Please Kindly Do the Needful
The Sermon I Preached On Sunday
On Sunday, I preached my first sermon. I wanted to post the text of the sermon and then offer some thoughts about emotional formation that I did not get a chance to include in the time allotted. I will also include the video of the sermon that my wife took on her iPhone so that we could share it with people that were not there.
Do The Needful
Lectionary texts: Genesis 18:1-10a (10b-14), Psalm 15, Colossians 1:21-29, Luke 10:38-42
Collect for the Day: O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Introduction
Sometimes the texts that the lectionary gives us are easy to preach from, as they tie together neatly and the point that we are supposed to take away from them is straight-forward and quite evident. And we have that here today. In the Genesis account, we are told to always be hospitable and gracious towards strangers because we could be entertaining angels unaware. The Psalm teaches us to do no wrong to the neighbor and honor those who fear the Lord. In the Gospel reading, we have the command to be still and sit at the feet of Jesus. St. Paul teaches us that our ministry to one another flows out grace which he has been given by being attentive to the words of Christ. “Whoever does these things will never be shaken,” as the Psalmist puts it.
Hospitality and Mercy
In Genesis, Abraham is depicted as extending sincere hospitality to three visitors, whose divine identity is not immediately apparent to him. His actions reflect a profound commitment to faith and obedience, as evidenced by his willingness to exceed customary expectations in welcoming guests—preparing an entire calf and substantial amounts of bread. This notable generosity serves as an exemplary model of graciousness. The narrative also draws connections to later practices of temple sacrifice through the mention of the fatted calf. Ultimately, the visitors deliver a message of hope, announcing the forthcoming birth of Isaac, which appears improbable given Sarah's advanced age. The passage underscores Abraham’s embodied faith, as demonstrated by his extraordinary efforts to provide for the needs of his guests.
Psalm 15 complements this narrative by outlining the characteristics of those who may dwell in the Lord's sanctuary. It speaks of living a blameless life, doing what is right, and speaking the truth from the heart. The psalmist emphasizes integrity, righteousness, and the importance of keeping one's promises even when it is difficult. All these characteristics flow naturally from living a righteous life. The one who can dwell in the tent of the Lord is the one who has inscribed the law on to their heart and lives it naturally. They are hospitable in their very nature. This aligns with Abraham's example of faithfulness and righteousness in welcoming the divine visitors.
In Colossians, Paul speaks of the reconciliation brought through Christ. He reminds the Colossians that they were once alienated from God but have now been reconciled through Christ's death. This reconciliation calls for steadfast faith and a commitment to live in a manner worthy of the gospel. Paul also speaks of his own ministry, emphasizing the importance of proclaiming Christ and teaching everyone with all wisdom. This passage highlights the transformative power of Christ's presence in our lives and the call to remain faithful and steadfast in our faith and the importance of sharing the love of Christ with everyone. Paul reminds us of the over-the-top undeserved hospitality of Christ.
Finally, in Luke, we find the story of Martha and Mary. Martha is busy with the tasks of hospitality, while Mary sits at Jesus' feet, listening to His teaching. When Martha complains about Mary not helping, Jesus gently reminds her that Mary has chosen what is better. This passage teaches us about the importance of prioritizing our relationship with God. While hospitality and service are important, they should not overshadow our need to spend time in God's presence and listen to His word.
The connecting themes in these readings are clear. Hospitality is a vital expression of our faith, as seen in Abraham's welcome of the divine visitors and Martha's service. However, we must balance our acts of service with the need to be present with God, as Mary demonstrated. Faithfulness and righteousness are essential, as outlined in Psalm 15 and exemplified by Abraham and Paul. Finally, the transformative power of God's presence in our lives calls us to live in a manner worthy of the gospel, remaining steadfast in our faith.
We recognize the weariness in travelers, so we feed them and give them rest. We see the righteousness of others, so we welcome them in. We recognize the wisdom of our teachers, so we sit with rapt attention. We look inside and see the riches of the glory of the mystery of Christ in us, and find the rest that St. Augustine longed for. It all seems a little pithy and simple, with a tinge of moralism. And it is, but that is usually how these passages are preached together.
Narcigesis
While I was thinking about the sermon, I was introduced to a new term: narcegesis. If we are reading a text properly in its social, cultural, and textual context, we are engaging in exegesis which is how we should be reading and interpreting the Bible. If we are trying to make a text into something that it is not by reading our ideas into the text and forcing it to say something we want it to say, it is eisegesis. Narcegesis is the practice of reading yourself into the text, usually in the place of the protagonist or the one being praised as the most moral.
