Distraction and Comparison

This sermon, by Pastor Ted Carnahan, is the second installment the series Saints Behaving Badly, for midweek Lenten worship on March 4, 2026.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I'm not literally on my phone, although the theme of our evening together is "Distracted." Just like last time we were talking about being sleepy in our discipleship, I'm not choosing to be distracted here on my phone, but you could be forgiven for thinking that's what's going on, because we know that distractions are all around us, and most of us are carrying distractions around in our pockets.

The reason I'm carrying this around with me instead of a piece of paper on my music stand is that somebody (a very kind person) thought it would be helpful to clean up the extra papers on my music stand and threw away my sermon notes, which, again, that was very nice, but now I don't have them and didn't realize until five minutes before the service.

So, I get to use my phone tonight, which you might expect from somebody like me, because I'm a very technology kind of person, but usually I don't like to do that, because with my luck, I'd run out of batteries right when I need it.

The Story of Martha and Mary

Martha and Mary are spending time together in their home. Lazarus, their brother, is there as well. Jesus is being entertained in their home, and we have two very different approaches to spirituality:

One is the approach of Martha, and there are many Marthas I know here in this room. (Male and female, I might add.) Those who would say, I am best in my discipleship when I am actively doing something.

And that's not a bad thing. I think some people get the wrong idea about this conflict between Mary and Martha and Jesus being pulled into the middle of it. This idea that somehow, if you're busy, that that somehow makes you less faithful, or that the reason why Jesus weighs in, supposedly, on Mary's side is because Mary is the one who's focused, and Martha is the one who is busy.

And that's not entirely wrong, but it doesn't exactly hit the mark. People express their spirituality in different ways. People do the relationship with God in ways that look different, and these things are not bad or good. They're just differences in how we look to relate to God.

Some of us need to be actively involved in order to be paying attention, and I am standing here as your witness to tell you I am one of them. I am a pastor, and I like doing things and being busy in the church, but if you ask me to go visit another church on a Sunday and just sit and shut up and pay attention to what's going on, I have the hardest time sitting still and just taking it all in.

I am a Martha, not a Mary, as much as I would like to claim otherwise. And so it's difficult for me to not be busily about the work of whatever it is that we're all doing together. And asking me to sit and pay attention is like pulling my teeth out.

On the other hand, there are many of us who are like Mary. Mary, who plants herself at the feet of Jesus and sits quietly and receives what Jesus has to say.

The Problem with Distraction

The problem with Martha is not so much that she is so busy, but that her busyness has become a distraction. She's no longer engaged in a spiritual thing, serving Jesus by literally entertaining him in her home for the sake of being connected to Jesus, but rather she's doing it for the sake of keeping up appearances and making things be proper.

And this is where it all falls apart, because Martha was doing pretty good, her doing a bunch of serving and Mary doing a bunch of sitting, and this was okay right up until the point where Martha decides to make a comparison.

She looks at the way that she is serving the Lord, and she looks at the way that others are sitting at the feet of Jesus, especially her sister, that lazy layabout, and says, "Jesus, aren't you going to tell her to get up and get to work? Aren't you going to tell that lazy, no-good sister of mine to get up and stop sitting there and actually engage in what needs to be done? Don't you see that there is work to be done, and I'm trying to get it all done myself, and you're not asking her to participate? How are you allowing this to happen? Jesus, you're kind of at fault here, don't you think? Because you're facilitating this misdirection of energy. She should be helping me!"

The Danger of Comparison

How many of you have siblings? Most of you. Don't hate me for this, but I don't have siblings. Yeah, it explains a lot, doesn't it? "Only Child Syndrome." It's true.

But what I know from watching my own children and their siblings is that sometimes comparison is a terrible thing. And I'm grateful that my children don't usually do that, but I know that comparisons get made, and when comparisons get made, feelings get hurt.

Comparison is the thing that brought distraction. Distraction is what took Martha from serving the Lord in a joyful way to hating what she was doing and focusing on how wronged she felt. That comparison is at the heart of the problem.

