Staying Focused in a Distracted World

Well, good morning. Welcome to Twin Lakes Church. Good morning to those of you up in the balcony. We got a big crew in the balcony today, high school students. Welcome to everyone joining us online. We are so glad that you are here. My name is Jessica Frankel. I'm one of the pastors on staff here, and it's been a while since I've preached at a weekend service. It's actually been four years, and this is a really big reason why. There's my sweet little family, my wonderful husband Drew, our son Logan. He's five and a half now, and he starts kindergarten here on Wednesday. I know. So even though we are not a new to Twin Lakes family, we are new to Twin Lakes school family, and we have all the big feelings, all the excitement and all the apprehension. That's mostly on my part, but we are excited for him to be here.

And our daughter, Clara, who is three and a half, she is silly. She is sassy, and she loves just about everything and gets into just about everything. So the last time I preached I was actually pregnant with Clara. And then after she was born I came to Mark and Renée and I was like, hey, can I work fewer hours? And they said yes. So I went down to 30 hours a week and after a year of working 30 hours a week I came to Mark and Renée again and I said hey, can I work 20 hours a week? And can I have a different role? And they said yes to both of those things. So for the last three years, I've been able to work 20 hours a week, which has allowed me to spend much more time with my precious little kiddos in these early years and just get to be a mama.

And I also changed roles. After 14 years of being the pastor to junior high students, I handed that role off to Gracie Link. And I am now the pastor of Ministry Associate Development. And if you're wondering what that means, you're not alone. The title kind of lends itself to explanation. So Twin Lakes has had interns and associates for a number of years, but we haven't had an intentional way that we're developing them. Much like there are teaching hospitals, we want to make Twin Lakes a teaching church. So I want this program to grow in scope and number where we have interns and associates all throughout the church. And then we are training, developing, and equipping them for present and future ministry.

So what does that look like? Well, it looks like gathering them together to have people come in and teach us things like how to craft a message, how to care for people in crisis, and more about world religions so we can engage in important discussions. It can look like assignments like going out and interviewing people who have been in ministry for a long time so we know how to last in ministry. It's something that I'm passionate about and I'm really excited to see what the future holds for Twin Lakes in this area.

So speaking of interns and ministry associates, most of them are on our life development team, and that's our birth through college young adult. And they are here to meet you this weekend for back to school weekend. So you can go check out their tables. We have TLK, The Ride, The Greenhouse, and The Hub. They're excited to meet you. Get lots of cookies and pick up whatever else they have for you and check that out. If you're a kid, if you have kids, if you're under 30, if you know somebody under 30, there's something for you there.

So on to our series. We are three weeks into our series investigating Jesus, and it's all about looking at the gospel of Luke and what he wants us to see about Jesus. Luke is one of the four books on Jesus's life in the Bible. Last week we had the privilege of hearing from Herman Hamilton. Was anyone here last week? Yeah, it was awesome. He killed it, and he talked about a woman in Luke 13 that Jesus heals, and she was bent over, and he talked about how Jesus heals us and transforms our lives.

And then two weeks ago, Val kicked off the series, and she spent most of her time talking about the first few verses of Luke, where Luke tells us his methods and purpose, right? Like Luke says, I'm going to go interview all these people who are eyewitnesses to Jesus, and I'm going to write an orderly account. And so Luke, he did his research, right? He had all, he had a wealth of stories he had gathered from people who were there who had seen Jesus. So when we read Luke, we want to ask a few questions. We want to ask, who told Luke this story? How does he even know about it? Why did Luke choose to include this story? And what does this story tell us about Jesus? Because ultimately, we're investigating Jesus.

So today, we're going to dive into a pretty well-known story from Luke. But first, a story from my life, which may give you a hint as to today's story. So a long time ago, before I started working at Twin Lakes, I led backpacking trips during the summers, and they were for junior high, high school, and college-age students. And we'd have a bigger group of kids, but we would break that group up into small groups called family groups, and there were two leaders and usually about eight kids, and that's who we spent most of our time with. That's who we cooked with, that's who we camped with, that kind of thing.

