Half a Century

Luke 10.38-42

38Ἐν δὲ τῷ πορεύεσθαι αὐτοὺς αὐτὸς εἰσῆλθεν εἰς κώμην τινά: γυνὴ δέ τις ὀνόματι Μάρθα ὑπεδέξατο αὐτόν. 39καὶ τῇδε ἦν ἀδελφὴ καλουμένη Μαριάμ, [ἣ] καὶ παρακαθεσθεῖσα πρὸς τοὺς πόδας τοῦ κυρίου ἤκουεν τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ. 40ἡ δὲ Μάρθα περιεσπᾶτο περὶ πολλὴν διακονίαν: ἐπιστᾶσα δὲ εἶπεν, Κύριε, οὐ μέλει σοι ὅτι ἡ ἀδελφή μου μόνην με κατέλιπεν διακονεῖν; εἰπὲ οὖν αὐτῇ ἵνα μοι συναντιλάβηται. 41ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ εἶπεν αὐτῇ ὁ κύριος, Μάρθα Μάρθα, μεριμνᾷς καὶ θορυβάζῃ περὶ πολλά, 42ἑνὸς δέ ἐστιν χρεία: Μαριὰμ γὰρ τὴν ἀγαθὴν μερίδα ἐξελέξατο ἥτις οὐκ ἀφαιρεθήσεται αὐτῆς.

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Sunday, 17 July 2022
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Los Alamos, NM

And as Jesus and his followers were going form place to place, he entered into a certain village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him and his followers as guests. And Martha had a sister named Mary, who, having seated herself at a place close to Jesus’ feet, was listening to what he was saying. And Martha was bustling around trying to be the perfect hostess. And, having approached Jesus, she said indignantly, “Lord, does it not matter to you that my sister has left me to serve everyone all by myself? Tell her to get up and help me!” And the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. You are indeed an excellent hostess! But something else is also needed. Mary has chosen to do that something else that is also needed, and that is good. Her joy in doing this should not be taken away from her.” [The New Testament: A New Translation and Redaction, Norman A. Beck. 2002]¹

[As I sat down at my laptop to compose this Sermon, I pulled up from my Templates Folder the Template called, to no surprise, SERMON. That file always contains the last Sermon I preached, not including homilies at memorial services, funerals and the like. As it appeared on the screen of my laptop, the Heading read:

Sunday of the Epiphany
January 2, 2022
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Los Alamos

So, dear friends, January and July, the last Sermon I preached in a congregation was here! And now, here we are again, what a privilege, thank you.]

Half a Century

+ In nomine Domini. Amen.

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” or as Norman Beck has translated the Greek: “But something else is also needed. Mary has chosen to do that something else that is also needed, and that is good.”

Have you ever wondered exactly what it was that Jesus was talking about here? What is that “only one thing?” What is that “something else that is also needed?”

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It was hot and humid on the 21^st of May in 1972. Thirteen recent graduates from the Lutheran Seminaries at Gettysburg and Philadelphia gathered in the basement congregational social room at Augustus Lutheran Church in Trappe, Pennsylvania, the historic church which had been established in 1743 by The Rev. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. He had arrived from Germany the year before with the assignment to organize the various unorganized and disparate Lutherans in Pennsylvania and beyond.

The occasion of being at this historic church was the Ordination Service of the [then] Southeast Pennsylvania Synod of the Lutheran Church in America. The Service took place in the “Brick Church” which was built in 1852. The Brick Church stood near the Original Church that Muhlenberg had organized and outside of which he was buried.

I was one of those Seminarians. I was not sure what I was going to do. And as there was time before the Service began, in order to calm down and clear my mind, I decided to visit Henry Muhlenberg. Walking over to the old church I stood before his grave and read the marker which concluded with the words in Latin “Ecclesia Plantanda” meaning the Church is being planted, words which he wrote back to his superiors in Germany. I said aloud softly, “Well Henry, you planted the Church and then they planted you, I guess that it goes.”

I walked back to the basement of the Brick Church, put on my white alb and cincture and joined the procession of Bishops, Pastors, Choir, and seminarians. Ascending the stairs into the Nave of the Church where the congregation awaited was much like going through the Birth Canal I remembered thinking – “well, I guess this might be a new birth – we shall see.”

We took our place in the pew assigned to us. But I was distraught. I was frantically trying to decide whether I would go through with this thing, this Ordination! Nothing much helped. Four years University Greek major, two year of Seminary study at Gettysburg, one year of Internship at First Lutheran Church in Ault, CO, one final year of study at Gettysburg (theology, liturgy, church history, more Greek, Hebrew, and much more beyond that), seemingly endless interviews with the Synod’s Candidacy Committee, questions questions questions, “Do you have a Call, Ben?” Added to that my own uncertainty – what is a Call to Ministry really? How can I be sure. It was all coming down to this Service and I was very anxious.

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Remember Martha in today’s Gospel? “Martha Martha” says Jesus to the sister who is bustling about distracted by everything, fretting and worrying and – what does Jesus say? “You are anxious and troubled about many things.” “Martha Martha” “Ben Ben” Many things? You bet. Sitting in that pew I was just trying to figure it out, right then, right there, what was I going to do? Where was God when I needed God?

