Sure, People Work Hard for Poverty Wages, but We Pray...Is that Not Enough?

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets, Houston
July 20, 2025
Proper 11, C
Amos 8:1-12
Colossians 1:15-28
Psalm 15
Luke 10:38-42

‘Hey Jesus,’ Martha said, ‘I have a bunch of housework to do. Won’t you please come over and sit around while I do my chores? My sister will probably pay attention to you, and honestly, that really gonna piss me off.’ 

That’s usually how we read this story, isn’t it, and it’s really weird. Why would you invite someone into your home just to ignore them? Also, the message that those who sit at Jesus’ feet and listen are better than those who have to do work is not a message Jesus taught. Jesus was consistently for those who had to work and couldn’t spend all day in the temple. After all, if everyone sat around reading the Bible and praying all day long, who would do things like grow food, work at grocery stores, operate power plants. We give thanks for those who work while others rest.

So, as we often read the story of Martha and Mary, it’s kinda weird. Thanks to my wife, however, I was introduced to a different reading of this story which came from Mary Stromer Hanson*. She points out that we tend to read some things into the text that aren’t really there. For one thing, Martha welcomed Jesus, but not into her home. That was an addition, and the most ancient texts don’t have those words. 

So, Martha welcomed Jesus. Mary, we are told sat at Jesus’ feet, meaning she was one of his disciples who learned from him. It doesn’t actually say she was there in this story. We’re told she also sat at Jesus’ feet, meaning Martha did too. Martha and Mary were both Jesus’ disciples. 

Finally, we’re told that Martha was distracted by her many tasks, which we assume means housework, but the Greek actually says “ministry”. Martha was distracted by her ministry in her hometown, and she was asking Jesus to send her sister back to help her. 

Jesus is telling her, then, that she has a good ministry and that her sister, Mary, also has a good ministry elsewhere. You don’t need her here, Jesus was saying. What you need is to draw near to God as you do your ministry. Look at all you are doing; it’s great ministry, but you are becoming distracted from the one who is with you. Don’t forget to join with me as you serve others. You can become so consumed in that work that it becomes a burden. Join again with God, let God’s love fill you, then your service will be a blessing both to others and to you.

Prayer and service work hand in hand. As Pope Francis said, “You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. This is how prayer works.” At the same time, feeding the hungry can be your prayer for the hungry. Prayer and ministry of service are all tied up together as one.

We draw near to God by listening to God. Draw near to God by acting with love towards others.

In our reading from Amos today, God says, 

Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land…Surely I will never forget any of [your] deeds. I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation…The time is surely coming, says the Lord GOD, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD. (Amos 8:1-12) 

In "ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN",
Kal-El is a champion of the working
class and working poor. His symbol 
that of the working class on Krypton.

In Amos, the people were no longer able to draw near to God and hear his Word because of how they mistreated the poor and lowly. They went to God in prayer often enough, but they paid the poor poverty wages and rejoiced in their own wealth, blaming the poor for not doing more or working harder. 

Because of how they treated people, they could not draw near to God, no matter how hard they tried. God would not hear their prayers, nor would God let his Word be heard among them. 

Sitting at the Lord’s feet, being Jesus’ disciple, demands action. Drawing near to Jesus for our prayers to be heard demands following Jesus’ teaching and abiding in his love, living out his love for others. Living out Jesus’ love for others is sitting at Jesus’ feet. Following Jesus’ teaching is drawing near to Jesus in prayer.

At the same time, living out Jesus’ love for others requires us to return to Jesus for prayer and learning. That sounds contradictory. Prayer is service. Service is prayer, and we have to do both intentionally. 

Without drawing near to God for times of rest, we can become overcome by the work, the ministry, the suffering of others. That’s what was happening with Martha. She was getting overcome by the enormity of the work of ministry, the enormity of the work of loving others. She was getting overcome by seeing suffering all around her, and so she wanted Mary to come back home and do the work with her. 

What Martha actually needed, however, to take a break from her work, and spend some time sitting at Jesus’ feet, learning again, resting in Jesus’ presence, and drawing near to God in prayer. That means some of the work wouldn’t get done. That’s ok. There’s always more work to do, always more love to give, always more suffering to soothe, and God commanded us to rest, to take time to draw near to God. 

When we don’t take that time to rest, then we can’t hear God anymore, and we often start following the ways of the Adversary. When we’re overcome by the suffering of the world, we often become angry and hateful toward those who are causing the suffering. When we don’t rest in God, we turn against our enemies, rather than for those we seek to serve, and even our service can bring the darkness of the Adversary, rather than the light of the Holy Spirit. 

When we’re overcome by the Adversary, we can’t hear God’s word. We need rest to offer to God all of our hatred and all of our anger. We need rest to offer to God all of our righteous fury at those who pay poverty wages while enriching themselves. We offer all of that to God so that God may heal our hearts and we may live out the light of God’s love once again. 

So, when we hear the story of Marth and Mary, and we’re told we need to be more of a Mary than a Martha, that we need to pray and stop doing so much work, that’s not really what the story tells us. We need both. Prayer without service can lead to selfish faith, not caring about those around us, like we saw in Amos. Service without prayer can lead to being overcome by the enormity of suffering in the world. We need Martha and Mary, prayer and service. True discipleship means we pray for people and we love and serve people, walking with Jesus all along the way. 

* https://eewc.com/new-view-mary-martha/

https://stromerhanson.blogspot.com/2015/11/mary-of-bethany-her-leadership-uncovered.html

To Sustain the Weary With a Word

Brad Sullivan

Proper 19, Year B

September 16, 2018

Emmanuel, Houston

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Psalm 116:1-8

James 3:1-12

Mark 8:27-38

To Sustain the Weary With a Word

Years ago, when I was youth minister and assistant priest, one of the youth in the church said to me, apropos of absolutely nothing, “You shouldn’t even be paid.  All you do is talk for a living.”  She said it with a smile…I think she was joking.  We laughed.  There is a lot of talking in my job, and one thing I pointed out was, “hey, I gotta eat.”  Hopefully what I’m really doing through all this talking, is sustaining the weary with a word. 

That’s what God had Isaiah do in his years of prophesying to Judah:  sustain the weary with a word.  Judah had not yet been taken into captivity by Babylon, and Isaiah prophesied both warnings of coming captivity and promises of restoration.  Throughout Isaiah’s messages of warning and hope, there was a recurring theme of sustaining the weary with a word. 

The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of his people:  It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.  What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord God of hosts.

Isaiah 3:13-15

One of the main problems that God had with his people was how they were treating the poor and marginalized.  ‘Why do we fast, but you do not see?  Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?’  The people called out.  “Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day, and oppress all your workers,” God responded through Isaiah.  (Isaiah 58:3)  God was not pleased with any religious sacrifice or offering while the unskilled workers were left poor and marginalized.  God was not pleased by any amount of pious devotion or faith by those in a nation in which the wealthy became rich off of the labor of the poor, and the poor did not make enough to get by. 

If it sounds like I’m getting political, talking about America, that’s what’s in Isaiah.  Isaiah was there to sustain the weary with a word, not to uphold the wealthy who kept the poor weary through low wages.  Isaiah was not about class warfare.  Neither was God.  God wasn’t telling the wealthy they had to be paupers.  He was telling them, however, that if they truly wanted to be God’s people, then they had to make for darn sure that the poor among them, the wage earners and day laborers, had more than enough to get by.  Otherwise, God said, you will not continue to be my people.  

That is the heart of God.  Don’t worry so much about pretending to love me through devotion, worship, and religion, God says.  Truly love me by making sure that the least among you has enough not to be in poverty. 

At our last diocesan council, there was talk about executive salary, and I spoke with a man who agreed wholeheartedly with Isaiah.  Years ago, this man was being paid a multi-hundred thousand dollar a year salary, and those whom he managed and oversaw were being paid not just less, but not enough.  They were struggling.  So he changed that and lowered his own salary to give substantial raises to those who worked under him.  This man didn’t talk for a living, but he did sustain the weary with a word:  the word of Isaiah, the word of Jesus which he lived out and made real in his life.

The word of Jesus that he lived out was, “those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”  This man didn’t go hungry.  He didn’t lose his house.  He sacrificed quite a lot of luxury and convenience.  He didn’t have the lifestyle that he could have, but he had enough.  He chose to have less than the market demanded he have in order to make sure that others had what they needed.

That’s losing your life for Jesus’ sake. 

Choosing to get by with less ain’t the easiest thing in the world to do.  There are folks who will ridicule you for it.  Folks who would be made uncomfortable by it.  Choosing to get by with less so that others may have more is kind of counter to the American dream.  Work hard enough, do enough, and you can get ahead, get rich, become powerful, a captain of industry.  Choose to sacrifice your own wealth for the sake of your workers?  That’s not really in there.

“Sustain the weary with a word,” God told Isaiah, and let that word be lived out in your actions.  To be fair, everyone is weary.  Even the wealthy and powerful get weary.  We all have variations on the same brokenness inside of us:  fear, lack of trust.  From our earliest days, we all come to realize the world is often dangerous, and we can’t always trust the people around us.  Jesus understands that fear which means God shared that fear with us.  God gets it; God understands, that fear and lack of trust, our brokenness, is part of what drives us to seek power and wealth.  With enough power and wealth, we feel secure, like we don’t have to depend on untrustworthy others.  The problem is, it’s hard to get wealthy without someone down the line working for almost nothing.

If you try to save your life, you’ll lose it, Jesus said.  Give up your abundance, your excess, your luxury (which many would call “comfort”), and see to it that those who work for very little, have enough.  If you’ve got someone who works in your home or in your yard, pay them more than they ask for.  Encourage others to do the same.  Shop at businesses that pay their workers more than the minimum.  Tell businesses that don’t, that you won’t do business there.  Sustain the weary with a word.  We’re not talking charity here, we’re talking wages needed to have enough, even if the market demands less.

I keep thinking of the Frank Capra movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed.  It’s the story of George Bailey, a businessman who owns and operates the Bailey Building and Loan.  He was hoping for a more lucrative business, but when his father died, he ended up taking over the business because the only other lender in town was a rather greedy man named Mr. Potter.  Potter charged high interest, made a lot of money, and no small amount of people were left impoverished when they were late on their loans. 

So, George Bailey continued his father’s business, making loans to folks so they could build a house, make it till the next month or the next job, and he didn’t charge high interest, and told folks who couldn’t pay him back, to do what they could when they could.

George didn’t get rich.  He helped his community.  He had a drafty old house, an old car, and enough for his wife and kids.  He’d been a man with big dreams, and was frustrated by seeing his childhood friends getting wealthy and getting ahead while he was stuck in his hometown, not getting wealthy, sometimes wondering if he was going to be ok, if they were going to have enough.  Even so, he wouldn’t let that fear drive him to get rich off of the needs of the folks to whom he loaned money.  He helped his community.  He sustained the weary with his word and actions.

Then his bumbling Uncle Billy lost a huge amount of money, and George was facing the possibility of jail time and of losing his home and business because of the missing money.  In the midst of this crisis, his wife made some calls to friends and family to let them know that George was in trouble.  Folks from all over the community came pouring into his home, bringing money to get him out of the trouble he was in, and he received a message, in inscription in a book:  “No man is a failure who has friends.” 

That’s what giving up your life for Jesus looks like.  That’s what sustaining the weary with a word looks like.  If all you do is talk for a living, if you mow lawns, if you’re a captain of industry, or anything in between, we get to sustain the weary with a word.  We get to live like George Bailey and all of his friends.  We get to encourage others to do the same, to save our lives by giving up our lives, and to sustain the weary with a word and with action.