And there was one trip that I led where I just remember getting increasingly bothered by my co-lead because I felt like I was doing a lot of the work myself. And it wasn't the whole week. It was really just one morning where my co-lead was down by the lake having what seemed to be a very sweet and very long Jesus moment. Well, I was back at camp, and I was wrangling the campers, facilitating breakfast, getting everyone ready for everything we needed to do that day. The longer that sweet Jesus time lasted, the more bothered I became, grumbling under my breath, huffly moving things around the campsite, glaring out towards the lake like I could summon my co-lead back with my eyes. And none of those things worked, by the way. I was not any less irritated, and my co-lead had no idea what I was feeling, right?

There are so many other ways I could have handled that situation, but my choice was to continue doing what I thought needed to be done in the order and time frame in which I decided was necessary, while allowing resentment to grow that I was doing it all on my own. Sound familiar? Similar situations occur all the time. They occur at work, at home, at school, and in the Bible. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to the story for today? Anybody? Yep, it's Mary and Martha. If you have your Bible, you can turn to Luke 10, chapter 10, verse 38 to 42. Now, some of you, when you hear Mary and Martha, if you haven't heard this story before, you're like, oh, who are those women? This is going to be a great story. And some of you who know this story, you're like, oh no, not this one. I would really like to just ignore that this is even in the Bible. And if that's you, stick with me because that is totally me too. There is much more to this story than activism versus contemplation or doing versus being.

So let's take a look and see what we have for us in this story today. This is how it goes. Luke 10:38. Luke writes, as Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me. Martha, Martha, the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed. Indeed, only one. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her.

Quick show of hands, audience participation time. Who identifies with Mary? And we got a couple hands. At the nine o'clock, there was one hand. Who identifies with Martha? Yeah, we got a lot more hands. And if you didn't raise your hand, I don't know if you identify with Jesus or what. There's only really three options, but we got Mary and Martha. And I totally identify with Martha, right? When we have people over, I get into go mode. I plan it out. I make the list. I check things off. Oh, and I also attempt to monitor what everyone else is doing to prepare. And that's usually my husband, and it usually doesn't go over very well either. I go from being excited that the company's coming to harboring resentment towards anyone who isn't working hard like me.

And let me tell you, preparing to preach on this story has been so convicting. At various points, I've wondered, how did I end up with this passage? And the answer is, I chose it. Like, I was given a list of passages, and I picked this one. What was I thinking? I don't know. The truth is, I think the Holy Spirit had a big hand in giving me this passage. This is a message I needed to preach because it's the message I need to hear. And I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

Before we dive into this story, just something that is a general observation on Luke. And that is that one of the more remarkable aspects of Luke's gospel is the consistent inclusion and elevation of women. He names specific women who supported Jesus's ministry financially. He includes parables Jesus told where the central figure is a woman. And he includes women who were healed by Jesus, like the woman Herman Hamilton preached about last week. And with our modern perspective, it's so easy for us to miss out on just how revolutionary this was. We read the stories about women and we think, of course they were in there. Why wouldn't they be in there? But to Luke's original audience, this was really surprising. So Luke is telling us consistently through his whole gospel, Jesus values and elevates women. And we see this in this story. It's a story about two women, two sisters.

And there's a very specific phrase that Luke uses when he talks about Mary. And he writes that Mary sat at the Lord's feet. Now this isn't about her physical position in relationship to Jesus. Luke isn't saying Mary, like Jesus sat on the couch and Mary sat on the floor. That's not what he's saying. It's an idiom, which is a figure of speech from that time. And it means that Mary is a disciple of Jesus. The phrase to sit at someone's feet is used of rabbis and their disciples. Prior to Jesus, do you know how many female disciples were mentioned in history? Zero. That would be none. So in using this phrase, Luke is pointing out something he wants us to know. Jesus had female disciples, and he honored, valued, and included women.

