Sermon preached by Revd Ray Anglesea at Howden le Wear Methodist
Chapel, 21st July
2013
What I didn’t know is that Velazquez painted, in
the same year, another painting where a kitchen maid is the subject of his
painting. This second painting is entitled Kitchen
Scene with Christ in the House of Mary and
Martha, the
subject of today’s gospel reading. Velazquez realistically depicts a 17th century Seville kitchen;
the foreground is dominated by the face and demeanor of a woman who we take to
be a cook; she is about her tasks, hands busy beating or whisking; sea bass lie
on a plate, garlic on the table, eggs and red chilies, a flagon of water or
wine on the table nearby; the foods are shown prepared in ways typical of
Spanish cookery at the time.
In
the background of the painting is a biblical scene, generally accepted to be
the story of Martha and Mary. In it, as we discovered in our Gospel reading Christ goes to the house of
a woman named Martha. Her sister, Mary, sat at his feet and listened to him
speak. Martha, on the other hand, went to "make all the preparations that
had to be made."Upset that Mary did not help her, she complained to Christ
to which he responded: "Martha, Martha, ... you are worried and upset
about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is
better, and it will not be taken away from her.” In the painting,
Christ is shown as a bearded man in a blue tunic. He gesticulates at Martha,
the woman standing behind Mary, rebuking her for her frustration.
The
plight of Martha, worried and upset, clearly relates to that of the maid in the
foreground. She has just prepared a large amount of food and, from the redness
of her creased puffy cheeks, we can see that she is also upset. Emotion scuds
across the woman’s face. Resentment, anger, tearfulness, so near to the surface
that in the next moment we imagine she might throw to the ground the bowl she
holds, turn to the old woman behind her and just let rip. To comfort her (or
perhaps even to rebuke her), the elderly woman behind the maid seems to point
out the scene in the background reminding the maid that she cannot expect to
gain fulfillment from work alone. The maid, who cannot bring herself to look
directly at the biblical scene and instead looks out of the painting towards
us, meditates on the implications of the story.
Some scholars suggest that the whole painting
is set in Christ’s time; the National Gallery say that following cleaning and
restoration in 1964, it is now clear that the smaller biblical scene in the
background is framed by a hatch or aperture through the wall, one looks into a
dining room from the kitchen’s serving hatch. Some scholars suggest that the
maid in the foreground is actually Martha herself and the lady standing in the
background is just an incidental character.
But for me the moment captured in the
painting is of the kitchen maid pondering on the words of Jesus to Martha that
she has heard, reflecting on their implication in and for her own life. I have
every sympathy for the Martha’s of this world – who like me, I suspect, have
Type A personalities –proactive people,
always on the go, impatient, can multi-task, we push ourselves with deadlines,
hate delays and ambivalence, we are organised and ambitious – compared to Type
B personalities, rather like the Mary’s of this world who generally live at a lower stress level
and typically work steadily, who are in the main reflective and think about the
outer and inner worlds, enjoy exploring ideas and concepts.
And so if like me you have a Type A
personality what is it like to hear the words of Jesus when you are up to your
eyes with work, e-mails to respond too, gardening to do, friends to visit, visits
to the gym, soup to make, minutes to write, a rota to be filled and the many
household tasks that have to get done,
when what is really needed if we are to understand the gospel story is
stillness and focus and attention on Jesus? Being and doing, contemplation and
action. It’s a very present tension in the lives of many people, both in the
church and outside, whether we lived in17th century Seville, or 21st century
Howden. The problem of where our focus lies - the balance between actively doing and
waiting and stillness doesn’t go away. We are distracted by our many tasks. No
time to dwell on the word – the written word, and the word that God speaks to
us in the life of his Son.
In the Gospel story that comes
immediately before the story of Mary and Martha we heard how the lawyer was
told by Jesus to model the actions of the Samaritan who helped his neighbour.
‘Go and do likewise’ he is told. Almost
in the next breath we hear Jesus telling Martha that Mary’s choice to ‘stay and
be and listen’ is the best path. Jesus himself models this tension throughout
his ministry. Times of activity and engagement with crowds, healing and
teaching, are contrasted with time set aside alone or with his closest
followers; to listen to his father, to contemplate and pray.
I think it is rather comforting to
reflect that the early church struggled to find this balance too. In Acts we
hear the disciples voice this dissonance, ‘It is not right that we should
neglect the word of God to serve at tables’. As a solution they
re-structured the community, choosing some to serve at tables, while we hear,
they devoted themselves to prayer and serving the word. It is interesting that
those chosen to serve were chosen because they were full of the spirit and
wisdom and that the decision made to create this balance in the church pleased
the whole community. They knew their need for both forms of ministry.
In his reply
to Martha, is Jesus exalting contemplation over action, or saying that true
disciples leave menial tasks to others? If Martha and Mary are both being
hospitable in their own way it may be better to see different kinds of
hospitality competing with each other for the limited resources. Jesus commends
Mary for her desire to be hospitable to his teaching. By comparison, Martha’s
anxious preparation of the meal is a distraction that falls short of what, in
this instance, is her sister’s “better part.”
Earlier in the Gospel when Jesus sent off the seventy disciples he
told them to receive the hospitality they are offered as they entered people’s
homes; to eat and take what is given. He also tells the disciples to cure the
sick and to say that the Kingdom of God has come near. As he comes to this home of Mary and Martha, Jesus
does the same. Jesus is a guest in their home, the Kingdom of God, in the form
of Jesus is beside Mary and Martha, talking to them. But Martha is restless. Jesus
repeats her name, as if to get her attention and steady her. We get the
impression that she is working too hard, doing too much, so much so that her
resentment, like the kitchen maid’s face in our painting is overflowing, consumed
by what she is doing. There is no space around or within her; so that her
activity is a barrier to the kingdom of God coming close, she cannot hear, she
cannot respond, she sets us barriers to Christ’s love and to ways of receiving
the kingdom at that moment – she thanks that these gifts will be given to her when
everything else is done.
So what happens
when we Martha’s of the world with our varied active personalities eventually stop
and listen for God’s word? How can we achieve a balance of doing and being, of
being active and submissive, still and attentive. How can we make space in our
daily lives to be with God? Well, if you are like me, all sorts of distractions
cross our minds and generally we would not wish to be in that place because we
know we will be in unchartered waters and somewhat out of control and out of
our comfort zone.
But to ‘Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind’ is not submissive or passive,
it is an active process; listening and stilling oneself requires attention and
focus and desire. If we are able to still our souls, centred and listening then
out of that listening and stillness and being known before God for who we are
and not for what we do, then out of that will flow the deep concern for the
well-being of other people and for all that is around us. That place of
listening then becomes the wellspring from which we find life, not the place
where we hide from it, which is good news for the Martha’s of the world. That
space may be the source of great activity. But whatever comes from it, if we
live from that place, we won’t be skimming through life, living at the surface
but engaging deeply, with what we are about, with what is around us, and with
who is around us. What you notice if you look at the original of the Velazquez
painting, which is in room 30 at the National Gallery is that it is the product
of a deep contemplation on life. Fish, garlic, eggs, the reflection off the
glaze on the jug, as well as emotions on a woman’s troubled face, are an
engagement with what is real, in that moment. If we take time to sit before
God, listen to his word and gaze upon him, in the person and actions of Christ,
we will find that when we pick up the ordinary things with which we have to do,
engage with the people whose faces we contemplate, the activities that are on
our lists, it will be with a sense that Christ is there, at the heart of it
all.
