Word to the Wise
Thursday, July 29, 2010 - St. Martha
[Jeremiah 18:1-6 and John 11:19-27 or Luke 10:38-42]"I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" [Martha] said to him, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world." [John]
The vividness of characters in the Gospel of John - people like Peter, Thomas, Mary Magdalen, the Samaritan woman, etc. - is now applied to Martha! We know from the reference in the Gospel of Luke that she was "anxious about many things," so it is no surprise that when she hears of Jesus' approach four days after her brother's death, that she gets up and runs to meet him with words to the effect, "Why are you so late getting here. You could have prevented his dying!" And like Peter, Thomas and the others, she is challenged and comes to complete faith with the words quoted above! Perhaps one way of putting words to Martha is, "Stop and think about it, Martha!" In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus calls Martha's attention to the importance of first listening to his words like a disciple and then acting on them. Martha tries to reverse the process. The Lord knows we need the Martha's in our midst. We also need to take good care of them by not allowing "ministry for the sake of ministry" to take over and become simply altruism. As a pastor, I have been truly grateful for the "Martha's" in my congregations! I have also had to listen to them express their resentment about the "non-Martha" folks and respond with gratitude for service but a recognition about what is truly important. Both the gospels of Luke and John show us a woman of faith and action. Calling her attention to the first should not stop her from the second. But the order of precedence is important! AMEN
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