If you haven't read the entire Gospel of Luke recently, I encourage you to do so. I've been making my way through it. And as you read, just pay attention to how many women are in that book. Okay, now we get into our story for today. If we remember, Luke's goals are to do interviews and write an orderly account. So he knows this story about Mary and Martha because someone told him. So who told him? Well, there really aren't too many options, right? From Luke 10:38, it's not super clear if the disciples were there or not. If you look really closely, it says, as Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village. So it sounds like the disciples kept going and Jesus stopped to see his friends, which means there were probably three people there, Mary, Martha, and Jesus.

And we know Jesus didn't tell Luke the story because he was not walking on the earth anymore. So we have Mary or Martha. And sure, Mary could have told Jesus this story. She could have overheard what Jesus was saying to Martha, but it's much more likely that Martha is the source. And in telling Luke this story, Martha is kind of telling on herself, right? The content of the conversation and the way in which Jesus talks to Martha depict an intimate moment. Imagine Luke coming to interview Martha about her time with Jesus and asking her questions like, what do you remember? What was he like? What did he say or do? How did he impact you? And of all the time Martha spent with Jesus, she thinks of this story, one that doesn't particularly paint her in the best light.

It's like you can hear Martha saying, you know, Luke, there was one day that Jesus came to dinner when? So Martha, she's likely the source of this story, but Luke chose to include it. Why? He had so much material to choose from, and he picks this little story, and he puts it between the parable of the Good Samaritan, which is also unique to Luke, and his version of what we call the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew. So there's a version of it in Luke also, and we'll talk about that next week. And it's really a mundane little story. There's nothing remarkable about it. Two sisters having somebody over for dinner.

So let's take a closer look and figure out what Luke's message is and what he wants to teach us about Jesus. Back to Luke 10:38. As Jesus and his disciples were on their way he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. In biblical times hospitality was a crucial social and religious practice. It was deeply intertwined with the customs and beliefs of the Israelites, and it involved welcoming friends, strangers, really anyone that needed help, and offering food, shelter, and protection. Hospitality wasn't just social courtesy. It was considered a reflection of God's welcoming nature in a way to show love and compassion.

So when Martha opens her home to Jesus, she's demonstrating love and compassion, and she's reflecting God's nature. She's doing what's expected of her and what she wants to do. Jesus is her friend. He needs a place to stay in, and he needs some food. Of course she wants to welcome him in. Everything Martha does, she does out of love and service for Jesus. And Martha, she doesn't do the bare minimum. Nope, she goes above and beyond, right? Last night's leftovers, those aren't going to do. I have to start a whole new feast. So she jumps in on all the necessary tasks. Martha, she's a take charge kind of woman. If you want something done and done well, you go see Martha about it. Each time she appears in the gospel, she's a no-nonsense, decisive leader.

Martha has a plan and you better believe she's going to see it through to the end. So when Jesus walks in, Martha continues to work. Her to-do list isn't done. The necessary feast isn't ready. She must carry on. Jesus walks in and Mary has a very different reaction. She stops. She moves towards Jesus and she sits down to listen to him. Two sisters, two very different reactions. Raise your hand if you have siblings. Yeah, I have two sisters. One of them's here right now. Raise your hand if you have siblings. Raise your hand, keep it up, if you and your siblings tend to have different reactions to the same situations, right? You might have four siblings and five reactions. Who knows? And this is what's happening here, right? And we know this is going to happen as we start reading the story because we've seen this play out again and again in our own lives.

Mary is hanging out with the company. Martha is getting irritated because she's doing all the work. And this is what Luke writes. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. And the word that Luke uses here for distracted means to be pulled away and pulled apart. So Martha is being pulled away from what's most important, Jesus. And internally, she's being pulled apart by all of her worries and distractions. I picture Martha kind of spinning from thing to thing, right? Not actually finishing any of her tasks because she's so busy and so distracted and looking at Mary a little bit that she is ineffective, right? She's losing out on what is right in front of her. And that, in this case, is Jesus.

