In the story we’ll read in the Bible today, Jesus is visiting some friends, two sisters in fact, and challenges one sister on her use of time.
Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42 ESV)
This can be a frustrating story. We can relate to Martha! Think back to Christmas dinner, did you have a lot to get ready, and did some family member frustrate you by doing nothing? That sounds like what happens here.
Jesus might have gone a different direction here, right? He might have told Mary to be more sensitive to Martha’s needs, and go help. Or, he might have gone to help her himself. Both would be consistent with Jesus’ teaching and character.
But what he says is “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary.”
It comes down to the goal, the plan. One thing is necessary, and it’s not what Martha is doing. Two possibilities:
One option: Martha is concerned with gender roles. In their culture, Mary should be in the kitchen serving, not learning like a rabbinical student. She’s assumed the posture of a learner, sitting at Jesus’ feet, which was an exclusively male pursuit.
Another option: Martha really is just concerned with a meal to honour the visiting rabbi, but Jesus says at this particular moment, there is a more important goal that should consume her time.
Either way, seems she’s missed the goal. Jesus is here. He’s establishing his kingdom, starting with teaching a few individuals, his disciples. Martha and Mary are invited to be a part of that select group of learners while he’s in their own home. Mary is sacrificing her place in society, and her time, to sit at his feet, learn and grow as his follower. Martha is letting those same things get in the way.
The creator of time itself is sitting in Martha’s living room, and she doesn’t give him any.
He is the only one who can create time. I act that way sometimes. I leave no travel time between appointments, as if I’ll conjure time out of nowhere.
But, we only have so many hours in the day – time is a finite resource. We have to choose how to spend them. Sometimes it’s on life’s mundane tasks, preparing another meal or cleaning up, and sometimes it’s on great visionary stuff like sitting at Jesus’ feet.
One Christian, Martin Luther, said years ago: “Oh, faith is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, so that it is impossible for it not to be constantly doing what is good.“
The question is – what is good?
Question: What makes for a “good” use of time?
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Look down at your hands. Chances are you’re holding an Apple device. Well over ¾ of Redeem the Commute’s mobile users use Apple devices. It’s incredible technology that has ended up in the hands of millions quite quickly. It’s more powerful than computers in the space shuttle that put humans into orbit, yet we mostly use it to crush candies and fly birds into buildings.
We take it for granted, we know iPods, iPhones, iPads have been around long enough we forget how they came to be. Whose idea was this? How did they do it? How did they market it so effectively? How did they become such a high theft item? How did they travel the world?
Answering those questions is why there’s been so much fascination with the life of Steve Jobs. Many an article, a feature film, and more have been produced.
We love our founding stories. In the story of Steve Jobs and his garage startup, you can find the character of Apple the company. The ingenuity, the creativity, the resolve and drive, the secrecy, and the mystique. Even as other leaders have their turn leading the company after his death, they always have his legacy to contend with.
As we walk the streets of Western countries, we can get used to seeing church buildings – big and small, traditional and contemporary architecture, Roman Catholic, Anglican, United, and more.
But how did they get here? Why are there church buildings, much less people who build, maintain and use them?
I used to pastor four churches in Eastern Ontario, and one was a very old church. When I arrived, they were about to celebrate what they thought was their 150th anniversary, but while I was there, we discovered that was wrong. The bricks and mortar were indeed 150 years old, but the church was in fact much older than their building.
The church is a community of people learning to follow Jesus. And in the days of early pioneers, this community was meeting in a tavern, then a hall and a school before they ever built a structure of their own. They met in those spaces because they could learn about Jesus together as a community.
We had to go back to our founding stories, and our founding figures to realize we were much more than a building…we were a church…we were supposed to be all about Jesus. We needed to be shaped by our founding story, and our founding pioneer – Jesus Christ.
That building is being closed in less than a month, but the church will carry on. They’ve joined with the other nearby churches to follow Jesus together in another building.
As we talk about Redeem the Commute becoming a church community, we aren’t talking about a building either, we’re talking about a community shaped by our founding pioneer Jesus. The book of Acts in the Bible tells the founding story of those who established church communities after his death and resurrection to keep following him.
In this series, we’ll be looking at that pioneer story, how the first Christians survived, thrived, and organized. We’ll read through the highlights of the Book of Acts.
You can do this as an individual watching the videos each day and discussing with others as you go, or we have a new option if you’re meeting weekly with a group. You can watch the videos each day, but we’ll also produce a weekly small group study guide with all the week’s Bible readings and questions in one place.
Question: Tell your pioneer story to someone. This can be as simple as explaining how the lifestyle choices and priorities that you do are based on the teachings of Jesus, or why you dedicate time to Redeem the Commute’s challenges.
