“Don’t just stand there gawping,” we’re told as children,” …. do something!” we have grown up knowing that we all must pull our weight, and so when the overworked Martha complains to Jesus that her sister Mary has not helped with the meal, we get understandably hot under the collar when Jesus condones Mary’s choice to sit at his feet in conversation. There is of cause a big danger in the story of Martha and Mary. The danger is that we feel the need to side with one sister, thereby judging the other wrong. In truth, both sisters have something to teach us.

Martha we are told, was concerned with many things, but we’re led to believe that all of them were finite and transitory. If we took time to make a list of the concerns in our own lives we might find that we have a lot of    Martha in us. We worry about work, we worry about money and we worry about how we are going to fit our chores in. If we look back at our anxieties of last year, or last month, or even last week, we might be forced to   admit that most of those worries had no lasting significance, yet they still managed to dominate our lives and rob us of what was important. Mary on the other hand was only concerned with one thing, … the Kingdom of God … finite, ultimate and lasting.

It is important to note that Jesus was not reproaching Martha, after all without Martha there would have been no meal on the table that night. Without the Marthas of the world nothing would get done. On the other hand, it doesn’t matter how hard we work, without God at the centre of our lives, our actions are hollow. Mary chose ‘the better part’, but we all need a little of Martha too.