WEBVTT 00:00:01.280 --> 00:00:05.839 I saw this picture this week, and I think this is what motherhood can be like. 00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:08.560 Motherhood can be like this. 00:00:08.720 --> 00:00:17.039 It can be like a like you're like a nice, you know, cute truck, fully capable of carrying a load, right? 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:26.000 Like you carry your own stories, you carry your own baggage, and then you carry other people's baggage and other people's mistakes, and you carry your own mistakes. 00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:29.280 You carry what you wish you were and you're not, but you wish you were that. 00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:35.039 You carry the burdens of your children, you carry the dreams of your children, you carry the dreams of uh your family. 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:38.719 Maybe you carry financial responsibility in your family. 00:00:38.799 --> 00:00:40.719 Uh maybe you carry a lot of the home life. 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:43.280 Maybe you carry the family calendar. 00:00:43.359 --> 00:00:44.640 Um, so you can carry a lot. 00:00:44.719 --> 00:00:46.640 Maybe you cut the lawn, maybe even cut the lawn. 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:48.079 I know a few of you cut the lawn, right? 00:00:48.159 --> 00:00:51.280 Like you can carry a lot and you can productively carry it. 00:00:51.439 --> 00:00:53.039 Like this truck can move. 00:00:53.119 --> 00:00:56.000 It is tied down, you can do it. 00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:07.040 But I think sometimes uh being a mom can feel like this image, this other image, like it can feel like this, where it's just too much, like it's overload, right? 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:09.120 Like you're going nowhere. 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:16.079 You are stuck, and you're just like, somebody, like somebody help, somebody please come and rescue. 00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:25.680 And our hope this morning, a Mother's Day, um, for so many of you, and even some of you who wish you were a mom and it hasn't happened, and that's really hard. 00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:32.879 Or maybe you lost your mom this year, or maybe you've lost a child, and Mother's Day can have a range of feelings. 00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:35.439 Our hope for you this morning is encouragement. 00:01:35.599 --> 00:01:43.439 Our hope for you is not to add more to the truckload to tip you over, but to help give you encouragement on your own journey. 00:01:43.599 --> 00:01:46.480 So, our text this morning is Luke 10, a very familiar story. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:49.120 I've actually preached this text from Mother's Day a few years ago. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:51.200 I'll admit that, preachers, we do that. 00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:54.560 And so this is a story of Jesus with Mary and Martha. 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:59.680 It's going to be familiar for so many of us, but hopefully, as we contemplate it, it has something fresh for us. 00:01:59.920 --> 00:02:03.359 Luke 10, verses 38 through 42. 00:02:04.319 --> 00:02:09.360 Now, as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 00:02:09.599 --> 00:02:13.280 She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:16.719 But Martha was distracted with much serving. 00:02:17.039 --> 00:02:22.240 And she went up to him and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? 00:02:22.479 --> 00:02:24.560 Tell her then to help me. 00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:32.319 But the Lord answered, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:38.080 Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:42.319 So this is a good point for all of us today, really for every single day. 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:52.159 It's a point that we come around this type of idea repeatedly in our church, and it's this we are called to be with God before we are called to do for God. 00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:53.919 How easily we miss over that? 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:59.360 We just start doing for God or doing for our family or doing for somebody else or doing just for achievement. 00:02:59.439 --> 00:03:01.120 We're just doing, we don't even know why we're doing it. 00:03:01.199 --> 00:03:04.319 But we're called to be with God before we're called to do for God. 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:09.039 That phrase, Mary sat with Jesus, Mary sat at Jesus' feet. 00:03:09.120 --> 00:03:20.560 That's a phrase that would be referring to a student or a disciple sitting at the feet of a respected teacher, and that position in this context biblically was reserved for men. 00:03:20.879 --> 00:03:32.639 So here we have Mary breaking very traditional social codes by assuming this role that was reserved for men, and then we have Jesus breaking that same social code to esteem her in that position. 00:03:33.199 --> 00:03:39.439 And the question hit me this week is like, why would Mary risk possibly being rejected? 00:03:40.159 --> 00:03:40.479 Right? 