I’ve been haunted by a particular scene in an old TV show for the past 25ish years. It was back when Martha Stewart was getting really big. The empire of Martha Stewart sold the impossible dream that our lives could be as beautiful as her magazine and TV show. We just had to give enough time, effort, money, and positive attitude.

About this time, I remember buying a magazine of hers. I was newly graduated from college and I was trying to be an adult. And adult women, in my mind and according to Martha Stewart, did things like make adorable homemade Christmas cards, write heartfelt greetings to all your family and friends, and even send them on time. Well, I tried that once. That was apparently the kind of adult woman I was never going to be. 

So, in this haunting TV show episode, there was a business mogul based loosely on Martha Stewart. This character’s business was also based on helping women make their lives appear effortlessly beautiful, picture-perfect, and serene.

The problem was she believed her own snake oil too much. She too was trying to live out the lie she peddled. In the show, we all saw how broken and mentally ill she was when she simply HAD TO make salsa in the middle of the night despite people who loved her trying to help her just go to bed.

In this scene, she begins chopping the vegetables she has artfully laid out in front of her cutting board like a TV show. And predictably, she has a breakdown after she cuts her finger. She wakes up to her own craziness and she gets help. So, that’s good. The part that haunted me, though, was her vegetable choice. What vegetable do you think she reached for first to make salsa? Maybe you’d think tomato or onion, but no. She starts chopping celery. Celery! Who puts celery in their salsa?! I realize this matters not at all, but it has bugged me for 25 years.

Despite the very unrealistic vegetable selection in this TV program, this is the scene that came to mind as I was contemplating Martha and Mary. The woman in the show was an obvious caricature of Martha Stewart and the excessive striving in homemaking she inspired in folks like me. The scene stuck with me because this caricature points to a reality we all know something about. We have all, at one time or another, have gone needlessly over the top in our striving whether that is at home, work, sports, parenting, dog-parenting (in my case), etc. We have all been the person to miss what is most important because we are so darn busy doing what we think is critical, like making salsa with celery in the middle of the night.    

So, here we are with Martha, who may be going a bit over the top with all her tasks. Hospitality in the ancient world was a big deal in part because it had to be. There weren’t fast food restaurants and Motel 6’s everywhere you traveled. Folks needed to be welcomed in, fed, and housed by other folks. And house guests indeed do require work, particularly if you’re aiming to impress in a shame-based culture. But how much extra work is the question? How much is too much? How much is too little?

There’s a discernment process we all go through about how much effort to put into things. There’s a sweet spot between being totally unprepared on one end and making unnecessary salsa in the middle of the night on the other end. Somewhere in the middle is the sweet spot of sufficiency. And in that sweet spot, we have met the needs of the people in the moment while not overstretching to prove something to ourselves or someone else. We’re not stretching to prove our worth or earn our place in the world.

This gospel has always rubbed me the wrong way, because I identify with Martha like many of us do. I think we’ve all been in the situation where we feel like we are doing an unfair amount of labor. Or that the one we are laboring for doesn’t see the value in our effort. These are annoying things! So, for all us folks who have been annoyed with this gospel today or in the past, there is good news here for us, too.

This time around with text, I noticed that Martha was busy with her “many tasks.” Our imagination of what Martha is doing is important. I have previously assumed she was busy simply providing a meal for the folks in the house, including Jesus and likely others. That’s a necessary thing, feeding people and being hospitable. But what the text says, is that she was busy with her many tasks. For all we know, she could have been missing time with Jesus, missing time to learn and be spiritually filled because she was essentially making unnecessary salsa … with celery. She may be missing the mark of sufficiency.

Jesus also says that Mary has chosen the “better part.” Not the better path, but part. This suggests that this is only part of a life, part of what’s necessary. Martha’s work is also included in the whole. In the whole, there is a time for action and service. And there is also a time for setting action and service to the side for the sake of being at Jesus’ feet. In fact, this story comes directly after the Good Samaritan story that we read last week. That story is all about action. The one who is the neighbor is the one who takes action, not the one avoiding action on their way perhaps to the temple to pray.

So, this is a moment of discernment for Martha and Mary. According to Jesus, who I think we can assume is correct, Mary had chosen the better part in that moment, to set aside the perhaps unnecessary salsa making for the sake of being present with Christ.

Perhaps this is a question of identity. Who are we? Are we ones who sit at God’s feet to be filled with connection, love, and wholeness? Or are we ones who strive to find these same things as products of our own work and our own power? Are we ones who somehow believe that if we make that salsa with celery just right, life will be complete and we will feel finally OK in our own skin?

In the Amos text, the people are people admonished for their lack of observance of the sabbath. They just can’t wait until they can get back to the marketplace, making money even if that means using deceitful means to get their ends. It’s all about the self, grasping at what we can achieve and hoard. We’re not all that bad, of course. Hopefully folks here are not lying and cheating our way to wealth. We may not do that. But the avoidance of sabbath, the avoidance of rest may be another question. The avoidance of finding our worth and our value not in our own power, ability, or productivity, but purely in our God-given existence is also another question. Grace is something we like to give, but not always receive.

Practicing sabbath, practicing rest is the practice of declaring that your worth as a person is not tied to anything other than your being. Very few of us actually believe this for ourselves or perhaps even for others. Martha seems pretty clear that Mary should be hustling, as well.

Theologian and teacher Barbara Brown Taylor writes this about the practice of taking a sabbath day.

“At least one day in every seven, pull off the road and park the car in the garage. Close the door to the tool shed and turn off the computer. Stay home not because you are sick but because you are well. Talk someone you love into being well with you. Take a nap, a walk, an hour for lunch. Test the premise that you are worth more than you can produce – that even if you spent one whole day being good for nothing you would still be precious in God’s sight – and when you get anxious because you are convinced that this is not so, remember that your own conviction is not required. This is a commandment. Your worth has already been established, even when you are not working. The purpose of the commandment is to woo you to the same truth.”

While no one I know successfully takes a weekly sabbath, it is one of the commandments. And I wonder if this is a commandment because we need it, just like kiddos and adults alike do best with bedtimes. Apparently, we need to be told to rest. I need to be told to rest.

There is a time and a place for action, which we often find easy. There is also a time for stillness, rest, and communion with our loved ones. Both are part of the whole, like the phases of the moon. All phases are good and holy. However, our worthiness never diminishes, regardless of what phase of life or productivity we are in. Wisdom lies in discerning what is healthy and good for ourselves and the world. When and where will our action be supportive and good? And when is our action simply making piles and piles of unnecessary salsa with celery?

The invitation is to be discerning. And the invitation is to find clarity that our identity, our worth as precious beings, does not result from our own power, ability, or action. We cannot earn our preciousness. If we think we can, we will drive ourselves mad trying to win that unwinnable race. So, when the time is right, may we all find the grace and freedom to simply sit at the feet of Jesus and claim our identity as precious beings without lifting a finger.

AMEN