A quick Google search will tell you that “time management” is in high demand. We can watch videos, attend seminars, and read books that all promise to teach us how to better manage our time so that we can be more successful, or whatever the supposed goal of having our time better managed is. We give school children and young adults all sorts of lessons about how to best structure the day to maximize productivity and minimize stress. Judging by the overall feel of our culture right now, I’m not so sure it’s working. We’re just more stressed about how productive we are, or are not. Now, to be clear, I say all of this as probably the most neurotically organized person here, so it’s not that I don’t value time management, it’s just I’m not convinced when we hear Jesus say that “There is need of only one thing” that he is referring to productivity, success, or returns on investments.
How
we use our time matters, as time is the resource that we are all running out of
and cannot do anything to guarantee that we’ll get any more of it. There are
ways, ethical and unethical, to get more influence, money, or fame. But time is
promised to no one – accidents happen, heart attacks happen, diseases happen, violence
happens – and there is nothing that we can do to exempt ourselves from that
reality. More than how we spend our money or use our power, how we use our time
shapes us into the people we are. And when it comes to our priorities, values,
and legacies, Jesus makes it clear: there is need of only one thing.
A
preacher I know likes to say that “Jesus never spared a telling truth if the
truth would tell.” Well, that’s the occasion of Jesus telling us there is need
of only one thing. He’s arrived in Bethany, a village that was about a
30-minute walk from Jerusalem to visit two friends and disciples, Mary and
Martha. In Middle Eastern culture, both now and then, hospitality is the most
important virtue there is. Having someone come into your home meant preparing a
meal – this is simply what was expected and normal. And so, Martha gets to
work.
Mary
does something different. She sits at Jesus’ feet, which was the posture and
place of a student. She is welcoming Jesus, but in a different way. What
happens next is a story as old as time – siblings fighting. And this is predictable.
There is a job to be done, one person is doing it, the other is not, and
resentment follows. So Martha comes over to Jesus and says “Lord, do you not
care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?”
A few comments on
this. First, how interesting it is that Martha refers to her as “my sister”
instead of “Mary.” We get into so much trouble when we dehumanize others and
see them as a role instead of as a person. We talk about the “unchurched,” “migrants,”
or “homeless” and in doing so, we take their identity away from them, making it
far easier for us to dismiss them. When Jesus responds, he says Martha’s name,
twice, and refers to her sister as “Mary.” So much of the drama in our society
could be alleviated if we related to one another as people, not characters.
Secondly, in
family systems theory, Martha is doing what is known as “triangulation,” and it’s
an unhealthy practice. The basic concept is that if you think of yourself as a
point of a triangle, you are connected to two other points by lines representing
a relationship. This means that those other two points are also connected to each
another, but by a line that you aren’t connected to. This framework says that
you can’t influence or control that relationship between two other people, and
trying to is unhealthy and unproductive. Notice that Jesus doesn’t then turn to
Mary to ask for her side of the story. He sticks with the relationship that he’s
a part of. Mary and Martha will need to sort out their issues, and so Jesus
focuses on his relationship with Martha instead of getting in the middle of theirs.
Yes, there are certainly situations of abuse and neglect in which we need to get
involved, but how much time do we spend worrying about problems that simply are
not ours?
When Jesus
responds to Martha, he notes that she is distracted and worried by many things.
The Greek root in Luke comes from “uproar,” so Jesus is saying that Martha is
causing an uproar in herself. It needs to be made very clear that serving and
being hospitable are not bad things. In fact, it takes a good thing to become a
bad thing. This is what makes discernment and ethics so difficult – there isn’t
a simple, across-the-board response. It would be completely the wrong conclusion
to think that Jesus is saying that we should always prioritize prayer over serving
those in need. That is not the point here. This is not a passage about action
versus contemplation. We like neat and tidy categories and a simple moral to the
story, but Jesus never gives us that.
Jesus was not
offering an opinion about the place of spirituality versus charity. No, he was
speaking to a distracted and worried Martha. This passage has been on my heart
and mind for several months now. I will be honest and tell you that I’ve felt
like Martha recently – distracted and worried by many things. I’m anxious about
COVID disrupting plans and schedules. I am worried about the fact that there
are many members of St. Luke’s who haven’t been to church in two-and-a-half
years and haven’t responded to invitations to return. I’m concerned about the
future of the church, and in particular, the financial situation that many
congregations are going to find ourselves in over the next few years. I am
distracted by headlines that remind us of how many problems are in front of us
and how much distrust and division there is between us. And I don’t think I’m
alone in feeling distracted and worried by many things these days.
