine Marry’s choice – yes perhaps. Note that the Greek tells us that Mary is commended for choosing the good (not the better) portion, that of a student. Martha’s fault, if she has one, is that of not recognising that it is not her role to determine Mary’s path. God’s call on Mary is not for Martha to determine. Both women are called to and assume ministry roles – one of deacon, one of student – neither is better than the other, both are necessary. 

Before we consign Martha to the role of easily distracted, shallow woman and elevate a silenced Mary to the ideal model of womanhood, we need to unpack Luke’s purpose in telling the story, the blinkers worn by translators, and the preconceptions we bring to the tale from the ways in which we have heard the story in the past.

Before we apply stereotypes to anyone in our society, before we assume that know their interests and their capabilities, before we limit and define their roles and their contribution, we need to be sure that we know the full story, we need to understand the lens through which we see and the assumptions that we bring to bear.

We are all called to serve in a multitude of different ways. The one who calls and equips is never one of us, but always God.

Tags:, , , , ,
Posted in Luke's gospel, Mary Magdalene | Comments Off on Whose ministry – Mary’s or Martha’s

 How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!

September 21, 2024

Pentecost 18 – 2024

James 3:1-12

Marian Free

In the name of God, Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. Amen.

I wonder if I or anyone else have told you that the books of the Bible are ordered according to length – not chronologically. By that I mean that the Books of the prophets are ordered, not according to when they were written, but according to how many words there are. Like wise, Matthew is the longest of the gospels (not the first to be written) and it appears first. Paul’s letter to the Romans was probably the last that he wrote, but it comes straight after Acts and Philemon )which was written earlier) is relegated to the last among the Pauline correspondence. The so-called catholic letters – the more general letters of Peter, James and Jude are similarly ordered – James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter and then Jude.

The catholic letters appear to have been written at a later time in the development of the Christian church. They are known as “catholic” because they address general rather than specific situations and the teaching is more direct, and behaviour based rather than general and theological. Indeed, the letter of James, which we are making our way through at the moment, reads as a list of unconnected instructions, a manual for church goers.  The only reference to Jesus (if ‘Lord’ refers to Jesus) is of his coming again. It would appear then, that the ‘church’ to whom the letter is written, doesn’t need to be told the story of Jesus, or to be taught theology, but rather, as the content of the letter suggests, they do need to be disciplined.

One of the difficulties faced by New Testament scholars is that what we know about a particular situation, or of an author can only be gleaned from the writing itself. There are no external, contemporary sources of any of our New Testament writings. All that we know about say the community in Rome for example, comes from the letter to the Romans. All that we know about the authors of our gospels is what the different emphases of the gospels can tell us. Letters, in particular the letters written by Paul were written to a particular group of people with their own needs and problems. Paul would have had no idea that letters, sometimes written in the heat of the moment (Galatians), would have been preserved, let alone that they would have been collected and treated as scripture! 

With regard to other New Testament literature, we can assume that the author and the communities who received the writings would have expected the collective memory to be passed on and therefore had no need to be recorded. Over time though, the reason that the letter was written and the community to whom it was written became less important than the content, which was now considered to be ‘holy’ and useful for the whole believing community and not just the church for whom it was written. 

At the moment we are making our way through the letter of James. There is very little we can say for certain about the sender – James. The letter reveals that he doesn’t appear to know of the apostle Paul, he is not interested in the story of Jesus and more interested in giving directions.  He is almost certainly not James the brother of Jesus, because Jerusalem, where that James was based, is not mentioned.  Further, Origin, writing in the beginning of the second century, knows the letter but does not refer to the author as Jesus’ brother.

It is possible to make more conjectures about the recipients. They are addressed as the Twelve Tribes of the Diaspora – an expression only used here, but whoever they are, the letter reveals that there was some tension within the community (‘conflicts and disputes’, 4:1) and that a mixture of rich and poor were members of the community.  It is possible that the author felt that there was too much emphasis on faith and not enough emphasis on “doing good works”. The author says: “show me your faith apart from works and I by my works will show you my faith” (2:18).

The catholic letters are less well known, but no less influential. Phrases and themes from these letters have become a part of Christian parlance – even if we don’t know their origin. You may have recognised the phrase from this morning’s reading – “not many of you should become teachers”, and you are almost certainly familiar with the phrase: “be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger,” and “religion that is pure and undefiled.” Social justice advocates particularly like the sentiment expressed in the second chapter: “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” (2:14-16)

Our practice of healing prayer comes directly from the letter of James. “Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.  Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven.’ (5:13-15).

But perhaps the letter is best known for the passage we have read this morning about the dangers of the tongue. The author of James uses a great deal of imagery, and this chapter provides a good example. In just a few verses on the tongue there are six very different contrasts: 

“a large horse controlled by a small bit (verse 3) 

a large ship steered by a small rudder (verse 4) 

a small tongue with large boasts (verse 5) 

a small blaze versus a large forest fire (verse 5) 

blessing versus cursing (verse 9–10) 

fresh and brackish water (verses 11–12).”[1]

It is quite clear that that the author of this letter was well aware of the dangers of speaking without thinking, of the harm that words could cause, and that the real nature of a person was revealed by what came out of them rather than any superficial pretense.

The letter of James may not have much to tell us about the life of Jesus, or about faith in general, but it does reveal something of the emerging church and it filled with good advice – advice that can inform and influence our Christian living.

[1] Kelsie Rodenbiker.  https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-24-2/commentary-on-james-31-12-6

Tags:, , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on  How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!