Mary, Martha, and Zen
Luke 10:38-42; Amos 8:1-12; Genesis
18:1-10; Psalm 52; Psalm 15; Colossians 1:15-28
As with last week’s
commentary on the parable of the good Samaritan, the Revised
Common Lectionary does not get to Luke’s story of Mary and
Martha until mid-July of this current Year C. However, the RCL
does follow Luke’s sequence. It may be that Luke’s back-to-back
scenes illustrate the grounding laws of Judaism: “You shall love
the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength”
(Deuteronomy 6 :4-5) and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself”
(Leviticus 19:18). The parable of the Samaritan – according to
Luke – is about loving your neighbor; the vignette with Mary and Martha
– again according to Luke – is about loving God.
Because Luke made up the story of Mary and Martha out of whole cloth,
we can do with it whatever we wish. Jesus never had this
encounter, never hinted that women disciples are better (or worse) than
women supporters or servants of his ministry. We might wonder,
briefly, if Luke created this story in order to address an issue in his
community. As John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg are fond of
reminding us, prohibitions on or sermons about particular behaviors
never arise unless there is a problem. For example, posting a
sign on the church door saying that nudity is not acceptable would only
be necessary if someone had walked in naked. Perhaps a debate had
developed in Luke’s community about the proper role of women as
disciples vs. caretakers. It is impossible to know. But in
any event, this story is not about women’s liberation from
patriarchy. It is not about the proper role for women in 21st
Century church and society. It’s about choosing to follow Jesus’
Way into God’s Kingdom.
The Common Lectionary readings that accompany Luke’s story offer
metaphors of fruitfulness and spiritual maturity. The prophet
Amos talks about the basket of summer fruit that will become famine
because the people turn away from God’s great work of
justice-compassion. Sarah and Abraham– in their spiritual
maturity and trust in God’s word – will bear the fruit of a son, and be
the ancestors of many nations. Psalm 52 warns that evil doers
will not succeed; Psalm 15 says that those who will dwell on God’s holy
hill will be “those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right.”
The only piece that is a clanging gong in the ensemble is the
Colossians rant about “Christ” being “the head of the body the church,”
and the theology of substitutionary atonement, which the real Paul had
no time for. Perhaps it’s a way out for orthodox preachers who
don’t want to consider unconventional interpretations of Luke’s
Mary/Martha drama. Contrary to much contemporary preaching, the
story is not about sibling rivalry and woman’s real place in the home.
In the 14th Century, Meister Eckhart may have had the same accompanying
scriptures in mind. In 1980, Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox published
a collection of Eckhart’s sermons titled “Breakthrough:
Meister Eckhart’s Creation Spirituality in New Translation.” In
commentaries on each of 37 sermons, Fox spells out the Catholic mystic
justification for his theology of Creation Spirituality. Two
sermons are on the subject of Mary and Martha, using the metaphor of
fruitfulness as a sign of spiritual maturity. Meister Eckhart’s
Sermon 20 talks about how Martha represents the mature person – the
“wife” who bears fruit, who serves the master. Mary is the
“virgin,” the young sycophant, enamored of the guru, naive, and trapped
in ego-involvement. Mary Magdalene’s aria, “I don’t know how to
love him,” from Jesus Christ Superstar comes
to mind. But “wife” and “virgin” are metaphors for Eckhart, and
gender is irrelevant to this discussion. In Sermon 34, Eckhart
continues with the metaphor of a spiritually mature person (Martha)
living in depth with God, not – as is Mary – enamored with the idea of
being a disciple. For Eckhart, contemplation is not better than
action, nor are ideas more valuable than work.
Eckhart writes, “I call it obedience when the will is sufficient for
what our insight commands” (Sermon 34p. 485). Mary cannot
yet imagine what action her devotion to Jesus’s teaching might
demand. But Martha has already integrated the desire to follow
Jesus’s teachings with the work required to do so. Eckhart
imagines that Martha’s complaint that Mary isn’t helping is really a
bit of gentle ribbing to get Mary to let go and let be – to get out of
her mind and into the fruitfulness of service. Mary’s “better
part” is that she is learning to live in God’s kingdom and to join in
the ongoing work of distributive justice-compassion, but is not there
yet. Fox suggests that this Mary is the Magdalene, who only later
. . . learned how to . . . do works of compassion. . . .”
To be spiritually mature is to participate in the great work of
distributive justice-compassion, in order to bring about the
transformation of human society from greed to sharing, from violent
retribution and payback to the non-violent, radical abandonment of
self-interest. Fox writes, “Eckhart believes that contemplation
is not better than, nor in the mature person even different from, work.
. . . Compassion and the works born of compassion are themselves acts
of contemplation. This is the fulness of spiritual maturity: to
be in the world, active in the world, and yet not hindered by these
actions from being always in God.” Fox commentary on Sermon 34,
p. 489.
Fox says that our work is an enchantment. That means, we live,
breathe, move and have our being in that ocean of compassion that is
God. We are possessed by and obsessed with that spirit. At
the same time, the Zen of following Jesus’ Way and doing the great work
of God’s Kingdom of Justice Compassion means letting go and letting
be. Let go of the mind chatter about being a disciple, activist,
whatever, and just do it.
Progressing from naivety to maturity is not a linear journey, but a
continuum of experience. Luke’s story is a snapshot of a moment
in time, not an allegory about women’s role in the early church.
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