Hell's Kitchen

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. Holy Gospel according to St.

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Luke, chapter 10, verses 38 -42. Now as they went on their way,

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Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.

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And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to His teaching.

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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?

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Tell her to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things.

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One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.

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In the name of Jesus. Kitchens are dangerous places for me.

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I see what goes on in kitchens. I'm amazed. And at the same time,

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I'm painfully aware that I'm in the way when my wife is cooking doubly so when we have company coming for dinner.

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Now, my imagination, in case you haven't figured it out, is quite, well, intact.

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So I can actually imagine how crazy it would be if I told my wife that, hey honey,

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I don't know how to break this to you, but Jesus is coming for dinner on Thursday. I can actually see what would happen.

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Let me explain to you how I picture this in my imagination. Monday breaks.

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Clean and scrub and dust the house day. Now, I'd be called upon to repair that loose towel rack in the bathroom, touch up a few places in the house with a little bit of paint, and that would take pretty much all day.

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Tuesday. Well, that would be the finalizing of the menu day, followed by lots and lots and lots of shopping.

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Oh, on top of that, my wife would insist that we begin to think about what it is that we're going to wear. We might have to pick out some outfits.

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It might actually require us to go to the mall and get some new clothes. In fact, I'm pretty sure Barb wishes

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I had one of those dinner jackets like the men wear in Downton Abbey. On top of that,

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I would get sent to Sport Clips to get a haircut and have them shave off those embarrassing neck hairs that make me look like Fred Flintstone every month.

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Wednesday, the day before Jesus arrived, cooking now begins for the more complex parts of the menu, including the dessert.

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Our daughter, as much as I love her, I know exactly what's going to happen to her. She's going to be scolded for doing a half -hearted job on her run through the house with the vacuum.

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She'll end up having to do it twice. Tensions in the house will reach an all -time high.

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Thursday, the day Jesus shows up for dinner. The day begins at the crack of dawn.

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The beverages are cooled. The house has gone through one last time. And the kitchen turns into a high -anxiety work zone.

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I section it off with police tape, lest it turn into a crime scene. The breads are being baked.

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The soup's temperature is being closely monitored. We won't talk about the salad.

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Things are not working out with the salad at the moment. The china is pulled out. The table is organized pristinely.

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Faith takes a photo of our perfectly set table and posts it on Facebook and Pinterest with the underlying caption,

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Jesus is coming for dinner. Clothes are ironed and pressed.

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And that stupid mirror. I call it the stupid mirror. Let me explain what the stupid mirror is. Have you ever seen those mirrors that are circular?

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And they can flip. One side, everything looks great. The other side magnifies everything.

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You can see every zit, every blackhead, every out -of -place hair. It's awful.

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I hate the stupid mirror. But the stupid mirror for Jesus' time at our house is consulted.

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And, well, every out -of -place eyebrow hair is plucked.

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Nose hairs are tweezed out. Painfully, I might add. And then comes the obligatory standing in front of the long mirror with rehearsals of my greeting and Barb's greeting of Jesus.

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Hi, Jesus. It's so nice that you would come to our house. Welcome. Come on in. No, that was too stiff.

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Let me try that again. Okay, you know how this is gonna go, right? Every item, every course of the meal, everything that we're going to drink, every piece of clothing, the music that is playing gently in the background on my

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Apple TV, it's all designed to impress our guest.

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So when we finally hear the doorbell ring, Faith, Barb, and I have a little huddle. Our hearts sink a little bit, and we say to each other, it's showtime.

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And we put on our best smiles, and we open the door. Do you see the problem yet?

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Do you see the problem? There really is one. This is the scenario that we see playing out in our gospel text this morning.

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And it comes right on the heels of the story of the Good Samaritan, where we learn that the law does not, indeed it cannot, give us the power and the freedom to love

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God with our whole heart, yet alone love our neighbor as ourselves. And this is gonna play into today's gospel text.

