Mary and Martha

I’m sure we all have times when we’re distracted – some of us get distracted easier than others. It often happens to me when I’m listening to long talks. It may happen to you when you’re listening to sermons perhaps ! This week I went on a conference and I was going through some of the things we’d thought about when I got home and telling Helen about them and I came to one part of my notes and could make no sense of it at all – I had written something down but clearly had not really taken any notice of what it meant. I blamed the sun and the possibility of an ice cream on the sea front for the distraction !

There is also a great story about the rugby players Gareth Edwards and Ray Gravell – having played together for Wales they knew each other’s weaknesses well, and so in a club game between Cardiff and Llanelli Gareth Edwards worked out that there was a way to distract Ray Gravell so he would have a poor game – he did it by picking on Gravell’s physical condition which he was always a bit sensitive about. He began before the start of the game by saying ‘You look as if you’ve put on a bit of weight’. Immediately this bothered RayGravell so much that he began to ask a few players around – ‘do I look ok ? Have I put on some weight ?’

These questions went on as the game began, which of course was a huge distraction to how he was playing, and it wasn’t helped when Gareth Edwards kept looking at Ray, and every time he looked back Gareth was making hand gestures to suggest a big tummy !

Distractions can come all too easily, and in our reading from Luke’s gospel (10:38-42) we are reminded of the account of Mary and Martha. Jesus had gone to visit their house and like many people welcoming a special guest Martha got a bit flustered and went about doing lots of things to make sure Jesus’ visit was a good one.

But Mary, her sister, did nothing except sit at Jesus’ feet and listen to him speak. Martha was perhaps naturally a little upset about her sister’s lack of help and moaned to Jesus about it – but Jesus replied, ‘Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing – Mary has chosen the better part…’

I guess we can all feel a little sorry for Martha – she seemed to be doing the right thing and caring for her guest, and now that guest was saying just leave things alone and sit down with me like your sister is doing. But there was no doubt Martha was distracted from seeing what was really important – just spending time with Jesus.

The fact is of course that there is need for both things at times in our lives. Two of the important features of the Christian life are gathering together in fellowship, in church or in other events or simply social occasions, and going out into the world representing Christ – being his body in the world…

They are two of the three main features of our Diocesan Vision – Gathering, Growing and Going. And as we gather we are blessed as we learn from each other as we gather as a family and take time to support one another in good times or in difficult times. We are strengthened and encouraged to live the life of Jesus – and as we are gathering, we are growing, both from the relationships we havewith each other and with God, but also in the teaching we experience.

And then we go – we go out into the world to be busy – to work for Jesus, to live for him and represent him and his message for the world – a message we try to reveal constantly through our words and actions.

And so we go back to Martha – she was being a great host, but she was missing an opportunity to just spend time in the company of Jesus – to listen to him, learn from him and be inspired by him. What an opportunity – and today we have the same opportunity. Perhaps not to sit in the same room as Jesus, but to know his presence with us always. To know that he is there guiding us, caring for us, loving us – if we let him…

There is a time to do God’s work in the world – a time to stand up for justice and peace, a time to proclaim God’s love, a time to show that love through good things we do.

On the conference I was on earlier in the week one of the speakers told us of a man who came to him after his wife had become a Christian. She was keen for their child to be baptised but the man wasn’t sure about it – and so he asked to see the Vicar for a chat, and he began by saying, ‘I don’t want to know if it’s true, I think it probably is, but I want to know if it works.’

He wanted to see Jesus in action in the church and the world as revealed through his people – and he simply felt that he’d looked at enough churches and Christians, and just didn’t see that faith was working. It’s a really sad portrayal of the church. And I think it shows us that whilst Jesus told Martha not to be distracted and to sit and listen like her sister Mary, there are also times when we need Martha’sway – I was going to say when all of us need to be Martha’s but I’m not quite sure that’s appropriate for the men !

But whilst we need to be people of action living out and sharing the gospel message of hope and peace and joy and love in the world, we also need to be people who will sit and listen to Jesus – who will pray and seek to hear God speaking to us as well.

There is a story of a man who lost his watch while working in a house. He searched everywhere for it and so did his workmates but they couldn’t find it. So everyone apart from the boy who lived in the house went outside to look and shortly after the boy came up saying he had found the watch. When asked how he found it, he replied that when they’d all gone outside he sat down and listened and he could hear the watch ticking.

In the stillness he had heard a noise and the watch has found. As we spend time in stillness with God he can speak to us, he can guide us, he can show us new ways of living, help us to dream great things that can change our lives and transform others around us.

Helen and I are God parents to two girls and they are quite different – one day their mother said to Helen, ‘two sisters, same parents,same upbringing – totally different’. When we look at Mary and Martha we could say the same – ‘two sisters, same parents, same upbringing – totally different’, but it is a reminder that as we continue our journey of life, God will put lots of different people in front of us – some we’ll like, some we will find more difficult; some will do things one way, others another.

But we learn from each other as we enjoy relationships with each other – and we learn that we need to be people who do what both Mary and Martha did – we must be people who work like Martha did, who busy ourselves with doing good things and helping to reveal the love and wonder of God; but we must also be people like Mary at times – people who are willing to sit and listen to Jesus – to take in his teaching, to look at his life, to consider his love, that we might enjoy and share that love in and through our lives. AMEN