(Message given at Wayside Friends Church on Feb. 28, 2021)
What are you known for?
One of the things I’m known for is popping off in the chat of video calls, so feel free to use the chat to hijack everyone’s attention from this message and share what YOU are known for! What are you known for?
I work for Newberg Public Schools as the Communications Coordinator, so I send many emails to all our staff and to thousands in our community. So often when I introduce myself to someone and they see my name badge, or I hand over my credit card to pay for something, the person goes: “Oh, yeah…I get your emails.”
Well I’m not trying to make your life miserable, I’m trying to inform! You could actually READ the emails I send, you know, it might be HELPFUL…
So to many people, I’m the “email guy”. I used to be the “picture guy” at track and cross country meets. On social media I’m the “eggs must be arranged symmetrically in the carton at all times” guy.
Those aren’t such bad labels, I suppose.
But I imagine to some people, I’m “that-heretic-who-destroyed-a-church” guy. Whether good, or bad, many times we are known for one thing, and people constantly place us in that definitional box. And, whether good or bad, those “one thing” labels simply cannot define us, describe us, or capture our fullness as human beings. It’s confining, and it can be destructive to see others as one-dimensional, as “one story”.
And…because people do it to us, we are often in danger of defining ourselves by one thing. Some of us constantly internalize and see ourselves as being defined by our worst moment, and it brings a lot of pain. And others of us, it must be said, constantly internalize ourselves as being defined by our best moment…which can hinder our ability to see the places where we need God’s transforming work. Defining ourselves by our best moment can keep us from seeing our privilege, swell up pride, and at its most dangerous, keep us from being in a place of humility, which is the place where God is most at work.
Tonight, I want to encourage us to fight reducing others, and reducing ourselves, to a single story.
Tonight, I want to encourage us to embrace full, complex, humanity—the good and the bad, and everything in between. And I want to do that by looking at Martha and Mary, two sisters who were Jesus’ friends.
I put Martha first intentionally, because many of us think of them as “Mary and Martha.”
It’s the gospel of Luke that gives most of us what we know of these sisters. And in that “one story” about them in Luke, it’s Mary, the “spiritual” one, the “model” one, the “sitting-at-Jesus’-feet-serenely” one. And it’s Martha, the overworked, bitter, grudging person who was so focused on appearances that she was missing out on being with Jesus as he stayed in their home. While in recent years plenty of people have worked to reclaim Martha’s image in the Luke story, it’s still the Luke account that dominates our understanding, our conception, our “one story” view of Martha. But these sisters are in the Gospel of John, too!
Most people think the Gospel of John, which we are reading together as a church, was the last gospel written. It may, in fact, be one of the latest parts of the whole Bible written. Most scholars believe the author of John was aware of the other gospels, and that it can be valuable to pay attention to the differences John’s gospel brings from the other gospels.
Like Steve said last week, each gospel is not just like a news story, trying to only get down the facts of what happened. Each gospel is trying to help us understand who Jesus is, and what we should do in response. Each gospel highlights certain aspects of the story to give us clear pictures of what a faithful response to Jesus is. None of the gospels just wants us to know facts. Each gospel wants us to come to a place of faith and devotion.
When reading John chapter 6, I noticed one of those differences between John and the other gospels.
In the other gospels, it’s Peter who gets to be the first person to say out loud that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah. It’s significant—in those other gospels, Jesus says “this was revealed to you by my Father in heaven” and “I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock (petra), I shall build my church.”
In John 6, people are leaving Jesus and so he asks his 12 disciples if they are going to leave, too. Peter speaks up, like in the other gospels…but it’s a little different, and doesn’t have the big proclamation of “Christ”. “Lord, to whom can we go?” Peter says. “You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”
I love that response! It’s not a bad one, it just doesn’t go as deep as it could. There’s not a specific mention of Jesus being the Christ, and in John’s gospel, there’s no building of the church upon Peter like in the others.
In John, what we see as the story develops are significant people giving ever-increasing proclamations for who Jesus is.
The gospel does begin with Andrew telling his brother Peter “We’ve found the Messiah,” but it’s not a declaration of faith; it’s kind of a tease like in Hamilton, where you get the whole story in the first song as an introduction, but then the whole story plays out in more depth.
As we’ve been reading through John, we see how important the Messiah/Christ theme is all throughout the gospel: “Is he the Messiah?” “Could he be the Messiah?” “Some say he’s the Messiah.” “The leaders will kick anyone out who calls him the Messiah.” It’s a big deal.
Peter starts a sort of “big reveal” of who Jesus is in chapter 6 when he says: “you have the words of eternal life.” You’re a profound teacher, and your words come from God’s very self. It’s an example of a statement of faith that can serve as a model for us…but John is going to keep telling the story in ways that take us deeper, that reveal just how profound Jesus really is. The pinnacle, the most profound expression of faith will come in chapter 20 from Thomas, as he exclaims: “My Lord and my God!” That’s the ultimate expression of who Jesus is and how we should respond.
