The following story is fiction. Any similarity between the characters of this story and real people is purely coincidental. In other words, if you think this is about you, it’s just your guilt speaking to you.
A mother woke upon one Sunday morning exhausted from a week of taxi service for her three children. As her eyes adjusted to the sunlight peaking through the blinds, she glanced at her icons across the room. There was no way she was going to make it to Church this morning she thought, “It’s been a long week and God will understand if I stay home and sleep-in this week. I am a good mother after all and this is the only morning I have to rest from all the activities my children participate in.” She rolled over and fell back asleep. Moments later her three children stormed into her room. “Mom, we’re going to be late for Church! Did you forget that it’s your turn to sponsor coffee hour?” She dragged herself from bed, got her three children ready for Church and pulled into the parking lot just as the other children were leaving the Church for Sunday School. “See, you’re not late!” she said to her children as she began to unload the supplies for coffee hour. “11:30, right on time!” She was just finishing making the coffee as the rest of the congregation arrived for coffee hour. Later that afternoon, still exhausted, she thought, “I will never sponsor coffee hour again….someone else needs to do their share of work around that Church!”
This poor mother never made it into Church that Sunday morning and I know many parents feel this way on a Sunday morning. Many others feel it too because whether we are busy parents playing taxi for our children or working six days a week at our own businesses, it’s really easy to see Sunday as a ‘day of rest’. I can’t tell you how many times I wish I could eliminate that phrase from our book of sayings.
In the Gospel we hear of a similar situation: A woman so preoccupied with busy work that when it comes to Jesus Christ, she’s too busy to sit down for a while and listen to His word. Jesus had come to the home of His friends Martha and Mary for dinner. “But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone?’” (Luke 10.40) We know she loved the Lord. This is the same Martha that runs to Jesus Christ after her brother Lazarus’ death, (John 11) but she was too preoccupied with being busy serving.
My brothers and sisters life in 2010 is busy, very busy. School starts this week (next week for some) and right about now every parent is wondering how we’re going to find the time to get everything done. Our children are involved in so many activities we struggle every day to teach them the proper choices and priorities. But we must admit that just because our life is so busy that doesn’t make it any more valuable. In fact when our busy schedule keeps us, like Martha away from spending time with Christ, simply put, we are too busy.
Life may be busy but we cannot sugarcoat the message Christ gives us in the Gospel. “And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.’” (Luke 10.41-42) There is time for serving and there is time for sitting and spending time with God. And when the time comes for spending time with God, then all other things must stop.
Life may be busy but as Christians it is never easy. Either we are working, as Christians, to care for our families and friends and God’s children, or we are spending time with God in worship. This is the message of Gospel. Jesus doesn’t chastise Martha because she was serving but that she was allowing her serving to distract her from Him and spending time with Him. Mary understood the difference and made the right choice.
We always have a choice in life and our choices are not always easy. Either we choose to spend time with God or we don’t. God calls us to a life of difficult choices. When we wake up each Sunday morning exhausted from a long week, we get to make a choice whether or not to come to Church. In our parish, for example, as parents we have a choice to either bring our children for Sunday School on Wednesday nights or not. There is always a choice, but God’s desire for us is clear: “One thing is needed.”
One thing is needed my brothers and sisters and while I don’t begrudge the activities we or our children are involved in, I do get concerned when people think that Sunday is the only day we can spend with God. Monday through Friday is for work and school. Saturday is for having fun or doing yard work. That leaves Sunday for God….but only if we got everything else done we wanted to accomplish during the week.
Being Orthodox Christians means that God is at the very center of our lives, not just someone we allow to see us on Sunday morning. The very first Christians found time to spend with God every day. “So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people.” (Acts 2.46-47) The least we could do is come to Church on Sunday morning and during the week either for Sunday School or Bible Study or Saturday Great Vespers.
I’m not going to sugarcoat the choice….it’s a difficult choice to follow Jesus Christ as Lord but God will bless us when we do choose to follow Him. The mother in my story never made it to Church that Sunday morning even though she made it to coffee. She made the wrong choice that much is clear. Our choice is no easier than her choice but we have another mother to follow. Today we celebrate the Feast of the greatest women ever to walk the Earth. A little girl at the young age of fifteen made the difficult choice to put God at the center of her life.
The Virgin Mary made that difficult choice to allow God to be born of her and God blessed her. She risked humiliation and divorce to allow Jesus Christ to be born of her for our salvation. She wasn’t humiliated and Joseph never left her; rather she has been exalted for over two thousand years as the greatest Saint of the Church. What choice will we make to place God at the center of our lives? Will we limit God to whatever time is left over and spend the entire week being distracted by our busy schedule or will we choose to spend time with God in His Church on Sunday and bring our children to Sunday School each Wednesday? I know the choice isn’t easy but our Christian choices never are just like the Virgin Mary.
Will we choose the one thing needed? The good portion will not be taken away from us. God will bless us every time we place Him at the center of our lives. Sometimes that means eliminating other activities from our busy schedule so we have time for God. Sometimes it just means waking up early on Sunday morning to be in Church before 10:00am. God will bless us for this as He said, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Luke 11.28)
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