Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Rev Mark Duer
Luke 10:38-42
July 20, 2025
Luke 10:40-42 “But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’ 41But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.’”
What is it that you are anxious and troubled about in your life? When we look around at our friends and family, we see they too are troubled and anxious. Even in our own country and around the world, we see unrest, and hatred, and wars, and threats of wars, etc.
How do you cope will all your troubles and health issues? Do you try to handle them on your own, trusting in yourself for all the answers? Or do you look the God’s Word for solace and comfort, and trust in the Lord to get you through the difficult times in your life.
We see many examples throughout the Scriptures of God’s people being anxious and troubled about many things. These two examples stand out the most.
In 1 Kings 19, (the Old Testament reading from 3 weeks ago), the Prophet Elijah after he and his men killed the prophets of Baal, fled to the wilderness in Beersheba, as he feared for his life because the king’s wife Jezebel wanted to kill him.
When Elijah fled to the wilderness, he took lodging in a cave. Then the Lord came to Elijah, not through an earthquake or a fire, but in the sound of a low whisper.
Then Elijah told the Lord he was angered and distraught, and worried that the people wanted to take his life. Then the Lord instructed Elijah to go to Damascus, and find refuge there and anoint a new king.
The apostle Paul had his share of toil and anxiety and hardships. 2 Corinthians 11:25-28 “Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
The apostle Paul suffered much, but because of God’s great mercy, Paul because stronger through his weaknesses, “so that the power of Christ would rest upon him.”
Sometimes we get anxious, and distracted, and that takes away from being faithful to God’s Word. We can lose our focus on the most important things in our life, and our priorities can get out of whack.
Even when it comes to going to church on Sunday or doing something else less important. We are good at justifying ourselves and our decisions.
Unfortunately, it’s usually when something tragic happens or someone close to us steps up and confronts us that we’re forced to re-examine our plans, and priorities and face the ugly reality that our priorities are messed up.
The Gospel today is also about priorities and what is most important. Jesus is teaching us today that our priorities can get out of whack. It is important to take time and make God’s Word as the most important thing in your life.
You may not have all your priorities right in life, but you’ve got this one right. Just like Mary, you made the right choice. You are here in church today! You’re here to sit at Jesus feet and be fed by Him with His Word and His Sacrament.
Matthew 6:25, 27-34 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these…
…But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31Therefore do not be anxious saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34"Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
Our priorities in life get out of focus and we continue to make God’s Word a last priority.
This is when God calls you to repentance, to see the error of your ways. Repent of your sins, and as Luther says: do not doubt, but firmly believe your sins are forgiven before God in heaven.
Colossians 1:21-22 21And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.
In the meaning of the third commandment, Luther says we should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it.
That’s why we take the time to come together each and every Sunday.
We don’t do this because we have to be in church. We don’t do this to show God or anyone else how good we think we are.
We come to church to be fed and nourished with God’s Word. We come to the Divine Service out of joy, and because this is what pleases our Lord and Savior.
We come to church as a response to our Lord and Savior and what He has done for us, to receive His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
This is where we come in from the world, battered, beaten and bruised, and receive His heavenly healing and strengthening, all so we can go out and do it all over again.
This is where God specifically asks you to check your priorities and worries at the door and take the time to simply sit and receive and be healed. There is plenty of time in the week to deal with all those other things.
Jesus Christ loved you so much that He willingly gave up all of heaven’s majesty in order to come down to earth, take on your fallen and sinful flesh, and then take that flesh and sin to the cross so that it would be dead once-and-for-all.
Jesus loved you so much that He suffered and died for you that you may have life eternal with your heavenly Father.
Luther writes in his sermon in Matthew 6:23: “Why need I to be anxious, I simply say: Art thou my Father, then I know that no evil will befall me, as Palm 16:8 says, “I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” Thus, he has all things in his hand; therefore, I shall want nothing, he will care for me. If I rush ahead and try to care for myself, that is always contrary to faith; therefore, God forbids this kind of anxiety. But it is his pleasure to maintain the anxious care of love, that we may help others, and share our possessions and gifts with them.”
May this unconditional and all-forgiving love of your Lord and Savior be your constant number-one priority in all areas of your life—justification and sanctification; giving and receiving; serving and being so richly served.
No matter what trials and worries, and anxieties you have in life, the Lord will abide with you. Everything we have, food and clothes and all our possessions will all be gone one day, but the Word of the Lord, and his grace and mercy will endure forever.
God’s Word of forgiveness, and life and salvation is will endure forever. Amen.