Lectionary Reflection for Proper 11C on Luke 10:38-42

BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY

My guitar is my refuge. As a highly introverted, autistic person, I have always struggled in social situations. I learned early on that it was easier and more comfortable for me to provide background music than to move around the room chatting with everyone. While I have learned some skills over the years, I still feel socially awkward, and it can often be a relief to hide behind my instruments and let my music do the talking. But not everyone is happy to allow me this escape. When I was a member of the Student Christian Association at university, my friends would often come into my corner, take my guitar from my hands, and pull me into the room to be with them. I was always grateful for their love, and their ‘intrusions’ went a long way to helping me find my feet in the complex landscape of social interactions.

But you don’t have to be introverted or autistic to take refuge in socially acceptable actions and dutiful obedience to cultural or religious requirements. For too many followers of Jesus through the centuries, faith has become about jumping through ethical, moral, doctrinal, and behavioural hoops. It is far easier to fulfil a set of legalistic requirements than to brave the unpredictable world of relationships and love. We may have a genuine desire to serve and follow Christ, we may truly be seeking to love God and neighbour, but in our quest to do it right, without mistakes, failings, or ‘sins’, we may fall into a religion of lines, laws, and lists that makes our spirituality cold, calculating, and compassionaless. The world is full of Christians who are trying so hard to do their duty by God and country that they have lost sight of the humanity of other people. They may make great sacrifices for their faith, but they have become obsessed with policing people’s sexuality, politics, and opinions, and with punishing those who fall short of their legalistic purity. The Apostle Paul noted how he had fallen into this trap, as do many of us who try to be faithful to God. He sought to excel beyond his peers in religious purity (Galatians 1:14, Philippians 3:4-6), even to the extent of violently persecuting the church (Acts 9:1-2, Galatians 1:13), but rather than being a model of religious excellence and devotion, he had become “the worst of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

It is a great tragedy that in today’s world, we have witnessed Christians violating democratic processes and using violence to try to overthrow an election.^¹ It is devastating to see people who claim to love God hating their neighbours, applauding the incarceration of immigrants in what can only be called concentration camps, and giving their wholehearted allegiance to leaders who strip the poor and marginalised of their protections and supports, while enriching billionaires still further.² All of these MAGA Christian nationalists would claim to be doing their Christian duty. They would say they are following the precepts and principles of Scripture, and they would declare their eternal love for God. But in their quest for purity, holiness, and rightness, it seems that they are missing the point of the Gospel in deeply hateful and destructive ways.

Jesus never called his followers to duty, perfection, or legalistic religion. On the contrary, he often criticised the religious people of his day for doing their duty in ways that contradicted God’s love and grace. For Jesus, what is important is not that we get things right, but that we give ourselves for the sake of love. One of the primary words used in the Gospels, and especially the Gospel of Luke, is ‘hospitality’.³ But even hospitality can be undermined when it is performed in legalistic, self-righteous, or perfectionist ways.⁴

When I was a child, my father would sometimes invite his Jewish friend, Solly, over for a meal. The two of them would sit at the table and debate various issues of faith, politics, and life. Their conversations would often become heated, but their love for one another was always visible. I remember one time when Solly, food flying out of his mouth as he spoke, stopped mid-argument and declared to everyone at the table that in his Jewish faith, what was important about hospitality was not just the meal, but the ‘talking Torah’, the conversations that built deep relationships. Clearly, for him, even heated debates were part of true hospitality. For Jewish believers, their religious duty included showing hospitality to friends and strangers. But in his teachings, Jesus, staying true to the spirit of his Jewish heritage, instructed his followers to go beyond the call of duty and embrace a whole new experience and expression of shocking, culture-defying hospitality.

HOSTS AND GUESTS

In the last few weeks of the Revised Common Lectionary, we have been invited to reflect on the meaning of the Gospel of hospitality. From the end of Luke 9 when Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem and his coming execution, we have meditated on Jesus seeking and offering hospitality, and being denied (9:51-62); sending out his disciples into the local villages to be dependent on their hospitality and to offer God’s hospitality; and the parable of the Compassionate Samaritan⁵ who showed generous hospitality to a wounded man. Now, in this week’s Lectionary reading, Luke’s Gospel turns a simple, domestic scenario into a subversive explanation of what hospitality meant for Jesus.

Jesus and his disciples had arrived in Bethany, where he had friends. We know Mary, Martha, and Lazarus from this one story in Luke and from John’s Gospel (11:1-46; 12:1-11). In Luke, Lazarus is not mentioned, and Martha is the host. As the men sat around ‘talking Torah’, Martha got busy ensuring that they were shown adequate hospitality. While it is not mentioned in the passage, a meal was likely involved.⁶ Mary, on the other hand, ignored all of the social conventions and took a place alongside the disciples at Jesus’ feet. This upset Martha, who rather strongly asked Jesus to get Mary to play her part in providing hospitality to their guests. But, in what may feel like an unkind response, Jesus gently chided her and supported Mary’s actions.