Reflections - St. James' Blog

Louis IX, King of France 25 August 1270

 

               www.infolizer.com

 

O God, who called your servant Louis of France to an earthly throne

that he might advance your heavenly kingdom, and gave him zeal for

your Church and love for your people: Mercifully grant that we who

commemorate him this day may be fruitful in good works, and attain

to the glorious crown of your saints; through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,

for ever and ever. Amen.

Bartholomew 24 August NT

 

       www.revprs.blogspot.com

Collect for St. Bartholomew

 

Almighty and everlasting God, who gave to your apostle Bartholomew

grace truly to believe and to preach your Word: Grant that your Church

may love what he believed and preach what he taught; through

Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God for ever and ever.  Amen.  (Lesser Feasts and Fast)

 

Psalm 91 or 91:1-4
Deuteronomy 18:15-18
1 Corinthians 4:9-15
Luke 22:24-30 (Ap)

James bar-Zebedee 25 July 41

            

PRAYER
O gracious God, we remember before you today your servant and

apostle James, first among the Twelve to suffer martyrdom for the

Name of Jesus Christ; and we pray that you will pour out upon the

leaders of your Church that spirit of self-denying service by which

alone they may have true authority among your people; through the

same Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the

Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

 Thomas a Kempis 24 July 1471

 

                            

Prayer

Holy Father, who have nourished and strengthened your Church by the writings of your

servant Thomas a Kempis: Grant that we may learn from him to know what we ought to

know, to love what we ought to love, to praise what highly pleases you, and always to

seek to know and follow your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns

with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Birgitta of Sweden 23 July 1373

          

Prayer

O God, who by your Holy Spirit give to some the word of wisdom, to

others the word of knowledge, and to others the word of faith: We praise

 your Name for the gifts of grace manifested in your servant Birgitta,

and we pray that your Church may never be destitute of such gifts;

through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives

and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Mary Magdalene 22 July NT

              

Prayer

Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of

body and mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully

grant that by your grace we may be healed of all our infirmities and know you

in the power of his endless life; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy

Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

 

Psalm 42:1-7
Judith 9:1,11-14
2 Corinthians 5:14-18
John 20:11-18 (AllSts)

Four American Pioneers of Black Rights and Women's Rights
(celebrated together on 20 July):

 

Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton,
Amelia Bloomer

 

Prayer

O God, whose Spirit guides us into all truth and makes us free: Strengthen

and sustain us as you did your servants Elizabeth, Amelia, Sojourner, and

Harriet. Give us vision and courage to stand against oppression and injustice

and all that works against the glorious liberty to which you call all your children;

through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy

Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Macrina the Younger 19 July 379

 

           

Prayer

Merciful God, who called your servant Macrina to reveal in her life and her teaching the riches of your

grace and truth: Mercifully grant that we, following her example, may seek after your wisdom and live

according to her way; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

                                                http://edgeofenclosure.org/

  
               Pentecost 8 (Proper 11C), July 18, 2010
                                  Amos 8:1-12
                                   Psalm 52
                          Colossians 1:15-28
                               Luke 10:38-42

             By preached by the Rev. Scott B. Neal

                    St James Episcopal Church

                              Arlington, VT

But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked,

"Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?

Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are

worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has

chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:40-42

Have you ever had to say, ‘Scott, Scott’, just to get someone’s attention?  I know I have. 

We all seem to live in a world all our own.  Especially in today’s world of phone calls,

internet searches and email.  Our minds are so overloaded that, just trying to get someone’s

attention, just trying to break into that inner life going on inside someone can be a lot of work. 

 

I am beginning to learn that to really get someone’s attention, to get them to focus on what you

are saying, to get them to be present in a conversation, you have to repeat their name until they

are truly listening.

 

To get Martha’s attention Jesus does just that.  In her whirl wind to welcome Jesus and his friends

into her home and prepare a meal for them, Martha is consumed with her duties as a 1^st century woman. 

She is also consumed with anger toward her sister who isn’t helping in kitchen.  Because of this anger

and flurry of activity, she is unable to see beyond of herself. 

 

‘Martha, Martha are you there, are you listening, are you focusing on my words?” 

 

Mary on the other hand seems to be focused even though she is outside the normal role for

women.  She sits at the feet of Jesus, listening and learning from him, taking it all in.  As a woman,

she was not expected to sit and learn in this way. Sitting and learning was reserved for men only. 

Women served.  The lessons of scripture were not for women, at least not for them to learn at the

feet of a rabbi.  But Mary took a risk.

 

I think Martha was so excited to have Jesus in her home she wanted everything to be perfect. 

So she over did it.  And in this overdoing it, she became exasperated with Mary for doing nothing. 

