Ordinary Time

Pause

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aid, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

Henry David Thoreau in Walden (1854)

Listen

By contrast, Martha was preoccupied with getting everything ready for their meal. So Martha came to him and said, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to prepare the table all by myself? Tell her to help me.”

The Lord answered, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things. One thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part. It won’t be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:40-42

Think

The text says Martha was “preoccupied,” but that seems unfair. Her work is important. It’s more than just running around doing chores—what Martha is doing is exactly what it means to be hospitable and to welcome someone into your home and exactly what is expected of her. Jesus is here, and she wants to make food and make sure he and the other disciples are comfortable! Her complaint against Mary is justifiable.

And yet – she did miss an opportunity right in front of her. By both social standards and the meaning of radical hospitality, Martha is doing the right thing, but she has let those boxes prevent her from spending time with Jesus.

Just as their culture boxed people in with the expectations of what it means to be hospitable to guests, our culture puts people in other boxes with lots of expectations for our behavior. What box do you live in? What would happen if you broke out of that box and did something radical like sit at the feet of Jesus?

Chris Cherry

Pray

God, I know that sometimes expectations are good and important, but I also know that sometimes expectations can trap us in a box. Help me to see the opportunities to step out of the boxes life assigns me. Amen.

Go

To be awake is to be alive.

Henry David Thoreau in Walden (1854)