Doing the right thing...

Last Sunday there was a real dilemma for sports fans with a choice of the Cricket World Cup Final, the British Grand Prix or the Wimbledon Final – of course there was the added complication of church services too ! 

But  that day people were faced with a choice, with setting priorities, and I guess that in that case most of those priorities would have been governed by preference – I love cricket and I enjoy watching the Grand Prix, I’m not so keen on tennis (probably losing to a girl 4 years younger than me when I was about 16 didn’t help !) so I’d have discounted that happily ! 

All of us are faced with choices day by day and some will be governed what we like, but others will be governed by what is the right thing to do, regardless of whether we like it or not… In the Old Testament reading from Genesis (18:1-10a) we heard of Abraham being visited by God in the form of 3 strangers who called on him… Hospitality was incredibly important and reputations could be made or broken based on the quality of hospitality given to anyone, but in this account there’s no suggestion that Abraham offered hospitality grudgingly at all – on the contrary Abraham ran to greet the guests… 

Hospitality remains hugely important whether it be feeding someone in desperate need, providing company and comfort for someone who just wants someone to be there or in how we welcome people, known to us or not… 

I’ve told the story before I think of how two young women who had only recently started to attend church came in one morning and sat in the seat of a lady who had come to church for years – although she should have known better, unbelievably, she asked them to move ! It’s almost laughable except it could have been disastrous – I’m pleased to say in that case it wasn’t… 

Rarely perhaps will we make someone feel that unwelcome, but there are all kinds of ways in which we show hospitality - in our smile, in our greeting, in our discussions, in our making of tea and offering of biscuits or whatever – we are called to be people, like Abraham, ready to offer extraordinary hospitality to anyone who needs or wants it…

And so our actions are an incredibly important part of our discipleship and the Psalm (15) emphasises this – the question of who may dwell in God’s house is addressed to God and the answer is ‘those who lead an uncorrupt life and does the thing that is right…’

Coming before God has practical implications – we’re not asked to come as perfect people but we are to be ready to be new people, transformed by him to be more like him, ready to serve him, ready to love as we know God’s love for ourselves and ready like Abraham, as I’ve said, to practice extravagant care and compassion and love…. 

And as we grow in our relationship with God we develop a greater desire to live the way he wants us to live, being the people he wants us to be… But growth doesn’t come from standing still, it comes through prayer, through the bible and reflection, through fellowship with others and through serving others, being as Jesus to others… 

William Barclay wrote that ‘there are 2 great days in a persons life – the day we are born and the day we discover why’… God created us to be in a relationship with him and with others. God, who is love, created us to know we are loved and to love others… 

The reading from Paul’s letter to the Colossians (1:15-28) continues this theme of serving others by offering this great statement of faith – the reading emphasises the power of God but also his desire to see all things good – we’re reminded that Jesus is the great reconciler between us and God… 

Paul writes of rejoicing in suffering – nobody likes to suffer I’m pretty sure, and when we do suffer or see people suffering the last thing we want to do is rejoice, but here Paul is just making the point that his suffering is for a greater thing – it is a question again of priorities. 

Jesus himself gave up his life for us, he prayed for those who were about to kill him, he suffered humiliation, but he knew he was doing what he had to do…. In following Jesus, we don’t guarantee an easy life – just think of how hard it must have been for Jesus to love even those that wanted him dead… We are called to be ready to suffer sometimes for our faith and Paul understood that… 

He had felt the love of Jesus, he hasd dedicated his life to preaching good news for people and helping people to consider what a relationship with Jesus and other people can look like and he had recognised in his priorities that the privilege of serving Jesus outweighs anything else in his life… 

He wrote that people are to ‘continue securely established and settled in the faith’ (v.23) and again this points us back to the need to continue to grow in our faith and to be active in our service of Jesus – somebody (Trystan Owain Hughes) at a prayer conference recently said that ‘the world needs transformation. The world needs prayers. But actions need to be absolutely integral to our prayers.’ 

And I guess this brings us back to one of the challenges of our gospel reading this morning (Luke 10:38-42). It’s the well known account of Jesus visiting some friends. It’s Martha that greets him first and she shows him in to the room where Mary, her sister, is waiting, and we’re told that Martha is busy in her preparations for Jesus’ visit – she’s cooking and perhaps tidying and just busy. Meanwhile Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, not lifting a hand to help her sister… 

I think we might all feel some sympathy for Martha here, particularly when Jesus seems to come down on the side of Mary who seems to be doing nothing ! Some people have taken this account at its most basic level and assumed that Jesus was saying it’s more important to sit and pray and reflect than it is to act, however good the things we’re doing, but I don’t think this was the full picture…. 

And I say that because that’s not how Jesus lived – in his life he offered us a perfect example of how to live and how to love, and in his life he took time away from people to pray and study and reflect, but he always came back to being with people and doing things – he prayed and reflected and studied but he also preached and healed people and fed the hungry and fought against injustice and stood up for those who struggled to stand up for themselves… 

Jesus’ life was one of prayer but also of action and so must ours be… 

But back to Martha – Jesus wasn’t saying she’d got it wrong in doing what she was doing, but he was saying that she was wrong to be critical of her sister who’d chosen to do something else – what both were doing was important and they had both considered their priorities – the only thing Martha got wrong was to forget to put Jesus at the top of her priorities and become distracted by all her ‘busy-ness’. 

In our lives we are called to make choices, to think of our priorities – even more important choices and priorities than what sporting event we should have watched last Sunday – we are called to choose Jesus or not – and choosing him means to live our lives based on his, seeking to love as he loves, to offer his compassion, serving him and serving others, and to pray and reflect on the bible as he did. It means being good news to others around us, whoever they may be – in choosing these things, there is no better choice, there is no greater privilege….

Let us pray : Loving Lord, help us to serve you through our lives, our words and our actions. Help us to offer extravagant hospitality to all and to love unconditionally whatever the cost to us and help us always to know your love for us, the love that never ends. We ask these things in Jesus’ name. AMEN