Only One Thing
Luke 10:37-42
Right around age twelve I started wondering fervently how to follow Jesus. I wondered how I should live as a Christian. I wondered if I should go to Africa or Russia or China to become a missionary. I wondered if I should live in the woods and pray all the time. Then I was exposed to political issues like the nuclear arms race and wondered if I should become an activist. Then I met children who grew up in the poverty of Minneapolis and wondered if I should do inner-city work.
What does it mean to follow Jesus? What is the one thing we are supposed to do as Christians?
Parker Palmer asks some of these questions in his book, The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring. He is a Quaker, teacher, and activist in Wisconsin, and I think a wise man. He starts the book by saying, “I am not a monk.” No surprise to his friends, but he spent three years in an ecumenical monastic community trying to live a quieter life. He finally left and acknowledged he is not a monk but an activist, and the book is his way of talking about thoughtful action.
How do we follow Jesus? What one thing are we to do? This struggle goes back as far as to those who walked with Jesus. Today we hear about Mary and Martha, that familiar story which pits two sisters against each other, two sides of the Christian life - action and devotion.
We talked about this story last spring at a women's brunch, discussing the two roles in the story and the ways we live them out as women and men in the church. I heard some interesting insights that morning. One woman said, "if everyone just moved into the kitchen then Martha could hear what was going on and participate." Another woman said, “If Mary would help then they could be done sooner and then both could sit at Jesus’ feet!”
What are we supposed to do? How do we follow Jesus? What one thing are we supposed to do?
Martha in the story becomes quite agitated. You can just imagine her frustration -- here I am doing all the cooking and that no-good sister of mine is plopped at Jesus' feet and does she think I don't want to listen to but someone has to cook" and so on. We all know what that feels like.
But Jesus responds to her: “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.”
There. We have our answer. Only one thing. Mary has chosen the one thing, which is to sit at Jesus’ feet, to pray, to worship, to seek his presence. That is what it means to follow Jesus. That is why the footprints lead to the altar in here. This is where we are to be.
I’ve been talking about Covenant Discipleship this month, really about the heart of the United Methodist Church. Covenant Discipleship helps the people in the group focus on the basics of being a Christian, on the day to day task of following Jesus. I spoke of Justice with the story of Esther two weeks ago, and last week about compassion. Today we come to the other two parts of the model - devotion and worship. They both involve our relationship with God but break into public and private aspects of it. We pray, read, and have practices that nurture our spirit alone - devotion. We meet together for worship regularly as well, because something different happens when we are together, something we need as well as the private time with God.
But in the United Methodist model all these things have equal weight. They are all interconnected, all depend on one another. There is a balance to the whole thing. That “method” is in there for a reason. They work together. So what’s going on?
According to this story prayer and worship must be the most important, right? They certainly anchor anything we do in the world. Holy men and women say that action and working in the world to help others burns you out and goes wrong if it isn’t rooted in prayer and worship. It’s like trying to run a marathon with no food or water. We need it, regularly, if we are going to walk along with Jesus.
Only one thing, Jesus said. Maybe I should get that cabin in the woods and find a way to stay there. Except…except…
With the Gospels we have to pay attention to the context of our stories. Mary and Martha are having a tussle here, and Jesus tells Martha to relax and leave her alone. But look at where this story is in the book of Luke. Following this story, right in the next verse, the disciples ask Jesus how to pray, and he gives them the Lord’s Prayer. But right before this story, remember the story from last week? The Good Samaritan. That story is immediately before this one. Immediately. So we need to hear this struggle between the sisters in light of those two other stories.
Only one thing. How do we follow Jesus? Let’s look a little earlier in this chapter of Luke - the lawyer comes to ask Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said, What is written in the law? What do you read there?
The answer - 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; and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said, “You have given the right answer. Do this, and you shall live.”
How do we follow Jesus? What one thing is required of us?
Everything. All of it. All we are, all we have, everything about us. That has its own balance, really. Nothing is left out. That’s how we follow Jesus, with everything we are and everything we do, all the time, every minute of the day.
There is need of only one thing. Our whole being.