Part of Martha's problem, she's distracted by busyness. And aren't we all? We often try to tell ourselves that busyness is a season, right? Like it's the beginning of the school year right now. And man, does it get busy, right? We ramp up to all the school year things, the new routines, but if we're honest, it's not just a season, right? The beginning of the school year is busy. The holiday season is busy. There might be a little lull in the winter when the days are short and it's raining, but then spring sports start and then there's the end of the school year, which is just pure chaos and that lands us back in the summer when we're like, oh my gosh, we gotta do all those trips we couldn't do while the kids were in school or we're driving each kid to a different camp every week, kind of wishing we could just take them to school.

And if that's not the life stage that you're in, maybe you're a student and you are swamped with homework, chores, sports, youth group, and building your college resume, high school students. Or maybe you're on the other end of that. You've gone to college, you're launching your career and you are working endless hours to get your career off the ground. Or maybe retirement's on the horizon, and you're like, if I could just get there, I'd be less busy. Or maybe you're retired, and you're like, I thought I would be less busy. How am I so busy? Because I have all this family and these grandchildren on all of these volunteer commitments, and I'm busier than I'd ever thought I'd be in retirement.

So no matter the stage, our busyness is not just a season. It's the water we swim in. And our culture teaches us to wear it like a badge of honor. The busier we are, the better. It must be a sign our lives are good and fulfilling. Our company is desired. We're so talented or skilled that we are necessary to someone for something somewhere all the time. We live constantly being pulled in different directions, and we don't even really notice it. And this is not a modern problem, by the way. There's this guy named Galen, not this guy; he was a Roman physician born in 129 AD and he used to complain that Romans didn't devote enough time to keeping fit because they were too busy working. Here's what Galen writes: my patients are so caught up in their activities either through ambition or whatever kind of desire that they're not able to spend time on the care of their bodies. Busyness is a human problem.

And we see in this story that Martha's busyness is costly. As she's swept along by all of the mundane tasks she has decided are necessary, she's paying a very high price. Busyness always costs us something. And one of those things is depth. Depth requires time. And if we don't set aside time to go deeper, whether that's time in self-reflection, time for deeper conversations with friends and family, or time spent studying Jesus' word and listening to him, we will continue to live busy, shallow lives. We also tend to sacrifice our priorities to our busyness. Sure, if anyone asks, our faith is important. We say Jesus is our top priority, but our actions do not line up with our words. And that's exactly what's happening to Martha. Of course she would say she loves Jesus. Look at everything she is doing for him. Yet when he is right there in her house, she is too busy to even spend any time with him.

Not only is Martha distracted by busyness and her own to-do list, it gets worse when she starts to play the comparison game. She looks over her shoulder at Mary, who made a different choice, and it just escalates her stress and frustration. How can Mary possibly be sitting next to Jesus when there is so much to do? Doesn't she know we're not done yet? Dinner isn't ready? And that comparison, it leads to self-pity, judgment, and a sense of superiority. Look at what she says to Jesus. Luke writes, she came to him and asked, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me. You know, Martha, she's questioning Jesus' care for her. She's so bothered. She thinks Jesus doesn't care. And she's also basically having a pity party. Look at her words. Tell her to help me. Me, myself, me. Jesus is sitting in her house. And Martha is wallowing in self-pity.

Comparison is the thief of joy. I am sure Martha started out joyful. Jesus is coming, yes we get to make him a meal, we get to spend time with him, this is going to be awesome. But she starts paying more attention to what she has to do and she starts paying more attention to Mary, and irritation and resentment creep in. And isn't this true of us? If we weren't already too busy with everything we think we need to do or everything we think other people expect us to do, we get distracted when we compare ourselves to others. And again, the beginning of the school year, there's kind of an uptick in these comparisons, right? Like over the summer, you kind of see people's posts and you can be like, well, that looks like pretty awesome adventure and vacation that they want. And their kids look like they're perfect. And my kids are painting themselves in the backyard. Literally. But everyone's life can seem more awesome, right? But then we come back to school and we're rubbing shoulders more and we see each other more. And the comparisons just start adding up.

