Only One Thing Is Needful

(This is not an original message, some key points have come from other ministers)

TITLE: ONLY ONE THING IS NEEDFUL

SCRIPTURE: ST. LUKE 10:38-42

Today’s gospel is probably one of the shortest narratives in the Bible, but even though it is short, it still has a lot to say. In today’s gospel reading, we are introduced to Martha, who just might be the patron saint of this 21st century. Martha was “WORRIED AND DISTRACTED BY MANY THINGS,” -- and this was 2,000 years ago.

• Before TVs

• Before cell phones

• Before social media

• Before any of the things that distract us in our day and age

• Martha was worried and distracted by many things

• I can only imagine what it would be like for Martha in today’s environment!

We live in a time of never-ending worries and distractions. The distractions are obvious and include the ones I just mentioned. The worries, though, are equally obvious. And they seem to grow all the time. And trying to distract ourselves from our worries just seems to wear us out all the more. We can all relate to Martha, in other words, who was worried and distracted by many things.

Martha opened her home to offer hospitality to this traveling rabbi and his entourage. She did it as a public sign of her religious commitment. In welcoming Jesus and his followers, she was following the time-honored Middle-Eastern ritual of hospitality. while she was busy in the kitchen, Mary, her sister, chose to remain with Jesus in the living room, listening to his words of wisdom. Martha wanted everything in the kitchen to turn out just right. She wondered whether her sister appreciated the pressure she was under in the kitchen. In fact, she thought that if her sister had the decency and good sense to come and help, much of the burden could be eased. But her sister Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet, hanging on his every word. Not helping her sister Martha with a thing!

Many of us have felt like coming to Martha’s defense when we’ve read this text. Poor thing. She only wanted to serve. We can’t all be like Mary, can we? But Jesus’s words ring in my ear every time I read this account -- “ONE THING IS NECESSARY/NEEDFUL.” I have to ask myself -

• Do I actually believe that?

• Is it reflected in the way that I view my time?

I’m not used to thinking about what’s necessary. When I look at my time management, I usually break it down into three categories -

1. Things I must do - such as paying bills or feeding the family

2. Things I should do - such as exercising or cleaning out the refrigerator

3. Things I want to do - such as going out to dinner or shopping around town

But Jesus, our Lord, said only one thing is needful. If this were a suggestion from a friend or an idea from a great book, I might be able to dismiss it as simplistic.

• But this is Jesus

• He’s not simplistic

• He’s speaking to a woman’s heart and cutting right through her every defense

As I was studying and preparing for this message, I ran across a new word - ‘Hyperliving.’ It was new to me, and I found out that, not only are most of us Hyperliving, but the University of Houston actually offers a Master’s Degree in Studies of the Future, centering around the phenomena of ‘Hyperliving.’ Who would have thought?

So what is ‘Hyperliving?’

• We want to do more and more things in less and less time

• Some of us carry around planners with lots of scraps of paper attached and rubber bands holding it all together

• We buy time-saving gadgets and don’t have the time to read the instructions to figure out how to use them

• We do the ‘multi-tasking’ thing, especially in the car. We drive, eat, drink coffee, listen to the radio, talk on the cell phone, and make gestures – all at the same time!

• Before we come to a stop light, if there are two lanes and each contains one car, we find ourselves trying to guess which one will pull away first so we can get in that lane

• At a grocery store, if we have a choice between two checkout lines, we find ourselves counting how many people are in each line, multiplying this number by the number of items per cart. After we get in line, we keep track of the other person who would have been us in the other line. If we finish checking out and the person who would have been us is still waiting you feel like we’ve won! But if the person who would have been us is walking out of the store and we’re still in line, we feel depressed