Engaging our lectionary texts through narcegesis, we see ourselves as Abraham instead of Sarah. We are the good hosts who notice the strangers approaching and prepare a giant feast for them. We do not see ourselves as Sarah, sitting in the tent, almost out of the picture, after having to bake a ludicrous amount of bread. We do not see ourselves laughing at the announcement\prophecy. In the Psalm, we see ourselves as the person that the Psalmist is describing. The one who engages in justice and righteousness instead of having the text confront us with our distance from God. In Colossians, we read ourselves as Paul, suffering for the Church, taking care to guard ourselves and others against false teaching and straying from the faith taught to us. In the Gospel text, we picture ourselves as Mary, dutifully sitting and listening intently to the teaching offered. Or worse, we see ourselves as the teacher whose every word is meant to be hung on to. We do not picture ourselves being busy or a good host who later gets chastised. John Calvin, in one of his sermons about today’s Gospel text, accuses the French academy (the Sorbonists) for using the text to justify their retreat into the contemplative life. The one who engages in narcegesis reads the text as confirming everything they want it to say, so also engaging in eisegesis, while making ourselves the hero. We not only hear the text saying what we want it to, we hear it as giving us a pat on the back for our behavior.
A Better Way to Read the Texts
Since I have offered two problematic ways to read the texts, let me offer a third way to read these texts. When we read the lectionary texts separately, we can see that the stories are not united by the theme of hospitality or congratulating us for our good, moral, righteous behavior that we exhibit. We read that Abraham is being a great host, but Mary is being a terrible host. Not only is Mary a bad host, but Martha is chastised for being a great host and Mary is praised for being a terrible host. And lest we forget, the story of Mary and Martha follows the parable of the Good Samaritan, which condemns people for not providing care for the neighbor or the stranger. The innkeeper in that story, the one who nurses the beaten person back to health, is not praised for their hospitality and care either. So, it seems weird and off-base to say that the Mary and Martha story is about inaction and being still instead of being busy. The Psalm maybe speaks of God hosting us in the house of the Lord but that stretches the metaphor in the opening line and minimalizes the rest of the Psalm. Nor do we hear the call to being more loving and righteous in the Psalm if we focus on hospitality. We need to figure out a better way to connect these readings.
Do the Needful
There are a lot of ways to preach these passages separately. Abraham undersells what he is about to do. He says, “let me get you a little bit of food,” but comes back with bread that is made with the equivalent to about 20 quarts of flour or 144 medium-sized eggs, depending on what commentaries you look at. And Abraham is not chastised for it. Martha, trying to be a good host, puts out a modest spread that we’re not told the details of, and is chastised for it. The psalm and Colossians do help us understand how to square these stories where the details and easy morals are contradictory to each other. A better way to think about these texts is to see them as telling us that is not a matter of what you do, but it is why you do it.
There’s a phrase that Spam emails often use that I think sums up these passages nicely. That phrase is “kindly do the needful.” The needful, here, is to will one thing. When we are willing one thing, that is the will of God, we do not have to worry if we are overly or underly hospitable, worthy to dwell in the tent of the Lord, or if we are suffering enough for our faith. The opposite of willing one thing is being double-minded, and when we are double-minded, we think we are willing the Good, while our ultimate desire is something else.
For example, we often desire the Good for the sake of the reward. I clean the house on Saturday mornings so I can go to Saturday afternoon wine tastings. I do not want a clean house; I want to explore 6 wines that are perfect for an August bonfire. The cleanliness of the house is the byproduct of the wanting to enjoy something else. If Abraham feeds the strangers way too much bread to impress them with his wealth, if the Psalmist just wanted social clout or credit for acting justly, if Mary only wants to prove that she was the better disciple to her sister, everything good they did was for the wrong reason and cannot be truly called Good.
Some pretend to will the Good – for the sake of honor or to save face. Interpreting the passages above as doing what is culturally normative at the time makes the characters sound like they are just trying to not be put to shame by their culture rather than willing the Good. The expectation is slowly going away, but it used to be taken for granted that everyone in Grand Rapids went to church, tithed occasionally, and generally was nominally Christian in public. They might end up doing something good, but it doesn’t quite reach the level of the Ultimate Good. Abraham might have just feed the strangers begrudgingly or Mary listens because that is what you do when someone you respect is teaching.