We compare clothes, cars, technology, performance, possessions, all of the things. What did your kids achieve? What soccer team are they playing on? Do they travel? And what does that say about you as a parent? And even if that's not the life stage that you're in, it doesn't matter what stage you're in. We compare all the time. And that generally only leads to pride or defeat, as we either end up with an overinflated sense of self or a diminished sense of self. Comparisons, they just don't work. And we see this with Martha. Not only does she struggle with a sense of pride that her way is the best way, she's also wrestling with self-pity and defeat. And there's this pattern here. There's a pattern of distractions, and it may sound familiar as we go through it because we all live it out, right?

First, we begin with good intentions, just like Martha. Martha's like, Jesus is coming. We're going to do this. We got this. You know, you jump into something and you're like, I am all in. I'm going to volunteer for this. I'm going to coach this team. I'm going to do this thing. Whatever you're doing, you're like, great intentions. But then we get derailed by distractions. We fail to prioritize our own to-do list and we fail to even see some of the other things we may need to be prioritizing, and the train gets off the track. We're pulled in so many directions, we don't even know where to go, and we're busy, and we're comparing ourselves all the time. And this leads to pressure and self-pity.

Martha, you know that pressure that Martha felt? It didn't come from Jesus, and it didn't come from Mary. Martha put that pressure on herself. She couldn't stop or rest or socialize till everything was done. And that led to self-pity and judgment. Why am I working when she's sitting? Why do these things always fall to me? I sure wish I could count on someone else around here to get things done. But I guess it is all on me again. Or there's the comparison part, right? Like, wow, Mary has it so easy. She just gets to sit over there while I'm doing all the work? Or why did they get to travel the world where I didn't even leave the county this summer? Why does she feel free to sit when I feel pressure to do all of these things? And that pressure and self-pity, they lead to resentment. Tell her to help me. Tell these people to get on board with my plan. Everything would be so much easier if everyone was just like me. My life is harder. Why is my life this way when theirs is easier?

And that resentment, it just eats away at our hearts. You know, when Martha approaches Jesus, she has so much confidence in her own opinion that she asks Jesus to make it right. And Jesus, he doesn't respond the way that Martha expects him to. He catches her off guard. And Jesus' response, it shows us his heart for Mary and Martha and his heart for us. Remember, we're investigating Jesus. So we want to know what is Luke telling us about Jesus? And he's telling us that Jesus knows what we need. Jesus knew what Martha needed, and it wasn't for Mary to get up and help her in the kitchen. Martha needed to shift her focus. She needed to look up from her to-do list and turn her eyes to Jesus.

Check out Jesus' response. He says, Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. When Jesus repeats Martha's name, he's not scolding her. In the Hebrew culture of that day, name repetition was a sign of endearment, conveying a sense of closeness. Martha is precious to Jesus. He meets her anxiety with gentleness, correcting her out of compassion and love while accurately naming her feelings. Jesus sees Martha is distracted, that she's internally pulled apart, and he doesn't scold, judge, or condemn her. His concern is for Martha herself, who has allowed her strength to become a weakness as her need for efficiency is inhibiting her relationship with Jesus.

Jesus gently redirects Martha, compelling her to see a truth about herself and shifting her focus. And he points to Mary as an example. And you know, there's a play on words here that we don't really catch because we don't speak Greek. And the word that Jesus uses for better is often used to describe a portion of food or a dish. So it's as if Jesus is saying, the truth is, Martha, the real feast is not what you're preparing for us to eat in the kitchen. The real feast is what I have to offer you. And Mary has chosen the better portion. What exactly did Mary choose? She chose to focus on Jesus, to listen to him, to be with him, to submit herself to his teachings. Mary prioritized being with Jesus, and it put everything else in perspective.

