Martha and Mary

Are you familiar with the movie Yentl?  The movie is about a single father who teaches the Talmud, which is Jewish law and tradition, to the boys in his small Polish town, in 1904.  Behind closed doors, he also instructs his daughter, Yentl, despite the fact that girls are forbidden to study religious scripture.  When Yentl's father dies, she still has a strong desire to learn about her faith, so she disguises herself as a male, enrolls in a religious school, and of course, in Hollywood, she finds love along the way.

Ephesians 5:2
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This wasn’t much different from what most Christian women experienced for years.  As the late Martha Clay, a Godly friend of mine told my wife, and I paraphrase, “For years the only position of leadership women could hold in churches was to be a member of the Altar Guild.”  Although women have come a long way, some women to this day may not be allowed to have leadership positions in some churches. This makes today’s Gospel much more impactful.

In Luke:38-42, we learn that Martha invites Jesus to her home, when he and his disciples went into her village.  Martha, as the hostess, starts working on the tasks involved in welcoming guests into her home.  I can just imagine her cooking the best family recipes, pulling out her best dishes, and perhaps picking some fresh flowers from her garden to set up the table.  After all, she knew this wasn’t just ANY guest.

Luke 6:45
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On the other hand, instead of helping with the tasks, her sister Mary decides to sit by Jesus’ feet and listen to him teach.  Regardless, she was basically taking the role of a disciple, which was very unusual for a woman in first century Judaism to be accepted by a teacher as a disciple.  This clearly demonstrates how Jesus transcended the prejudices of his day.

Martha soon realizes that she’s lost her faithful assistant, and apparently gets a little miffed.  She politely says, ”Ah, Lord? Do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?”  She wanted Mary to help, and it was truly a reasonable request.  After all, Mary, as part of the household, was also one of the hostesses.  Unfortunately, Martha did not get the answer she wanted.  Jesus cordially responds, “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.”

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Jesus was not judging her or hating on her, like kids say these days.  He was basically telling her the truth.  That is that learning about the Word of the Lord is just as important as serving the Lord.  As disciples of Christ, a focus on learning, obedience, and service are always a priority.  It’s also what He was exemplifying in the parable of the Good Samaritan, which precedes today’s Gospel reading.  In the parable, both a priest and a Levite ignore a half dead man, because they apparently were much too busy to bother helping him.  On the other hand, a Samaritan, whom Jews considered evil, took the time to demonstrate the love of neighbors that Jesus commands of us to show.

For this reason, I commend the members of St. Philip's Episcopal Church, in Uvalde, Texas, for their diligent work with the Border Patrol and Migrant Ministry.  As a parish, they took a controversial issue to follow Jesus’s directive to love thy neighbor and care for those in need.  They are supporting the overworked Border Patrol agents by providing them with meals, as they work under dangerous circumstances to keep our borders safe.  They also provide backpacks with hygiene items, snacks and water to the migrants.  Just like Martha and Mary, they are putting aside their daily tasks to actively live what they've learned about the Word of God.  They are also answering to the directives by our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and the Bishops of the Diocese of West Texas, which is to “Walk in love, as Christ loved us.”  It has not been an easy task, for they had to raise funds and spend arduous hours to do HIS work.  In addition, some of them got backlash from some people.

In closing, although Mary appears to lack the hospitality skills that Martha had, she did not miss the utmost opportunity to listen to and learn from Jesus himself.  And just like in the movie Yentl, we must sometimes break worldly expectations to respond to our Lord’s calling.  Therefore, I challenge you to continue to follow His lead, and face the cost of discipleship.  He’s not asking us to give up the joys of life, for the bible gives us examples of joyful occasions, such as the time He spent with Lazarus’ family.  However, following Jesus means that everything becomes secondary to serving the Kingdom of God, sharing the gospel, and being living examples of the love of Christ.