On the flip side, some only will the Good out of fear of punishment. It is the terrifying figure of punishment that drives these people to God, but not far enough that they desire what God desires. It’s the old evangelical trope of trying to scare people into salvation. There’s a terrible church alternative to Haunted Houses routinely called Hell Houses. Hell Houses are where people go through rooms in a haunted house and see people being punished while telling the visitors exactly what sins they did to deserve the punishment. In the end, the visitor is supposed to be so scared of going to Hell that they pray the Sinner’s prayer and then the feeling fades until they get scared of punishment again. It is easy to picture either Mary or Martha acting out of fear of punishment. The motivation out of punishment is as short-lived as being motivated by cultural or social pressures.
A persistent, yet equally problematic, motivation is to engage in virtuous actions egotistically wanting to be the one who accomplishes the Good. It is insufficient for some that love, and mercy are demonstrated; they feel compelled to be the individuals performing these acts. There exists a desire for good to prevail specifically through their own efforts—to be considered the instrument used for the Good or the Chosen individual. For such individuals, the reward appears to be a sense of personal pride, leading them to assertively place themselves and their service at the forefront of doing good. John Calvin reads the story as Martha being delighted with her own bustling operations, as to despise her sister’s pious eagerness to receive the teaching. Calvin warns us that in doing what is right, we must take care not to think more highly of ourselves than of others.
Admittedly, I sometimes interpret this attitude in the writings of St. Paul. On certain occasions—such as the passage under consideration today—I perceive Paul’s words as resembling humble self-praise, highlighting the ways God has operated through him and expressing hope that he will continue to serve as a conduit for Christ’s message. This reaction may reflect my own perspective as I read these passages. If others share this response, it may indicate a deeper desire within us to be the primary channel through which God acts. It is important to be mindful of both tendencies: the inclination to act as the sole facilitator of good deeds and the temptation to question the sincerity of others’ efforts in pursuing righteousness.
Conclusion
Reducing Scripture to simple moral lessons often strips stories of their context and meaning. For example, Abraham’s feast is not merely about hospitality; rather, it builds suspense and sets up the narrative for what follows, the visitors going to Sodom and the continuation of the creation of Israel. Mary and Martha sets the stage for the raising of Lazarus from the dead and continues the story of people not understanding Christ’s message even though they hear the words. St. Paul, in the text for today, is not being shown any hospitality, in fact he is being treated as an enemy and a threat. Focusing solely on the theme of hospitality misses how this episode serves to heighten tension and contrast with later events in the narrative.
When we read the text of Scripture, we need to hear what it is saying, and not what we want them to say. We need to avoid engaging in narcigesis, moralism, and personal blessings. We need to hear the call to “kindly do the needful,” that is, do what is necessary to show God’s love to those around us dependent on the situation we are in. That may look like throwing an over-the-top feast, going above cultural norms to “keep an oath even when it hurts” and taking care of the poor, or sitting and being still, or being wiling to suffer for the Church. Above all, we need to avoid reducing the texts to a simple unified message like hospitality as they are often reduced down to, as they tell us to “do the needful” and do it “kindly” without desiring a reward, trying to avoid punishment, or elevate ourselves to a place of prestige.
Emotional Formation Thoughts:
We need to be careful not to proof-text our emotions. These texts were weird to preach from as the two stories are transition stories that are there to set up the next parts of the narrative.
The Genesis story would rightfully start with a *spoiler warning* that God arrived to Abraham. We only know that because of a literary trope in Hebrew story telling. We need to be careful to both use that in our interpretation but also not use it. For example: Sarah is much more at fault if she laughed when she knew that she was laughing at God. She’s much less at fault when she laughs at three strangers telling her that she is going to have a child.
The Mary and Martha story is often weaponized against women and femineity. It should not be.
Paul valorizes suffering for the Church, but we need to be careful to understand that not all suffering is for the Church, so not all suffering is meant to produce joy or growing closer to Christ. Suffering because you are preaching the Gospel in an area that is hostile to it is much different than a child dying or losing your job.
The Psalm should make us lament the current state of the world and the Church. I thought about making the whole sermon about how the Psalm basically excludes most people from dwelling in the tent of the Lord. Look at the Psalm again and see if you can check off everything.
Fear based Evangelism does not work. Same with mountain-top high evangelism. It might temporarily convert people, but those usually do not last and are emotionally manipulative. If your methodology for conversion or the way you preach relies on emotional manipulation, you are not preaching the whole Gospel and are doing harm to the people you are teaching. To put it harshly, it is abuse and abusive.