Right around age twelve I started wondering fervently how to follow Jesus. I wondered how I should live as a Christian. I wondered if I should go to Africa or Russia or China to become a missionary. I wondered if I should live in the woods and pray all the time. Then I was exposed to political issues like the nuclear arms race and wondered if I should become an activist. Then I met children who grew up in the poverty of Minneapolis and wondered if I should do inner-city work.
What does it mean to follow Jesus? What is the one thing we are supposed to do as Christians?
Parker Palmer asks some of these questions in his book, The Active Life: A Spirituality of Work, Creativity, and Caring. He is a Quaker, teacher, and activist in Wisconsin, and I think a wise man. He starts the book by saying, “I am not a monk.” No surprise to his friends, but he spent three years in an ecumenical monastic community trying to live a quieter life. He finally left and acknowledged he is not a monk but an activist, and the book is his way of talking about thoughtful action.
How do we follow Jesus? What one thing are we to do? This struggle goes back as far as to those who walked with Jesus. Today we hear about Mary and Martha, that familiar story which pits two sisters against each other, two sides of the Christian life - action and devotion.
We talked about this story last spring at a women's brunch, discussing the two roles in the story and the ways we live them out as women and men in the church. I heard some interesting insights that morning. One woman said, "if everyone just moved into the kitchen then Martha could hear what was going on and participate." Another woman said, “If Mary would help then they could be done sooner and then both could sit at Jesus’ feet!”
What are we supposed to do? How do we follow Jesus? What one thing are we supposed to do?
Martha in the story becomes quite agitated. You can just imagine her frustration -- here I am doing all the cooking and that no-good sister of mine is plopped at Jesus' feet and does she think I don't want to listen to but someone has to cook" and so on. We all know what that feels like.
But Jesus responds to her: “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.”
There. We have our answer. Only one thing. Mary has chosen the one thing, which is to sit at Jesus’ feet, to pray, to worship, to seek his presence. That is what it means to follow Jesus. That is why the footprints lead to the altar in here. This is where we are to be.
I’ve been talking about Covenant Discipleship this month, really about the heart of the United Methodist Church. Covenant Discipleship helps the people in the group focus on the basics of being a Christian, on the day to day task of following Jesus. I spoke of Justice with the story of Esther two weeks ago, and last week about compassion. Today we come to the other two parts of the model - devotion and worship. They both involve our relationship with God but break into public and private aspects of it. We pray, read, and have practices that nurture our spirit alone - devotion. We meet together for worship regularly as well, because something different happens when we are together, something we need as well as the private time with God.
But in the United Methodist model all these things have equal weight. They are all interconnected, all depend on one another. There is a balance to the whole thing. That “method” is in there for a reason. They work together. So what’s going on?
According to this story prayer and worship must be the most important, right? They certainly anchor anything we do in the world. Holy men and women say that action and working in the world to help others burns you out and goes wrong if it isn’t rooted in prayer and worship. It’s like trying to run a marathon with no food or water. We need it, regularly, if we are going to walk along with Jesus.
Only one thing, Jesus said. Maybe I should get that cabin in the woods and find a way to stay there. Except…except…
With the Gospels we have to pay attention to the context of our stories. Mary and Martha are having a tussle here, and Jesus tells Martha to relax and leave her alone. But look at where this story is in the book of Luke. Following this story, right in the next verse, the disciples ask Jesus how to pray, and he gives them the Lord’s Prayer. But right before this story, remember the story from last week? The Good Samaritan. That story is immediately before this one. Immediately. So we need to hear this struggle between the sisters in light of those two other stories.
Only one thing. How do we follow Jesus? Let’s look a little earlier in this chapter of Luke - the lawyer comes to ask Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said, What is written in the law? What do you read there?
The answer - 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; and your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said, “You have given the right answer. Do this, and you shall live.”
How do we follow Jesus? What one thing is required of us?
Everything. All of it. All we are, all we have, everything about us. That has its own balance, really. Nothing is left out. That’s how we follow Jesus, with everything we are and everything we do, all the time, every minute of the day.
There is need of only one thing. Our whole being.
posted by Michelle at 3:20 PM
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