MARTHA AND MARY'S OPEN DOOR AND OPEN TABLE

Sunday's gospel reading from Luke is about a warm welcome and one very simple meal.

I would argue that we can find historical memory in the passage. Martha and Mary’s home was a house church, open to everyone: a sanctuary. Martha and Mary were involved in the diakonia of the open table. There are scholars who argue that the sisters were once wealthy, and the lack of servants in the narrative and Martha doing all the preparations by herself, showed that they had followed what Jesus required from the rich.

Jesus’s admonition to her that “there is need for only one” is a reminder to us that, one dish was enough, “tama na ang isang ulam,” especially for the poorest of the poor who were most welcome in these house churches. Maybe Martha, so used to feasts and banquets, momentarily forgot that--for those whose only hope is God--there is need for only one.

That Jesus is referred to as LORD three times in the passage reminds us of the Basileia movement’s most fundamental, subversive affirmation: JESUS IS LORD AND NOT CAESAR! And to proclaim that Jesus is Lord is to proclaim the good news for the poor.

What about Mary choosing the better part? But what is the better part? Martha and Mary’s sanctuary was a home, not a cathedral most churches today want their worship places to be. Jesus admonished Martha that the open table needed just one dish for everyone, not a feast or a banquet most of us believe are expressions of hospitality, prosperity, and fullness today.

And he praised Mary for focusing on the guest, on welcoming the neighbor. The ministry of the open door. In the Lukan narrative, the neighbor includes widows, orphans, strangers, those who are robbed, beaten, stripped naked, and left half dead, and, yes, enemies!

And because many of us are not poor, we forget that for millions of people in the world who gargle water for breakfast, drink hot water for lunch, and cry themselves to sleep for supper, a welcoming home and a simple meal represent God’s shalom!

We need more Marthas and Marys. We need more open doors and open tables.

*Art, "Martha and Mary," JESUS MAFA, 1973, Cameroon (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives)