From the Sept. 19 sermon, "Mary and Martha," on Luke 10:38-42: Are you Mary or Martha? Mary’s contemplative; Martha’s active. Mary’s about being; Martha’s about doing. Martha thought she was going to serve Jesus the good portion, but Mary chose the good portion. Jesus is our good portion that will never be taken away. A meal is temporary, but time with Jesus is a gift that lasts forever. We live in a Martha world: we’re troubled, we’re anxious, and we’re distracted. But God built this world to be a Mary world with Martha moments. When sin entered the world, it turned into a Martha world in which we have to fight for Mary moments. The rhythm of our day is supposed to be Mary first, then Martha. Spend time with Jesus, then get stuff done. Worship like Mary, then work like Martha. Worship God before you work so that you can worship God in your work. We want Mary’s heart and Martha’s hands.

Number four, Jesus discipled women for ministry. To sit at someone’s feet was an official position. In that day, you were not accepted to a school. You were accepted by a teacher. … So when we see Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet, that means she has been selected as one of his honored students to be a disciple of his and to receive formal ministry training from none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Some have wrongly maligned the position of Mars Hill to say that we don’t believe in women in ministry. That’s not true at all. No one can read the Bible and not see that women, from beginning to end, are involved in ministry and should be involved in ministry, should be theologically trained, encouraged, developed to use the gifts that God gives them to introduce others to Jesus and to help those who know him to grow in love with him. All women who belong to Jesus should be prepared for ministry because they’re all in ministry to varying degrees and ways according to their gifts and calling. Now, Jesus doesn’t have any women among the twelve apostles, just like the New Testament church doesn’t have any women among the office of elder, and we follow that same precedent and pattern at Mars Hill, but that in no way denigrates, disregards, dishonors, disrespects the women. We see it here. And this was a radical thing. Imagine going to a very traditional, religiously oriented, Eastern nation 2,000 ago where women were not regarded, necessarily, as equal to men. They were not present in the instruction among men. And you walk into Jesus’ instruction and there are men and women sitting together, both getting trained and developed for formal ministry. This is radical. This is revolutionary. And this is the gift that was given to Mary.