The New York Times has an article today
about soldiers killed in the autumn of life. I liked the poetic sound of the title until I read that these are soldiers over 50. It did not give me a good feeling. How did I get to autumn? I want more summer.
The truth is that many of our life decisions are made quickly. As Robert Frost says, neither path in the woods seems bad and both wind out of sight. How do we choose? Yogi Berra said, I hate choosing. Every time I come to a fork in the road, I take it.
In Mary Poppins, Dick Van Dyke sings to the father who lost his job and was always too busy for his kids. ‘You've got to grind, grind, grind at that grindstone. Though child'ood slips like sand through a sieve. And all too soon they've flown And it's too late for you to give.
In the Bible, we will hear today the story of two women doing good things. Mary and Martha are both getting ready to entertain Jesus. They are cooking and cleaning, but Mary changes and Jesus approves.
If you are struggling to find the best path in life, one where you can look back in the autumn of life with contentment, you will get some Biblical principles this morning that help in choosing.
Mary and Martha is about Jesus and justice. It is the woman’s role in that time to keep and house and hearth. Food preparation before the industrial age took all day. Even my grandmother would bake bread by starting in the morning and the end product came out of the oven late in the afternoon.
So Martha cannot easily cope with the extra work if Mary suddenly sits down. Most of us tend to agree with Martha when we read the Bible and feel like it would have been better if Mary had listened for a second and kept working.
And Mary sits in an unusual way – at Jesus’ feet. That is the posture of a disciple. In Acts 22, Paul sat at the feet of Gamaliel. So Mary is not simply suddenly taken with one comment that Jesus makes. She is joining the group of disciples. Mary and Martha are the two women that Jesus spends the most time with and Mary now turns from simple hospitality to the attitude of disciple.
This was an abomination to many Jews. One rabbi of that time said that it was better to burn the Torah than teach it to women. The suppression of women was far greater than a Baptist church refusing to let women preach. Another rabbi compared teaching the Torah to woman as similar to teaching them sexual enticements to things that they should not be in. These are strong statements.
So Mary surprised everyone in the room except Jesus when she sat at his feet. And Jesus accepts her in this position. Against the outcry, Jesus says to Martha, Mary has chosen the better part. Women have full access to the word of God.
I do not understand why any Christian church refuses women as pastors when this passage is in the Bible. It is another sign moment where Jesus gives a picture of the true kingdom, even in a time when women were offered so little.
This passage is like a diamond with several faces, because it is also a teaching to follow the word of God. When you decide on your career, ask which path keeps you closest to the Word of God. If you have two choices in law, and one is to represent poor people and another choice is to defend corporations, which do you think that Jesus would choose? It is not that either choice is wrong. Martha was preparing good food. But one choice keeps you closer to the word of God.
Jesus is Lord over all our choices. When you buy the car, many people are rich enough to buy a really nice car or be faithful in giving and get less car. I was just talking with a rich friend who is casually thinking about buying a terrific new car. Blessings on you if you can do both. Most of us have to choose which is the better part.
Where are you going to live? I wish that some of you would move to Jackson Heights and I wish that some of you would stop thinking about leaving. Of course you can live anywhere in New York City. But why don’t we use our choices to live near each other and support each other in ministry? We see a great house with a little land and it certainly is not an evil choice. But there is a time to have those homes and there is a time when there is a better part.
Some of you are in late autumn and some of you haven’t got out of Spring yet. And some of this is a matter of attitude. I’m warning everybody than I plan to stay in summer for a long time. But if you want guaranteed satisfaction when you head for autumn or even reach winter, follow the example of Mary. We have may have some small regrets that with our choices, we never played the violin or saw Paris. But making Jesus Lord over your choices is going to produce a lot of happiness and a sense that your life was worth living. And that is worth a lot. Perhaps the lesson of Mary and choosing the better part is really said in another way in the 10 commandments, 'You are to love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your energy, and with all your mind.' Make that life decision by choosing the better part.
