Being Mary in a Martha World

At this moment, I am trying to do three things simultaneously. I am updating my blog (yes, a day late), waiting for the delivery of our new sleep number bed, and preparing for my sermon this Sunday at Baker Boulevard CoC. Although the sermon is rough right now, I think it will come out of Luke 10:38-42.

38As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"
41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.

I don't know whether it is my relative lack of busyness with school being out or what, but I have to confess that lately I've been feeling a lot like Martha in my spiritual life. This Sunday is the most recent example, if not the best. Jennifer and I both started Sunday early, as Jennifer had to be at church by 8:30 to rehearse with the praise team and I am teaching one of the Sunday morning classes. Literally as Jennifer was brushing her teeth with one hand to rush to this practice, she was flipping through a binder with the other so that she would be prepared for the children's class she was subbing in. When I got to church, I remembered that the person I had scheduled to prepare the Lord's Supper emailed me and told me that they wouldn't be there, so I went to the kitchen to complete that task. I finsished that with just enough time to set up my classroom before class time. The class itself was fine, but as soon as the "Amen" was said to finish the study, I collected my trusty clipboard and went about finding people to serve during worship. The worship itself (The actual time to be Mary-like, I suppose) was good, but immediately after that it was on to the leadership meeting to debate and discuss what we as a body can DO to serve the Lord. The meeting ended and I had a few hours to prepare for our Home Team meeting and Bible Study.

I'm torn on this issue, I guess. On one hand, I can see the problems inherant in substituting activity for contemplation (how many times can we have the faith vs. works discussion?), but on the other hand, it's not like the activity in question is pointless. What I do, what we all do in the church, is important. It's not like we can all put down the work we have been given to do and just sit in silent reflection over the words of God. Our faith has to have an active component. So how do we balance this?

I think the answer may be an issue of perspective. Perhaps the point is not that we should stop the busyness in our spiritual lives, but rather that we should remember why we take on all this busyness in the first place. The activity that we engage in is not our faith, but it is rather an outcropping of our faith. In other words, the work that we do is not the point, but it is a reflection of the time that we have spent at the feet of Jesus. Perhaps we could use a little more of this time, I suppose, but we shouldn't grow weary of the work we do in response to the love God has shown to us.