Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

Today on our Church calendar we give thanks for Martha and Mary of Bethany, sisters of Lazarus, some of the first followers of Jesus. You know the phrase from Luke’s Gospel, and maybe it stings a little when you hear it like does for me: “Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.” Oof! To hear that your sister who has been driving you crazy is doing the right thing might feel like whiplash. The risk with such a quick story as this one is that it’s easy to read into it one particular teaching, when we know the parables and stories of Jesus tend not to actually be quite that flat or straight forward. I appreciate how lay theologian Debie Thomas approaches this text in her essay “Only One Thing.” It is linked here if you would like to read more - she models a thoughtful and close reading of the text, her own experience, and vulnerability in growing from a flat reading to one that enriches relationship with Jesus.

She writes:

Perhaps Martha’s mistake was that she assumed she could invite Jesus into her life, and then carry on with that life as usual, maintaining control, privileging her own priorities, and clinging to her long-cherished agenda and schedule.  What was Jesus’s response to that assumption?  Nope.  Absolutely not.   That’s not how discipleship works.  

In contrast, Mary recognized that Jesus’s presence in her house required a radical shift.  A role change.  A wholehearted surrender.  Every action, every decision, every priority, would have to be filtered through this new love, this new devotion, this new passion.  Why? Because Jesus was no ordinary guest.  He was the Guest who would be Host.  The Host who would provide the bread of life, the living water, and the wine that was his own blood, to anyone who would sit at his feet and receive his hospitality.  

Reading this text closely we might hear resonances with our own lives: sometimes we get stuck in one mode, and the Spirit invites us into a surprising way of being. Jesus is full of surprises, may the moments when we are caught short or surprised be times of connection and trying again.

In Christ,

Mtr Taylor