“ Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

It is a tad ironic that we read this text two days following the sentencing of another Martha, who is also “worried and distracted by many things.” Jesus’ friend Martha probably couldn’t comprehend the magnitude of domestic-diva Martha Stewart’s worries and distractions, however. Still, they have more than a name in common and, hard as it is to believe, we all share common ground with these Marthas. Why? Because all of us seek to get our lives together and achieving that we want to keep them together. The Marthas just remind us of our deepest desire – getting it together and keeping it together.

Ah, you may be saying that the generalization might be just a tad broad. A visit to the internet, a tour of the self-help section at the bookstore, a casual flip-through of daytime television talk shows says otherwise. We are confronting an epidemic of over-scheduling and activity that is pushing us, relentlessly, to the edge of our capabilities. We’re looking for ways to manage, to control, and to harness our situations so that we can achieve a nebulous thing called ‘success’ or ‘happiness.’ Our society, like Martha, is “worried and distracted by many things.” What are we to do?
First, let’s understand that Jesus is not scolding or reprimanding Martha for her activity or her concern with hospitality. For centuries scholars and spiritual writers have argued the Martha/Mary dichotomy between active and contemplative approaches to life. That’s not the point here. The point here is best described in the way my old New Testament professor used to do it. Jesus saying, “Martha, Martha, cold cuts would have been plenty, dear!” Hospitality isn’t bad, being busy isn’t bad, allowing hospitality or busyness to keep us from what is important, however, is bad. What we’re being told is that being worried and distracted keeps one from “the need of only one thing.” That “one thing” is God.

There is something a religious revival going on in our country. People are, again, looking for religious answers to the questions of daily life and there are lots of folks who are seeking to provide them. Recently I was loaned a good book by Alan Wolfe entitled, The Transformation of American Religion: How We Actually Live Our Faith. It’s an eye-opener because as Wolfe chronicles the transformation he demonstrates, rather clearly, that Americans have managed to do to religion what we’ve done to everything else. We’ve made it about the individual and self-fulfillment. He talks about The Prayer of Jabez, which to me was essentially an exercise in “God give me what I want and I’ll give you something back,” as an example of this. We simply don’t have time to go through all of the points Wolfe makes, but I’m going to have to buy the book and probably, we’ll do a book group on it at some point – that’s how important a point I think he makes. The current religious revival, you see, is more about self-fulfillment, about ‘me,’ than it is about God. It goes back to the point I made a few moments ago and shows us that we can be “anxious and worried about many things” and still manage to do it with a religious twist.

The religion section of yesterday’s paper talked about the ad campaigns being undertaken by several major denominations out of concern for the exodus of people from the ‘tall-steeple churches’ into other churches. While I’ve advocated our raising our profile in the community and even promoted a marketing committee, I’m beginning to have my doubts. You see, if I really believe that this thing we do is all about God and not about me – or about you for that matter – what’s the point? Isn’t the “need of only one thing” that on which we should focus? If we’re living toward that “one thing” then it would seem to follow that we’ll be who God is calling us to be and that if growth is warranted, it will happen.

That “only one thing” is what Paul told the Colossians, “the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations . . . which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Our Puritan ancestors understood, as Gordon Wakefield has pointed out, that union with Christ is the beginning not the end of the Christian life. It is when we understand that Christ is in us right now that we are in union with the One God and really begin to live out our lives as Christians. That kind of living – a life oriented toward God – will reflect in our actions and our attitudes producing a spiritually mature and healthy community. Deep inside I’m beginning to think that such a community of love in covenant relationship should be advertisement enough.

