Pastor's Corner: Our choices matter

This summer, my congregations have been looking at the testimonies of different women from the scriptures; one of the stories we’ve heard is from Mary and Martha.

Mary and Martha were preparing to give a dinner party for Jesus. No pressure, right? Martha is distracted by her many tasks of preparing food, tending to guests, making sure drinks are offered and refilled, and perhaps tidying up quickly while no one is looking. Rather than helping her sister with the many tasks at hand, Mary instead sits at Jesus’ feet. Rightly so, Martha complains to Jesus about this arrangement, to which he reprimands her and commends Mary. The moral of the story: focus on Jesus, ignore the rest.

This is probably good advice for those of us living in the 21st century in a place inundated with the distractions of many tasks, many things, and many clicks, pings and rings. When was the last time you attended to just one thing? Even though studies reveal the ineffectiveness of multitasking, we just cannot help ourselves. We fret about life’s endless distractions. How can we manage to sit at Jesus’ feet — listen, learn, focus on the Word?

There have been times in my life when I made a choice, and I knew deep within that it was the only choice to be made; it was absolutely the right choice. If I could do it all over again, I would make the exact same choice. But there have also been times when I made what I thought was the right choice but can now see there was a better choice to have been made; I would do things differently if I had the chance to choose again. I suspect most of us could say the same.

Too often, we equate our choices, and its subsequent approval or rejection, with our goodness, our worthiness, our acceptableness, our faithfulness, our loveableness. That is what is done with this story — Mary made the better choice, Jesus says, so we quickly conclude that we should be like Mary and not like Martha.

Jesus is saying that choices matter. We are always making choices, hundreds of choices each day. Sometimes we choose unconsciously, sometimes quickly and easily, other times with great deliberation and struggle. Some choices are insignificant, forgotten about by the next day; other choices have great meaning and significance, and the consequences are long-lasting. Our choices can shape who we are. They can establish in us patterns and habits of how we see and act, the words we speak, and the ways we relate to each other. Our choices can set a trajectory for our life.

In this particular context, Mary made the better choice, but it was a choice for that time and place, and those circumstances. Change the setting and Martha’s choice might have been the better one. We can see that in Jesus’ own life. Sometimes he was like Mary, and went off by himself to be alone, silent, still, to pray, to sit and to listen. But at other times, he was like Martha, active, on the move, in the midst of people, busy teaching, healing, feeding 5,000.

Both ways are necessary, faithful and holy. There is not simply one choice that is to be made forever and always. We are always to be discerning the one thing needed in this time, this place, these circumstances. How do we be present, show up to the Divine Presence that is already and always before us? Some days Mary will be our guide and other days Martha will be our guide. Either way, we must choose.

What is the one thing needed right now, in this moment? Not forever, or what you think will fix all your problems and let you live happily ever after. Just for now. What is the one thing needed that will keep you awake, aware, open, receptive, and present to Christ? Choose that. But hold your choice lightly because there will be another choice to be made after that, and another one after that. We choose our way into life, love, relationships, faith — and the choices matter.

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The Rev. Maggie Lewis

First Presbyterian Church, Havre

Chinook Presbyterian Church