But you don’t have to be a writer to appreciate them.  You do have to be a reader – or a hearer – of the word.  When you totally immerse yourself in the gospels the message comes through. 

And now, centuries after their writing, we have people who devise our lectionary system, and they have a habit of dividing the gospels back into those disconnected stories – manageable segments called pericopes.  The trouble with this system is that not too many of them are really able to stand alone.

The Gospel writers understood this, and they took great liberties with the material they had available.  They didn’t arrange it in chronological order, but in ways that made sense to them and to their congregations.  And so we have stories following other stories not because they happened in that order, but because one story serves to make another easier to understand, or it provides a contrast, or a reinforcement, or it shows a different side of the same coin.

Take the story of Mary and Martha, for example.  The story of Mary and Martha at home doesn’t make a whole lot of sense by itself.  It’s just a petty family squabble.  Who wants their family fights recorded for future generations to read about!

Some of the early Church Fathers tried to make sense out of the story by saying that Martha exemplified Jewish Law and Mary exemplified Christian Love – that Martha was the active life and Mary was the contemplative life, and that of course the contemplative was the better way.  But that’s pretty simplistic, and Martha gets a bad rap here.  We all know the value of prayer and study, but we also know that somebody has to do the dishes and somebody has to go to work or the rent doesn’t get paid!  We even know that the Christian life is a continuous process of action, reflection, then action again – all in the light of faith.  But that’s not an adequate explanation for the Mary-Martha story.

We need to find another explanation.  To do that we have to look at how it’s presented in the scripture.  We’re always being warned not to take words and phrases out of context, and I’m telling you that sometimes you can’t even take a whole story out of context – you just won’t get the full picture!

The story of Mary and Martha is another discipleship story with a twist.  It follows the Good Samaritan story and needs to be looked at against that background.

If you remember the sermons you’ve heard about the Good Samaritan, you know that the Priest and the Levite who passed the injured man were the ones who were “doing everything right.”  Well, so was Martha.  Hospitality was very, very important in first century Jewish culture, and Martha was doing what was expected.  And that’s ok.  What do you do when visitors come to your house? 

The story suggests that Jesus didn’t just drop in – it was Martha’s house and probably she had invited him – so of course she was fussing a bit, and of course she was upset that her lazy sister wasn’t helping her!

Mary knew who Jesus was.  And so did Martha.  But Martha was the one in charge in the home – at least so far as the kitchen duties were concerned, and yet she yielded her authority to Jesus.  “Come on, Jesus – you know what’s right.  Make Mary help me.”  And don’t we do the same thing when we go to Jesus – we tell him he’s in charge and then we tell him what to do!

Now, here’s the twist:  Jesus’ response wasn’t at all what Martha expected.  By prevailing standards Mary should have been helping her sister, but Jesus didn’t tell her to.  Feminists have suggested that it would have been nice if Jesus himself got up and helped.  I don’t think he would have objected too much to that, but it isn’t what he did.  Instead, he told Martha to calm down.

Can’t you just imagine Martha’s embarrassment?  “After all I’ve done for him – this is the way he treats me!”  It wasn’t fair.  It even makes US a little uncomfortable to think about it, especially when we try to apply it to our own busy-ness.  But then, that’s what a good scripture story is supposed to do – shake us up a bit.

Now.  What does this story have to do with the Good Samaritan – or with us?  Just this: the laws that put structure in our lives, whether they’re religious laws or civil laws or just rules of etiquette – these laws need to be flexible.  And we need to be flexible, too.  Jesus didn’t say, “follow the rules.”  He said, “Follow me.”  So we have to go where he leads us.  Sometimes we have to DO something, like the Good Samaritan.  And sometimes we have to not do something – like Mary.  We can’t always predict where he’ll lead us.  But we have to be ready to follow.

This is a story about a missed opportunity.  It’s a story about catching the moment.  If the circus is only in town today you’ll miss it if you don’t go till tomorrow.  It doesn’t matter if tomorrow’s more convenient for you.

Mary had her eye on the only goal worth seeking – the Kingdom of God.  That’s the “better way” Jesus said she had chosen.  Mary was a radical disciple – the kind who would leave everything for Jesus, if he’d asked her to.  He didn’t.  He doesn’t call MANY of us to that kind of discipleship.  Most of us don’t even have to go anywhere – Jesus meets us where we are.  But it’s up to us to be attentive, open, quiet.  It’s up to us to catch the moment.

Jesus IS the sacrament of the present moment.  Don’t miss the opportunity for a relationship with him.