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:43.039 Like, why would she risk being rejected in that moment? 00:03:43.120 --> 00:03:52.879 I mean, to go and sit and assume that position where so easily perhaps this respected teacher would reject her and say, hey, this isn't for you. 00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:54.639 This spot isn't for you. 00:03:55.439 --> 00:03:59.120 I mean, isn't that normally why we sort of like hesitate to become still? 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:02.479 Not like you're praying with music on. 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:06.000 That can be a form of stillness, or you're doing your Bible study while the TV's on, right? 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:15.120 Like that's a form of stillness, but but like really still, just totally, completely you without any outside noise. 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:18.000 Because we wonder, like, what if I'm rejected? 00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:31.839 Like, what if God really fully knew all of me, which he already does, but what if you actually kind of came into that experience of knowing that he is in full knowledge of everything about you? 00:04:32.959 --> 00:04:34.800 Like, would he reject you? 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:43.279 And the story is so good for us to see that he fully knows and he fully welcomes. 00:04:43.839 --> 00:04:46.879 He welcomes you into that space as you are. 00:04:47.600 --> 00:04:58.480 Mary seems to have known on some level of faith, of reputation of this man, this Jesus, incarnate God, that he would have her. 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:01.920 That he would welcome her into that space and into that place. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:10.800 So she can risk, and so she she grows still, she lingers longer, she rests from all of her doing. 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:16.800 Jesus values Mary not just for something she can do for him, but for just being her. 00:05:18.079 --> 00:05:28.399 And that is such good news for us that God does not value you for the role you serve or for the things that you can accomplish, but he values you because you're his. 00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:37.360 I read this actually this morning, as I was still studying this passage this morning. 00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:40.160 The People's New Testament commentary. 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:42.399 This one sentence hit me. 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:47.279 Mary has found the organizing center of her existence. 00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:49.759 I mean, wouldn't that be nice? 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:54.480 I mean, if you read that, you're like, oh wow, the center of my being can be organized, right? 00:05:54.639 --> 00:06:00.079 I mean, it's a way to say that that the core of who we are can have peace. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:05.759 And it's not that Martha's horrible and evil. 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:11.360 It's just that she's not living from the organizing center of her existence. 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:13.439 Peace for the core of who she is. 00:06:13.519 --> 00:06:16.879 And so she's always gonna have not just a busy life, but a busy heart. 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:20.720 This week I learned about a painting entitled The Listener. 00:06:21.040 --> 00:06:21.600 Here's the painting. 00:06:21.680 --> 00:06:24.480 I went and looked it up on Google, and here's the painting here. 00:06:25.120 --> 00:06:25.439 Right? 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:33.439 This person quietly sitting still, surrounded by noise, by politicians and family and artists and musicians. 00:06:33.519 --> 00:06:35.120 There might be a preacher or two in there as well. 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:36.399 We can only assume that, right? 00:06:36.480 --> 00:06:40.399 And he sits still, perfectly still. 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:54.240 Now the artist said, as I looked it up, the artist's commentary on his own work was that this person is sitting still to listen to his own voice, of which I thought to myself, that's good like half the time, but half the time that's crazy. 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:56.879 Like that's a crazy voice to me. 00:06:57.120 --> 00:06:57.920 Like my voice. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:01.360 You don't want to hear that voice half the time what's going on inside. 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:03.839 And so I don't love that interpretation. 00:07:04.000 --> 00:07:04.319 I get it. 00:07:05.199 --> 00:07:06.000 That's the good thing about art. 00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:07.600 We can all have our own interpretation. 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:14.800 For me, I got caught up in this painting this week because for me it felt like it felt like Mary. 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:27.680 I mean, it felt like the stillness that Mary is coming into to resist just more busyness, to grow still, to hear a voice from outside of herself, into herself. 