K.I.S.S
Keep It Simpler Sweetie
Genesis 18:1-10
Colossians 1:24-28 Luke 10:38-42
To the church in
the diaspora[1]
& to the
church of the unchurched[2]
Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according
to Luke.
Glory to you, Lord.
As they went on their way Jesus entered a village,
and a woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister
called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha
was distracted with much serving, and she went to him and said, “Lord, do you
not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”
But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about
many things; one thing only is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part, and
it shall not be taken away from her (Lk
The Gospel of
the Lord.
Praise to you,
Lord Jesus Christ.
Introduction
A preface to
the Martha and Mary story
The
Martha and Mary story needs a preface. The women in
Luke's gospel are almost always voiceless. Except for Mary and Elizabeth in the
stories surrounding Jesus' birth (Lk
Burkas Islamic and Christian
Women
being seen and not heard is, of course, the history of the human race. It reaches an incredible peak or rather sinks
down to an abysmal depth when a culture imposes burkas upon its women. (A burka
is a loose enveloping garment that covers a woman’s face and body and is worn
in public by certain Muslim women.) With the burka women are not only not
heard, but now they are not even seen! They
are non-existent! Theologian Sr. Joan Chittister, wittingly or unwittingly,
alludes to Christian burkas (!) which make Christian women invisible when she
complains that, “the church is riddled with inconsistencies, is closed to a
discussion about those inconsistencies and is sympathetic only to invisible
women.”
A story to like or dislike
Those
who search the scriptures in vain for proof against the ordination of women might
like this story which commends Mary for knowing her place and for being satisfied
with her role of passivity, silence and invisibility. On the other hand there
are some women, perhaps many, who dislike this passage because they think that
Martha (the active one, the giving one, the loud one, the visible one) is being
treated unfairly by Jesus. In reality it is not Jesus who is mistreating Martha
but rather the Jesus seen through the eyes of the gospel writer Luke. He wants
to reassure the man’s world of his day that the new religion is no threat to
it. He wants to assure it that the new religion will keep women in their place
and won’t rock its boat.
A traditional interpretation
Contemplation is better
than action
With that preface out of the way, we can
get on with the story itself. Martha is out in the kitchen cooking up a storm,
and Mary is in the parlor sitting with others (mostly men) at the feet of Jesus
and drinking in his words. Martha needs help and grows angry by the minute, so
she breaks into the parlor and with undisguised agitation says to Jesus,
“Doesn’t it bother you that my sister has left me to do all the work? Tell her
to get into the kitchen where she belongs and help me.” Instead of chiding Mary, Jesus turns the
tables and chides Martha. “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and
troubled about many things; one thing only is necessary. Mary has chosen the better
part and it shall not be taken away from her."
These words of Jesus aren’t very
enlightening in themselves. What, we
ask, is that “one thing only” which Jesus tells Martha is necessary? What, we ask, is that “better part” which
Jesus says Mary has chosen, and it won’t be taken from her?
We’re all familiar with the traditional
interpretation of the Martha and Mary story. It goes back to Pope St. Gregory
the Great (540-604). Martha is a picture of the active life as she runs this way and that way, trying to fulfill
what she thinks are the dictates of hospitality. And she becomes frazzled in
the process. Mary, on the other hand, is the model of the contemplative
life as she sits quietly at the feet of Jesus drinking
in all the words that fall from his lips. In Pope Gregory’s interpretation the
contemplative life is baldly declared to be better than the active life. Marys are declared to be better than Marthas! The cloistered contemplative
nuns of Mother Angelica’s group are declared to be automatically better than
the sisters of Mother Theresa’s group who
go out into the streets of
That council, by its various
pronouncements, laid to rest the bald statement that Marys are better than
Marthas. The contemplative life isn’t
better than the active life. Those who sit and contemplate must eventually rise
up to serve. Those who run here and
there to serve, if they are to be of any good to themselves and others, must
eventually sit down and contemplate. The
Martha and Mary story is not a message to contemplatives that they are better
than others. It is a message to all God’s people about the tension in their
lives — the tension between the Martha and Mary that rages within them – the
tension between running around on the one hand and coming to rest on the other
in order to make sense out of one’s running around -- the tension between
making a living and making sense out of one’s living.
A quaint interpretation
A simpler life is better
than a fussed up life
The words of the Lord to Martha, we said, aren’t
very enlightening. What, we ask, is that “one thing only”
which Jesus tells Martha is necessary?
What, we ask, is that “better part” which Jesus says Mary has chosen,
and it won’t be taken from her? Whenever
a text isn’t very enlightening, I confer with a big volume with its eight
different translations of one and the same passage, side by side for
comparison. I read them all, then shake them up in my mind and come up with a
cocktail which I think gives me a good taste of what the text is trying to say.
In my big volume I found an interpretative translation of the Martha and Mary
story which intrigued me with its pedestrian meaning. It gives the story a
quaint twist, and it’s quite different from Pope Gregory’s heavy take on the
story. It reads,
Now Mary sat on
the floor listening to Jesus as he talked. But Martha who was the jittery type
was worrying about the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and
said, “Sir, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I
do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”
But the Lord said to her, “Martha, dear friend, you are so upset over
all these details! There is only one thing to be concerned about. Mary has
discovered it—and I won’t take it away from her! (Living Bible translation).
An even quainter
translation reads, “Martha, Martha you are fussing so much in the kitchen
preparing so many dishes. Only one dish (!)
is necessary! Mary has chosen not to be fussing around but to sit here and
recharge herself, and I am not going to ask her to give that up.”
That interpretation is not some lofty
statement about the superiority of the contemplative life over the active life.
It’s not academic. It’s very simple and
down to earth, and we can all easily identify with it in our very hectic lives.
That interpretation answers the question what’s better, preparing a fussy meal with so many dishes that you are
too exhausted and too short of time to be hospitable -- or preparing a simple meal with just one good dish of
baked beans or pasta, so that you have
time to be out there with your guests? At the end of the day, what’s
better: a fussed-up life or a simple life?
What’s better: a complicated life
or a life you try to keep as simple as is possible in a very complicated world?
Such a translation is appealing because it
resonates with us. For many reasons we are becoming more and more a frazzled society,
and much of the frazzle is not of our own making. It is placed upon us by the
tempo and technology of the times. But we
must take responsibility for that part of the frazzle over which we have power,
and we must make a choice between a fussed-up life and a simple one, between a
frazzled life and a refreshed and replenished life.
Toward
the end of Camus’ novel The Plague, two
of the characters who are frazzled from spending days and nights fighting the
plague, running around serving one dying victim after the other, decide to take
an hour off for friendship. After
sharing stories of their lives and a brief swim in the ocean, one of the
characters says to the other, “Of course we must care for the victims, but if
we don’t take time out for friendship we will forget why we are fighting the
plague in the first place.” They were taking responsibility for that share of
the frazzle which was theirs, and they found the time to take a refreshing swim
in the ocean. That, in a very convoluted way, was contemplation for the both of
them. If Martha, too, would take responsibility for her share of the frazzle
within her, she would find time to refresh and replenish herself with Mary at
the feet of Jesus.
Conclusion
K.I.S.S
The
simple life is better than the fussed-up life. We really can’t make life simple
anymore. All we can do is make it simpler. When Martha
came storming in to the room, Jesus said to her, “Martha, Martha, K.I.S.S! Keep
it simpler, Sweetie.” He says the same to us.
[1] Diaspora is a Greek word
meaning dispersion. Originally it referred to the settling of scattered
colonies of Jews outside
[2] By “the unchurched” is
especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church
has left!