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It's not an accident that the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to put this immediately after the parable of the

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Good Samaritan. And in fact, I'd like you to think about that a little bit. So our text begins,

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As they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. A woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.

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She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to His teaching.

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But Martha was distracted with much serving. Which kind of begs the question, distracted from what?

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I want you to think about this. Okay, we've had scenarios like this in all of our families, right? Where people are working and somebody's dawdling.

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And the text says that Martha is the one who is distracted. Are you kidding me?

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Shouldn't the text say that Mary was distracted? I mean, after all,

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Mary wasn't lifting a finger to help Martha. She was just sitting there listening to their guest, doing nothing.

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All the while the bread was burning, the soup needed to be tasted, the noodles were getting soggy, and the salad fixings were still not finished being chopped.

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And the text actually has the audacity to say that Martha was the one who was distracted.

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Clearly, Luke got the details of the story wrong. Surely, Luke meant to say that Mary was distracted, not

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Martha. Right? Well, that's how Martha saw it.

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And what happens next is unbelievable. It's crazy.

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In fact, if you were to have a photograph of this and turn it into a meme and post it on the

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Internet, it would have hashtag fail under it.

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Here's the reason why. She went up to Jesus and she blurts out,

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Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me.

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Let me paraphrase that. Don't you care? How is this fair? I'm doing all the work while my sister's sitting there on her lazy rear end doing nothing.

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This food isn't going to cook itself, you know. Jesus, why don't you tell my sister to stop being so selfish and to get her lazy, good -for -nothing carcass in the kitchen where it belongs.

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And I'm sure if you have something to say to her, you can say it after dessert and before she begins helping me clean the dishes.

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They're not going to clean themselves either, are they? We've all been there when this has happened.

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Right? But see, here's the thing. Who's she talking to? Who is she trying to impress?

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Right? You can almost hear the awkward silence that followed that tongue lashing.

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So think about it. There is the guest that you're so busy trying to impress with all of your serving.

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There is your sister who you think should be helping you impress your guest, sitting and listening to your guest, and, get this, truly enjoying his company.

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So the person you lash out at is your guest.

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Oh, and your guest also happens to be God in human flesh. What is going wrong here?

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Why is this text making the hard -working one look so awful and out of touch with reality?

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This runs contrary to all of our experiences. Why is the one sitting doing nothing, not the one being scolded?

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Why is the busy one who's doing something looking so awful? I mean, that's not how religion is supposed to work, right?

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Everyone knows that. I work hard to clean up my life, obey the Ten Commandments so that I can impress

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God with my good behavior and my moral improvement, and those people who come to church and hear the message but never apply it as vigorously as me, well, they have no chance in a thousand years of ever impressing

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Jesus the way that I impress Him, right? Jesus, You need to tell those lazy, good -for -nothing people who are poor excuses for Christians to get busy.

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They need to volunteer at church. They need to stop watching TV. Maybe they need to give up playing cards or wasting their weekends at the lake.

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They need to join me in my service that I know impresses you. See, Martha wanted to please

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Jesus. She wanted to impress Him with her house and her award -winning dinner.

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She wanted to serve Him with her very best, and yet it all failed miserably.

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It literally blew up in her face. She wound up scolding

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Jesus and being angry and upset with her sister. She wasn't loving

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God with her whole heart, and she clearly was not loving her neighbor as herself.

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So the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.

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Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken from her. She was occupied with many things when only one thing was needful.

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She was busy preparing an award -winning dinner, but Jesus actually would have been content with Pizza Hut being delivered that day.

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Why? Why is that? The answer is simple.

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Jesus didn't want Martha's service. Jesus wanted Martha. So as far as Jesus was concerned,

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Martha's house could have been in shambles. She could have gone to Sam's Club and bought a cold -cut platter and some cheese.

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What mattered most to Jesus was that she have communion with Him. That she hear

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His Word. And let me remind you, when it comes to our justification,

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Jesus doesn't need your service, nor does He want it. He wants you. He has heaven and earth at His beck and call.

