Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, July 20th,
A+D 2025
Our Redeemer and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
The One Thing Necessary - Overcoming Distraction
to
Feed on the Bread of Life - Luke 10:38 - 42
It’s not just our phones. Distraction is a great enemy of saving faith, and the 21st Century phenomena of the smartphone, giant flatscreen and laptop are a problem. But distraction comes in many forms. Both Plato and Aristotle worried that the spread of the invention of writing would degrade human memory and impede knowledge and wisdom. As tends to be the case with every new communication technology, sexually inappropriate materials were a big part of the early expansion of the printing press in the 15th and 16th centuries. For every Gospel tract published by Martin Luther and his friends, there were many more bawdy tales printed to sell to the masses, which would distract them from hearing and believing the Good News about God’s Son Jesus. Back in the day when newspapers were the rapidly expanding new media, some were concerned that skimming newspapers rather than reading books would dumb down society. Distraction is a problem.
Smartphones and the internet certainly bring a unique blend of challenges, with their flashing lights and the false promise of online “friends.” The violence and pornography that are just a few clicks away for all of us is troubling. Learning to deal with boredom is likely an important developmental task for our brains, but how could we ever be bored, when we can play Candy Crush whenever we want? You can have very high quality Bible apps with you at all times, to listen, read and study. But I’m not sure many people are taking advantage of them.
We may be more distracted today than ever. But distraction that prevents us from hearing and believing God’s truth comes in many forms, and it has always been a problem, ever since the Serpent distracted Eve with his question: Did God really say?
Today Martha teaches us about a surprising distraction, the distraction doing good works, of lovingly serving the Lord and his disciples. "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things…” Are there any Martha’s in our pews this morning?
I do feel a
need to defend Martha a bit. Yes, the
Lord encourages her to focus on His Word, His teaching, by praising Mary’s choice. But Martha was doing good, important
things. Preparing for this morning, I
thought of the CCVs, the college conference volunteers at the Higher Things
conference I attended with our youth a couple weeks ago. CCVs are college age men and women who serve
at HT conferences, directing lost kids and adults, helping with seating 1200
souls in a church built for 900, running the evening games and activities,
making sure the various teachers had all they needed for their sessions, and
generally doing whatever else was needed.
They were present for all the great worship and teaching, but I’m sure
they missed a lot, because they were distracted by their duties.
They volunteered to miss out on good things, for the sake of the kids. They chose to serve a group of fellow Christians that just a year or two earlier they had been part of. It would be hard, close to impossible, to run a conference without their sacrificial service.
Martha’s reason for distraction was big. The Christ, the promised Messiah, the anointed Savior of Israel, and of all the nations, was coming to visit. How clean did she need to get the house? God in the flesh was going to get hungry, not to mention the men who traveled with Him. Was she tempted to try a new recipe, or did she stick with what she knew was good? There was work, good, important work, for Martha to be doing.
So, good for Martha, willing to serve. And yet, Martha got distracted by her work, distracted from the one truly necessary thing. Martha became too busy to stop and listen to Jesus. She forgot some of the most basic teachings of Jesus, that the Son of Man came to serve, not to be served, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Martha forgot that man, and woman, do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. From the beginning, the first order of business in the relations between God and mankind has always been for God to speak, and for humans to listen. Hear O Israel, the Lord is One. Hear the Word of the LORD. Be still, and know that I am God. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly. Because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. I am not ashamed of the Gospel, (I will not only embrace the Cross at the center of the Good News, but I will also make hearing the Gospel priority #1), for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, for all who believe.
God’s first concern is that we listen to His creative, life-giving Word. Still, as we listen, plenty of God’s Word will tell us to serve, whom to serve, and how to serve. Hospitality in particular is a big deal in the Bible. Abraham sets the standard, springing into action to serve the LORD, when He showed up at his tent near the Oaks of Mamre. Israelites were to be ready to provide for the sojourner, the outcast, the widows and orphans, for they had suffered as slaves in Egypt, and wandered homeless through the wilderness.
Both listening to God and serving other people are very important to the Lord. The key is to set things in their proper order, and keep them that way. I’m reminded of the object lesson popular among college professors, hoping to help the incoming freshmen with prioritizing their lives. The prof sets a large clear container on a table, and then fills it up with large stones. He asks the class: Is it full? As students offer their opinions, he pours gravel in on top of the large stones, which runs into all the spaces. Now is it full? The students are more cautious with their answers, as they begin to grasp the point. The professor proceeds to pour fine sand on top of the stones and gravel, and it runs to the bottom and fills all the spaces. Now the jar really looks full. Finally, the professor takes a pitcher of liquid, water most often, or beer if it happens to be a Lutheran college, and pours it on top of the stones, gravel, and sand.
