Being Undistracted          The Rev. Dr. Paul S. Nancarrow

I want to say first this morning that it’s very good to be home. Lee and I had a wonderful time in England, visiting my sister and touring with the choir. — By the way, you should be justly proud of your choir and the way they represented Trinity in their ministry of music in England. I know that sometimes in church life we get into the habit of thinking of the choir as kind of off in its own choirloft, doing its own thing apart from the life of the rest of the church. But the fact is that the choir does what it does for the whole of the church, that the choir exists to lead the congregation’s song, and to offer gifts of music for the joy of the congregation and for the glory of God. The choir could not do its ministry of music without the congregation — without you — and the emotional and attentive and financial and prayerful support you the congregation give them. Whenever the choir sings, in church or in the nursing home or on tour, they sing as ambassadors of Trinity Church. And let me tell you, as your ambassadors, Carol Taylor and the whole choir did Trinity proud on the tour. It was a privilege and a joy to be with them.

Anyway, Lee and I had a great time away, and now it’s great to be home. We got back kind of late on Thursday, and on Friday and Saturday we were still jet-lagged and sort of got back into things slowly, and last Sunday Shelby was preaching, so it still felt a little like vacation — and then the work week started, and I swear I’ve been running at near top speed ever since. There’ve been phone calls to make and emails to answer and bulletins to proofread and search committee arrangements and stewardship issues and fall planning to begin and all that stuff that I’d told all those people I would do after I got back. It’s like I’ve been running from task to task to task. At one point I found myself starting to pray, “Lord, don’t you care that I’m having to do all this work when I’m already laggy from such a big trip...” — and then I thought of our Gospel story for today, and I had to stop and take a look at myself and laugh. It seems that Martha and I have a lot in common.

In fact, I suspect that Martha and most of us have a lot in common. Martha stands for all of us who have ever let ourselves get so busy with all the tasks of something that we’ve let ourselves forget the reason we’re doing that thing in the first place. Think of the situation in the story: Martha, and her sister Mary have invited Jesus to dinner at their home. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem: he has been teaching and preaching and instructing his disciples, he’s been out in the public eye an awful lot. But now, at Martha’s house, Jesus has an opportunity to slow down a little, to be at peace with close friends, and simply to enjoy the fellowship they have together in God’s Spirit. Martha wants the dinner to be good for Jesus: she wants the food to be tasty and the wine to be rich and the atmosphere to be full of well-being and companionship. And all of those things are good things to want, all of those things are good things to work for. But the irony is that Martha has gotten so caught up in the tasks of preparing those things that she’s forgotten the reason why she’s doing them, she so much wants the supper to be perfect for Jesus that she’s forgotten to pay attention to Jesus, Jesus himself, Jesus sitting there and wanting nothing more than to share some conversation and some time and some sign of God’s love with his friends. Martha’s problem is not that she’s doing tasks — after all, those are good tasks she’s doing, and she’s doing them for a good purpose — Martha’s problem is that she has become so distracted by her tasks that she’s not able to see Jesus right there in front of her. That’s why, in my mind’s ear, I always hear Jesus’ words to Martha said with great tenderness and great affection and a little humor too: “Martha, Martha, Martha: you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Stop being worried, stop being distracted, just be with me.” And then in my mind’s eye I always see Jesus and Mary getting up and helping Martha finish fixing supper, and then they all sit down to eat and talk together. It’s as if in this short story Jesus is giving Martha permission: permission to stop being busy for busy-ness’s sake, permission to let go of her perfectionism, permission to be undistracted in her tasks, permission to focus first of all on the love of God, and then do what needs to be done in the light of that love.

And of course that’s the take-home part of the story for us, too: That Jesus gives us permission to let go of our perfectionism, Jesus gives us permission to stop trying to look busy for busy-ness’s sake, Jesus gives us permission to be undistracted in our tasks, Jesus gives us permission to focus first of all on the love of God, and then do what needs to be done in the light of that love. That’s the part of the Gospel that I was reminded of earlier this week, as I was rushing around picking up the reins and trying to get reintegrated into parish life after my vacation: That even in the midst of all the tasks — all the good and important and necessary tasks — the main thing, the most important thing, is to pay attention to Jesus, and to let the love of Jesus be the thing that lets all the other things fall into their proper place.

That is such an important principal in our faith lives that we would do well to remind ourselves of it every day. In fact there’s a collect in Daily Morning Prayer that’s specifically for this purpose; it’s a prayer that I find helps to ground me every time I read it. This is how it goes: Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. When I was younger, I used to find this prayer kind of troubling, thinking that we are ever walking in God’s sight meant that God was always watching us, always keeping tabs on us to see if we were doing good and doing enough, as if God were a kind of Orwellian Big Brother in the sky. But as I grew into this prayer, I realized that walking in God’s sight means that God is never far from us, and that the love of God is always around us, and that we can participate in the love of God in Christ shared among us in the Holy Spirit at any time, in the midst of any task, if we, like Martha, will just turn and pay attention to Jesus with us right there. This prayer has become for me a way to keep myself mindful that all the tasks I do, I do in God, and that the love of Jesus is always there to guide and govern me if I’ll just look for it. I commend this prayer to you; even if you don’t pray the whole Daily Office every day, try just praying this one prayer every morning, or at noontime, or at any moment in the day when you feel rushed and run ragged and distracted by your tasks — try praying this any time you feel like Martha — and see if this prayer doesn’t help to ground you and keep you focused on Christ’s love at the center.

And I think that focus is important, not just for us as individuals, but for all of us together as a congregation. Lately, in Vestry retreats and Parish Meetings, we have been talking about how patterns of attendance and participation and giving in churches have been changing — how the terrain of American participation in organizations has been shifting — and how the church needs to take account of this shifting terrain if it wants to stay vital and vibrant and sharing the Good News of God in Christ in the Spirit with ever-widening circles of people in our American life. That kind of change can be kind of a scary prospect. But the good news is that that kind of change can also be a great opportunity: a great opportunity to look at all the churchly things we do, to look at all the tasks and programs and ministries we support, and to be undistracted in paying attention to Jesus at the center of it all. That’s the reason we as a church exist: to pay attention to the love of God in Christ shared among us in the Holy Spirit, and to live out that love in everything we do. Apart from paying attention to Christ’s love, nothing matters. Apart from paying attention to Christ’s love, maintaining our beautiful building, and feeding members of the community, and sending out mission trips and choir tours, and gathering people for Christian education, and publicizing and marketing ourselves for visitors and newcomers — apart from paying attention to the love of God in Christ shared among us in the Holy Spirit, none of that makes any sense. But when we stop, and look at what we do, and pay attention to Jesus’ love in the center, and let everything else flow from and flow into that — then we are undistracted, then all our tasks and programs and services fall into place, then we realize the Spirit is there to guide and govern us the whole time, then Jesus himself comes to us and makes us able to do everything we need to do. The one thing that matters for Trinity Church most is to focus first of all on the love of God, and then do what needs to be done in the light of that love.

Jesus said to Martha “You are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.” May God grant us to be focused on that one thing, and to act without worry and without distraction in the light of God’s love. Amen.