‘Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But 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.” But the Lord answered her, “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’.
When I talk to people about the above text they usually find their natural sympathies going to Martha the sister who has been left with all the work. To a certain extent the church recognised this in suggesting that whilst Mary stands as a symbol for those who have withdrawn from the world to pray for the world and live lives of contemplation, Martha stands as a symbol of those who are active in the world. I think that that is to misunderstand what is going on here. It suggests that there is a split between the active and contemplative life. It is a false dichotomy. Martha has got wrong not because she is being busy, and Mary has not got right because she is inactive. Mary is right because she listened to the Lord rather than simply assume that she already knew what the Lord wanted, which is what Martha did. Seeking to justify herself, Martha judges her sister and finds her wanting. She is distracted, literally ‘pulled apart’ ‘divided’ between the false self, the one that seeks to create itself and takes the credit doing this, and the self who acknowledges their creator and receives God’s grace.
So what is the one thing necessary that which Mary has chosen? One answer might be that it is prayer but I think that it is something even more fundamental, the one thing necessary is Love and listening to ‘the promptings of love’ which in this episode made manifest in the person and teaching of Jesus who is God/Love with us’. But this not simply romantic love, familial love, love for friends; This is God’s self giving, self emptying love out of which creation is and continues to be called into being. God’s fundamental property and our calling is love. Out of Love God made space for creation to exist alongside God. Out of this love each one of us has been created and is being re-created in God’s image of self emptying Love. Out of love we listen to the Lord, we listen to one another and we listen to creation; Out of Love, we pray and worship, praying to the Lord and praying for one another; Out of Love we love and care for all our fellow creatures by whatever means we have been given by grace. But we do so in the strength of the Lord’s love not our own; Out of Love we bear witness to the love that has created, is creating all that is creaturely; and out of love we bear witness to the redemption of creation through the Lord’s incarnation, life death and resurrection; Out of love the Lord says, ‘Behold I make all things new’; and out Love we say ‘Amen, let it be so’. And this Love is one of the reasons why we do not judge the other; each of us lives in a situation that is unique to us as individuals, therefore we not ask the other to justify themselves – since it is ‘by grace we have been saved through faith, and this is not our own doing; it is the gift of God — not the result of works, so that no one may boast For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life’.
Each one of us has a calling that is particular to us, it is universal insofar as we have been called by Love to love, but we are called as individuals albeit individuals in community. As to the specific calling of others, that is not our concern. ‘Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them… …When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’ Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!’
The calling of the beloved disciple is not Peter’s concern.
If we judge others it backfires as we end up judging and seeking to justify ourselves, then we end up divided and distracted like Martha. We become divided between the person who is justified by God through grace and faith, and the person who is seeking to justify themselves in the eyes of God and others through good works and acts of piety.
‘Blessed are the pure in heart’ in other words ‘happy are they whose motives have been purified from self justification, who have been saved by the love of God and can therefore live for love without any othe motive.
It is this Love that is eternal, and in that eternity this love made ‘space’ for our existence.
And our response is simply this, to ‘Gaze upon Love; Consider Love; Contemplate Love and Imitate Love’, and let the God who is love you.
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