38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”Here we have the story of two sisters. Martha spent all her time in Jesus' presence bustling and preparing the house. Mary spent her time at Jesus' feet, listening. When Martha objects--getting a wee bit passive-aggressive and needling her sister to get her rear in gear and help--Jesus affirms Mary's contemplation over Martha's hurry.
The moral of this story isn't that sitting around is better than running around. Rather it's a matter of priority: what comes first.
Most of us define our lives--or let our lives get defined for us--by the series of tasks we have to do today. "Have" should be in quotes there. For most of us the true "haves" accumulate their own set of sub-tasks which themselves carry further assumptions about more things we "have" to do. We start out with one or two "have to's" which leads logically to three more. If we're going to be good at those we also need to do X, Y, and Z. Each of those has six more parts to them. Voila! Our schedule is filled for the next six months and really we only set out to do a couple of things!
The whole system mushes together, developing a gravity from which we find it difficult to escape. The bigger and more important that system feels, the more gravity it attains and the more "important" it seems. In turn we feel more important for being a part of such a big and weighty system. That's how we draw our identity, defining ourselves by being enslaved to a huge, important set of things.
Can you picture Martha here? "Jesus is here at MY house! What a big deal this is! Think how much this says about me and my home, my identity, the importance of my work! Ohmygosh I must dust and sweep and prepare a meal and wash and iron and..."
If we're people of faith we'll also let God into our busy lives. Perhaps we'll find a few minutes for a prayer or devotion. Or we'll just pray, "God be with me today!" Both are good impulses but neither are sufficient. The first is like Martha saying, "Whew! OK, I'm going to spend a couple minutes with you Jesus before I get back to work!" The second reads, "Hey Jesus, why don't you grab a broom and help me here?"
There's nothing wrong with Martha's work. Jesus isn't praising Mary because she's not working, nor suggesting that sitting is superior. Jesus is reminding us of our priorities. Namely, "How do you know what you're supposed to be doing today if you haven't asked God about it first?"
We assume the "have to's" in our lives as givens, God time as a special luxury. Our daily tasks are the broccoli and nutritionally-balanced wheat bread that sustain us while our devotions and prayers are like a little chocolate delight at the end of the day. That's backwards. God is our sustenance and life. The fact that we also get to do occasionally-important things in his name is our treat and delight.
Mary's not going to sit at that couch forever. She's listening to God so she knows what's truly important, letting his word guide her tasks rather than letting her tasks overwhelm his word. Martha's doing all the things she assumes are important and hoping God will agree and follow.
You don't have to dig very far into our church, our family relationships, or our professional life before you find Martha-like assumptions guiding us. In all three venues we define success by tasks completed, often forgetting the relationships those tasks are meant to serve.
I was at the store the other day when an employee all but shoved me aside to get their cart full of stuff past and unloaded. Their "important task" was stocking the shelves. That the shelves were there for the sake of the customer rather than the customer for the sake of the shelves escaped them.
If Careen and I get Derek off to school on time, get decent food in the stomach of our kids, and manage to keep them from damaging themselves or each other then we usually define our day as "successful". Those tasks take plenty of time and energy, but are they at the heart of our definition as parents or the relationship we're supposed to have with our children? I can't count the number of times I've asked Derek to clean his room and then realized that I haven't spent any time playing with him and helping him make that mess on the floor. Am I really a good parent because his task is done, because the floor is clean?
Church gets defined by tasks more than any other institution I know. It's simple and keeps unpleasant things like reflection, change, transformation, and conflict at bay. A "good church" has services on time, does worship well, gets enough people to fill in support tasks like cleaning or setting up for services, and never bothers you otherwise. It's easy, sanitary, and we don't even have to think in order to make it work.
You can see Martha's footprints in all these examples. The truth is, nobody had to do any of these things, at least not in the manner and time in which they were done. The "have to's" didn't lead us into importance, they led us away from what was important.
It's so easy to become the busy one, getting stuff done. The immediate rewards are tangible but then end up thinner and cheaper than the rewards gained from letting our tasks be guided by God first. Every task has a follow up. Martha will never be done with her work. The floor will need to be swept again tomorrow. That's how the gravity takes hold and the system perpetuates itself. You never get to be satisfied; you never get to be whole and at peace. But Mary...what she has will never be taken away from her. Peace, wholeness, guidance, and importance are given to her first and then she goes out to pursue the tasks of her day. That makes all the difference in the world.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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