Luke 10:38-42
7th August Trinity
 |
| Martha, Mary, He Qi |
Now as they were traveling
along, he entered a certain village; and a woman named Martha received him into
her home. And she had a sister called Mary who was listening to the Lord’s
word, seated at his feet.
Martha meanwhile was distracted with all her
preparations. So she got up and said, “Lord do you not care that my sister has
left me here to serve alone? Tell her to help me.”
But the Lord answered and said to her, Martha,
Martha you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only a few things
are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall
not be taken away from her.
7th August Trinity
September 4, 2011
Luke 10:38-42
A guard at the gate is there to stand watch. He pays
attention to the surroundings, so that he can engage friend or foe. Sometimes
his mere attention deters the foe. He must recognize the friend, to whom he
will open.
In the spiritual, what counts, the coin of the realm, is
units of attention.[1]
For in the spirit realm, thoughts are living beings; we are engaging with those
thought beings to whom we give our attention. Our inattention lets the
adversary slip past.
In the gospel reading, Mary attends to the Living Word of
Christ, while Martha attends with worry to a multitude of earthly details. It
is not that paying attention to the earthly is itself a bad thing. It is here a
question of its appropriateness in the particular setting. Better to pay
attention to the words of Christ as He speaks than to be preoccupied with the
array of dishes and quality of the tablecloth. Christ chides Martha for her
worried and scattered attention to the details of the merely earthly, instead
of listening to the spiritual within the earthly.
Worry is fear that there is not enough—not enough time, not
enough within the space. The native Americans have a saying: Worry is praying
for what you don’t want to happen. We would do better to focus our attention on
the living word, the Christ being, the spiritual within the earthly. In
the analogy of the guard, we are to keep watch, not just for the enemy, but
also for the Friend, to Whom we are to open.
The poet Machado said:
I love Jesus, who said to us:
heaven and earth will pass away.
When heaven and earth have passed
away,
my word will still remain.
What was your word, Jesus?
Love? Forgiveness? Affection?
All your words were
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