How’s your hearing? Can you hear me? Mine isn’t as good as it used to be, and many of us over the age of 40 could probably say the same. I’ve recently been diagnosed with hearing loss in my right ear, and I know that hearing loss also has real effects on a person’s life. One begins to miss bits and snippets of conversation, and one feels out of the loop. This may lead one to feelings of loneliness, and many respond by withdrawing from group conversations, increasing the sense of loneliness and feeling like an outsider. If there is loss of hearing in one ear, it is difficult to hear the direction sound is coming from, and difficult to know how to respond. There are parallels here for the spiritual life, the life of hearing the Spirit speak to us as individuals, and as a community of faith.

As commentator Fred Craddock points out, last week’s gospel reading and this week’s too are stories about the difficulty of spiritual hearing, of hearing the Spirit speak.

Remembering last week’s gospel, we have a young lawyer go to Jesus with the beautiful question, What must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus gives a wonderful Jewish answer, quoting from Deuteronomy: Love God with all your heart soul mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. The lawyer throws the question back at Jesus, all fine and good, but who is my neighbor? Are the Romans my neighbors? No. Are the Samaritans my neighbors? No. Are the Gentiles, all of those non-Jewish peoples my neighbors? No. The lawyer wanted to draw lines around his religious commitment to follow God by narrowing the field of his compassion to those who were like himself, to his own people group. He was having difficulty hearing the call of the Spirit to a broad and generous compassion. Who is my neighbor? Jesus story of the Good Samaritan answers, anyone who is in need that you can help is your neighbor. And he further twists to question, which is not so much who is my neighbor, but the real question is, how shall one be neighborly?

Dawn rightly pointed out that while we are called to radical compassion, we are not called to take responsibility for aspects of the lives of others that they clearly are capable of taking responsibility for themselves. We need to listen to the Spirit in discernment and be wise in our practice of compassion so that we are actually serving God and neighbor, and not our own need to be needed.

In the familiar gospel story of today, we find another story about the importance of spiritual hearing.

You know the familiar story….Jesus comes to town with his disciples and finds a warm welcome of hospitality in the home of Mary and Martha. They lived in Bethany near Jerusalem, and must have been well known by Jesus who seems at ease in their home and dropping in with probably two dozen people or so. No wonder Martha felt a little bit frazzled! How would you feel if two dozen guests dropped by in the afternoon? She was under a lot of pressure, or she put herself under a lot of pressure. Her role as a middle-eastern woman dictated that she prepare a welcoming meal for Jesus and his retinue. And what does her sister do? Nothing! Now maybe it’s just me, but does this sound familiar?

Anyways, Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet, taking in the conversation and his gifted teaching. That is an unusual situation for a middle-eastern women to be in. If you have in your mind’s eye Jesus sitting in a chair with her at his feet, that might be the case. But “sitting at his feet” is a euphemism of “being a disciple of.” This meant she was a follower of Jesus, a “disciple.” And this was not allowed at the time. Rabbi’s were not allowed to have female students. So I don’t know what bugged Martha more: that she had so much work to do and no one, including her sister, was helping; or that her sister was elevating herself from her expected cultural role to that of a disciple, and Jesus allowed it.

Regardless, she goes to the Master to intervene in her problem and digs him a bit personally as upset people often do when they ask for help- “don’t you care that my sister has left me with all of the work to do?” ( See, it’s Jesus lack of compassion that’s the problem, she implies)- “tell my sister to get off her duff and get in the kitchen where she belongs.”

Jesus offers a strange answer. “Martha, you are worried and anxious about many things; one thing is necessary, and Mary has chosen the better part.”

While Jesus hears her worry and concern and acknowledges it, he quickly teaches her, one thing is necessary, and directs her to her sister’s example- Mary has chosen better. I don’t think this was a very good pastoral strategy…pointing out Mary’s success to Martha who was so upset. I doubt this helped Martha at the moment, but we have to be careful in elevating Mary at the expense of Martha. Martha is working hard, and there was work to do. Is Jesus dismissing her hard work, and the necessity of the practical work that needs to be done? No. It is important that we not get lost in the details of the story situation, but focus on the teacher.

Jesus was, in effect, saying to Martha- the most important thing in life Martha, is to listen to the Word, to hear the Spirit speak, in this case, through Jesus’ teaching and example. Jesus is really bringing to bear a practical application of the older testament teaching Jesus quotes earlier in Luke, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” He is bringing this important teaching right into the home situation, which was a place of anxiety and worry for Martha. Martha, the most important thing to do is to hear the Spirit in this place. In that situation that meant listening to the teaching of Jesus. It may seem a bit bold of him to have such a high view of his own teaching, but the early church certainly shared this perspective. So closely did the early church perceive the relationship between Jesus and the Spirit of God, the Colossians reading boldly declares, “for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (1:19). Listening to Jesus was listening to the very Spirit of God.

Martha was having a hard time hearing the Word. Perhaps it was cultural expectations of the roles of women that deadened her hearing, perhaps jealousy of her sister. Perhaps it was her legitimate concern with issues of food and drink, but she had a wonderful opportunity to sit with Jesus. It was a divine moment, and she was focused on other things. Though we do not have the opportunity to have sit bodily with Jesus in our living rooms, I think most of us can admit that we too have missed many opportunities to hear the Spirit speak to us in the midst of our busy lives. Plain busyness and distraction certainly contribute to our challenges in hearing the Spirit, but I think there is another larger factor at work: the Spirit often speaks in ways that we might not expect, through unfamiliar paths and persons. And, the Spirit will often speak in counter-cultural ways that challenge our views of ourselves, and our religious institutions. In my view there were two examples of this in the news this week.

In the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury Roland Williams and his right hand man Bishop Sentamu of York, wanted to avoid a conflict over ordaining Woman bishops. General synod on Monday disagreed with the bishop’s attempts at compromise and went ahead with the proposal. We may in the next year see female bishops in the Church of England. In this situation we see what appears to be the work of the Spirit, bringing a “creative disharmony” to the life of the church, challenging the accepted norms. This may cost the church the loyalty of thousands who oppose women bishops.

In the Roman Catholic Church, there are many who sense the leading of the Spirit in the pursuit of the ordination of women. On Thursday in a statement of canon law, the Vatican responded with a clear NO to the proposal: any who ordained women or who were ordained would be excommunicated. Here again we see what appears to be a challenge to established ways of being church as a result hearing what the Spirit is saying.

The Spirit also speaks at the personal level challenging our self-perception. Martha had trouble believing that as a woman the Spirit could be calling her to listen. Likewise, I have often found that many Christians do not lack confidence in God’s ability, but do lack confidence in their ability to hear the Spirit speak in their own life. Could the Spirit speak to me, in myself? Could I possibly make a contribution to the kingdom of God? Here is a place many of us lack confidence, and this makes it difficult for us to hear the Spirit’s call.

How is your hearing? How is our hearing as a community of God’s people? The Spirit is calling us, and leading us into an unknown future. Let us, with God’s help, individually and corporately be resolved to tune our ears to the Spirit as we go forward into an unseen future with confidence, for God is with us. Amen.