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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In our series on Christmas as the Night that Changed Everything, this week we’re looking at how it’s the night that changed the poor. The poor have a priveleged place in the story of Jesus' birth at Christmas. Here is where that really shows:
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. (Luke 2:4-7)
When a politician visits a troubled area, it’s important. I recall after the 1998 ice storm in Eastern Ontario, the Prime Minister visited Wolfe Island, where I used to volunteer as a paramedic. Years later, people would still talk about how the Prime Minister had come, and how. They knew in that moment that he’d seen what they were dealing with, through his own eyes.
Here in the Christmas story we see God doing that. He has come to visit our broken and hurting world, and has let the entire population know that he is here with us – from rich to poor, young to old. It’s so apparent in that he comes to earth not like pampered royalty, but as a homeless baby.
His parents are on their way to Bethlehem for the census. They must travel, even though Mary is pregnant and close to birth. They arrive, apparently without plans for accomodations (or their plans are cancelled when an unmarried pregnant woman arrives) and find no room in any inns. If they had money, you can imagine they might buy their way out of trouble, but it doesn’t happen, and they end up in a stable. The baby is born, wrapped in cloths, a poor, defenseless baby whose parents are doing the best they can, which isn’t much. The word translated as stable may be a building dedicated to animals like we think, or it’s possible it represented a one room house with both animals and people, but either way it was modest.
This is not a story of privelege and power. Why would God – who we would expect to come in majesty and splendour – arrive in this way?
Question: What might God be trying to tell us in coming to earth in this way?
Reminder: We are reading the Bible in sync as one community - so check out today's reading here.
