Here is a sermon I preached at St. John United Church of Christ in Robinson, Texas. It was the Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 26, 2023. You can read the gospel text for the day here: John 11:1-45

A few months ago I saw a t-shirt that said, “Be a Mary in a Martha World.” And frankly, I was offended on Martha’s behalf. In preparing for this sermon, I looked up the t-shirt online, to be sure I was remembering it correctly (I was), and I found that there is a popular Christian self-help book with the title, “Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World.” And I was offended all over again!

Both the t-shirt and the book clearly are in reference to the passage from Luke, where Jesus and probably some of his entourage stop in to Martha’s house, where she welcomes them and sets about doing the necessary household tasks. Y’all remember this one, right? Martha gets annoyed with her sister Mary, who isn’t helping at all, but is instead sitting and listening to Jesus talk. Martha tries to get Jesus to order Mary to help her, but Jesus wisely does not try to tell either of them what to do. Instead, he says that Mary has chosen what’s best, and he’s not going to ask her to do anything else.

Ok, so Martha doesn’t come off looking too good in that story. BUT. As we have just heard in the gospel reading for today, that’s not the last we hear of these sisters. And it was a looong reading, wasn’t it? There’s so much here I want to talk about! But I’m going to try to keep focused.

When Lazarus falls deathly ill, his sisters (both of them) send for Jesus. Jesus drags his feet a bit, which frankly I find annoying. But then, we find out later in the story that even if he had left right away, he still wouldn’t have made it in time. Why Jesus waits is unclear— it seems he wants to make a point, somehow. But I confess to not seeing the point he was trying to make.

What we do know is that journeying back to Judea is dangerous for Jesus. There are religious/political leaders (and I say religious-slash-political, because you know, at that time and place, religious leaders were political, and political leaders were religious. The combination is a dangerous one.) but anyway, there were leaders there who have already noticed his brand of teaching and have made it clear that he is not welcome in the region of Jerusalem. But Jesus loves this family, and he is not afraid of anything those leaders can do to him. So he sets off. And I just love how Thomas sounds just like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh here: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” That cracks me up every time.

Get ready now: Martha is about to have her Moment.

The thing I love about Martha is that she speaks her mind and isn’t afraid of a little confrontation! We saw it in the Luke story, and we see it here: while Mary refuses to come out to meet Jesus until Jesus specifically calls for her, Martha storms right on out to meet Jesus on the road into town.

You can just picture her: hot-headed, angry in her grief, lashing out, trying to blame someone else for the pain she is feeling at the loss of her beloved brother. Isn’t it often the case that when we lose someone we have loved deeply— we are very sad but also very angry?

“Jesus, where have you been?!? We sent for you days ago!! Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

But immediately after her angry outburst, Martha seems to cool a bit.

“But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”

Does she dare to hope that, even now, Jesus could bring her brother back to him?

Maaaybe. But her later statements don’t really seem to indicate that she is imagining that Jesus will bring Lazarus back. Instead, I think she is reiterating her trust in Jesus. Even in her anger at him not being physically present in her hour of need, she acknowledges that he is still a source of strength and comfort to her.

And isn’t that often the case for those of us who grieve. In one breath we can be angry at God for taking our loved one, and in the next breath we can find strength and comfort in that same God.

Jesus reminds her that her brother will rise again. And Martha sets Jesus up to make one of John’s famous “I am” statements. We’ve already heard Jesus make several so far in this gospel:

I am the bread of life.

I am the light of the world.

I am the door of the sheep.

I am the good shepherd.

And here:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

And here it is—Martha’s Moment to Shine.

In the other 3 gospels (Matthew, Mark, & Luke—the ones we call the “synoptic gospels,” and that tend to have the same structure and several of the same stories shared between them)—the authors of those gospels place the ultimate confession that Jesus is the Messiah in the mouth of Peter (also a biblical character I have a lot of fondness for. But this is not a sermon about Peter. Not today.)

While the other gospel authors feature Peter making this pinnacle statement about who Jesus is, John always does things his own way. And in his gospel, it’s not Peter but Martha who makes this proclamation. It’s not a male disciple, but a female close friend of Jesus.

And let’s note that it’s not Mary either, who if you believe the t-shirt slogan, is the sister who knows more about how to honor Jesus, who has the “right” heart. Nope, Martha is the one. Busy, hot-headed, confrontational Martha. SHE is the one who states: “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

This statement is the one on which the whole of John’s gospel hangs. And it comes from a woman’s mouth.

After this climatic statement from Martha, Jesus moves on to speak with Mary, and then on to resuscitate Lazarus. This story is the pivot in John, from the life of Jesus before, to what comes next. And anybody who has ever heard the story of Jesus, from any of the gospels, knows what’s coming next.

Today is the 5th Sunday of Lent. Next week is Palm Sunday, which leads to Maundy Thursday, which leads to Good Friday. In the gospel of John and in our church calendar, from here we are heading inexorably toward Jesus’ death.

But, Lazarus’s rising from death gives us a kind of preview of Jesus’s rising. Like Martha, we will find hope in the midst of grief. Easter morning will come.

What can we take away from all of this—our gospel reading and my rambling thoughts on it? Well, for starters I hope we’ve learned to resist the urge to reduce a person’s life and story to a slogan that will fit on a t-shirt. But beyond that, I think one of the takeaways here is that we should be proud to be who God made us to be, and to live into our own personalities, using our own gifts and strengths to bring glory to God in our own lives.

Y’all may know that Shelby and I teach a sexuality education class to teens called Our Whole Lives. It was written collaboratively by the UCC and the Unitarians, so it has a religious frame to it. Well, Shelby and I are forever telling our teens that God made each of them good—and that means every part of them. We know that early adolescence is HARD, and with bodies and minds changing rapidly it’s important to hear that they are good, and that their bodies are blessed, and that their jumble of emotions is not so tangled that they can’t bring their whole selves to God anyways.

But it’s not just early teenagers who need to hear that message. For every one of us, no matter what age or stage of development, life is a struggle every day, in some way or another. Let us resist the urge to think that others are doing life better or are somehow more godly than we are. That’s a dumb t-shirt slogan, not sound theology.

Jesus loved every last member of the family we encountered today: attentive Mary, bold Martha, and Lazarus—who we actually don’t know much about personality-wise. He’s just sort of there. But clearly Jesus loved him, too—enough to put himself in danger to travel to save him. Enough to weep at his grave.

And Jesus loves every last member of this family here at St. John, too. No matter who you are, or where you are on life’s journey—God has made you good, and Jesus has called you friend. In our gladness and in our grieving, each one of us has our part to play in this journey through life. We each have our Moment to bring glory to God.

May it be so.

Thanks be to God.