Luke 10

 

In Luke chapter 10, Jesus sends out seventy(two) apprentices ‘like lambs into the midst of wolves’ to find, in the places he intended to go, someone who would welcome them into their home.

In this context, Jesus is asked what makes for that quality of life we long for — a life characterised by loving God and our neighbour — and, when pushed to define who is in and who is out when we speak of ‘neighbour,’ Jesus tells a parable of a man on a journey who falls into the midst of robbers (cf. sent out like a lamb among wolves) and who is taken to an inn (literally, the place where all are received) where the innkeeper (host; cf. the person who welcomes Jesus’ apprentices into their home) might ‘take care of him.’

Also in this context, we meet two sisters, Martha and Mary. Martha receives Jesus into her home, as a person of peace or as the innkeeper. Mary is described as sitting at Jesus’ feet, which is a way of describing the apprentice to a master. That is to say, Mary is one of the seventy(two) who are sent out as lambs among wolves; and Martha is one of the people who receive Jesus into their homes and extend hospitality to him and to others.

We are told that Martha is distracted, or pulled in multiple directions, by much service or ministry. And while ministering hospitality to Jesus, she takes the opportunity to ask him that, at such time as he comes across her sister Mary out on the road, out identifying other ‘inns’ — other homes of hospitality where all are received in Jesus’ name — he might tell her to return home and cooperate with her sister, Martha, sharing the load.

What is interesting is that Martha feels safe enough to name her truth — her sense of overwhelm; her need for help; her sense of being abandoned by her sister, perhaps with attending resentment; perhaps even her concern for her sister, sent out as a lamb among wolves or a man who falls among robbers, perhaps her longing that her sister returns to the inn that she keeps, so that she might know that her sister is safe.

In this place, Martha is bold enough to ask Jesus if he does not care, if he is not prepared to be the innkeeper who attends to the wounded and weary?

In this safe space, Jesus responds with deep listening — demonstrating that he does, indeed, care. He speaks her name — ‘Martha, Martha’ — which is a way of expressing that she has been truly seen, truly heard, truly recognised. Her being overwhelmed by much service is understandable. Yet, the solution is not to tell Mary to come home. Rather, Jesus helps Martha to see that Mary has taken hold of the call of God on her life, which is different to Martha’s life, and that this will not be taken away from her, at least not by Jesus.

The call on Martha, likewise, is not a call to much ministry — to an overwhelming burden — but to something good, something life-giving, she has lost sight of through distraction, through anxiety. She has the resources for what she is called to — to offer hospitality, to receive all — and, in being heard and affirmed is enabled to reconnect to her resources.

Our churches are called to be inns where all are received, where weary travellers experience hospitality, refreshment and safety. Where they are fed, as Psalm 23 puts it ‘in the presence of our enemies,’ for there is no place where we do not face anxiety or overwhelm, but nonetheless we can be brought back to the place of emotional and nervous system regulation.

Our churches are also called to be communities of apprenticeship, of sending out, of establishing other such communities, other ‘inns on the way.’

What, then, is our experience of the church? Is it a place where it is safe, to name our anxieties, to name the sensations that are felt first in our bodies? Are they the kind of communities that help us bring those unconscious responses into our conscious thoughts and memories, our stories by which we navigate life? Are they places of healing and wholeness?

This is slow work, patient work, that takes deep listening, deep hospitality (it is no coincidence that we get our word hospital from the practice of providing hospitality to travellers).