Several Sundays ago . . . Saint Luke told us that Jesus set out to go to Jerusalem.  Jesus sets out to go to Jerusalem so that, by His Death upon the Cross and His Resurrection on the Third Day, Jesus might make the Lord God Almighty accessible to all of us who have been blinded by the disordered affections of Original Sin.  . . . Jesus sets out for Jerusalem with us so that He might make God accessible to us, . . . and on His way, Jesus sends some seventy of His disciples out to all the places Jesus will visit as He goes.  . . . And in sending the Seventy, . . . Jesus says to them and to us, “Look, I want you to go out from here and prepare the world to receive me, . . . and I especially want you to remember that wherever you go the Kingdom of God goes.  . . . He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects not me but Him Who sent me.”  . . . Jesus tells us this because it is the truth about us.  It is the truth because God speaks His sacred Word to you as regularly as you will listen, and He shows Himself to you as regularly as you pray.  . . . Wherever you go the Kingdom of God goes because the Lord God Almighty breathed His Life into you at your Baptism and He has, since that time, touched you with His flesh; . . . you have drunk from the Cup of His sacred Life.  . . . And so, Jesus said to us just a few Sundays ago, “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; . . . nothing shall hurt you.”  . . . But then Jesus said, “Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you.  . . . Don’t pay any attention to such things; but rejoice that your names are written in Heaven!”

    But then, last Sunday, a lawyer, who was not a disciple, . . . a lawyer asks Jesus, “What about me?  What shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  And with a little prodding from the Rabbi from Nazareth the lawyer discovers that he already knows the way of Life:  to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.  Jesus tells the lawyer, “Do this and you will live.”  . . . But the lawyer, like many, many, many of his friends living then . . . and like many, many, many people living now; . . . the lawyer has not loved the Lord God Almighty with his entire being.  He is in the habit, instead, of holding some of himself back from God, . . . save for those occasions that merit religious devotion.  . . . And so, to justify himself, Luke tells us; . . . to justify withholding some of himself back from God, the lawyer asks Jesus, “Ah, but who is my neighbor?”  Which causes Jesus to speak, in the parable of the good Samaritan, the most brilliant discourse on moral theology in the history of the world.  . . . And what Jesus does, you see, is turn the lawyer’s question around.  Jesus asks the lawyer, “Who was neighbor to the man in need?”  . . . “The one who showed him mercy,” the lawyer says.  And Jesus replies, “Go and show everyone you meet the mercy God shows to you.”

    So, today we leave the lawyer pondering these things and Jesus continues on His journey, with us, to Jerusalem.  And we come to a village where two of the seventy disciples have done their work; we come to a village where everyone is eager to receive Jesus, especially two sisters named Martha and Mary who have offered to show us the highest mercy.  Martha has offered to receive Jesus and His friends into her home; . . . to show us the mercy of hospitality:  to shelter us and feed us until we continue on toward Jerusalem.

    And as we stand there in the courtyard of Martha’s home . . . she looks about and says, “My, so many of you.”  And she turns to Mary and tells her to draw more water and wash everyone’s feet.  Martha then turns to her other preparations for our stay, . . . and while we wait for Mary to arrive with the water, Jesus makes a remark and someone asks a question and Jesus sits Himself down on a handy ledge to give an answer, and we all settle down to listen.  . . . And while Jesus is talking, Mary arrives with water and fills the ewer with some of it and gathers basin and towels and comes up to Jesus to wash His feet first.  But Jesus is so engrossed in thoughtful conversation that He doesn’t notice Mary.  And Mary, not wanting to interrupt, . . . stands quietly . . . and becomes interested in the story Jesus is telling . . . and sits down by His feet, ewer and basin and towels forgotten; Mary sits at the feet of Jesus captivated by what He is saying.

    Meanwhile, Martha, who had gone to check on some needful matter, has found that another thing was overlooked, and since everyone else is busy, decides to take care of it herself, but then something else crops up so that Martha needs to be two people at once, and she begins to wonder what’s keeping Mary.  And so, Martha looks into the courtyard to see Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus with the ewer of water in front of her, quite forgotten, along with the neatly folded towels and the bone dry basin!  . . . Well, Martha lets out a little sob and storms into the courtyard, goes directly to Jesus, and, glaring at Mary, says, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?”  . . . Jesus stops in mid-sentence and looks up at Martha, somewhat startled, . . . and then looks at Mary sitting close by and says, “Well, it’s really not . . .”; and not really interested in what opinion Jesus might have, Martha comes to her point:  “Tell her then,” Martha says to Jesus; . . . “Tell her then to help me.”

    Jesus hears the despair and hurt in Martha’s voice . . . and He looks around Him and sees all the bustle Martha has set in motion . . . and He sees that Martha has become distracted.  She has become distracted by her commitment to give the highest mercy of Hebrew culture; . . . Martha has become distracted by her need to be properly hospitable.  . . . She has become so focused on showing a proper mercy . . . that her mercy has become the merciless variety, whose fruit consists of irritability and petulance.  It is a loveless mercy.  It’s not God’s mercy but a dutiful mercy; . . . a mercy that is anxious and self-absorbed.  . . . And so, full of tenderness and compassion, Jesus says, . . . “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; [but, you see, only] one thing is needful . . . and Mary has found it.  . . . Come, sit beside me; perhaps you’ll find it too.”

    . . . Has that ever happened to you?  Have you ever become so devoted to fulfilling the Second Great Commandment that you have forgotten the first?  . . . Have you ever become so distracted by the need that you and your family and your Church Community love your neighbor properly . . . that you become filled with irritability and petulance; . . . so that your mercy is loveless, full of criticism and anxiety and self-absorption . . . so that you withhold some of yourself and some of your love from God because you haven’t the energy to do more?  Well, if you have ever found yourself sharing Martha’s perplexity, listen to what Jesus has to say to you:  . . . “you are anxious and troubled about many things; [but, you see, only] one thing is needful . . . and Mary has found it.  . . . Come, sit beside me; perhaps you’ll find it too.”

    . . . What do you suppose is the one thing that Jesus says is needful for us to have?  . . . He doesn’t say in the portion of Luke’s Gospel appointed to be read today.  Perhaps it’s different for each of us.  . . . Jesus is certainly clear that whatever it is that is needful for us to have, it’s not to be found in anxiously doing what we think is expected of us; . . . it’s not to be found in “much serving.”  . . . Whatever it is that is needful for us to have is found in stillness; . . . it is found in listening to God’s sacred Word; . . . it is found in the touch of Christ’s Flesh and in the taste of His Life upon your lips.  . . . Here we sit, like Mary, in the sacred Presence of Jesus.  Ask Him what is needful; . . . ask Jesus what is needful for yourself and for your family and for your Church; . . . ask for His help to receive it with grace; . . . to receive it so that you love the Lord your God with all your heart . . . and with all your soul . . . and with all your strength . . . and with all your mind.