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Last evening Bev and I attended Friday Shabbat Services at Temple Beth Shalom in Santa Fe (one of my Retirement Gifts was a lifetime membership to the synagogue, our two congregations in Santa Fe did many wonderful things together. To be there is a treasured Gift for us.) It is a loving community and it one of our spiritual homes you could say. Following the Service, my dear friend Rabbi Neil Amswych greeted me and said, “How are you?”

“Tired,” I answered. “I’m preaching Sunday morning in Los Alamos.”

“What are you preaching about?” he asked.

“Anxiety,” I said.

“Are you nervous?” he asked.

“Yes.” I said.

Martha Martha. Ben Ben.

Back in 1972, the Sermon was drawing to an end at Augustus Church. The Rev. John Cochran (of blessed memory) was the Preacher whom we Seminarians had chosen for our Ordination. I was trying to concentrate.

He was saying, “There are two ways you can come to this Ministry. One is like this [he held up a clenched fist] seeking power and importance and authority, and there is still some power and importance and authority in this office. But, that is not the way. [He held his arms extended, hands open.] This is the way to come with open arms, open hands to see what God puts into those hands. That is the way to come to this Ministry. [And then he made the deaf sign for Jesus, which is to touch each palm with the middle finger of the other hand, signifying the “nails” driven into the Crucified Jesus, and he said] Just remember what happened to the One we follow, the sacrifice of love which he made. It is the sacrifice of love which you must make, in this Ministry.”

I was very quiet and still.

And then they summoned us forward to the Altar Railing to take our vows. As I got closer to the end of the pew, I prayed earnestly, “I could really use a sign right now, something, anything, a statue falling over, a voice, an angel I could use an angel, please.”

What was I going to do?

I was being nudged by the person behind me to hurry up. If this was not for me I could just turn right and walk out of the church, embarrassing myself, my wife, my family, my friends, but I would be true if that were my choice.

Or, I could turn left and take my place and speak my vows. Which? [Martha Martha Ben Ben.]

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There are times when God allows you to make your own decision. Where was God? Somewhere else, taking care of the dying, the hungry, the homeless, the distraught.

I took a deep breath.

I turned left.

Kneeling at the altar railing I said my vows, the hands of the Bishop upon my head, a red stole placed around my shoulders by my sponsoring Pastor, the “yoke of Christ” we call it. I was now Ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament, a Pastor of the Church.

The person on my left demitted (left) the Ministry three years later, the person on my right took his own life a few years after this Service, leaving a wife and child behind. There is a great part of me each May 21^st that feels very much alone.

But, there is a much greater part of me that is full of abundant gratitude for the gift of this Ministry. For it is truly, a Gift.

I stood up that day and became a Pastor. I have tried to understand this Ministry ever since that day, I am still trying to understand it. But, I have never regretted it.

Half a Century now, this Ministry, this life of being Ordained – Joy, sorrow, mystery, belief, doubt, faith, questions, forgiveness, hope, love, all of it is – Gift.

It is not done alone, Ministry. My dear best closest one who understands all this, my partner, my life, Beverly, can tell you this. Without her, I would have perished. I would have crumbled into disbelief and fallen into the pit of darkness. I am daily humbled and grateful that she often understands this so much more than I. She is the Angel for which I prayed that day. She reminds me, brings me back to the center of it all, even when I myself cannot not find that center, even when I think that so many things including Ministry have just evaporated. My Angel knows differently and tugs (sometimes pushes) me back to where I must be, where I am called to be. As the hymn goes, “How can I keep from singing?”

And, one does not do ministry in solitude but always in the company of the faithful – colleagues, family, friends, neighbors, congregations.

My sister in Christ, my colleague, Pastor Nicolé, how well you know this, how well you proclaim this to your congregation and to your brother and sister clergy. You understand this mystery of Word and Sacrament and Care. When we have been together in the work of the Church, what a Gift.

It happens here and far beyond, the church “catholic” we call it, the church that is universal and beyond the self, beyond the place, beyond the moment.

There is a Pastor in Madagascar who when we visited there some years ago, came running out of his church as our group drove up because he saw me and I had not seen him for how many years I cannot remember, but he ran and embraced me and showed me a photo of himself and me behind the altar at Christ Church in Santa Fe, he was part of the companion synod program so many years before. He recognized me before I recognized him. We laughed endlessly so happy to see each other again. And in that tear filled embrace in the heat of the day in that village before that church I began to understand the complexity and completeness of the Gift, of our vows to God, of the privilege of being a Servant in the Church and to the Church and to the World. And not just as a Pastor, but for all of us, together. To make a promise to always love neighbor as oneself, to always be the Christ to others, to always be forgiven and forgive, to always bring hope and healing and comfort and be therefore filled with hope and healing and comfort. Love God, Love neighbor. Is that the “something else that is also needed” beyond the busy-ness and anxiety of life? Is that the “better portion” which Mary chose sitting at the feet of Jesus. To be grounded forever forever

forever in this love? Yes. It is.

And so, with gratitude, Thanks be to God.

And let us all say: Amen.

Deo Gratias (+)

The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Retired

1Poehlmann Professor of Theology and Classical Languages at Texas Lutheran University, currently teaching Intro to Theology, New Testament Studies, History of Religions, Elementary Greek, New Testament Greek Reading, Biblical Hebrew, as well as various Freshman Experience courses.