Has Mary Really Chosen the Better Part?

"Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;

there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part.”

Can you relate? Trying to be the perfect host, wanting to control every detail; getting overwhelmed and resentful; blaming others for not doing more, and even blaming the fire for burning the lentils.  This familiar frenzy can happen when we invite friends over.   Imagine the pressure if Jesus were to stop by.

"Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?

Tell her then to help me."

When we hear this story of Mary and Martha, it’s tempting to make a quick judgment: Mary was spiritually mature, she had it right. And Martha, poor Martha, she was spiritually immature, a busy bee in need of improvement. We’ve been conditioned to think it’s better to be a Mary than a Martha. Right?

Let’s put this gospel reading in context. The story of Mary and Martha and the parable of the Good Samaritan are back to back. In fact, St. Luke hinges them together with four words spoken by Jesus, 
“Go and do likewise.” Jesus has just affirmed the choice the Samaritan made to act with compassion upon seeing the injured man.

Go and do likewise. Jesus then affirms Mary’s single-minded devotion. Mary has chosen the better part.

It’s possible that Jesus wasn’t scolding Martha at all. What if the interaction went like this:

“Martha,” he says her name the first time to get her attention. “Martha,” he says her name a second time to draw her in, and receive her. Tenderly he speaks these words, “You are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.”

The “one thing” Jesus is referring to is the Great Commandment – we heard it in the gospel reading last week.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,

and with all your strength, and with all your mind.

Then Jesus wraps up his talk with Martha with this puzzling sentence, “Mary has chosen the better part.”

I’ve never known what exactly Jesus means by “the better part”. But, a couple of weeks ago, during our family vacation in Maine, I had a flash of insight. We were visiting the home of Lori, my kidney donor, and her partner, Patti. One afternoon, as Patti and I were in the kitchen preparing for dinner, she said, 

“I never liked to cook before I met Lori. I still don’t enjoy it, but when I’m chopping potatoes, I remember how much I love Lori, and now I do it with love.”

The rest of the week we enjoyed a playful running commentary –

I’m loading the dishwasher with love;

I’m picking up Firefly’s socks with love;

I’m emptying the litter box with love.

Patti helped me understand that chopping potatoes, performing our daily chores, even the ones we dislike, with love, is the better part. 

But I don’t think “the better part” is the most important part of this story.

The most important word in the entire gospel reading is “chosen”. Mary has chosen the better part. 

When Jesus entered her home, Mary set aside the thing she was doing and sat at Jesus’s feet, and listened to him.  She followed the Great Commandment by giving all that she had to him.

As for Martha, Jesus wasn’t concerned about the nature of her work. He cared that she was distracted. Martha chose to work in the kitchen, but she did so with worry that gave way to resentment. The thing is, we can’t blame Martha -- chances are, as a woman, she had no idea she even had a choice.  How many times have you heard or said, if I don’t do these dishes, nobody will?  But there is a time to set aside the dishes.  More importantly, as Patti showed me, there is a way to do the dishes that accords with the Great Commandment:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, 
and with all your strength, and with all your mind.

Try not to let what I’m going to say next upset you. I don’t believe the scope of the Great Commandment is limited to God. Unless you believe that God is in everything, everywhere, all of the time.

And I do, I believe God is with us in every moment.  And I believe that the Great Commandment is urging us to be completely present in the moment as we attend to the very thing that is right in front of us. If we’re cutting potatoes, then follow the Great Commandment and cut them with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind. Same thing when we’re paying the bills, talking with friends, singing a hymn or sitting at the feet of Jesus. You see, following this age-old commandment and applying it to our lives today is a choice. A choice we are given over and over again, everyday.

Patti chose to cut the potatoes with love. The Samaritan chose to take action when he helped the injured man. Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus and be fully present. Martha chose to work in the kitchen, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but she wasn’t able to do the work with singleness of heart.

Our culture values efficiency and the ability to multitask. We have ear buds and Kindles so we can listen to music and read as we’re traversing the city, and iPhones that keep us connected to Facebook while we’re on vacation, and Twitter that prevents us from fully experiencing the present because we want 150 other people to experience it with us.

But God’s command to us is to stay focused. Stay focused on God. And stay focused with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind on the one task you are doing. Now.

In the words of John Greenleaf Whittier, from the hymn we will sing at the offertory, let us pray:  

Dear God, forgive our foolish ways.

Reclothe us in our rightful mind, in purer lives of service,

and in deeper reverence and praise.

Take from our souls the strain and the stress.

And we ask you let our ordered lives

confess the beauty of your peace.

Speak, O still, small voice of calm;

Who with Mary, and Martha, and Jesus Christ our Lord,

lives and reigns one God, now and forever. 

Amen.

Proper 11, Year C