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:28.720 Right? 00:07:28.879 --> 00:07:34.240 So to move past even what we hear as the condemnation of our own voice so often. 00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:45.360 To hear a voice of outside love and welcome and delight and affirmation and redemption and rescue, forgiveness, the imputation of righteousness to us. 00:07:46.240 --> 00:07:46.560 Right? 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:51.920 We need that voice of Christ to us that says, I want you more than what you can do for me. 00:07:53.600 --> 00:07:56.800 I love this quote from Richard Swinson in his book Margin. 00:07:56.959 --> 00:07:59.120 It's one of my all-time favorite quotes. 00:07:59.680 --> 00:08:02.000 We must have some room to breathe. 00:08:02.399 --> 00:08:05.120 We need freedom to think and permission to heal. 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:08.399 Our relationships are being starved to death by velocity. 00:08:08.560 --> 00:08:10.800 No one has time to listen, let alone love. 00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:16.639 Our children lay wounded on the ground, one over run over by our high-speed good intentions. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:18.639 Is God now pro-exhaustion? 00:08:18.959 --> 00:08:22.000 Doesn't He lead people beside the still waters anymore? 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:27.199 Who plundered those wide open spaces of the past and how can we get them back? 00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:32.080 There are no fallow lands for our emotions to lie down and rest in. 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:38.159 And that can be a description perhaps of your life, definitely of the world. 00:08:38.720 --> 00:08:42.320 And this is about bringing our busy hearts to Jesus. 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:56.559 But he's welcome, he's wanting to welcome you and to transform a busy heart into a quiet heart, even if you have a busy schedule, that you can have a quiet heart at peace. 00:08:57.679 --> 00:09:03.039 So this idea of pausing and praying and stillness, this takes so many different forms for us, right? 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:05.600 If we went around the room and said, how's that look like for you? 00:09:05.759 --> 00:09:10.320 It can look like a million different things based on the stage of life you're in and your personality. 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:16.720 But the key is that you're finding that, you're finding a way to be in relationship with Christ. 00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:19.679 And you're finding stillness in your days. 00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:25.039 To connect with what's already true about you, that you have fully forgiven in Jesus. 00:09:25.279 --> 00:09:27.840 And you are fully righteous in Jesus. 00:09:28.399 --> 00:09:37.279 Now, before we just move on to our second point, I want us to pause and I want us to actually practice what Mary practiced, like even within the sermon. 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:40.879 And so I want us to pause and pray just in the middle of the sermon. 00:09:40.960 --> 00:09:42.080 And so I'm going to pray. 00:09:42.159 --> 00:09:43.279 I just wrote this prayer this week. 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:44.639 There's nothing special about these words. 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:54.639 It's just, it's our hearts coming before God to pause and pray and be still and say, I am somebody in Christ before I start to do stuff for Christ. 00:09:54.799 --> 00:09:57.360 And so perhaps you're here and you're a mom. 00:09:57.679 --> 00:10:05.039 And for you in this moment, just for you to open your hands and really just receive this prayer this morning. 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:07.600 You're welcome to read along with me on the screens. 00:10:07.919 --> 00:10:09.120 You can pray with your eyes open. 00:10:09.200 --> 00:10:11.120 We'll allow that in our church as well. 00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:13.039 You can close your eyes if you want to. 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:14.480 Let's pray together. 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:20.559 Abba Father, thank you for creating me for yourself. 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:30.080 Forgive me for all the ways I refuse being with you in favor of doing things for you and for those I love. 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:39.120 Help my heart to slow down, to soak in your lavish welcome and love for me and Jesus. 00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:43.759 Help me to know I'm yours before I am my schedule. 00:10:44.799 --> 00:10:48.080 Help me to know I'm yours before I am my performance. 00:10:49.600 --> 00:10:57.039 And may I move from this position of belovedness with my heart secured in you. 00:10:57.360 --> 00:11:06.399 Father, in these few moments of quiet, just like Mary, help me to receive your delight of me. 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:12.960 Amen. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:16.799 There's a short little teaching in Matthew chapter 23, verse 37. 