Are you Martha or are you Mary? Everyone can relate to this story of Jesus having a dinner party with his friends. As we all know from experience it is the Marthas of this world that make for an enjoyable time. The people who work at being hospitable are a joy to be around. However, sometimes the Marthas get fed up. Like the Biblical character when they feel “burdened with much serving” they can explode. “Are you going to sit there all day staring at the boob tube?” “It wouldn’t hurt to wash a dish every now and then, would it?” “You do know how to run a vacuum cleaner, don’t you?” These little mini-bombs usually have the effect of getting the coach potato up and adding his or her (usually his) two hands to help with the chores… which is why this Gospel story rattles our cage a bit. If Jesus were Miss Manners we might expect him to say in response to “tell her to help me”: “You are right, Martha. Here, let me give a hand too.” Instead, he praises Mary for being a slug-a-bed. “Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Obviously Jesus is not interested in proper etiquette for house parties but in teaching something about God. Let’s look at this story closely to understand the gospel values at work.
It would be important to point out first what the story is not about. The story of Martha and Mary is NOT Jesus diminishing the importance of being hospitable. Hospitality has been a central tenet for people of faith since the time of Father Abraham. Throughout the ages creating a welcoming environment has been a hallmark for believers. A second thing: this story is also NOT about exalting prayer over work. I have heard sermons, and maybe you have too, that Mary sitting at the feet if Jesus is an example of contemplative prayer – so “the better part” is being at prayer and not going the work. But I assure you, at some point Jesus will want to eat and Martha better be ready to serve him so don’t knock people who work! In that same vein, this story does NOT mean it is better to be passive than to be active. I’ll just sit at Jesus feet and let God take care of things. You know the story of Jose who saw a rocky, trash-strewn and weed-filled patch of ground at the edge of town. He worked and toiled for many weeks until eventually he had a beautiful garden full of vegetables and flowers. The local pastor rode by one day and stopped. “You and God have gone a beautiful job with this garden, Jose.” “Ah si, Padre, and you should have seen it when God was taking of it by Himself.”
The key to understanding the gospel passage are the words Jesus addressed to Martha: “You are anxious and worried about many things.” Martha’s problem was not that she worked hard, not that she was hospitable, not that she was a do-er. According to Jesus, her problem was that she was a worrier. And what’s wrong with being a worrier, you might ask. If people aren’t worried we have a sense that they really don’t understand what is going on. How can you look around and see war and violence and terrorism and racism and injustice and not be worried? Or maybe, those who don’t worry are just irresponsible – “what, me worry?” the Alfred E. Newmans of this world for all of you old MAD magazine aficionados. The insurance industry thrives because we are worried “about many things” that could go wrong. And yet, a consistent part of the preaching of Jesus was to stop worrying. Remember the Sermon on the Mount: “Stop worrying, your heavenly Father knows what you need. Look at the lilies of the field.” To understand the “better part” of Mary we first have to understand why being anxious and worried was such a big “no, no” for Jesus.
To do so, notice how we pray the Lord’s Prayer. “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Worry happens when we become obsessed that my will be done. We choose the better part when we pray thy will be done. Martha’s basic problem was not that supper was getting cold but that she had very definite ideas about how things should turn out. She was worried that things weren’t going according to the way she planned them. She was in reality telling Jesus that what he wanted was less important than what she wanted. Jesus tells her, “there is need of only one thing,” trust in God, trust in God’s will on earth, trust that God’s plan is better than my plan.
To take one example of how that plays out in the concrete situations in which we find ourselves. If you are anything like me (and 99.9% of the people of this world) you worry about your health. We worry that becoming sick will make us a burden on others. We worry about our ability to pay the bills. We worry about losing our marbles. Jesus tells us to pray “thy will be done.” Thy will, even if it means that I should be sick, be done. Of course, my will is that I stay healthy, that I stay sharp as a tack, that I stretch the Biblical three score and ten another score or so. Jesus wants us to understand that even if God’s will for our health is different than our will, that all will be well. That is not to say we take our health for granted – remember being passive is not a gospel value. We need to be a bit Martha-ish about eating the right foods, doing our exercise, taking our medicines. Where we need to become like Mary is in trusting that God continues to be with us and to love us in sickness and in health, for better or for worse.
There are other examples where we worry about many things: our finances, our families, our relationships. But no matter what, we are invited to trust that God’s plan is better than mine. Don’t be anxious or worried. God created the universe so can deal with my stuff. God led Israel into the promised land so will get me where I belong. God transformed Good Friday into Easter Sunday so will bring me life. Don’t be anxious or worried: God’s eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me. AMEN