When I share such thoughts,
my spiritual director will often ask me “And what does God say to you about all
of that?” I knew that I needed to name these burdens before God in prayer. And,
as clear as a bell a few months ago, in the ears of my heart, I heard Jesus say
to me “There is need of only one thing.” Since then, I’ve tried, with a lot of
failure and a bit of success, to think about how I am investing my time. And I
do try to think of it in terms of an investment.
When we spend time
watching cable news, what are we investing in? When we spend time on social
media, what will the return be? When we choose to spend a Sunday morning doing
something other than coming to church, what do we want to gain? When we decide
to spend time in prayer, in silence, in reading Scripture, in serving people
who could never pay us back, what fruits are we hoping to harvest?
The thing that I’m
learning about spending time with Jesus is that while it might not be
productive in the way the world would see it, it is never wasted time. We are assured
that sitting at Jesus’ feet is the better part, which can never be taken away.
That time is never “lost.” Time we spend doing other things, that’s gone and
over. But when we are intentionally spending time with Jesus, we are participating
in eternity. As we heard in Colossians, “in him all things hold together.” This
is why Jesus, and Jesus alone, is where we find the peace that passes all
understanding, the grace that gives our hearts rest, the mercy that relieves
our guilt, the love that defines us.
So let’s say you
want to spend more time at Jesus’ feet. We recognize that we’re distracted and
worried by many things and we want to focus more on the one thing that we have
need of. How do we do that? It’s often called “spirituality,” but that somehow
makes it seem even harder to grasp. To start, there really is no substitute for
communal prayer. Whether it be Morning Prayer at 8am or Evening Prayer at
5:30pm during the week in our Chapel, the Wednesday 5:30pm Healing Eucharist, Sunday
Eucharists, or monthly Evensong – there is no substitute for the liturgies of the
Church. You don’t have to figure out what to do on your own, but we come
together as the people of God to receive the gifts of God in Word, Sacrament,
and Beloved Community.
The week has 168
hours in it, subtracting out 8 hours a day for sleep and 8 for work or school,
that still leaves us with 56 hours a week for intentional worship. To be clear,
I’m not at all suggesting that you spend 8 hours a day focusing on being at Jesus’
feet. Ten percent though would be 48 minutes a day – splitting that into three
15 minutes becomes a lot more feasible.
And, to be clear,
it’s always about grace, never guilt or “ought tos.” Spending time with Jesus
isn’t something to add to the to-do list, not something we need to beat ourselves
up over missing, not something we need to feel shame over not doing as much as
we might intend to. Instead, spending time with Jesus through worship, prayer,
reading the Bible, or serving others is about investing in that better part
which will never be taken away.
I’ve already
mentioned one way of doing this – attending worship at St. Luke’s. Something
that I’ve found helpful is to schedule this time on my calendar. Yes, I’m
saying that you can pencil in “Meeting with Jesus” from 1 to 1:15 on Tuesday
afternoon. In each weekly email, there’s a link to the Sunday readings – read
those with intentionality each day leading up to Sunday. There is a short
evening liturgy that I’ve put together for families to use, and I’d be happy to
share it with anyone. This church building is open during the week – so if you’re
downtown, stop by and just sit for 10 minutes and appreciate the beauty of this
space. You can join up with the saints of St. Luke’s who volunteer at Rowan
Helping Ministries. Or we have a lovely new downtown park, when you’re planning
to be nearby, give yourself an extra 10 minutes to grab a chair and just listen
for what God might have to say to you, without pulling out a phone. Many people
find the Jesus Prayer to be a very helpful prayer to use throughout the day: “Lord
Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.” I almost always have an Anglican rosary in a
pocket, which is another great way to spend a handful of minutes in prayer.
Instead of pulling out a phone when we’re waiting for an appointment or a
meeting, pull out a rosary instead.
The point is,
there are many ways to pray, to read Scripture, to serve others as investing in
time with Jesus. If you want to talk further about any of this, that’s
literally what I’m here for – so give me a call or an email and we’ll find a
time to discuss.
There are so many
distractions out there, so many things to worry about, so many things that give
us anxiety. We can’t change that – it’s simply the world we live in. What we do
have a say in how we invest our time and therefore how we train ourselves to
respond to events and stress. Time spent at the feet of Jesus is never wasted
and never lost, rather it is how we cultivate the gift of faith that we have
been given, it is how we ground ourselves in the peace that the world cannot
give us nor take from us, it is how we root ourselves in the love that makes
all things well and that shall never be taken away.
