November 1
Luke 10.38-42
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
We often look at this story and think about how we get too involved in the serving works and that we should focus on the listening to God. And yet, Luke does not tell us that Martha was doing something wrong. It was that Martha was letting things distract her. I often wonder if the truth in Marth’s mind was that Mary was distracted by Jesus speaking and she should have been working. Because even good things can become a distraction.
There was a story told to us while we were in seminary about students learning to preach. They were met by a professor in his office one at a time. He gave them a text to preach, but they had to prepare for it while they walked across campus to a chapel gathering. It would take them about 20 minutes to get there and it started in about 20 minutes. When they arrived, each one found out they failed at their arrival. The only one to pass was the one who didn’t get there. He stopped along the way to help a homeless man on a bench who appeared to be in distress.
In the process of preparing for a good thing, preaching the gospel, they missed the opportunity that was more important. Because each was given the same text, the portion of Luke 10 preceding this, the Good Samaritan. The Homeless Man was planted. In preparing to preach about the Good Samaritan they forgot to act like the Samaritan and help the man in need.
What gets in the way of serving God and people? It might be a good thing, it might not. Yet things get in the way. We get distracted by things that need to be put in the proper place. And we can learn that the things that may seem to be other distractions, people stopping into life each day, may be the things we were supposed to see first.
Song – Jesu, Jesu
Prayer
Lord our God, you have led us through our days and years, made wisdom ripe and faith mature. Show men and women your purpose for them, so that, when youth is spent, they may not find life empty or labour stale, but may devote themselves to dear loves and worthy tasks, with undiminished strength; for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.