00:11:16.879 --> 00:11:17.919 And here's what Jesus teaches. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:25.200 He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:34.240 How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing. 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:39.360 So point number two is this Jesus delights in you and welcomes you into his loyal love. 00:11:40.879 --> 00:11:43.039 Here's what I learned about mother hens this week. 00:11:43.200 --> 00:11:44.960 I'm not a farmer, didn't grow up on a farm. 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:47.519 I don't know a lot, so I have to Google to learn about hens. 00:11:47.600 --> 00:11:50.720 And here's what they are they're very overprotective, mother hens. 00:11:50.799 --> 00:11:53.759 And they interfere for the sake of their children. 00:11:54.720 --> 00:11:56.559 Hens have loyal love. 00:11:56.799 --> 00:12:03.519 Like fighting, strong, courageous, intentional, interfering, loyal love. 00:12:03.679 --> 00:12:13.200 And Jesus is saying in this teaching, Jesus is saying, he is like the strength and the force of like a loving, fierce mom. 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:16.639 A protecting mother hen. 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:17.919 It's just an image. 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:24.639 It's an image for us to grab hold of, or to be grabbed hold of by, to behold this welcoming God. 00:12:28.559 --> 00:12:35.279 This imagery of a mother hen, you have that imagery of like a wing, like just like protecting in those babies. 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:37.279 This imagery of wings is not new. 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:39.200 It's all throughout the scriptures. 00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:48.960 Twelve years ago, I went to Israel on a tour with a friend of mine who was a Bible expert, an expert in Israel, and he took me with a group, and we went, we toured everything. 00:12:49.039 --> 00:12:52.000 We toured all over, hit all the main sites, and eventually we were in Jerusalem. 00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:54.240 You know, we went to the Wayland Wall, Temple Mount, all of it. 00:12:54.320 --> 00:12:56.480 And eventually we went shopping in the Old Town Market. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:59.279 Here's a picture of the Old Town Market, just want to get you an idea of it. 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:05.679 It's just like these ancient roads just filled with textiles and different tourist stuff and stuff like that. 00:13:05.759 --> 00:13:08.960 And I actually bought, I bought this prayer shawl while I was there. 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:11.440 And some of y'all know about prayer shawls, and some of you don't. 00:13:11.600 --> 00:13:12.720 I didn't know much about them. 00:13:12.799 --> 00:13:18.240 And so this is a prayer shawl, and Jewish people, you see people wearing them, and maybe they'll just wear them every once in a while, kind of like this. 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:22.399 And these are called tassels, or in Hebrew, they're called tsy, which is important. 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:23.360 We're gonna get to that. 00:13:23.600 --> 00:13:31.919 A lot of times, Jewish people, you'll see them wearing underneath their shirt or their robe, and you'll kind of see these tassels sticking out from behind. 00:13:32.000 --> 00:13:36.879 And it's coming from Numbers 15, verses 37 through 40. 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:37.840 Now listen to this. 00:13:38.080 --> 00:14:01.360 The Lord said to Moses, speak to the people of Israel and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner, and that shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:06.399 So you shall remember and do all my commandments and be holy to your God. 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:09.759 So that word tassel is the word seetzi, so hang with me. 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:15.840 And then in Malachi chapter 4, verse 2, we get this verse, this prophecy. 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:28.159 Now that word wings is the Hebrew word kanaf, which is the same word in numbers which the tassels connect to. 00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:39.360 So a legend group, a belief, that healing would be found in the tassels or the fringes of the prayer shawl of the Messiah. 00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:44.480 So, of course, Jesus as a devout Jew, he would have on a prayer shawl. 00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:50.480 Some think that this might have been part of the robe or it would have been worn under the robe, but he would have had them on. 00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:54.559 This makes sense of Luke 8, verse 42. 00:14:54.879 --> 00:14:57.679 As Jesus went, the people pressed around him. 00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:08.320 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though had she spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone. 00:15:08.960 --> 00:15:15.600 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased. 