One lesson we might take away is that there is always room for a beer at the end of a good full day. But the more important, real lesson is that when we start our days with the big, important things, we will still find space for the smaller things. But, if we fill the jar of life with small things like sand or beverages, there won’t be room for the big, important rocks.
Jesus is teaching Martha, and us, that, even though the world tells you the opposite, filling up with His Word is the One Thing Necessary, the one way to be connected to the Rock of Salvation. Service to others, and care for ourselves, rest and relaxation, these are all good, in their proper time and quantity. But if, instead of sitting at Jesus’ feet, we pursue the lesser things first, or, God forbid, we pursue worthless things, our life might seem full, but that will not be the life God wants for you. For God wants to give you the life of glorious joy with Him, that goes on forever and ever.
Why is feeding on the Word of Christ the One Thing Necessary, the Truly Good Portion? Because God has promised by His Word, and only by His Word, to rescue sinners from all our troubles.
Satan wants you distracted away from the Word of Christ, because in it you will hear that God in Christ has reconciled the world to Himself, through the forgiving blood of Jesus. You will hear that the Lord desires for all to repent, and come to the knowledge of salvation, that He is always ready to claim new children, through the circumcision of the heart, made without hands, Holy Baptism. Satan definitely does not want you to hear that there is no other name, given under heaven, by which we must be saved, other than the Name of the only Savior, Christ Jesus, God the Father’s crucified, resurrected and ascended Son.
And wait, there’s more. In addition to salvation, (as if we need anything in addition to salvation), still, even more, it is by His Word that the Holy Spirit gives you wisdom, wisdom to choose better, day by day, as He renews your will. By His Word, the Spirit gives you the mind of Christ, and the desire to serve others, and not just yourself. By delivering to you the love and forgiveness poured out for you in Christ, God through His Word is changing you, and He is using you, as He continues to work through His Church, through every believer in Christ, to draw yet more sinners to the forgiving love of Jesus.
There is no
other Word like Jesus’ Word, nowhere else can we find grace to meet our every
need, forgiveness and acceptance by the Almighty, and a part to play in God’s
ongoing mission. So yes, indeed, sitting
at Jesus’ feet to hear Him speak words of life is the One Thing Necessary, the Truly
Good Portion.
How are you doing with this most important task? Well, you’re here today, hearing Jesus and receiving His gifts, so that good. The Sunday service, a regular, habitual weekly gathering to be served by God and to respond with thanks and praise, this has been the hub of God’s Plan A for serving His people since He first gave a set plan for worship to Moses in desert, more than 3,400 years ago.
I sometimes wonder if you get tired of me suggesting practical ways to get more of the Word of Christ in your daily life. I wonder, but I don’t really care, and I’m not going to stop. Because, besides preparing a faithful service for you on Sunday, what better thing do I have to do than to always be trying to connect you more closely to Christ through His Word? For Christ in you is the hope of glory.
So you can see in your bulletin the list of opportunities for deepening your time in the Word through the week, and you know I am always happy to talk individually to help you with this most worthy project. It is important to find and use good resources, of course. But this is a manageable task, one I’m very happy to help you with.
And of course, first and always, keep gathering, like you have today. If you must miss on Sunday, remember, we gather for prayers on (Tues/Thurs), and on Wednesday nights at 7:00 pm at ORLC. And especially you should consider coming next Wednesday. We’ll pray at 7:00, as usual, and then, Lord willing, we will enjoy root beer floats, and hear from Makia Adler, a brand new LCMS missionary preparing to deploy to Belize. Come and learn about God’s ongoing mission, for your faith, and joy, and to help open our eyes to opportunities here in the Black Hills.
Mary made the better choice, when Jesus came to visit her and Martha. That may seem easy. After all, God in the flesh had come into the house. Easy for Mary to choose to hear Jesus, just as it was easy for Abraham and Sarah to drop everything to host the LORD, as He came to visit them at the oaks of Mamre.
But hear and please remember this: We have the same blessing today. God’s presence with us is not visible, and so maybe for us not as exciting. At the same time, the story of salvation, which was incomplete for Abraham and Sarah and Mary and Martha, is now, for us, complete. It is finished. It is finished, and your Finisher is here, today, to teach you and comfort you, to forgive and strengthen you, to feed you with the bread of life, the medicine of immortality, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of all your sins.
Rejoice, hear Jesus, and joyfully receive all He has for you, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
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