“Martha, Martha, you are distracted by many things.” Jesus’ statement to his friend and disciple from Luke’s Gospel is one many of us are familiar with. It’s one of those quotes from Scripture that has often been used with a variety of agendas, but it seems that those lines could be said to any one of us right now. We live in a distracting world and there are “many things” competing for our attention. Some days it really is hard to know where to focus even our efforts to do the right thing, to follow Jesus in building the realm of God! There is so much to be concerned about, so many issues we feel we should attend to! God’s beloveds are in need, the suffering is all around us, the planet itself seems to be crying out. It is easy to get overwhelmed and exhausted.
Jesus has been insistent in our recent Gospels about not getting distracted, and today we hear that reminder again. Even the good things, the necessary things can distract us, making us tired and frantic and irritable, taking our focus from the one thing, the central message of God’s love. Perhaps we can hear Jesus say to us this week, “My Beloved, you are distracted by so many things, come sit down and rest, hear my voice and take it into your heart. Remember the one thing. Remember love.”
+Mtr. Kate Hennessy-Keimig
Watch Mtr. Kate’s full sermon here. (Time stamp 11:05)