“Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things.” That’s a line from a story in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke. It’s about an evening when Jesus visited in the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus for dinner. Martha was working alone in the kitchen, preparing the meal for all the guests. Mary, on the other hand, sat with Jesus and listened to his teachings. At some point Martha stepped into the living area and chastised her sister for not lending a helping hand with the preparations. She was stressed, feeling that she was having to do all the heavy lifting while her sister sat and socialized. (Interesting to note that nothing is said about what Lazarus was up to at that point, perhaps an indication in their time, as in ours, the helpfulness of men in the kitchen tends to be negligible.)
I’ve always thought Martha’s stress was understandable. And, Jesus did not scold her. Instead, he simply made a helpful observation. “You are anxious and troubled about many things. One thing is needed. Mary has chosen the good portion.” While Martha was focused on a plethora of smaller things, Mary was seeking to learn an ongoing principle (the main thing) that could effectively navigate her not just through a dinner party but through her entire life.
In this present moment, most of us are “anxious and troubled about many things,” and understandably so: the immoral Russian invasion of Ukraine and all that portends about the possibility of other invasions in what appears to be Putin’s dream of re-establishing the Soviet Union … the instability and/or human rights violations in places like North Korea, Sudan, Ethiopia, Libya, and Myanmar … the ongoing death and destruction in the Middle East with its daily disheartening reports from Israel and Gaza … the divisive hatred here in our nation (which actually does the work of our enemies for us – as the fault deepens, our enemies realize we are saving them the trouble of harming us because we are slowly and stupidly destroying ourselves) … the shallow misidentification of wealth with worth … the unexpected threats to much-needed research for cures to diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, opioid abuse, ALS, genetic diseases, and diabetes … the sobering realization that 20% of America’s public school children go to school hungry every day, and 1.7 million of our pre-teenaged children sleep on the floor every night because they have no bed … the troubling fact that 41% of first marriages and almost 60% of second marriages end in divorce … the statistic that in our country alone approximately 17.5 million people suffer from depression … etc., etc., etc. Like Martha, we are “anxious and troubled about many things.”
So, what do we do? Like Mary, we seek to learn if there is a fundamental principle that can make a dent in “the many things” we find alarming. And when we focus on that with insight and energy, we discover that such a principle does, in fact, exist. The only power that has the potential to turn the ship around is Love. Not Hallmark or Hollywood love – but a real life, dig down deep, roll up your sleeves and get dirty kind of love that throws itself into making bad things better. There’s an old adage: “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.” And so, once we sit with Mary long enough to learn the baseline principle of Love, then we join Martha back in the kitchen. We find something we can do, however small it may seem, to shed light in the darkness. If we feel the issues that stymie us as a people are political, then we use the power of our vote, our wallets, and our voices (communicating our concerns to those elected to serve). And, if we feel less than confident that red or blue politicians will ultimately find the principle of Love appealing, then we do it ourselves (recognizing that grassroots power is often the greater power). We join an advocacy group … We work on Habitat houses … We volunteer at helping agencies … We donate to organizations that feed, clothe, or tutor children … We quit vomiting all our anger at one another on social media and try to become part of the solution rather than part of the problem (recognizing, as preacher/poet Randy Lucas puts it, that “all of us are right about 50% of the time” – meaning that neither we nor those we vote for are always correct about every issue, and to think otherwise is to go past being naive and become deluded) … we speak and post with kindness and civility, and, thus, we restrain from making the divisions deeper … we find people who cannot help themselves, and we do something specific on their behalf … we call upon our churches, synagogues, and civic groups to step forward and care for people affected by cutbacks … we listen to the lonely, even when we feel we are too busy … we feed our souls with things like music, art, prayer, and fellowship with friends, in order to find renewed strength to walk back into a hurting world with outstretched helping hands … we care. That’s it, bottom line. We simply decide to care about people. All people. Whatever their age, politics, economic status in life, skin color, or faith. We just make a decision to care, and then we act on that decision. And we don’t wait for anyone else to act. We just take the first step. “No one can do everything, but ….”
Mary did the right thing. She contemplated that which is of ultimate importance. And Martha did the right thing, too. She acted on behalf of that which she felt to be important. First we think, then we act. And, if you think about Love long and seriously enough, your actions will reflect that. Love-in-action … It’s the only real hope we have for mending our brokenness.