Sunday 18th July - 7th after Trinity (green)
Theme: Martha and Mary
Readings: Colossians 1:15-28
Amos 8:1-12 Luke 10:38-42 Ps 52
Collect:Theme: Martha and Mary
Readings: Colossians 1:15-28
Amos 8:1-12 Luke 10:38-42 Ps 52
Generous God,
you give us gifts and make them grow:
though our faith is small as mustard seed,
make it grow to your glory
and the flourishing of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Comment
The obvious point of the story of Mary and Martha is that it is more important to listen to the message of Jesus than to honour him with a feast. Some have taken this to mean that it is more important to live a contemplative Christian life than an active one. Others would say that both are needed, but we must get our priorities right – a simple meal would have allowed both Mary and Martha to receive Jesus’ teaching.
Jesus’ closing remarks, however, affirm that Mary had chosen the best way – he wanted her to receive from him the spiritual feast he was providing, rather than to provide him with food. We honour Christ best by receiving what he offers. We will then be equipped to serve him and worship him; but to attempt to live good Christians lives without listening to the word of God is a fruitless exercise.
There is, however, another message in this story, a message as challenging and shocking as the parable of the Good Samaritan that Jesus has just told. What was Mary doing, that Jesus so approved of? Simply
this: she was sitting at his feet. Paul was trained ‘at the feet of Gamaliel’. Those who sat at the feet of a rabbi were that rabbi’s disciples, learning from the rabbi both how to live and how to pass on the teaching to others. The disciples in their turn would become rabbis.
But in those days, no rabbi would allow a woman to sit at his feet, for women would never become rabbis. Yet Mary quietly took her place at Jesus’ feet alongside the other disciples, and Jesus wanted her to be there.
Did Mary ever become a rabbi, and pass on what she had learnt? Not in the formal sense, I suspect, though no doubt she passed on what she learnt from Jesus whenever it was appropriate. And later on, Paul was careful not to allow new Christians to break the taboos of their society if that would be an unnecessary scandal and hindrance to the gospel, so in the early days women were not encouraged to hold positions of authority over a church. But Jesus’ teaching and example often sowed seeds that in the right conditions could germinate and bear fruit, even if it took many centuries to do so. (Witness the ending of the slave trade, and the current debate about the roles of women in the church.)
Martha does not get a good press in this story. According to Jesus, she had not chosen what was better, and did not need to be worried and upset in preparing a meal for him. Yet she was the one who had invited him into her home in the first place, and in wanting to provide a feast she was doing what any hospitable host in that culture would have done. And anyone in her position, seeing Mary acting so scandalously, would have reacted at least as angrily. The Master’s rebuke would have been a hard pill to swallow and a difficult lesson to learn.
The obvious point of the story of Mary and Martha is that it is more important to listen to the message of Jesus than to honour him with a feast. Some have taken this to mean that it is more important to live a contemplative Christian life than an active one. Others would say that both are needed, but we must get our priorities right – a simple meal would have allowed both Mary and Martha to receive Jesus’ teaching.
Jesus’ closing remarks, however, affirm that Mary had chosen the best way – he wanted her to receive from him the spiritual feast he was providing, rather than to provide him with food. We honour Christ best by receiving what he offers. We will then be equipped to serve him and worship him; but to attempt to live good Christians lives without listening to the word of God is a fruitless exercise.
There is, however, another message in this story, a message as challenging and shocking as the parable of the Good Samaritan that Jesus has just told. What was Mary doing, that Jesus so approved of? Simply
this: she was sitting at his feet. Paul was trained ‘at the feet of Gamaliel’. Those who sat at the feet of a rabbi were that rabbi’s disciples, learning from the rabbi both how to live and how to pass on the teaching to others. The disciples in their turn would become rabbis.
But in those days, no rabbi would allow a woman to sit at his feet, for women would never become rabbis. Yet Mary quietly took her place at Jesus’ feet alongside the other disciples, and Jesus wanted her to be there.
Did Mary ever become a rabbi, and pass on what she had learnt? Not in the formal sense, I suspect, though no doubt she passed on what she learnt from Jesus whenever it was appropriate. And later on, Paul was careful not to allow new Christians to break the taboos of their society if that would be an unnecessary scandal and hindrance to the gospel, so in the early days women were not encouraged to hold positions of authority over a church. But Jesus’ teaching and example often sowed seeds that in the right conditions could germinate and bear fruit, even if it took many centuries to do so. (Witness the ending of the slave trade, and the current debate about the roles of women in the church.)
Martha does not get a good press in this story. According to Jesus, she had not chosen what was better, and did not need to be worried and upset in preparing a meal for him. Yet she was the one who had invited him into her home in the first place, and in wanting to provide a feast she was doing what any hospitable host in that culture would have done. And anyone in her position, seeing Mary acting so scandalously, would have reacted at least as angrily. The Master’s rebuke would have been a hard pill to swallow and a difficult lesson to learn.
Questions
1) What lessons should the church learn from this story?
2) What is Jesus saying to you?
1) What lessons should the church learn from this story?
2) What is Jesus saying to you?
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