However, we have to work at the union. To my mind that’s the getting it together – opening ourselves to receive what God is offering us so freely. We’ve allowed ourselves to become so self-help oriented, so doing rather than being focused, that we miss the reality of God’s promise. The spiritual writer Henri J. M. Nouwen has written, “I wonder if under the surface of our religiosity we do not have great doubts about God’s effectiveness in our world, about his interest in us – yes, even about his presence among us. I even wonder if there are many religious people for whom God is their only concern. When we speak of our age as a secular age, we must first of all be willing to become aware of how deeply this secularism has entered into our own hearts and how doubt, hesitation, suspicion, anger, and even hatred corrode our relationship with God.” [quoted in Wick, Touching the Holy, p. 49] The way we overcome the distractions in our lives is by placing ourselves at the feet of the One who can teach us, by entering into the Word, and by opening ourselves to the reality of the mystery that is already present within us, “the hope of glory.”
I came across something by Stephanie Frey, a Lutheran pastor in Minnesota, which seems to make the point fairly clear. She writes: “We 21st century North Americans understand Martha’s predicament well. It isn’t only matters of hospitality that distract us and pull us in many directions; it’s the unrelenting nature of our schedules. Oddly enough, it seems less complicated to plow ahead and attempt to keep up with the calendar that to make a change. It is easier, for example, to make a casserole for a grieving family than it is to offer a word of hope in Christ, easier to welcome a new neighbor with a fresh loaf of bread than to invite her to worship. Indeed, we are so distracted that our sense of Sabbath takes on an ironic twist. Worship becomes a ‘scheduling problem,’ one that interferes with ‘the one day when we can sleep in and spend time with family.’ But while the rest and recreation we seek are utterly in keeping with a scriptural understanding of Sabbath, those of us who miss worship lose the opportunity to rest in God’s word, to recline at the Lord’s feasting table for the sake of spiritual refreshment.” [in Christian Century, July 13, 2004, p. 16] Coming to understand the “need of one thing” leads us to change the patterns of behavior that drive us to distraction and disintegration. We learn to accept the embrace of God and realize that it is not about us – it is about God loving us into freedom, about God giving us the hope of glory.

So, getting it together is realizing, accepting and living toward God not toward self. What is keeping it together? Simple. Keeping it together is cultivating the awareness of God’s presence and abiding in that presence. As I’ve said before, there are many different ways that one can come to cultivate that awareness, but let me recommend one that is fairly practical and rather doable. This method takes just seven minutes – two in the morning and five in the evening. Here is how it works. In the morning take two minutes alone with God; focus your heart and mind on God in silence. After two minutes just say, “Thank you, Lord, for the day ahead. Be with me through it and never let me forget you are here with me.” Or you can offer some other simple, little prayer to focus yourself on the presence and then off you go. You’ll be surprised how during the day you’ll see God at work in the ordinary.

In the evening take five minutes to read and meditate on a passage from the Bible. Just relax with it and use a translation that speaks to you the best. For example, Eugene Peterson has done a translation/paraphrase called The Message. Jesus’ words to Martha in Peterson’s version are: “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential and Mary has chosen it – it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.” Think about what Jesus is saying to Martha and put yourself in her place – what do those words mean to you? God will help you to choose the main course, but first you have to give God the opportunity to speak to you. Five minutes will do that and open the way to a new and deeper awareness of God and of self.

God in Christ continues to “reconcile all things to himself” and “all things hold together in him.” In other words, God has got it together and is keeping it together. The one essential, needed thing for us is to place our lives into God’s life. We accomplish that oneness when we accept God’ embrace and focus on God rather than on self. The truest self-fulfillment, self-worth, and self-esteem come when my life is linked to God’s life – then I am what God created me to be and am able to live accordingly. This unity isn’t earned, it’s a gift and it’s not something we get later, it’s right now. Getting it together and keeping it together begins when I acknowledge and act out of the truth that it’s not about me – it’s about God. There’s the better part and it shall not be taken away from those who choose it.

Pray with me, please.
God in the midst, come close to us, and help us to come close to you, as, for a fraction of time, we step back from the activities of the week and of the day that worry and distract us. May we treasure such moments with you. Moments when we can bring to you the things that we are doing and find new meaning for them and new strength for doing them. And moments for recalling how we are meeting you already, in the ordinary activities of daily living and conversation, when faith is tested and compassion is translated into action. Thank you for moments of clarity when we are reminded just how present you are to us and how one we are with you, O God. Thank you for being there, even in our worries and our distractions. So if, as the week and the day goes on, we forget you, do not forget us, O God. Amen. [prayer adapted from The Worship Book of the Iona Community, Scotland]