Sunday, July 20, 2025
All Saints Lutheran Church
Rio Rancho, New Mexico
A Tale of Three Women: (Sarah, Mary, and Martha)
Genesis 18:1-10a
The Lord appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. He looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. He said, “My lord, if I find favor with you, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on– since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” Abraham ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant, who hastened to prepare it. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There, in the tent.” Then one said, “I will surely return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.”
[here is where the Lectionary concludes the reading; however the story is incomplete without verses 10b – 15.]
The rest of the Story:
And Sarah was listening at the tent entrance behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I be fruitful?” 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “Yes, you did laugh.”
Luke 10:38-42
Ἐν δὲ τῷ πορεύεσθαι αὐτοὺς αὐτὸς εἰσῆλθεν εἰς κώμην τινά· γυνὴ δέ τις ὀνόματι Μάρθα ὑπεδέξατο αὐτόν.39 καὶ τῇδε ἦν ἀδελφὴ καλουμένη Μαριάμ, [ἣ] καὶ παρακαθεσθεῖσα πρὸς τοὺς πόδας τοῦ κυρίου ἤκουεν τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ.40 ἡ 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.41 ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ εἶπεν αὐτῇ ὁ κύριος, Μάρθα Μάρθα, μεριμνᾷς καὶ θορυβάζῃ περὶ πολλά,42 ἑνὸς δέ ἐστιν χρεία· Μαριὰμ γὰρ τὴν ἀγαθὴν μερίδα ἐξελέξατο ἥτις οὐκ ἀφαιρεθήσεται αὐτῆς.
Luke 10:38-42
38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to what he was saying. 40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her, then, to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things, 42 but few things are needed—indeed only one. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
+ In nomine Domini. Amen.
A quick reading through the entire Bible might give one the idea that most women are only ancillary to the Story. In fact, the word ancillary is from the Latin word for “servant” — specifically a female (maid) servant. That very word intrigued me when I was pondering the readings for this Sunday.
One could argue (with a great deal of accuracy, I believe) that the reason women in the Bible seem to be ancillary is that the Bible is patriarchal — or, shall we say, it appears to be patriarchal from the point of view of persons of the masculine persuasion who in fact historically wrote down the stories, told the stories, and were central to the stories.
[It’s an interesting question to ponder: Does the Bible have meaning and validity because of who wrote down the words, and their gender, and their place in history — or, does the Bible have meaning and validity in and of itself; i.e. Story qua Story.]
Case in point: In 1611, James I (who was formerly James VI, the King of Scotland before the two crowns [the two countries] were united in 1603) “authorized” a translation of the Bible (from the Hebrew of the “Old Testament” and the Greek of the “New Testament”) into English — it was known as the King James Authorized Version.1
Now, the truth is that most of the King James Version was “borrowed” from an earlier Biblical scholar by the name of William Tyndale. Tyndale had been the FIRST person to translate the Bible from the Hebrew and Greek scriptures into English in 1534; but, he was declared to be a heretic by the Church. Why? Because he dared to translate the Bible into English. Why? So that the Bible would be accessible to the common English-speaking person. This was something the Church had forbidden. Tyndale also dared to challenge and criticize King Henry VIII over his divorce and other scandalous behaviour, but that’s another part of the story.
So it was that two years later, in 1536, in Antwerp, Belgium — Tyndale was arrested, imprisoned, tied to a stake, strangled and burned to death — by the Church.
Here is the scandal: three-quarters of a Century later, the very Church which had condemned Tyndale (and his Bible) took nearly everything of what Tyndale had translated (which the church had condemned) and reproduced it as the King James Version — the Bible with which many of us grew up and read and studied in the Church.
EXCURSUS
When Beverly and I moved into our current residence in the life-plan community at La Secoya in Santa Fe, one day during lunchtime one of our neighbors, Patricia, came up to me and said, “You’re a Lutheran Pastor, correct?” I said, “Yes, I am.” And holding up two large volumes, rather newly printed, said, “I want to give these to you.” I took the books gratefully and reading the covers I said, “You realize you are giving me heretical versions of the Bible!” And she smiled and said, “Yes, they belonged to my husband who died, and he was a descendant of the Tyndale family!”
These volumes are recent publications, printed in “modern spelling” of Tyndale’s translation. They are two of my most precious possessions.
My point in all this seeming digression is that who or what may seem to be ancillary — is rather right at the center of things! We just need to pay attention; we need to open our minds, and our hearts.
I entitled this Sermon: A Tale of Three Women. It is the story of Sarah, wife of Abraham which we find in Genesis 18; and the story of two sisters: Mary, and Martha whom we find in the 10th chapter of the Gospel According to Luke.
I contend that these women are at the very center of the stories, and in fact I would say central to THE Story.
The first story takes place near the Oaks of Mamre (we read) which refers to an ancient religious site originally focused on a single holy tree that had been growing at Hebron (now in the West Bank). There is a Greek Orthodox Monastery which was founded at this very spot where this ancient tree (which fell in 2019, but has a young sprig growing next to it) is located.
