Serving Together

As you know, I have been enjoying Esther de Waal's writings, so when I noticed a used paperback copy of The Way of Simplicity, The Cistercian Tradition, I could not help but pick it up. I have not really started reading it, but I cannot help but peruse it.  However, the chapter entitled "Integration" has caused me to pause. It is based of  the relationship of the sisters, Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42).  

 

I confess I have never been able to read the story without wanting both Mary and Jesus to get up and lend Martha a hand in the kitchen. I do recognize that men in Jesus' time did not do that sort of thing, but this story has always created a yearning within me, and maybe that yearning is can be defined as a wanting for wholeness.  Not an either/or but both.  De Waal describes this interplay as "the two orders of love which must coexist together."   She quotes Aelred, Abbot of Rievaulx (1110-1167): 

  

It must be remembered 

that Martha laboured 

and Mary was free from work 

in the same house; 

the same soul in whom Christ is welcomed, 

both lives are led,  

each in its own time, place and order.  

 

I am reminded of a yoga teacher I once met. At that time she was over 80 and still teaching. She told me that she and her husband spent some time as hospice volunteers.  She was clearly the Martha of the two.  She said she did not have much patience for just sitting and talking, so she would do some cleaning and maybe run errands. It was her husband who just loved to spend the time in conversation. No doubt that together they brought much comfort to the patients they served.       

 

If the Living Body of Christ is to be served well (or at all), we need Marys, Marthas, Toms, Franks, and all sorts of people who come to serve just as they are.  Some will bring many gifts and some may bring just one or two. Some may come in great need.  If we can avoid thinking that one set of "bringing" is better than another, then the Body of Christ can be served with humility and love and we all can grow.  However, if we think that somehow some gifts are better, more artistic, or more productive, then we start to make idols of ourselves and we lose our sense of gratitude and wonder.  That makes for a poor church, and diminished lives.     

  

May we remember it is all prayer. Sometimes it is hard to remember that God calls us all, but that is surely one of the great lessons of this life.  We learn to welcome and make room.