Luke 10

You may remember some of this...

It was the summer of 1994. I can't believe it's been almost 13 years. A strange set of circumstances took me out to Austin, Nevada on a mission trip. I was working at a church in Monroe at the time, and trying to finish up at UGA, but the music minister at RBC, (JVM) needed a singer, and I be he. So, I took my first plane ride ever out to Reno (via Phoenix) with MG, JVM, and the gang.

What a great trip! I remember the feeling of being outside the south for the first time, and in such a strange place. This was desert country, much of the land worthless and thus, set aside for Indian reservation. Some of the highlights:

- Doing a concert with MG and the gang. MG was in rare form, I was throwing out these ideas for skits he and I could do to illustrate things about God and he would just do it. I still remember the way the sky looked at sunset and the way those people looked as we sang songs about God. It was very surreal, and heightened by the fact that these people didn't quite know what was going on.

- My first trip to a casino. It was Reno, not Vegas, but I had never seen such.

- My first trip to California. In lieu of a baseball trip, we literally went up a hill, saw Lake Tahoe and drove down into a valley. A beautiful place, I don't think I've seen anything like it since. We passed a sign that said, "Welcome to California", and JVM says, "you got 10 minutes". We stopped at some little country store and we were literally in California for 10 minutes.

- Making out for 3 hours one night. I still feel bad about this one because I had a girlfriend but the mountain air got to me, I guess. Gave me a new perspective on what a chaperone is, though.

- A place in Battle Mountain, NV called the Ho Motel. I kid you not. We even had lunch there one day.

Anyway, I'll get to the point. What I'll remember most of all is painting a trailer. MG said we would do anything they wanted us to do and they wanted someone to paint a trailer. Jebo knows I am quite an accomplished painter and I am adept at talking while I paint. No one wanted the job, so MG and I did it ... all week ... in 100+ temperature. And I never forgot it.

He had preached last week on Luke 10 and, he told me, that was going to be his last hurrah. He went out with a bang.

At the Home of Martha and Mary
38As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

So, what's the big deal? Apparently, the church had a staff meeting prior and some stuff was coming to a boil. The boss was waxing on in staff meeting about how he loved to work and how he found this to be the best way to honor God. Then MG drops this on him and says, what about this? It wasn't pretty.

And so the boss goes out of town and while he's gone, MG preaches on this very text. Concerned that the church as a whole was so busy working for the Kingdom, in short, that they were mirroring the persona of the boss, they were missing the more important thing: basking in the presence of Christ. Enjoying God's favor. Recognizing their adopted heritage and blessings. Good stuff.

A couple weeks later, MG parted ways with the church and headed off to seminary. I made that trip, too, to Baton Rouge and back. And Sunday, years later, I was reminded of this Scripture in a message by Steve Brown.

I. JC needed a "soft and safe" place in his life, and you do too. The home of Mary and Martha suited this purpose. Family is that for us today, or should be. Which is why abuse of children, family is such blasphemy to God. It is also the role of the church to be this "soft and safe" place and so church discipline, when overused or misused, is so very wrong. Steve asks, "Is this a place where you can confess sin? Dance? Be yourself?" Is this a soft place for you?

II. Mary is not a saint. Martha is not a monster. Just different. We're going to do well to remember this, not to castigate the Marthas of the Christian community as pure evil, just maybe offer a correction without an over-reaction. Marys can be useless, too, if that is all they ever do.

LBJ got a note one time from an Indian chief. He was referring to the immigration policy of the US and the issue of how to restrict. "Protect your borders. I wish I had." Funny story but Steve's point was to not be quite so loud. You may be for a fence to keep illegals in Mexico and you may have valid reasons for it, but there's always the reminder of where you came from. Don't say it quite so loud. Biblically, we don't agree with the homosexual lifestyle. Let's not be so loud about it, thereby making this church hard and unsafe for some, who struggle with sins we may not struggle with. Steve is unabashedly a Republican and recognized that most people in the audience probably were too. But he said, let's not be so caught up in that we mistake it for orthodox Christianity. It isn't, and even if Jesus came and publicly endorsed it, we shouldn't be so loud about it.

Illustration: you think a line is crossed and you leave in a huff. You can stay away and stick to your guns and your anger, or you can follow Christ right back in the room.

III. It's easy to do the wrong thing for the right reasons. It's a fine line: that of speaking truth and doing it with humility and graciousness. Certainly, it is much easier to rely on the self-righteousness that comes with being a Christian. It's easy to point out flaws in others when you comparitively don't have as many and culturally, your flaws are accepted by society. But we're all beggars who found bread, telling other beggars where to find bread. There shouldn't be any pride in that. The Holy Spirit makes us more tolerant. Not tolerating abuses of God's word, but rather, tolerating the shortcomings of others, the way God would have us do. Even as I write this, I'm not sure exactly how to do this, I'm just sure, he's right.

And I thought this was really good on love.

Love can only be defined by the one being loved, can't be defined by the lover. We would do well to remember this in church, "I'm doing this because I love you". This has some application, I think, where you have someone who doesn't feel loved and what you're doing is truly best for them, a child for example. But in many cases, the stuff done by the church, out of "love" for others, isn't love if the object of "love" surely doesn't see it that way.

Advice to Martha: You would do better to sit at JC's feet and then cook a good dinner. In fact, you would do better than you're doing now, to sit at his feet and cook a bad dinner. Even this, you would do better to sit there at JC's feet and cook no dinner, than to miss the part about basking in his presence.

Anyway, that was pretty much it. I enjoyed the sermon because I needed to hear it and because it brought back good MG memories. To hear it as only Steve can preach it, check out Perimeter's podcast this week.