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:17.919 And Jesus said, Who was it that touched me? 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:23.919 When all denied it, Peter said, Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you. 00:15:24.480 --> 00:15:24.799 Right? 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:27.200 I mean, Peter's saying, like, hey, we're in a crowd. 00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:29.600 Like pre-CO COVID crowd, okay? 00:15:29.679 --> 00:15:33.440 Like where everybody's just like smushed together, pressing. 00:15:33.840 --> 00:15:35.519 Peter's like, What are you talking about? 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:37.120 There's people touching you constantly. 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:38.159 Verse 47. 00:15:38.320 --> 00:15:49.600 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him and how she had been immediately healed. 00:15:49.759 --> 00:15:52.639 And he said to her, daughter, your faith has made you well. 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:54.240 Go in peace. 00:15:54.879 --> 00:16:02.000 It's an interesting story, I mean, just not of itself, but if you think about this stuff in the Old Testament, it's even more interesting, isn't it? 00:16:04.080 --> 00:16:07.039 Because she went and she touched the fringe of his garment. 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:19.840 Which means she's thinking back to a lot of her Jewish heritage and teaching, thinking, if I can just get there, if I can just touch that, I will be healed. 00:16:19.919 --> 00:16:24.000 Now, religion would tell her not to touch him because she would have been unclean. 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:26.320 So religion would have said, no, you you can't. 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:28.240 No, not you. 00:16:28.480 --> 00:16:32.000 Somebody else who has their act together, but but not you. 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:33.440 But she was desperate. 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:34.720 She was at the end of herself. 00:16:34.879 --> 00:16:38.480 And what she's demonstrating is that she's demonstrating faith. 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:46.559 That she needs Jesus, that she needs an outside source of forgiveness and righteousness and love and acceptance, right? 00:16:46.720 --> 00:16:48.240 And this is the incarnate God. 00:16:48.399 --> 00:16:49.360 Nothing else will do. 00:16:49.440 --> 00:16:51.519 She has nowhere else to turn. 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:56.879 And how beautiful it is when we're not in religion but we're in relationship. 00:16:57.440 --> 00:17:01.679 Because Jesus doesn't condemn her for being unclean or not having her act together. 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:02.240 No, no. 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:06.559 Rather, he welcomes her and accepts her and heals her. 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:09.759 I mean, this is the work Jesus does for us. 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:10.960 Right? 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:14.160 This is what we get with this little teaching about a mother hen. 00:17:14.480 --> 00:17:17.920 This is the same thing we get with this teaching of the wings of the tzitzi. 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:19.680 I mean, both are saying the same thing. 00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:39.039 It is our welcome by Jesus in relationship to him that we find salvation for our hearts, eternal welcome in him, and a journey even now in this already but not yet, where we're just trying to do a good job and constantly not quite doing it, and sometimes purposefully not doing it. 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:41.599 And we need the forgiveness and the righteousness of Jesus. 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:47.920 We need that welcome of his to be on this journey of greater and deeper healing. 00:17:49.119 --> 00:18:00.880 As we move toward communion, we're going to pray again, and I want to pray a prayer that's been prayed over moms and children, God's children, for almost a thousand years. 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:02.720 So let's pray together. 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:12.000 Jesus, like a mother, you gather your people to yourself. 00:18:14.079 --> 00:18:16.079 You are gentle with us. 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:23.759 As a mother with her children, despair turns to hope through your sweet goodness. 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:27.039 Through your gentleness, we find comfort and fear. 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:30.960 Your warmth gives life to the dead. 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:34.720 Your touch makes sinners righteous. 00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:38.240 Lord Jesus, in your mercy heal us. 00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:42.319 And your love and tenderness remake us. 00:18:42.799 --> 00:18:45.839 In your compassion bring grace and forgiveness. 00:18:46.160 --> 00:18:50.480 For the beauty of heaven, may your love prepare us. 00:18:50.799 --> 00:18:51.440 Amen.