Martha was doing what she thought best, what she as a woman was trained to do.  In her frustrated

and exasperated state she goes to Jesus and complains.  ‘Tell Mary to help me, she shouldn’t be

just sitting there doing nothing.  She needs to help me!’

 

But Jesus says to Martha, ‘Martha, hey Martha do you hear yourself.  Mary is doing just fine.  She is

sitting quietly, not distracted at all and listening and learning about the kingdom.  She is okay.’

This statement or rebuke wasn’t because Martha served instead of listened.  Jesus himself came

as one who serves.  The rebuke was because Martha was anxious and distraction.  Luke tells us

that Martha was “distracted by her many tasks.”  And it is this distraction that gets in Martha’s way. 

The distraction overturns Martha's desire to offer hospitality, making her more and more distracted,

more and more anxious, more and more out of control.   Jesus is telling Martha that it is her scattered

behavior that separates her from her connection with Jesus.

 

Jesus doesn’t tell Martha that she is a bad person or that her behavior is bad. 

He tries to awaken her by calling her name twice, by trying to enter into her frenzy and help her focus

on what truly matters. 

 

Jesus is reaching out to her, trying to pull her back to the present.

 

Jesus is acting like a true friend at this moment.  He is expressing his deep love and concern for Martha. 

This challenge can only be accepted coming from a good friend, someone who deeply cares for you.

 

Jesus never praised Martha for her hospitality, for serving, even though this was his own message to

love and serve others.  Jesus didn’t tell Mary to get up and help her sister; instead he commended Mary

for her choice of sitting at his feet and learning.  He commended her for focusing on her chosen task.

 

Mary in her own way was offering hospitality to Jesus and his friends by being focused on his words,

focused on the Word made flesh. 

 

The only thing Martha did wrong was be distracted.  It is something we all do, something we are

all guilty of. 

 

What pulls us away from Jesus’ presence, from worshiping the true and only God? Is it the internet,

the television, the grandkids, the golf course?  Or is it more Christ-like activities like always serving

others, perhaps offering hospitality to our neighbor? 

 

We have so many distractions today – so many ways to spend our time, ways to divide ourselves

that we tend to live lives like Martha.  Jesus is asking us - no telling us - that we must quiet those

distractions in our life, put them in order, in the proper perspective in order to listen to God.   

Jesus is inviting Martha, inviting us to seek the one thing.

 

Spreading ourselves too thin, trying to do it all.  Does this sound like you?  It certainly sounds like

me – at least much of the time.  We live in a society of doing.  The more we can accomplish the better

we feel about ourselves, the more we feel accepted by society.  That’s why there is so much multitasking

these days – playing a game, reading a book and talking on the phone or like the women the other day

at Price Chopper trying to order her deli meats while talking on the phone with a friend trying to control

her child in the shopping cart.  None of it got accomplished.  We are distracted in all that we do.

Our society continues to find ways for us to do more.  Have you ever been on vacation and watched

other people on their vacation, carrying and answering cell phones, doing work on top of a mountain. 

We are never present in the moment anymore.  Our time is always divided.  It takes real energy to stay

focused this days, to sit and listen to a friend or family member, to sit and watch a sunset or a stream

running by, to sit and listen to God in prayer.  So often we list off our demands and wishes to God so

we can move on with our day or worse yet we don’t take time even to be with God.  I’m guilty of

this – I’ll admit it.  We are always looking ahead to the next thing, never satisfied with the here and now.   

It drives us insane.  This is where we find Martha this morning.     

 

 

Jesus tells Martha that Mary has chosen the ‘better part’.  I don’t think He's favoring Mary over Martha. 

I don’t think he's lifting up one way of living the Christian life over another.   Instead, I think he's inviting

us to get caught up in the joy of being in God’s presence.  Jesus is inviting us to forget, if only for a little

while, all our usual worries and headaches and concerns, all the usual things that separate us from God and

each other, and simply be, "in Christ."

 

Jesus is inviting us to a kind of spirituality that can be as easily practiced in the kitchen as in the study,

or at school or at play, or while working in the garden, in the office or even as we look for work.  What

really matters is our attentiveness to God's presence in our varied activities and responsibilities of daily living.

 

 

 It's so easy for us to get caught up in the necessary busy-ness of our lives that we often forget why

we are here in the first place.  We are here to interact with a loving and life giving God, to love and serve

God and neighbor.  We are here to worship that God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. 

To do this we must focus on, be attentive to our relationship with God, family and neighbor.

 

So perhaps this story isn’t about Mary or Martha at all.  I believe it really our relationship with Jesus;

a relationship that lifts us beyond the everyday limitations of this life so that we might see, if only for a

few seconds at a time, the sacred in the mundane, the extraordinary in the ordinary, and the holiness

with which each and every moment of this life is filled.  Amen.