Wisdom comes from many places, including graffiti.

You may have heard this before or seen it on social media:

“To be is to do”—Socrates.

“To do is to be”—Jean-Paul Sartre.

“Do be do be do”—Frank Sinatra.

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Let’s go to God in prayer.

God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, to help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.

Amen.

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When Mary and I joined a UCC, I sometimes ran the tech for worship.

Our church had a screen on which was projected lyrics, which was controlled from the choir loft. We also had stage lights that could be dimmed, a remote-controlled moving spotlight, and lights that changed color.

We had many – maybe nine – wireless microphones and receivers, as well as several wired microphones including two hanging microphones. And in addition to the speakers pointed at the congregation, we had monitor speakers pointed at the people in the praise band.

And we had a video camera.

It was a lot to keep track of. There were usually two people in the choir loft to run all of this.

I’ve talked with other people who have worked tech for worship, and some say it helps them focus on worship and not get bored or distracted.

Others, including me, have the opposite experience. We were so focused on getting the cues right and listening for how things sounded, that we could not fully experience worship.

There are different ways to serve. And Martha’s way of serving is obvious: do stuff.

This is not entirely wrong. As we read in James 2:14-19:

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works?

Surely that faith cannot save, can it?

¹⁵ If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food¹⁶ and one of you says to them,

“Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,”

and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?

¹⁷ So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

¹⁸ But someone will say,

“You have faith, and I have works.”

Show me your faith apart from works, and I by my works will show you faith.

¹⁹ You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.
= NRSVue

James is telling us that it’s not enough to just have faith, but that faith should be moving us to action.

But Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9 writes

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing;

it is the gift of God— ⁹ not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

– NRSVue

So it’s grace? It’s faith? NOT works?

Let’s talk about some professions:

If someone gets a law degree but does not practice law, is the person an attorney? What if someone never got a degree nor passed the bar, but practices law?

If someone gets a medical degree but does not practice medicine, is the person a physician? What if someone did not go to medical school and is not licensed, but practices medicine?

There are some professions that don’t require degrees. What if you studied music but never played or sang? What if you knew the entire electrical code but never wired a switch or outlet?

We find that two things are necessary:

One is the grounding. In professions it may be knowledge, and in Christianity it is faith.

The other is the work: In professions it is the performance of the skill, and in Christianity it is the living out of the faith.

But let’s get back to Martha and Mary: Martha is understandably annoyed that Mary is not helping her with all of the tasks. She tells Jesus to tell Mary to help her.

But Jesus notices that Martha doesn’t just have a lot of things to do. He says

“Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things”
– Luke 10:41, NRSVue

She’s not just working. She is distracted by her work. She is so concerned about making everything perfect that she cannot enjoy the presence of Jesus. Further, she wants her sister to join her in this concern and distraction.

I’ve told this story before, but in Seminary my Leading Worship professor taught two things that I hold together each Sunday:

• Everything matters.
• There are no fatal flaws.

Everything matters. Everything we do in worship matters in some way to someone. Or, as another professor said, if it doesn’t mean anything, stop doing it. (or words to that effect.)

But there are no fatal flaws.

Did the wrong scripture get read?

“All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

• 2 Timothy 3:16, NRSVue

We can work with what was read, or read the correct scripture.

Lights went out during worship? We can sing and pray in the dark, though we might nt be able to read the bulletin and hymnals.

That doesn’t mean we can just let things be. We strive for excellence.

But we also don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

I mention this because we can become worried and distracted by our need for perfection, and it can take us out of the moment.

When I was working tech, I wanted to make sure I got all of the light cues right, that the correct slide was showing on the screen, that all the sound levels were right.

I was worried and distracted.

So there’s a balance: doing the work, but not letting it take us away from our faith.

So my challenge to us all this week is to see where out balance is:

Are we leaning so heavily on faith that we do nothing at all?

Are we so busy that it takes us away from our faith?

Let us use our faith as the platform on which our work is built.

Amen.

Let’s sing NCH 438 When Peace like a River

* Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue

* Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.