Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator and Sustainer, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that abides in each of us.

I had a lot of fun this past week following the youth and what they were doing on their mission trip in Florida.  I would go online each night and look at the pictures and videos and read the messages, and I even received a few texts and e-mails with updates.  As I went through the week doing this, I began to reminisce about many of the summer youth trips that I have been on.  One trip in particular that I thought about took place in the summer of 1993.  I had volunteered to be a youth leader on our youth mission trip to Visalia, California.  We were going to work in one of the many Mexican labor camps, a place where the migrant Mexican field workers lived, to help remodel some of their living quarters.  One of the projects we were assigned was to clear a small field that was filled with broken glass and dangerous debris so that we could build a playground on it.  In addition, we were expected to gut and remodel their community shower room, and we hoped to paint the outside of several of the homes, actually small huts, that the families lived in.  We had a lot to do in five days, and as the week went on it was becoming obvious that we probably wouldn’t get all the work done that we had committed to do.  On the morning of the fourth day, the playground was finally complete and the children in the camp were able to begin playing there.  It was such a joy to see these little ones play in a safe and fun environment.
 
As we watched the children play, an old Mexican woman walked up to several of the adults standing there and began to speak to us in Spanish.  One of leaders, who was fortunately able to translate, said that she wanted us to gather everyone around, because she had something to share with us.  As one of the work crew leaders, I personally was a little put out, as we only had one more day to get our work done, and I knew if I called all the kids over, there were about 80 of them, it would take forever to get them all back to work.  We would fall even farther behind.  But we did as the women asked.  By the time we got everyone together, the woman had returned with two additional women, each holding large baskets of fresh-baked sweet rolls.  As the old woman began to speak, everyone in our group sat down in the middle of the hot, dusty camp, and her two helpers began passing out the homemade pastries.  As she spoke, she began to cry.  Through our translator, we heard this woman share her story of being a woman in a labor camp where every day meant baking and cooking all day for those who worked in the fields.  Her daily duties, along with the other older women, also included looking after all of the children while the moms and dads were in the fields.  It was a hard and tiresome life.  In all her life, she said, she had never had anyone help her until now.  As she came to the end of her story, she told us that she had always believed in angels but never really knew what an angel looked like; now she knew 80 of them.  Through her tears, she said, “You have brought good news to our home,” and then she proceeded to go around and hug and kiss each one of us.  There wasn’t a dry eye in that hot, dusty camp.  We didn’t get much work done the rest of that day, but we did get to know the children as we played with them, and we did learn a lot about how the older Mexican women cared for their families.  The next day, we finished what we could and sadly left.  There was still much work to be done at that labor camp, but for some reason we all felt as though we had accomplished more than we had planned.

So often in life, don’t we get caught up in our lists of things to do?  How many of us here keep some type of calendar so we know what to do each day?  If you are like me, on most days there are more things on the to-do list than can possibly be done.  I often race through my list just to try and keep up, and as I do, the world, God’s world, passes me by.  Life becomes about doing and not living.  Even in the church, I think this is true.  So often we get so caught up in the busyness of doing our "religious" services or ministries that we become anxious about getting the busy work done.  Doesn’t that remind you of Martha?  You know, our work, just like Martha’s work, is commendable and very important.  But in today’s Gospel story, Jesus reminds us that being a disciple is more than doing; it is first and foremost about listening to God’s Word, and as I learned in Visalia, God’s Word comes from many different places.  When Martha complained, Jesus said, “Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”  Without God’s Word first in our life, we cannot know God’s vision, and without being clear about God’s vision, our doing becomes nothing more than busy work, and we often get exhausted and burned out. 

When we planned that trip to Visalia, I thought it was about getting all the projects on my list completed.  When I saw the amount of work they had planned for us, I panicked.  There were a lot of us, but we were unskilled laborers.  But you know what?  God’s plan wasn’t about the work; it was about living the Gospel.  In my mind, I had tried to separate serving my neighbor from the life-giving Word of God.  I believed the daytime during that week was for work and the evenings were for Bible study, and never the two should meet.  But sitting at the feet of that old Mexican woman, I realized that I was hearing the Word of God.  In her tears, I saw the tears of Jesus as He wept for the brokenness of his brothers and sisters in the labor camps.  I felt the power of the Holy Spirit as he opened all of our hearts to this woman and her life, and in doing so, every one of our lives was changed forever.  God’s vision for us that week was more than just doing; it was about listening.  It was about hearing God’s Word from an old Mexican woman.  As we heard her speak, saw her tears, and felt her hugs, we were no longer exhausted, we no longer felt we had too much work to do; no, with those words on our heart we now knew that we were there not only to be a blessing to others but to be blessed, as well.  When we took the time to listen, God’s vision unfolded before our very eyes.  Our anxiety about all the work and our fears of not getting it done disappeared for in that moment we knew that God’s mission had been accomplished.  In that moment, two peoples from very different worlds became neighbors.  In that moment, two peoples learned what it meant to love your neighbor.  Suddenly, the work was no longer hard labor; it was a labor of love that was full of peace and joy.

Jesus didn‘t criticize Martha for her service; Jesus only criticized her for her worries and anxieties, and about being pulled in too many directions.  There is a time to go and do, and there is a time to listen and reflect.  Disciples are those who are willing to first sit and listen, and then go and do. 

This morning, we are here to sit and listen, but worship is more than what we are doing in this hour right now.  Worship continues when we leave here by living lives of service.  When we take the time to focus on God’s Word throughout the week, when we are at work or at play, when we study God’s Word in groups or alone, when we are with family or friends, we discover His vision for our lives. 

Brothers and sisters, discipleship is more than reading the Bible, it is more than doing good works; discipleship is listening to the Word of God and then going and doing God’s mission.  This is not as easy as it sounds, but it is what brings real joy and meaning to life, here and now.  As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must know that we cannot separate listening and doing.  God’s Word comes to us in the midst of life; it comes through Scripture, in worship, in times of work and in times of play, and it even comes from old Mexican women.  May each of us this week be like Mary and remember to sit at the feet of Christ, for when we do, we will experience something that can never be taken away from us.  It promises to be a life-changing experience.  Amen.

Lessons:
Genesis 18:1-10a
Colossians 1:15-28
Luke 10:38-42