Deuteronomy 26:1-27:26, Luke 10:38-11:13, Psalms 76:1-12, Proverbs 12:15-17
Today is the 4th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we move forward in our journey through the Bible. This week we are reading from the Christian Standard Bible and continuing the journey through the book of Deuteronomy. Today we will read chapters 26 and 27.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the gospel of Luke today we encounter a really famous scene or passage. Although it’s very very short, thousands of sermons have been spoken about this passage and it’s the passage that contains Mary and Martha, the sisters. The reason that this is such a popular passage to teach from is that it gives this contrast in response to the presence of Jesus. So, it’s Martha who welcomed Jesus into her home. And between the time that Jesus comes into her home and the time that she gets exasperated enough to come to Jesus and ask Jesus to ask her sister to get up and help her she’s been doing what she thought was expected of her, what she thought she’s supposed to do, to be a good hostess, to be busy, to be working, to be surveying. And while Martha is busy and working and serving her sister Mary’s not. Her sister Mary is hanging on every word that comes at a Jesus mouth or to put it more accurately, “she was sitting at the Lord’s feet and was listening to what he said.” Martha can’t do that. She’s busy doing what she’s doing, preparing a meal, preparing some snacks, repairing some drinks, doing whatever she’s doing. She’s busy doing it and she seems upset that her sister isn’t also up doing it with her. So, we have the contrast. Martha’s busy, Mary’s busy listening to Jesus. What makes this such a compelling story is how easy it is for it to become the mirror into our own souls. It is very easy to get on the faith treadmill. It is very easy to believe that the faster we can go the more that we can get done, the harder we can charge the more people that can be convinced. The harder that we can work for God the closer we are to God. In other words, activity, or work on behalf or for God equals a relationship with God. Ironically, that isn’t how any other relationship that we know of works. And I’m not talking about working relationships where we have an employment contract, and we are supposed to do this and we’re supposed to do that and that’s what it's…it's…is expected. I’m talking about actual relationships with people are not formed by our activity on their behalf alone. I am a married man. I love my wife, Jill, very, very, very, very much and I tried to do all kinds of work that will make her life good and all kinds of responsibilities that I just have as the husband of my house. And she has the same thing going on, things that she has to do that are in my…in my favor on my behalf and things that just need to be done because we have a household. I may notice that she is working extra hard in a certain direction, and I may commend her for that, or I may not even notice. I don’t need her to be exhausted on my behalf in order to feel loved by her and vice versa. I don’t have to exhaust myself continually upping the ante and keeping on being busy so that she can feel loved. I don’t want to oversimplify this. The work that we do for each other is appreciated. Like everybody who’s married…like we know this stuff, like it’s appreciated, but that isn’t a single signifier that you are so busy on my behalf that you love me. And yet so often that is what we are told the relationship with God looks like. The more we can do for God the closer we are to God. But we can do all kinds of work on behalf of someone that we will never meet. And, so, Jesus gives the proper context here. Martha goes to Jesus, asks Jesus to get Mary off her behind and helping her, and Jesus respond, “Martha, Martha”, and we could put our own name in there, friends. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice and it will not be taken away from her. So, friends, yeah, it’s true. We’re human beings. We’re worried and upset about many things on any given day at any given moment. We find things if we don’t have something. We just are prone to being moved forward by activity because of anxiety or because of other…some other kind of negative impulse. Mary’s not exhibiting that, that franticness. She’s just listening to Jesus and Jesus is basically saying look, the worry, the being upset about many things, it’s not necessary. Can we like stop there for a second? It’s not necessary to get close to God, to be worried and upset about many things. One thing is necessary, and Mary was doing the one thing, sitting at Jesus feet and listening to what He said, which is not an excuse for ignoring our chores. It’s the posture of our heart. Are we frantic? Are we worried and upset about many things, and that is what is driving us forward and trying to get closer to God when we find God in the exhale of it all? When we realize that the worry and upset is not necessary for what we are after is kind of a game changer. And, so, let’s think about it today. To be in a relationship with God, to be in a place of peace, of shalom, to be in a place of learning of open heartedness to the words of Jesus does not require being worried and upset about many things. So, we’re here in our little oasis that we create for ourselves every day around this Global Campfire. And many, many times we talk about leaving…leaving what we’re dragging and just giving ourselves a minute here of serenity, a moment to allow the Scriptures to speak to us, a moment to catch our breaths and then we can leave the Global Campfire and grab all of those anxieties and worries and throw them back over our shoulder get back to our day if that’s what we want to do. What if we began to realize that that’s not necessary? It’s possible we can do it. We certainly can keep it up. We can carry these things but it’s not necessary. What does that do to the rest of our day? What if we put it into practice just today and not pick all that stuff up when we leave this Global Campfire, this little oasis that we have together? What if we don’t take those things up because they’re not necessary? What we do the thing that is necessary, to be in the presence of Jesus at peace hanging on His every word? Sounds like a much better day.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit come into that. There’s plenty of things going on. There’s lots that we have to get to and there’s plenty that can bring up anxiety or upset or worry or any kind of negative emotions that we experience. There’s plenty. And yet in your presence being with you allows us to look at these things as they are. They are not giant monsters. They are situations to be dealt with and you know it all and you can show us how to navigate. And, so, Holy Spirit, we humble ourselves before you acknowledging that we need to now more than ever, that we will never not need you. We humble ourselves before you and ask that you…that you lead us into all truth. And we pray this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
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