I just finished reading Pastor Debra’s Cornerstone article on the Advent Conspiracy. We have all been invited to join. If you have not read it, stop here and go back and read the last Cornerstone. Worship Fully, Spend less, Give More and Love All. Pastor Debra, do we have time for all this, because the Season of Advent has already begun! There is so much to do!
The Season of Advent IS underway! For many of us, rather than being a time of quiet expectation, the four weeks of advent are filled with the rush of seasonal activities. There is shopping to be done, the tree to put up, the cooking of favorite and traditional foods, decorating the house, the yard, and making the usual round of pre-Christmas parties and social gatherings.
This season of advent, leading up to Christmas can be a time of contradictory feelings and emotions. We are excited about the holidays, but all that we are expected to do can wear us down. We can feel very sentimental about family traditions; and at the same time we may resent the time and effort required to meet other people’s expectations. Seeing family and friends can be exhilarating; and yet we can also feel pangs of loneliness and despair. The media bombards us with the message that this is a time of love, hope and joy. But the love and joy that the season represents can also be mingled with worry about money, jobs, children and our relationships. Hope can be threatened by current events. In the end, all the hustle and bustle of this season can leave us emotionally and physically drained.
For some reason the Advent Conspiracy verses what we think we are suppose to do reminds me of the Martha and Mary story. It comes from the Gospel of Luke and the beginning words may have a familiar ring:
“ Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard his word.
But Martha was burdened with much serving, and came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me.
And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are careful and worried about many things: But one thing is needful; and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
Martha is the perfect host. Can you see her in the kitchen stirring a pot with a big wooden spoon, her hands and face white from the flour used to bake bread? Can you see her moving quickly from pot to pot—the potatoes are boiling over, the meat dish is overdone in the oven, the table still needs to be set and to make matters worse, Mary has invited guests for dinner. So when Martha walks out into the front room looking for some help and support from her sister, what is Mary doing? Well, to Martha’s mind she isn’t doing much. Mary is sitting on the floor engaged in conversation with the guests.
I’d like to think that they are catching up on important events in their lives, sharing stories, possibly even some local gossip. In short, they are talking about the essential matters in life. Issues dealing with faith, hope and love.
Now, picture the situation coming to a head as Martha goes barging into the front room wondering why in the world her sister isn’t helping her in the kitchen. But what is interesting here, is that Martha does not direct her remarks to Mary but to Jesus. She scolds Jesus. “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? By her words, she implies that all this extra work she must do is somehow his fault and in a way she tells him off by saying, “Don’t you care that I am stuck in the kitchen doing everything by myself? Tell Mary to help.”
Now Jesus has apparently attended self-esteem workshops and is well versed in issues around manipulation and triangulation and he quickly realizes that Martha is trying to get him to take sides. And how does he reply?
Martha, Martha, you are too busy with all your cooking and all your preparations—you have too many things on your plate (!)—but Mary has chosen to sit and talk with me. Long after the meal is over, she will carry the memories of this time we spent together. And this is the end of the story. We don’t know whether Martha suddenly realized that Jesus was right, took off her apron and entered into the conversation; or whether she took on a major martyr attitude and slunk back into the kitchen being resentful and feeling sorry for herself.
What an instructive story this is for the weeks leading up to Christmas. How many of us are like Martha—running around trying to decorate the house, wrapping presents in just the perfect gift wrap, writing cards with a personal note in each, and cooking everyone’s favorite foods?
How quickly do we become angry or jealous of those who seem to have found the time to relax, to visit, to talk with one another about their shared hopes, shared dreams and shared visions for what this troubled world might be. How many of us become resentful and feel like we are “stuck” doing all the things no one else will do?
It is in this spirit; I think we should re-read Pastor Debra’s cornerstone article and embrace the Advent Conspiracy. Let us spend time sitting at Jesus’ feet. Let us Worship Fully, Spend Less, Give More, and Love All. My Christmas wish for this year is that we would all try to behave more like Mary and a little less like Martha. How I wish we could spend more time listening to each other, really listening and hearing the stories of joy, of pain and of discouragement. All too soon even the most elegant meal is leftovers; the beautiful wrapping paper is in the re-cycling. But the time we spend with friends and loved ones—our families and our friends—this time is precious. This is the good portion that can not be taken away.
Blessings on The Journey,
Cindy