The Church Listens Like Mary

Church Anniversary

November 11, 2012

The Church Listens Like Mary

John 17:17-21

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Mary and Martha were sisters. When Jesus came to visit, Martha was very active with the necessary preparations. On the other hand, Mary passively listened to Jesus. This upset Martha and she said,

Luke 10:40-42

“Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

In the same way, the Church is Mary, and not Martha. This means that the Church gathers around Jesus and listens to His Word of Truth through His called preacher in the sermon and in the Sacraments. Thus Jesus prays,

John 17:17-21

Sanctify them [believers] by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Look at the subjects and the verbs of Jesus' prayer. Who is doing what? God sanctifies believers. He is active; we are blessedly passive.

For example, we see this blessed passiveness in the baptism of infants. When they are baptized, they can be smiling and wide-awake or fast asleep or gassy and fussy. But that cute baby doesn't speak the promise of Christ or apply the warm water to their brows. They are passive—they receive what Jesus gives through His Church.

See this blessed passiveness again at the sick bed or deathbed of God's people. They cannot help themselves. They must be cared for by the blessed Marthas around them. The pastor comes and preaches the Gospel and administers the Sacrament and they receive the sustaining promise—Christ still loves them, He still has died for them, His body and blood in His Supper are still the antidote for the disease of sin.

Over the past 46 years here at Gethsemane, many babies (and children and adults) have passively received the promise of Baptism. Thousands have been forgiven by the pastor as by Christ Himself. Thousands have received the true body and blood of Christ for the forgiveness of their sin. And the sick and the dying have heard the sure promise that, even after their bodies have abandoned them, Christ still stands with them to the very end.

God sanctifies believers—He makes them holy and set them apart in the Church. Church is a gathering of baptized souls who like Mary passively receive gifts from Jesus. But don't confuse passivity with deadness or apathy or sleep. Passive means that Christ saves us through His activity. And by His activity He makes us alive and alert and awake.

In the Church, we are like Mary.

We listen and receive. It makes us alive.

In the world, we are like Martha.

We give and serve. It helps others.

Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you… in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.

God's mercy is what we hear and receive like Mary. And His mercy still flows through us as we like Martha serve others. Until Christ calls us home to heaven or until this world ends, in this meantime, God is keeping His Church and her members in this old world for a reason: as a sacrifice of the body for your neighbor.

Gethsemane's past is filled with the activity of the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—in the lives of God's gathered guests on Sunday morning. This divine activity is the only reason we are alive and have hope. But our past is also filled with the activity of God's people in the world, offering their bodies as living sacrifices.

So, for five decades, the members of Gethsemane served others. Parents have cooked meals, changed bed sheets at 3 am, watched soccer games in bone-chilling weather, and patiently refused to give in to temper tantrums. Kids have taken out the trash, gone to bed without complaining, and stuck up for school friends. Others have labored with diligence in the workforce and have been God's salt in this tasteless old world.

Many have prayed together, praying for themselves and others. Next month you will begin to receive a document each Sunday called “The Congregation at Prayer”. It's a resource with readings from Scripture, prayers, and words from the Small Catechism. It's designed to assist you as you pray at home, so that you can pray along with your fellow members of our Gethsemane family, on any and every given day of the week.

Church is not primarily a place where we go to be empowered and become a busy Martha. Church and our homes where the Gospel is heard is primarily a refuge from the world and from ourselves.

Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, even while we live in the world, we pray that for another year You will make us holy and set us apart from the world in Your holy Church, including Your congregation of saints here, where Your Word is the Truth that is heard from the pulpit and poured out from the font and distributed from the altar.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.