Last August, our life development team here at Twin Lakes launched a new ministry framework. And this may sound familiar, especially if you have a student, but it's Be, Belong, Become. And it stands for be with Jesus, belong to a community of believers and become like him. Those are the three things we want our students to know as they go through life here at Twin Lakes. And we intentionally put be with Jesus first because we want our students to do just that. Like Mary, we want them to choose to be a disciple of Jesus, to submit themselves to his teaching. You know, choosing to put your faith in Jesus, to follow him is the most important decision you can make in your life. And being with him, spending that time with him is the most important thing of following him. So Mary chooses this. She chooses to be with Jesus.

And the story shows us that Jesus wants to be with us. He doesn't want dutiful service. He doesn't want the best feast you can make or the cleanest house you can have to welcome him into. He desires connection. He wanted it with Mary and with Martha, and he wants it with you. Earlier this summer, I wanted to take my dad out to breakfast for Father's Day, and we had it all set up for the next morning. And then my mom texted, and she's like, Dad's not so sure about breakfast tomorrow morning. So there are a few texts back and forth, but, you know, it's just easier to call sometimes and actually talk. So I called, and I talked to my dad, and I was like, well, what do you want for tomorrow morning? And he said, I want to spend time somewhere where we can hear each other.

You know, my dad, he has Parkinson's disease. And so his voice, it's not so strong. And he turns 80 next month. So his hearing is also not so great. But he didn't care about food. He didn't care where we went. What he really wanted was uninterrupted connection. So I picked up some donuts and went to their house. And we sat on the porch swing and talked for about two hours. And that, that's what Jesus wants with us. That's what he is telling us is the most important thing, that connection time, that relationship time. It's the one thing that can't be taken away.

Luke kind of leaves us hanging here at the end of this story. He doesn't wrap it up neatly with a little bow or tell us how Martha reacted. He just moves on to the next thing. But isn't that really the point? We're left wondering what else happened, but Luke is kind of saying, hey, pause and think. What about you? Are you with Martha in the kitchen? Or are you with Mary at the feet of Jesus? Are you feeling overwhelmed and wearing thin, resentful and burdened by the to-do list you've created? Or have you learned to take the time to gain perspective and to focus on and listen to Jesus? Don't let life distract you from the most important thing.

You know, I know we all have things to do. There are places to be, kids to care for, meals to prep, income to earn. I get it. I have a three and a half and five and a half year old. It is chaos at home most of the time. And if I'm honest, I've really struggled in this area since having kids. I have not prioritized time with Jesus. I tend from the time I get up in the morning, I start looking around at everything that needs to be done and chipping away at that list. But you know what? That list is endless. It's never going to be done. There's always another load of laundry, dishes to wash, toys to put away. If I wait until I feel like I'm done with everything, I'm not going to spend any time with Jesus.

And only recently as I started preparing for this message did I shift around my morning routine to start with Jesus in the morning. And I started reading the book of Luke. And you know, it does make a difference. Sure, there's still plenty to do. It's not like anything falls off of my to-do list. I stumble along the way. I'm inconsistent. I get interrupted. But I have noticed that it changes my perspective, right? Instead of looking around at all the things, I start the day looking at Jesus. And everything else falls into its proper place. And Jesus, the one who formed the universe, wants to be with you. So much so, he was willing to take our punishment, to die on the cross, then rise from the dead to make a way for us to be with him forever.

Don't let life become about the task list, the schedule, or the comparison game. Don't take the distraction bait. We have something so much better. We have Jesus. Let's pray. Dear Jesus, thank you for your love and your compassion. Thank you for seeing us like you saw Mary and Martha, for recognizing our internal struggles, knowing our emotions, and gently guiding us to see the truth about ourselves. In the midst of the pressure we put on ourselves, help us to let go. In the midst of distractions, when we are looking all around us, help us to look up. Help us to turn our eyes to you. Give us the wisdom to prioritize what is most important in our lives and to set aside our own agenda. Help our lives to reflect your love for us and our love for you. Amen.