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All Jesus has to do is say the Word and 10 ,000 upon 10 ,000 angels will attend to His needs and fight for His honor and His life.

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What can we give God that God does not already have? Jesus did not come to seek your service.

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In fact, Jesus explicitly says this in Matthew 20, verse 28, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give

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His life as a ransom for many. Martha is the way of the law.

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Mary is the way of the gospel. Martha is about works, busyness, the treadmill of self -righteousness that ultimately leads to utter frustration, hatred of God, and hatred of other people.

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Mary is about faith and freedom, trust in Jesus, freedom to sit at His feet and to take in His Word.

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Martha seeks to be justified by her works of service and ends up frustrated and angry.

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You can literally say all of her efforts were spent working in hell's kitchen. Mary, on the other hand, is justified by grace through faith for Jesus' sake.

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Literally sitting at the gates of heaven itself. Hearing the voice of God. She does nothing but to be given to.

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Jesus does everything. Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things.

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One thing is necessary. What is that one thing? Jesus is the one thing that is necessary.

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Jesus is the one thing that is needful. And for us to hear Him and hear

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His Word. You need nothing else except for Jesus. In fact, this theology is consistent in Scripture.

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To the churches in Galatia, the Apostle Paul had some very harsh words because they had mixed works and grace.

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They had mixed together what Christ had done and mixed it with self -righteousness and works in order to be saved.

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And the Apostle Paul rebukes them and he reminds them in a way that almost sounds like the playing out of Mary and Martha in theology.

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Listen to what he says. Oh foolish Galatians. You can say, oh foolish Martha. Who has bewitched you?

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It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. So let me ask you this.

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Did you receive the Spirit? Did you receive the Holy Spirit by works of the law?

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By working hard in the kitchen to impress God? Or by hearing with faith like Mary?

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Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now trying to be perfected by your amazing meal?

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Did you suffer so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain? Does He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so because of your amazing soup?

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Or because you sit at Jesus' feet and hear with faith? Just as Abraham believed

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God and it was counted to him as righteousness. So know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

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Are you tired? Are you worn out? Are you frustrated?

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Are you angry with God and your neighbor? Are you tired of trying so hard to impress

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Jesus with your changed life and your good behavior? I mean, you work really hard at it, right?

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And you sit there and you wonder, at what point am I going to get the blessings that I have earned?

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I am really trying really hard. Keep it up.

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Your frustration level hasn't hit the right level yet. You need to be more frustrated, more tired, more uncertain, more anxious, more upset, more distracted.

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And as your frustration and anxiety grows, I will point out to you again,

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Jesus says, come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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All your striving is for naught. This salvation is free. It's a gift. Why are you trying to earn it?

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Why are you working so hard to keep it? It's already yours. Free.

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You are not here today, by the way, to serve Jesus with your worship or to impress

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Him. Instead, Jesus is here actually to serve you. He was here this morning forgiving your sins in the words that you heard in the absolution.

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He's here right now giving you His Word as you sit at His feet listening. And in a few minutes,

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Jesus will be the host of the Lord's Supper as He feeds you His Body and His Blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

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So sit. Rest. Enjoy Jesus. Marvel and revel at His Word.

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Glory in His mercy. Give thanks for His grace. Wonder at His compassion and His kindness.

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Be humbled by His love for you. He truly offers you peace and rest.

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You don't need to impress Him. He's already washed away your sins in the waters of your baptism. And He's clothed you with His perfect and sinless righteousness.

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It doesn't get any more impressive than that. He doesn't want your service. He wants you.

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And He came to seek and save you. He has given

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His life as a ransom for your life. In other words, your slavery has ended. The workday is over.

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Enjoy your Sabbath rest in Jesus. He promises that it will never be taken from you.

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In the name of Jesus, Amen. We thank you for your support.

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