Do you find it difficult to delegate? Do you worry that things won’t be done to your standards? Do you find it hard to say ‘no’? Do you feel bad asking for help? Do you feel guilty taking ‘me’ time? Do you laugh less than you used to? Do you often feel exhausted? Are you often short tempered? Do you resent your partner or colleagues for having an easier time than you? Do you feel like everything is down to you? Do you often end the day wondering what you have achieved?

If you have answered ‘yes’ to 5 or more of those then you have Do-It-All syndrome, at least according to Prima magazine. There are a reasons why we live under this kind of pressure and often we impose it on ourselves, maybe its that we are a perfectionist and everything has to be done just so, or maybe it is that we labour under false expectations in terms of what we think others expect of us. Always trying to live up to what we imagine their standards to be.

Did you spot the character in the reading from Luke who has Do-It-All syndrome?

1. The Danger of Distraction
It’s Martha. People sometimes accuse the Bible of being out of date with modern life, but I think this just shows us how relevant the Bible is. You couldn’t get a more contemporary figure than Martha, as she frantically rushes around making sure that everything is just so. And we see the stress and pressure build.

You can picture her can’t you rushing around the kitchen, she’s got the Nigella cookbook open on the worktop, she’s preparing the meat , peeling the potatoes and carrots, steaming the mange tout so that they are just so - cooked but still crispy. As time ticks on you hear the sighs growing louder, and then you hear the unmistakeable sound of a shattering plate followed by an oppressive and resentful silence. And suddenly there she is in the doorway, light seems to creep apologetically over her shoulder as she says "Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?"

That question may seem quite reasonable to us, I guess we’ve all been where Martha is. But actually I want you to notice what Luke say about Martha "But Martha, was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made."

What is Martha actually doing? She is serving Jesus. That is not a bad thing, that is a good thing. The problem is not that she is neglecting her guest, it is that she is too busy to see what is really important. She is distracted by everything around her.

What is it that Martha expects Jesus to say in v41? Mary could you help your sister please. But what does he actually say? "Martha, Martha you are worried and upset about many things, but few are needed - or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Jesus is saying to Martha that her distraction is dangerous. Her serving him is good but it is more important that she listens to him. Why? Because of who he is and what he can give. He can answer life’s big questions?

What do you think the big questions in life are? Does God exist, is there life after death? Why am I here? For a Jew living in the 1st Century the big question was to do with the Messiah - when would God’s Messiah come? When would relationship with God be possible?

Jesus has just said this to his disciples (22)"No-one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no-one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

Jesus has already been identified as the Son of God in Luke by God himself, what he is saying is only he can give relationship with God, he is the Messiah and that makes his words important. That’s why it is more important to listen to his words than to peel the potatoes, because he has the words of eternal life and if she listens he can tell Martha.

But Martha is so distracted that she doesn’t see it? She is so preoccupied with the do list that listening to Jesus gets squeezed out.

I just want you to watch a short clip from ‘The Holiday’, what are the stresses that Amanda faces? Amanda in the clip has stress about her career, relationships, and how she looks, she wants to take a holiday to have some peace and quiet, so she can eat carbs without wanting to kill herself, to have the time to read a book not just the review of a book, and I guess we could go on. The answer for her is a holiday, time away to refocus, to get a grip on life.

Actually Jesus says the answer is to listen to his answers to life big questions. The big question is have you let life distract you from that?

2. Answering the big question
Luke deliberately sets up a contrast between these two ladies. While Martha is distracted and races around where is Mary? Mary is in the place of the disciple, she is sat at Jesus feet, the follower, listening to the words of Jesus, and Jesus says that she has chosen what is better.

We need to understand this; Jesus is not recommending laziness, he’s not saying we should order take away every night and use disposable plates and cutlery. In fact he has just finished telling the parable of the Good Samaritan about extravagant, over the top service of others and finished by saying "Go and do likewise". But actually we can only love and live like the Good Samaritan if we have experienced grace.

Did you know that there are three ways to live? 1. is to ignore God altogether, 2. is to be good, moral, or religious trying to do loads of things which means God owes you, 3. is to listen to Jesus and realise that actually there is nothing we can do that makes us right with God, we are made right with God only by his gift of grace. Only the last one brings relationship.

But one of the dangers we face is that we try and live like Martha. We rush around being good, being moral, doing all these things for God without actually having a relationship with God. Actually we need to be like Mary - we need to listen as Jesus explains to us how to have a relationship with God.

As he explains that actually we can’t do anything to make ourselves right with God but that God loves us so much he sends his Son to make God known to us, but more than that to die in our place so that we are given his perfect record and he takes on and pays for our ruined relationship with God.

And that actually he comes not to add to the burdens of life, not to add to the distractions but to bring us life to the full. To reveal to us a love so amazing that it transforms us and enables us to serve and love others.

Maybe this morning you’ve realised you are in danger of living like Martha; distracted, rushing around, and that actually you are missing the most important thing of all. Don’t leave feeling guilty, look at (41) "Martha, Martha..." Jesus says, he is calling her to come and join Mary, to come and have relationship with God, to come and know peace, to be given relationship with God. Because actually people matter to God, you matter to God. Jesus says to you come and listen to me, come and hear what I have to tell you about how you can know God.

This passage also offers us the chance of a bit of an MOT if we have been following Jesus for a while. Maybe you have drifted into Martha mode - you have Do-It-All syndrome. You are rushing around doing lots of things - good things - but actually you aren’t taking time to listen to Jesus, to enjoy the relationship you have been given. In fact it’s all become a bit mechanical.

One of the danger signs of that you see in the passage, it’s when we find ourselves complaining like Martha; look at so and so why don’t they just get on and do something...I’m so busy doing...and look at them just sat there while I...

Jesus says this morning that if we find ourselves in that situation we need to take time to listen to him. It is a not call to laziness, only in understanding God’s love for us and what God does for us in Christ can we be equipped to serve.

You see if we understand grace we understand that actually God has given everything for us, there is nothing he held back in order to save us. If we understand that, if we remind ourselves of that, if we marvel at it, it will make us realise that the only right response is to serve as the Good Samaritan does. That grace means I have nothing that is my own, it is all God’s because he gave everything to save me.

But its just possible that some of us may be sat this morning thinking, 'Yes, but Mary was a shirker, we need more Martha’s', Jesus doesn’t think so, in fact that is the exact opposite of what Jesus says, Jesus would say we need more Mary’s because only when we understand what it means, what it cost to know him, what we are saved from and to can we serve him rightly.

1. What are the pressures and stresses that stop me examining who Jesus is and what he says?
2. Which way am I living? Without God, by my own efforts, or by grace?
3. What is it that drives my serving? Is it that of Martha or Mary?

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