I don't know about you, but all of a sudden I'm go, go, go in holiday mode. The weekends are booked, the days are full. Family is coming (yay!!!) the house is pretty dirty (boo!!!). I haven't said no as well as I should have, and at the same time haven't said yes to the things I should have. I grapple mightily with the delusion that if I just work REALLY hard and fast I'll catch everything up and then be able to relax and enjoy.
Many years ago I read a sermon about Luke 10:38-42 that really struck home with me. Any clue whether I tend towards Mary or Martha?? Ha! It was a sermon preached at the beginning of December, and its intention was to encourage people to be more like Mary than Martha, especially during the holidays. I wish I could find the link, I'd love to read it again.
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
I shared the message of the sermon with a friend and, kindred soul that she is, she immediately wondered how anything would get done if we were all like Mary.
Two years ago I found this sermon by the Rev. Khleber Van Zandt at the First Unitarian Church at Alton. I love how he grapples with Mary and Martha-ness. I'm not going to denigrate that part of me that can hustle, and coordinate and get things done. But I am going to try to add a healthy dose of priority setting AND making sure that those priorities actually mesh with the things I care the most about. (Ummm... family, friends, not clean floors). But don't clean floors tell people how much I care about them? Ugh!!!
I wish the same things for you in December as Rev. Van Zandt wishes in the end of his sermon:
I hope you get to notice the way you can see your breath on a December day and how it drifts away in the cold air, and I hope you get to experience the warmth of a home where your breath mixes unseen with the breath of others.
I hope you get to savor the aromas of a kitchen where someone has been baking holiday treats.
I hope you get to catch the sparkle of light in a child’s eyes.
I hope you get to share a conversation with someone you love, not just the surface-oriented banter and repartee of Facebook, but the ebb and flow of the deeper currents running within your true self.
I hope you get to help a neighbor or friend who needs a hand up.
I hope you get to learn to accept the gifts that come your way, and to recognize them and remember them and hold them in your heart as an affirmation that you are worthy, that you are somebody, that you are loved.
So may it be.
