The Gospel for October 22, 2004
Luke 10:38-42
In the course of their journey he came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet and listened to him speaking. Now Martha, who was distracted with all the serving, came to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by myself? Please tell her to help me.’ But the Lord answered, ‘Martha, Martha,’ he said, ‘you worry and fret about so many things, and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part, and it is not to be taken from her.’ -- The New Jerusalem Bible. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1995, c1985
A Study
Mary and Martha, maybe the ones whose brother is Lazarus? Maybe not.
Jesus' opinion on housework vs listening to Jesus: skip the housework!
A Reflection
The word translated as "better" in the last sentence of this text is literally "good." If I were translating from the Greek, I would probably want to make it "better" or even "best," rather than just "good." Has more umph! if you translate it that way.
But consider the alternatives. "Good" vs "not good."
When we are busy doing busywork, like cleaning up the kitchen or squaring away the thousands of emails in our inboxes, or finding a clearer path to our desk chair through all the built up piles of magazines we're going to read one day -- we're not doing God's work. Especially if God happens to be sitting over there, motioning to us to come over and have a seat and listen. Motioning for us to stop serving whoever-it-is, and come, and sit at His feet, and open our soul's ears, and listen. Which, then, is "good", and which is something else?
And, it turns out, God is always doing that. This afternoon, during a haircut from a non-English-speaking haircutter, I was able to open up the God-channel and sit there and listen. That was some prime time with YHWH and his son. The words I received talked about Mary and Martha and busy-ness. But mostly about my concept of what productive busy-ness is versus what His concept of good busy-ness is.
We are so busy do-ing that we forget to be busy be-ing. When YHWH spoke into be-ing the origins of our lives today, He was not worrying about changing the newspaper in the canary house. He wasn't worrying, at all. He was loving us into be-ing.
I am crossing the threshold from the fifty-year-old active man into the sixty-year-old senior category. While my body often betrays me and my mind forgets what day of the month it is, my spirit is becoming more and more less busy with daily things and more and more more busy with listening.
But most of all, I long to sit at His feet and listen to His Word.
A Collect
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom: Enlighten by your Holy Spirit those who teach and those who learn, that, rejoicing in the knowledge of your truth, they may worship you and serve you from generation to generation; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
10:16:56 PM 
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