Waiting on God

Genesis 18.1-10a ‘O  Lord, do not pass by your servant.’

Colossians 1.24-28 ‘The mystery hidden for ages but now revealed to his saints.’

Luke 10.38-42 ‘Martha welcomed him. Mary has chosen the good portion.’

 

On God alone my soul in stillness waits;

from him comes my salvation.

(Psalm 62.1)

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Our first reading today is known as the Hospitality of Abraham (better titled the Hospitality of Abraham and Sarah) when a mysterious visitation happens and they offer to their visitors the hospitality of their home.

It is a puzzling scene, because the first verse tells us that the Lord appears to Abraham, and then it is three men who are at his door.

This scene has been famously captured in an icon by the Russian iconographer, Andrei Rublev, and is often known as the Icon of the Holy Trinity.

It is little wonder that this has been understood by Christians as a glimpse into the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the One God revealed in Three Persons.

Rublev depicts the three persons as angelic figures, seated at a table, on which there is a golden, chalice-like bowl containing a roasted lamb.

So it becomes an image of the Mystical Supper, the Holy Eucharist, the place of hospitality and receiving the presence of the Lamb of God.

There is much more that can be said, another time, about Rublev’s sublime icon, and how it represents the eternal character of the Godhead.

It probable that the author of the letter to the Hebrews had Abraham’s visitors by the Oaks of Mamre in mind when he writes, ‘do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares’ (Hebrews 13.2).

There is a powerful Biblical imperative to be hospitable; think how many parables and actions of Jesus are set in places of hospitality, and how often he condemns when hospitality is neglected.

Our first reading and our Gospel text open up for us fresh ways of perceiving how we welcome Jesus Christ spiritually and actually into our lives.

Both readings appear to illustrate the same thing: be hospitable to strangers because you never quite know who they are; they might be God in disguise.

But there is something different going on in the Gospel.

Jesus enters a village, which new can assume to be Bethany, for elsewhere in the Gospels we learn that this is the town in which Jesus’ friends Martha, Mary, and their brother Lazarus, live.

As we’ve seen, hospitality to strangers was, and remains, a hugely important part of Near Eastern culture, so the action of Abraham and Sarah, Martha and Mary meets cultural norms and standards.

Except, actually, Mary’s behaviour doesn’t.

Mary doesn’t do what Abraham and Sarah and Martha do, which is show hospitality by urgently preparing food and serving it to the guest.

Mary brings no food, is not frenetic in the panic of hosting an unannounced visitor.

Mary knows a different way of hospitality.

In fact, it may well be that she is the woman who turns up at the house of Simon the Pharisee when the hospitality she showed was in stark contrast to the host: he gave no customary welcome, but she gave lavish devotion to Jesus, washing his feet with her hair and anointing him with fragrant and expensive perfume, highlighting, amongst other things, Simon’s lack of hospitality (cf Matthew 26.6-13; Mark 13.3-9; Luke 7.36-50).

Here in her home Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and, even despite Martha pleadings and apologies, there she stays.

And here’s the bombshell for Martha - and for those of us who like to be busy rolling up our sleeves and doing - Jesus tells Martha that, ‘Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her’. (Luke 10.42)

In other words, Mary’s action is the one of deep hospitality which goes beyond being busy or frantic, but simply delights, silently, in the presence of the guest whom she recognises to be the Lord.

Verses of Psalm 62 could have been written for this scene:

On God alone my soul in stillness waits;

from him comes my salvation.

Wait on God alone in stillness, O my soul;

for in him is my hope. (Psalm 62.1,5)

Martha receives Jesus in a matter of fact way; a guest to be catered for, as did Abraham and Sarah when receiving their three visitors.

Mary is commended for welcoming Jesus in a radically different way of hospitality, paying attention to him, silently and in stillness, listening to his word.

Jesus sees that Martha’s activity is driven by anxiety and inner trouble: “Martha, Martha” Jesus says “you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.” (Luke 10.41,42)

It echoes his words in St Matthew’s Gospel: ‘seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you’ (Matthew 6.33).

Disciples prioritise Jesus; from which all flows.

These friends of Jesus must learn to be his disciples.

We must learn to be his disciples, sitting at his feet, contemplating and adoring.

This is a call to prayer; learning to pray, becoming men and women of prayer.

It is first in wonder and contemplation that we welcome Jesus Christ the guest to our lives.

Mystical encounter precedes active doing.

Recall Moses at the Burning Bush, he first encountered and contemplated the presence of God before he could go and lead his people from their slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.

Of course, a balance is to be struck between doing and being.

The Epistle of James reminds us, ‘be doers of the word, and not only hearers’ (James 1.22) reminding us not to become introspective and turned in on ourselves, but always looking first to Christ.

So today’s gospel has both a practical and a spiritual application.

First, we are to welcome strangers and friends as treasured guests.

The Rule of St Benedict nails it:

All guests who present themselves are to be welcomed as Christ, for he himself will say: I was a stranger and you welcomed me (Matt 25:35). (Rule of Benedict 53.1)

The spiritual application is that the first guest is always Christ, to be welcomed into our lives, worshipped and adored.

When we are invited to come and receive Holy Communion we find he is the host and he is the guest: he invites us to his supper, to the banquet of the Lamb of God, and we respond in humility:

‘Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, [not worthy for you to enter under my roof] but only say the word and my soul shall be healed’.

This is Mary of Bethany’s spiritual posture.

She knows she is not worthy to receive Jesus into her home, and indeed, into her life, but first allows Him to speak the word to bring her healing and peace through his presence.

She is silent in this passage not as a passive, silenced woman, but as an engaged model of discipleship, to which women and men should aspire.

The priority is to fix our gaze and attention on God, from which all else flows.

If our active life dominates our contemplative life, we need to hear Jesus’s words to Martha, ‘you are anxious and troubled [distracted] about many things’.

We live in a distracted and distracting world.

Mary of Bethany has chosen the antidote, ‘the good portion’.

Let’s sit with Mary at the Lord’s feet, to pray, to listen, to learn, to receive, to set aside self to learn from him, for therein lies true hospitality:

On God alone my soul in stillness waits;

from him comes my salvation.

Wait on God alone in stillness, O my soul;

for in him is my hope.