Dr. Jennifer Sims, Contributing Writer
Channeling Martha and Mary
Dr. Jennifer Sims, Contributing Writer
When I heard the story of Martha and Mary as a child, I took away the message that caring for others involved both providing for them materially as well as emotionally. As the COVID-19 pandemic, racial injustice, extreme weather, and other crises continue to stress and strain our daily lives, the message of these two sisters’ different but equally necessary orientations remains relevant and important.
The Martha-work during the pandemic is unending. In schools across the country, teachers are passionately teaching classes—in-person, on Zoom, or both simultaneously. At drive-thru restaurants, employees take one order while making change for a second and bagging a third. In homes, coast to coast, parents cook and clean and wash clothes and check homework. From hospitals to farms to living rooms and everywhere in between, people are hard at work, like Martha, keeping our collective proverbial house running.
However, in our haste to complete orders and meet deadlines and sign all the permission slips, and then get ready to do it all over again the next day, the Mary-work of the pandemic can easily slip through the cracks. In other words, working in these trying times can mean becoming so focused on getting through our material to-do list that we skip the quiet sitting and listening that Jesus reminded us is so important. Yet when Jesus told Martha that Mary was indeed doing something worthwhile sitting at his feet and listening to him, it was a reminder to us all that amid the hustle and bustle (or here recently panic and chaos), taking a moment to just be with each other is invaluable.
The story of Martha and Mary thus reminds us that we are not created to grind our way through life. While material work, especially our paid employment, is necessary, so too is nurturing interpersonal connections and being there for each other. That is what Mary was doing at the feet of Jesus, not simply learning from him but spending quality time with him. In fact, since it is safe to assume that she, too, knew there was a long to-do list full of chores, we can even say that she wasmaking time for Jesus.
Mary knew that sometimes work can wait, not indefinitely, but long enough to remind ourselves and our loved ones that our time spent together is what truly matters. So, as we head into a new year, let us plan to channel both sisters by doing what we need to do at work but also to prioritize quiet time with our families.
