Choosing the Good Life

³⁸Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” ⁴¹But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; ⁴²there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part,

which will not be taken away from her.”             Luke 10:38-42

            This little delightful and homey story of Jesus visiting in the home of Mary and Martha grants us a rare glimpse into the private life of Jesus. This is Jesus at home with his best friends. Sure, he is still preaching away, but with a quite different tone that we often find in the gospels.

            Now, the story has been read in a variety of ways.  Mary and Martha are sometimes contrasted – Martha is the doer and Mary is the spiritual one.  But no one (especially the clergy) really believes that – if the church and society were filled with too many Mary’s and not enough Martha’s, nothing would ever get done!

            But there is no escaping the fact that Jesus shows some kind of preference for the way Mary goes about things over the way Martha goes about things. It is not that Martha is a doer; it is more she doesn’t know when to leave the dirty dishes alone a couple of minutes and sit down and enjoy her guest.  Mary, on the other hand, seems by temperament or intuition to know the right thing to do at the right time.

            Now one way of reading the story – especially in these post-modern and “everything is about me” times – is to say, “Mary chose the best part for HER, and for her temperament.”  That is, Mary is the well-grounded sister, the one who has a deep sense of the good and spiritual life, and she acts on that:  she sits at her Master’s feet.  She devotes herself to the inner, spiritual life.

            If that is the case, then Mary made a good choice for her, but it is not necessarily the best choice for you or for me.  We each have to sort out our own best choices.

            But maybe that is not the point at all.  Maybe the message in the little story is this:  even in the busy-ness of life, do not neglect your spiritual side.  Don’t always be in an all-fired hurry to get where you are going or do what you think is important to get done.  Stop and smell the roses, for Pete’s sake.  Stop and smell the roses for God’s sake.

            In words of that unexpectedly wise gardener in the old Peter Sellar’s film, Being There, “Don’t do anything!  Just be there!”

            Just be there.  That is what Jesus is really inviting us to do in the story of Mary and Martha.  That is the kind of life he is advocating in his Sermon on the Mount words about the birds of the air and the flowers of the field and don’t worry about tomorrow.

            Note that in the interchange between Jesus and Mary and Martha, Jesus doesn’t COMMAND Mary to attend to spiritual matters. Nor does he command Martha to stop doing what she is doing.  He simply makes a comment.  Jesus simply reports what he sees.  Jesus observes Mary pursuing the best kind of life, and he blesses what she does and who she is.

            On this day of sadness over the death of a beloved wife and mother and grandmother, sister and friend mixed with joyous gratitude for what we have shared with Kate, we are more reflective than we are on most days.  Even the Martha’s among us at least for a moment are out of the kitchen and into church.  On a day like this we can’t help ourselves.  We gravitate towards spiritual things and we ask ourselves, “Have I chosen the best part for me?  The REALLY best part?”  Being in that spiritual mode, Jesus says, “Blessed are you.  That is a good thing to do.”

            For it is in our inward selves that we begin to sort out what life is all about.  It is in the inner world of our souls and minds, spirits and emotions that we find the strength and courage to do whatever it is we are called to do.  It is to our inner selves that God speaks.  And it is in our listening mode, in those all too precious and fleeting quiet and receptive moments, that we can hear what God would say to us.

            And what God says to us, is, “Be still.  It will be all right. Don’t be anxious about tomorrow.  Live today and face tomorrow when it comes.  Choose the best part, and treasure it and hang on to it and never let it go.”  For God is with you. With you in your grief and in your joy, in your youth and in your old age. God is with you, working out God’s purpose in your life and God’s purpose in the world.

            God is with you!  God is with you now.  God will be with you tomorrow.

            God is with you always.  Forever.  Amen.

R. Charles Grant

Bon Air Presbyterian Church

Richmond, VA 

September 14, 2007