There, goes the story, the very elderly Abraham and very elderly Sarah (husband and wife) pitch their tent, by this Tree. Abraham is sitting at the entrance of the tent in the middle of the day and suddenly three men appear (from the text it is either God or angels or some combination of both). Abraham (according to the custom of hospitality) rushes over to them and asks them to wash their feet, rest in the shade of the Tree and have some bread. The men agree. Abraham rushes into the tent and insists upon his wife that she quickly bake three cakes of flatbread; then he tells his servant to slaughter a calf, and have it roasted. Then he then takes the meat, the flatbread, some cheese and milk (goat cheese and goat’s milk, we presume) and rushes over the men, sets the food before them and stands over them watching while they eat.
Munching on the meat, flatbread and cheese, washing it all down with milk, one of the three asks: “Where is your wife, Sarah?” And Abraham says, “She’s in the tent.” And then one of them (maybe the same man) says: “I’ll be back in 9 months, Sarah will give birth to a son.”
NOW here is where the reading for this Sunday was to end. Therefore, I included the rest of the story this morning.
Sarah is inside the tent, listening to all this conversation. She and Abraham are very old, and she is beyond menopause, cannot have any children. So, she laughs to herself — my husband is old, I am old — really‽ a baby‽
Outside and within hearing range God says, “Why did Sarah laugh and say this? I will indeed return in 9 months and you will indeed have a son.”
Now that would be a good ending, right there. But, there’s more — we call it a denouement. Sarah denies everything, “I did not laugh!” She is afraid. God says, “Yes, you did laugh.”
And nine months later, a son is born, and they name him יִצְחָק in Hebrew, which means: “he will laugh.”
Sarah, you see, is not ancillary to the story; she’s at the very core of the story — we might say (I would) she is the story. Without Sarah, there is no Isaac, without Isaac, there is no Jacob, and without Jacob, there is eventually no King David, and without David there is eventually no Jeshua Emmanuel (Jesus) and without Jesus there are no followers of Jesus — there is no us‽
This brings us to the next story — which in many ways is a story for all of us who are either Attention Deficit Disordered or are Obsessive Compulsive.
Mary and Martha, two sisters have a house in a certain village. This is the story in the Gospel according to Luke; in a similar (but not exact) story in the later Gospel of John, we learn that this is the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha — but that is another story.
Martha is in charge. She invites Jesus to come in. She is hospitable, according to custom, just like Sarah centuries before, she prepares food and such. While she is doing this, she notices that her sister, Mary, is not helping — rather Mary is sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening to every word he is speaking.
Martha is annoyed. The Gospel Writer Luke puts it this way: (in Greek of course) Μάρθα περιεσπᾶτο περὶ πολλὴν διακονίαν.
Μάρθα (Martha) περιεσπᾶτο (the word means literally “to drag around” thus, “distracted”) περὶ πολλὴν διακονίαν (by much διακονίαν (we get the word, deacon from this, and diakonia — it means “service” or “serving” — that is what one does when company comes.)
Martha explodes, “Jesus, do you not care that my sister (that’s what she calls her in Luke’s Greek, ἀδελφή μου — you could translate it in a whining mode “this sister of mine”) — do you not care that she has left me with all the work‽ Tell her to help me!!”
Now I cannot hear, read, or even think about the next part with calling to mind Fr. Eddie O’Byrne (of blessed memory), that great Irish Priest who was the chaplain of the old St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe when Beverly and I moved there in 1975 (!). Fr. O’Byrne loved this story from Luke’s Gospel and frequently used it in the homilies he would preach at the masses he celebrated in the chapel at the hospital. (I have to say that many of our neighbors attended his masses, rather than going to the Cathedral or any of the other churches in Santa Fe, so beloved was this priest. And he was.
He would tell this story many times, because it was his favourite, and when he came to the part where Jesus responds to the criticizing Martha, he would say in the Irish brogue: “Marta, Marta — you are worried and distracted by so many things!”
And then Jesus responds, we know, this way: “few things really matter, but one does, and Mary has chosen that one thing, and that one thing will never be taken away from her.”
What is that one thing? Jesus? Yes, but. Not Jesus alone — the message, the words, the story, the whole thing that began in Sarah — be alert, be open, listen, hear, believe — believe the story — it is a story of love and forgiveness and hope and rescue from sadness and despair, not just here and now, but in the endless love of God; and not just in the endless love of God; but here and now.
Now here’s the thing: nearly every Sermon I have ever heard has elevated Mary (who sits and listens) and lowered (to be kind) Martha (who runs around serving and such).
That’s not the Gospel. The Gospel is: it’s not just Mary, it’s Martha and Mary. Both are essential. I consulted with my Theological and Biblical Consultant, Kris Ericson about this. She told me, “we know, when reading this story, that Martha is Scandinavian! That’s why Martha does what she does, she frets and worries until everyone is served!”
I agree. Just as without Sarah there is no story, so without Martha there is no story — in fact, there is no Gospel without her, there is no Gospel without Mary. The Gospel, the Good News is that everyone is needed, everyone is necessary, all have roles to play, all have tasks to perform. Period. Anything less is not the Gospel.
So — Laughter in the face of what seems impossible, belief in the midst of what is distracting, serving in the midst of a conversation — it is all part of following Jesus, it is all part of love of God and love of neighbor — and when we put it that way it is all part of being who we are, who we are called to be: the Church.
Deo Gratias (+)
The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Retired
1To put things into historical perspective, it was in 1610 that the city of Santa Fe was officially established by Dom Pedro de Peralta.
Nota(ble) Be(n)e 