Thought for the day – Saturday 18 April
Dear Reader
There are many annoying things in life, and we are all well acquainted with them, particularly when they’re within our own households. One of these things is called housework. Not the housework itself really, but the need to get it done while others don’t share the same enthusiasm for doing it. ‘Shift, lift you feet, have you not got something better to do.? Do you think you could put that back where it belongs……. ‘. There are other mutterings to be heard. You know the scene.
There are many annoying things in life, and we are all well acquainted with them, particularly when they’re within our own households. One of these things is called housework. Not the housework itself really, but the need to get it done while others don’t share the same enthusiasm for doing it. ‘Shift, lift you feet, have you not got something better to do.? Do you think you could put that back where it belongs……. ‘. There are other mutterings to be heard. You know the scene.
I know of a teenager who thought her parents were suffering from an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder when her parents insisted that they get into her room occasionally, to give it clean. Parents!! ahhhh!!!!! Housework is a pest. When the parents eventually got in they had to dust the immovable teenage rebel as well. ‘OCD’ aside, I’ve never understood why some folk feel the need to give the house a good clean before going on holiday and sometimes too, even before the cleaning lady arrives. A mystery to me
Housework can get in the way of blissful laziness you know. It can ruin many a good TV programme. It can disturb your concentration while lounging on the sofa doing the crossword, its noisy too and when its done you don’t know where ‘things’ are. It can take days to find your slippers and the remote. ‘Domestics’ in the making.
Martha and Mary, two sisters, had a little biblical ‘bust up’. Thinking of sisters, I thought it funny when I heard two daughters of friends we knew having a little spat. One said to the other …. ”and by the way, you can get your face outta ma mirror.” Mystery solved. I hadn’t realised til that point that your reflection actually stayed on the glass, but there you go.
Martha did the work and Mary was content to sit with her guests. She listened and talked with Jesus and it was this that annoyed Martha. We can speculate about the meaning of Jesus’ reply. Some folk want to think it was all a simple case of spiritual over temporal matters. Martha the temporal one and Mary the more devout spiritual one. It is not that simple in my view though. There may have been, and there probably was,some banter. The text is frugal in content.
I think we have a tendency to overthink things and feel the need to give a meaning to suit our own ends. The Gospel writer, Luke, is revealing an everyday domestic scene. Remember too that the disciples were there. It was a busy household. Who was going to prepare, cook and serve the dinner, not Mary it seems.
Where would we be without the doers? Where does your sympathy lie, are you like Mary or like Martha?
Should we not be both?
Today I ask you to think/meditate on these things.
God bless you!
Jim
JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk
JBoag@churchofscotland.org.uk
LUKE 10: 38-42
As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 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!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
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