If you have read or watched Handmaid’s Tale, where Biblical names and imagery are used by an evil theocratic regime to repress and control women, you will remember that the regime gave the name Martha to the women used by the regime as their tools to keep other women in line. The author, Margaret Atwood, knows her Bible and was thinking of this passage from Luke, which is often understood to be about one woman telling another woman to get back in her box - to conform to the gender roles her society has forced on them both, and stop inserting herself into the “male” role of disciple to Rabbi Jesus. I have taken this approach at times when preaching on this scene, but is that really what this story is about? Or is it all it’s about?
We are shocked when people like Elon Musk claim that empathy is the fundamental weakness of Western Civilisation – echoing his hero, the twentieth century novelist Ayn Rand. We are shocked because we don’t want to live in the sort of world Musk and Rand want to build. We want to live in a Good Samaritan world – a world in which every human being believes we have a responsibility to offer assistance to every other human being, whether or not they look like us, think like us, worship like us, or love like us.
“Come to the edge," he said. "We can't, we're afraid!" they responded. "Come to the edge," he said. "We can't, We will fall!" they responded. "Come to the edge," he said. And so they came. And he pushed them. And they flew.” - Apollinaire
We are not immune to violent personal and political headwinds when we gather for worship. But as we bring our ‘demons’ with us to church, we ask Jesus and our Jesus-following community to release us all from them – to drive them out though they may be legion - and to send us back, dressed and in our right minds, to be still-points of liberty, peace and justice in all our communities.
What we celebrate on Trinity Sunday is: God who from eternity is in loving, exuberant relationship, God who gives and receives, God who designs and measures and creates, God who plays, God who has fun. God who dances and keeps inviting us to join the dance.
God the Holy Spirit says to us, “Spread out! Don’t expect people to come into your camp to hear the good news”. God’s Spirit wants to create wild, colourful places where infinite variety is welcome. We need to let the Spirit move us out and help us learn to speak the languages around us.
Ascension Day is one of the great celebrations of the church, probably dating right back to the feeling of exuberance expressed by the disciples in this reading. But as you read the account of Jesus’ ascension in Luke don’t you want to ask, what, exactly, were they celebrating? Luke says they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. What were they so happy about?
Rev Pam Hynd's sermon for Easter 6
"Love one another as I have loved you." Was that really a new commandment? Or a summary of all the old commandments? Either way, it is new in every situation as the simple law of love meets the complexity of life. Just as God's love for us is new every morning
When Mother's Day and Good Shepherd Sunday coincide, I can't resist the invitation to talk about my Mum, my dogs and Jesus! And Dorcas, of course!