But here in chapter 11 we see another huge and significant step, and it’s Martha who takes it and serves as our model. It’s Martha who takes what Peter’s role is in the other gospels, Martha who is the first one in the book of John to make a statement of belief in Jesus as the Messiah. Listen to her words in John 11:27:
‘I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’
It’s a powerful, clear, profound declaration of faith, the strongest one given by anyone yet in John’s gospel.
And I think the author is intentionally forcing us to see the fullness of Martha’s personhood. When the gospel of John was written, an entire generation had already been hearing through Luke’s gospel about bitter, hard-working Martha, and here comes the gospel of John saying: “Huh-uh!! Wait just a minute!”
Look at all the clues for Martha’s image rehab in John! Jesus shows up in Bethany because his friend Lazarus has died. Look at chapter 11 verse 5: “Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus…” Mary isn’t even named! Martha is loved!
When Jesus shows up in their town, Martha goes to greet Jesus first, in verse 20. “If you had been here,” she says, “my brother wouldn’t have died.”
“He’ll rise again,” Jesus says.
Martha: “ I know he will rise with us all in the resurrection at the end.”
Jesus: “I am the resurrection and the life. Do you believe this?”
And then comes Martha’s profound words: “I believe that you ARE the Messiah, the Son of God!”
John says to the church: Martha is more than her “one story” of busyness and over-responsibility.
In fact, she is loved! In fact, her faith is so profound, she is the first in my telling of the story to recognize who Jesus is, the first to be brave enough to make a statement of belief and trust in the Messiah, in Christ.
Here’s another thing I love!
John shows us Martha in all her fullness, and shows us this little clue that she is that same person we’ve met in Luke’s gospel. She isn’t always spiritual and profound. None of us are! She’s still the practical, no-nonsense, call-it-like-it-is person who bustled around getting ready for Jesus’ arrival in Luke.
Here in John 11:39, Jesus is going to raise Lazarus from the dead. Roll away the stone! he says. Now, Martha’s already said she believes he’s the Messiah and the resurrection and the life. She’s shown faith. But she’s still the one to state the obvious! “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”
It’s gonna stink! What are you thinking, Jesus? We did a ton of work preparing his body, just leave him be!
This is the full picture of Martha! She is not one story, good or bad. She is all of it, wrapped up in a real, living, breathing, sometimes faithful, sometimes struggling human being!
And so are you! And so am I!
We are not defined by the trauma done to us, no matter how large it looms in our minds and souls. We are not defined by the way we failed our family, or betrayed a partner, or were fired from a job for our mistake, or whatever decision haunts you in the middle of the night.
In this climate where we all seem to be not just divided, but at the extremes of difference and incomprehension of each other, it takes a lot of work to not see those harming us and others as “one story” people.
I’ve had to remind myself that some of the same people I have watched wound oppressed people grievously, are also capable of great generosity. That does NOT justify or excuse the wrong they have done. But I believe doing the work to resist seeing others as “one story” helps me to humanize, helps me to actually name and reject the wrong that is done, and helps me see myself as capable of doing wrong as a human myself.
May we see others as full human beings.
No one is defined by one experience or belief or action. No one is a one-story person, so refuse to reduce them to it. May we be like the author of John, and be the “image-rehabbers” of others!
May we embrace all of ourselves.
We aren’t defined by our worst moments. Our mistakes, failures, and traumas don’t keep us from being loved by Jesus, and they don’t keep us from being examples of faith and doers of righteousness and justice. Embrace all of who you are, even the parts and the actions that others don’t like and can’t accept. Embrace all of who you are, and find out how to live a life that faithfully follows Jesus!
And, may we be honest about ALL of who we are.
We aren’t defined by our best moments. We don’t get to gloss over or excuse our mistakes and sins because we’ve made some great expressions of faith in the past, or because, for example, we’ve been so open and affirming in starting this church. We can still harm others. We can still act in racist or sinful ways.
Always, at all times, we are capable of good and bad choices. We have to be honest about that, and face the parts of our pride and our privilege, our sin and our prejudice. Humility and repentance are needed for the actions we all take at times, the parts where we’ve let other things creep in to keep us from faithfully following Jesus.
As we prepare for a reflection time, of either silence or sharing, I want to read something from the Lenten reader we created together as the Wayside Community.
The author is unknown:
Jesus,
you have known us from the beginning of time,
you have known us in the depths of our dreams
and in the darkness of our shame;
you know us as your beloved.
Help us to own that core identity more and more
in this season of repentance and mercy.
Give us the rock-solid assurance of your unwavering faith in us
as we seek the same in you.