Rev. Christine Dudley

Scripture Text: Luke 10:38-42: Mary and Martha

Let us pause for a moment, now, to centre ourselves in prayer:

May we open our hearts to you, O God,
moving beyond all that clutters our lives
and all that is waiting for our attention.
May your Spirit calm us amid the chaos,
and tune our ears to hear your voice above all else;
calling us to find our centre in you. ...
Move us more deeply into your presence
where we can be fully attentive
to the depth of your wisdom,
the stirring of your spirit,
the lessons of our faith tradition,
so that renewed and refreshed
we may respond with gratitude
and share your love, with others,
in the actions of our lives.
Amen
(Seasons of the Spirit, July 18, 2010, adapted)

When I was a young girl I watched my mother scurrying around the house frantically preparing for guests. When the guests arrived she never seemed to visit with them as she was always in the kitchen or bustling around serving food and drinks. The rest of our family helped with cleaning the house, setting the table and doing the dishes afterwards, but during the visits it was only Mom who didn't seem to have the pleasure of actually visiting with our guests. I remember watching her on those occasions and vowing that I would not be like that when I grew up. Like my father, I was interested in hearing about other people's lives and their experiences, sharing stories with them and learning about life in the process. The opportunity to spend time with other people and build relationships was, and still is, a very important part of life for me.

When I was a teenager, attending our local United Church, I first heard the story of Martha and Mary through the bias of my own experience. I knew without a doubt that Mary had indeed chosen "the better part" and I was determined to be like Mary.

That was a long time ago and I have had many more life experiences since then. I have had opportunities to study the Bible and the context in which the stories were recorded. Consequently, the story of Martha and Mary is not so clear-cut in its meaning to me now.

This week I've been pondering specifically what Luke tells us in the story about Jesus' visit with Martha and Mary. The facts presented by Luke are sparse, just five verses for the whole story. And, what is contained in those five verses is open to a variety of interpretations. But, let's begin with what we can reasonably assumeabout the story. We know from the placement of this story in Luke's Gospel, as with last week's story of the Good Samaritan, that Jesus and his disciples are travelling to Jerusalem where Jesus will be arrested, tortured and crucified. We also know that Jesus stops many places along the way to rest and to share the Good News of God's Commonwealth with anyone who is willing to listen.

We also know that "Martha welcomed Jesus into her home" which could be interpreted to mean that she is the owner of the home and therefore the head of the household. Also revealed in the story is that Martha has a sister named Mary who is not recorded as saying anything but who sits at Jesus' feet and listens to what he has to say. Luke also tells us that Martha was distracted by her many tasks and that she complained to Jesus that Mary was not helping her. The commentaries which I read this week were all over the map as far as what the various elements in this story really mean but the crux of the story, for me, rests on the the last two lines of the story where Jesus says, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

These two lines have caused no end of grief for modern interpreters of this story. Taken at face value, without study or in depth reflection, it appears that Jesus is scolding Martha for busying herself with things that are not important (and we immediately think he is talking about her gift of hospitality) and that Mary (who seems to have taken the easier way of passively listening) is commended, by Jesus, for making the better choice.

I'll come back to the wisdom for my own life that I've gleaned from these verses but first I want to spend a bit of time looking at the two women in this story and how Christian tradition has alienated and set them in competition with each other.

Mary is often heralded as the symbol of the supremacy of contemplation, study and prayer, in the life of discipleship over the example of Martha who is portrayed as the practical action-based example of discipleship.

This is, and has always been, a false dichotomy which I don't believe is the message of this gospel story for us today. Contemplation and study are indeed critically important to faith formation and a deeper understanding of who we are as people of faith but equally important are the experiences which discipleship in action can bring to our growth and development as individuals and as Christian community. Faith and action; call and response; learning from listening to God's word within us and through the wisdom of others and learning from the experiences of living our faith in the actions of our lives; go hand in hand. It is not an either/or proposition where one is holier or more important than the other but rather that there is a time and a place for both. We need both to contemplate and understand and to act upon the faith which we profess.

Some feminist theologians suspect an underlying commentary about the role of women in the church when they critique the story of Martha and Mary. They suspect that Luke's ulterior motive in telling this story was to keep women from positions of power and influence in the emerging Christian church (the action work) and to encourage their passive silent presence.

I'm not sure what to make of this allegation. What I do know, from various biblical sources, is that the early Jesus Movement included women who were fully involved in the Christian community as disciples and apostles. And, in the early stages of the Christian church, after Jesus' death, when he was remembered sacramentally there is evidence that women were actively involved in all aspects of the life and work of the church. When that changed in the life of the early Christian church I'd need to do more research to determine. Unfortunately, what Luke meant to convey in the telling of this story has been lost in the mists of time and over the course of centuries of theological interpretation.

While I can't say, with certainty, what Luke's motives were in telling the story of Martha and Mary. What I do know is that I've always appreciated that Luke's gospel includes many of references to women. The Women's Bible Commentary notes that, "In terms of sheer quantity, Luke has more material about women: forty-two passages, of which twenty-three are unique to Luke." (Women's Bible Commentary, p.279) Luke also tends to link stories together in pairs. For example, last week's story of the Good Samaritan where all the characters are male with this week's story about Martha and Mary; the man who plants the mustard seed and the woman who takes the leaven (Luke 13:18-21); the man who searches for the lost sheep and the woman who searches for the lost coin (Luke 15: 4-10); the healing of the woman's only son (Luke 7:12) and the healing of Jairus' only daughter (Luke 8:42); the Sabbath healings of the Bent-over Woman (Luke 13:10-17) and the Man with Dropsy (Luke 14: 1-6). It has always seemed to me that there is a noticeable tendency in Luke's gospel toward an inclusive view of who is part of God's Commonwealth.

So, with this in mind, what I heard in the heart of my prayerful study of the Martha and Mary story this week relates to those last two lines of the story, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken from her."

I heard those words, not in the way of a put-down of Martha (which is the way I've always heard it before) but in the context of Jesus travelling on his way to his death in Jerusalem. I believe that all those who were close to Jesus knew that it was a dangerous time and political climate and time for Jesus to go to Jerusalem. Even being at Martha's house in Bethany, only three miles from Jerusalem, was risky. That may have been partly why Martha was "worried and distracted". Jesus, who we know from John's Gospel is a dear friend of Martha and Mary, assures Martha that "there is need of only one thing" which I believe was to savour the precious time they had together. This precious time with Jesus, hearing the wisdom that he had to offer, was something that would not be taken from them even when he was no longer physically with them.

Is that what Luke meant for us to hear? I don't know. In my life I know that I often get worried and distracted by the many tasks at hand and sometimes have trouble focussing on "one thing" because so many things seem to demand attention all at once. But in the midst of all this busyness, when someone unexpectantly drops by my office and needs my attention everything else in my mind and heart is suspended for the time that we are together. Usually, I experience those times as sacred moments; moments of clarity of purpose; times of connection with another person and involving a keen awareness of God's presence. And surprisingly, even though I've used some of my time that earlier I'd thought was at a premium, when I return to my "To Do List" I feel calmer and more focussed with a greater assurance that there will be time for all that needs to be done.

Unlike my experience as a young girl, I know myself now, as a combination of Martha and Mary, two sides of the same coin, both sides essential to my call to discipleship and ministry.

I am grateful for the abundance of gifts present in our community of faith. And, I thank God daily for the many and varied ways we share in ministry together as the Body of Christ for, in the uncertainty of our time, that surely will not be taken away from us.