Now, let me return to the cell phone. I was not checking my Instagram while I was standing up here in front of you. I was looking at my notes and trying to remember that maybe there's something that I'd be remembering to tell you tonight.

But the distractions of this world can be summarized in a lot of ways by this little black rectangle. (Points to his smartphone) And I know not everybody here has one, but most of you do. And I know not all of you are constantly connected to everything that's going on in the world through this. Some of you still have giant rectangles (i.e. a television) hanging on your wall. And it's not any different, so don't start feeling superior.

All of us are getting distracted. All of us are making comparisons. In fact, it's not just a question of making comparisons.

How Social Media Fuels Distraction

I'll tell you from the perspective of somebody who has studied the computer science of this and who has been plugged into the development of social media from its early days, the social media apps on our phones are not just enablers of communication, but they are purpose-built to drive your engagement.

You are not the user. You are not the customer. You are the product. And the product is being sold to advertisers.

How is it then that they get you to connect? Well, they give you things that you will continue to scroll on and like and comment and interact with.

The algorithm doesn't give that to you because it's trying to make you happy. It's not trying to make you happy or faithful. It's not trying to tell you the truth or even make you feel good.

In fact, the thing that is most likely to generate the continual gluing of your eyeballs to screen has been shown over and over again in research to be things that make you crazy with anger. The whole point of these things is to connect you to your baser instincts. That's the difficult thing about social media.

In fact, there's a whole category for people who study such things trying to keep you glued to your screen. They call these design things, and you find them across apps, so it turns into a pattern. And actually, they get called that. They get called "Dark Patterns" because these dark patterns get repeated over and over again as ways to keep you glued to your screen, and that makes you feel great or showing you stuff that makes you feel hate.

And so this is the grand distraction of our time. And if it's not the smartphone, then it's the television. Don't feel smug and superior simply because you're not glued to your phone all the time. You're just from a generation that's glued to your TV.

Very few of us can escape this sense of distraction. Nowadays, we may act like we are Mary, sitting at the foot of Jesus, but really, we're sitting on the couch with our screens in the presence, perhaps, of family members who are also on their screens, and everybody is sitting in the same room, but nobody's actually communicating.

These distractions are not neutral. They're not spiritually neutral. These distractions are keeping us from being whom God is calling us to be. And I'm just as guilty of it as the rest of you. It's difficult for me to leave the screen behind.

The Root of Distraction

But the reality is that these distractions grab hold of us precisely because the human psyche is wired to desire comparison. We are wired to show ourselves up against others and to see who stacks up.

And that sense of comparison, whether it's manifested in overt statements of, look at how a person I am, and I'm much better than you, or if it's just in clicking like on each of the pictures and the memes that come through that confirm your preconceived opinions, all of us are subject to that kind of distraction.

This distraction that comes from comparison is something which we must intentionally and regularly strive to break. And the only way that we're going to find as Christians to break it is by emulating the example found in the story of Mary and Martha, who Martha, bringing her concern to Jesus, says, "Jesus, can't you see that she doesn't stack up to me? Can't you see that in comparison to her, I am far superior, working far harder, much more worthy of your love and praise? Can't you see, Lord? Can't you see?"

To which Jesus says to her and to you, "Martha, Martha, you are distracted by many things. But there is need for only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, and it will not be taken from her."

A Call to Focus in Lent

For us who are easily distracted, Jesus calls us to set down the little black rectangle, to turn off the screens hanging on our walls, and to pay attention, especially now in this season of Lent, to set aside time for prayer, for seeking the disciplines of a holy Lent that call us out of ourselves, that call us away from comparison to others, that don't try to build us up at the expense of those whom we would like to put down, that simply call us into the peace and quiet of sitting gently at the feet of Jesus Christ, where we find that none of us is better than another, for all of us are sinners — sinners for whom Jesus Christ died on the cross.

O people of God, you are worried and distracted by many things. But there is need for only one thing: May you choose the better part in this season of Lent. May you set aside a little bit of time each day. May you not be so distracted that you are pulled out of yourself, but rather find your connection to the God who made you and who saves you in His Son, Jesus. In His name. Amen.