Stressin' Out: Sermon Luke 10:38-42

Dear God, take our minds and think through them; take our hands and feet and work through them; take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire for you. Amen

There was a movie back in the 1980’s called Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The story was about this young high school guy who grew tired of school and wanted to play hooky for a day. The movie depicts his adventures and his attempts at not getting caught. The reason that I bring up this movie is because of one particular line in the movie, toward the end Ferris says to the audience after completing his day of fun without getting caught “Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” That is close to truth in movies as I have ever seen. Our world today is filled with gadgets and gizmos that are suppose to make our lives easier and free more time for us. We have cell phones, laptop computers, microwaves, DVD players, Ipods, digital cable, high speed internet, and all kinds of other things. These things promised us freedom from the daily grind, but I think instead they have pushed our noses harder into the grindstone.

We are busier than ever. Some of you are enjoying retirement and I have heard some of you say that you are busier now than when you were working at a job. We are a society that praises busyness, we have to be doing something all the time. Employers look for multitaskers, it’s not about doing one thing well anymore, but about doing a lot of things so-so. There is nothing wrong with being busy, it keeps us focused and motivated. The things we do give us incentive to get of bed in the morning, they keep us active. There can be of course too much of a good thing. When we have too much on our plate, when burn our candles at both ends for too long, we get stressed out and burned out. Our priorities change for the worse and we lose our focus on what is really important in our lives. This is what happens to Martha.

Our story is about two sisters. I am an only child and so I do not know of the joys and the pains of sibling rivalries, but I do know it when I see it and I think that is what we have in our story today. Martha and Mary are the sisters of Lazarus, the man Jesus brought back to life in the Gospel of John. Jesus is a close friend of the family and has stopped by for a visit. Of course in those days there was no telephone or e-mail, there were some form of postal routes but there were mostly reserved for governmental and military communications, so Jesus’ visit was probably unannounced and unexpected, but always welcomed. 1^st century Israel is a lot like the 21^st century Southern America, you don’t have anyone enter your home without offering them something to eat and drink. So Martha rushes to the kitchen perhaps to prepare bread, or meat, or olives, something to eat for Jesus. She was also probably doing the Flight of the Bumblebee cleaning that we all know when we have an unexpected visitor. She was multitasking, burning her candle at both ends, doing the chores of three people and they as she wipes the sweat from her brow she notices her younger sister Mary, just sitting listening to Jesus talk. She feels her blood boil, her stress level is rising, she’s getting angry and frustrated and this causes her to do two things stress out and lash out.

Stress is a good and bad thing. One the one hand stress lets us know we are alive. Stress is our body’s reaction to outside stimulus. One the other hand stress can have serious, adverse, health effects. Listen to these statistics, 43% of adults suffer from stress related health problems, these can include depression, anxiety, heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, cirrhosis of the liver, and can lead to suicide. Two thirds of all doctor office visits are stress related. 64% of American take active steps to relieve stress makes me wonder about the other 36%. Each year stress related illness and injuries cost businesses $300 Billion dollars. Stress reduces our immune system’s ability to fight off germs and viruses. It is a major problem in the US and around the world and it is growing. Stress builds up and builds up like a pressure cooker.

Here is Martha working her fingers to the nub. She might have been grumbling under her breath. “Just look at that good for nothing sister of mine. I am busting my tail trying to put food on the table and she’s looking at Jesus all goo-goo eyed. Her stress builds up and builds up until it explodes and she lashes out.

So often it is just a small thing that causes a stressed out person to lash out at another. Then the straw that breaks the camels back causes the person to just lose it and take their anger and frustrations out on the nearest person. Often it is a person that we don’t want to hurt they are just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Who does Martha lash out at first, not Mary but Jesus. She says “Lord, do YOU not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?” “Jesus do YOU not care that I am running ragged and no one is helping me?” “I thought you were supposed to be for the little guy, the downtrodden, the used and abused.” She’s not really mad at Jesus or at God, but at her sister but Jesus becomes an easy target for her frustrations. He was supposed to be the leader and to lead fairly, not to leave Martha with an unfair workload. She wants Jesus to tell Mary off, tell her to get up and help, be the leader, be fair.

Haven’t we all played the blame game with God? Things go wrong and the first person we blame is God. “Why me? Why do you allow things like this to happen to me? I have the worst life and the worst luck of anyone in the world? Why is life so unfair to me?” Why do we blame God? Perhaps it is because that God is an easy target. God is control of everything, all powerful and so when bad things happen it must be God’s fault. God doesn’t argue back when blamed. If we were to blame another person, a sibling, spouse, or friend, they could argue back, “no it is NOT my fault.” We turn to God with our frustrations.

What is God’s reaction? Anger, rage, disappointment, vengeance, no. God reacts in love, just as Jesus reacts to Martha. Jesus does not scold Martha, but instead shows her that her frustrations and anger toward Mary is not right and that it is she who needs to lesson not Mary. She is stressed out and has lashed out at Jesus and indirectly at her sister. Jesus wants to show her a better way of living, a new, more excellent way of stress management. First, Jesus says that you have many distractions, but that your focus should be on one thing…God. Just as Mary dropped everything to hear Jesus speak about God, Martha needs to focus her mind and her priorities on God. Just as Jesus taught the disciples to seek first and foremost the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness and then all other things will fall into place. Seek first God and then all other things will fall into place. If God is on your mind then what can the world do to you? How much can your lose with God as the center of your life? Do not worry about what you will eat, or wear, or sleep, because God will take care of all that. Instead refocus your mind on God only and the stress of life can be controlled. This is probably the second hardest thing to do as a Christian. This requires us to let go of our control and put God in the pilot’s seat. There were a lot of bumper stickers and car tags a few years ago that read “God is my co-pilot.” But if God is your co-pilot you are in the wrong seat, scoot over.

Along the same lines, take time for God everyday. This includes reading Scripture and praying. We are going to talk more about prayer next week, but remember that prayer is both talking and listening. These are important daily routines that we should be involved in. They give us comfort and allow us each day to be refocused on God and not on ourselves.

Also do not worry about things that you cannot change. This includes other people and their reactions to you. People might get mad to you for things, they might be jealous of you, whatever it is you cannot control other people’s emotions. You cannot control other people’s behavior towards you. I was moving Angie down here about a year ago now and we where heading down I-65 in a cargo van loaded down with stuff. I changed lanes without looking properly and I inadvertently cut off a man in a truck. I moved over he gave me the old “you’re number one sign” and was calling me everything but a Christian. Then we motioned for me to pull over to discuss the matter further then proceeded to cut me off. Now I could have reacted with equal rage and anger and maybe gotten beat up, arrested, or worse. I instead mouthed I’m sorry and looked ahead of me and let the man go on. Don’t let people dictate your emotions, don’t allow people to get you riled up, stressed out, and lashing out.

Stress can eat us up alive and so we have to be proactive in our stress management. This means keeping our focus on God daily. This means living a life of love and forgiveness towards other people. This means talking openly and honestly with people before stress builds and builds to the breaking point. Christianity, the teachings of Jesus are not just for Sunday school, but they are lifestyle choices that God wants us to make. They allow us to live life more abundantly and more happily in this life not just in the afterlife. God does not want us to live stressed out, lashing out lives, and God gives us the keys to living that kind of life. We simply have to let go of ourselves and allow God to move in.

Let us pray…

Grant, O Lord,

that what has been said with our lips we may believe in our hearts,

and that what we believe in our hearts we may practice in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.