“One Thing”
Are you familiar with the movie “City Slickers”? Billy Crystal plays
a man who is completely disillusioned with his life as a NYC executive and so
his friends take him on an adventure to a cattle ranch to “rediscover
his smile”. At the ranch, Crystal’s character meets the trail boss,
a tough and ornery cowboy and a man of few words. During their adventure, the
trail boss tells Crystal that to find happiness, you need only one thing….
And then dies before he could tell Crystal what the one thing is.
One thing – Does this sound familiar to you? It was in the Scripture Lesson this morning. Jesus said, “…but one thing is necessary.” And like that trail boss, Jesus never says what that one thing is – at least not explicitly. But if we really look at the text of the Lesson, maybe we can figure out what that one thing is.
Let’s look at the story for a moment.
Remember Mary and Martha were the sisters of Jesus’ good friend Lazarus. Through different gospel accounts, it would appear that Jesus spent a fair amount of time in their company. On this particular day, Jesus was traveling past their home on one of his journeys and Martha invited him to come and stay with them. When Jesus arrived, he sat down and began to speak. We don’t know what he was speaking about, it doesn’t say. He could have been teaching or telling tales of his journey or maybe just shooting the breeze about the weather. Whatever it was that he saying, Mary was soon entranced and sat at his feet hanging on every word.
Martha, on the other hand, was bustling about the house. It was she who had invited Jesus into her home and she was bound and determined that everything would be perfect for her. She was probably fussing around, cleaning up and getting dinner ready. The longer she worked, the more steamed she got. Well, put yourself in her position.
Yes, she had invited Jesus, but it wasn’t just HER house. Martha was doing all the work and Mary was just sitting there at Jesus’ feet – looking like she had never even SEEN a man before. I can just hear the pots and pans banging – maybe even her feet stomping a little. Can you hear the dramatic sighs from the kitchen?
Worse – none of this had any effect. Jesus and Mary continued to stay right where they were, doing just what they had been doing, like Martha wasn’t even a factor. Mary was just sitting there – doing nothing at all!
Finally she couldn’t stand it anymore and Martha said something to Jesus. Can’t you just see her, standing in the doorway of the kitchen, flour on her nose, hands on her hips, apron. She’s not a happy camper.
The Gospel says that she said (v.40) but I think it came out more like – “Excuse me but doesn’t anyone think that this is unfair – for me to play Cinderella while Sis sits on her duff and does nothing.” At least the tone is probably right.
Jesus responded, according to the Gospels, like this (v. 41 & 42). I think it was somewhat like “Martha, don’t sweat the small stuff …. And its all small stuff. Right now, Mary has found what is really important and I’m not going to put a damper on that.”
In other words, Mary found the one thing.
Martha didn’t recognize that though. And so she came to Jesus and said something like “Hey! Make Mary help me!” See, Martha was caught up in the details of being the hostess with the mostess. She was concerned that the tablecloth matched the drapes and the crust was golden brown and that the floors were spotless. And there is nothing wrong with that.
But when you have the Lord sitting in your living room, these details pale in comparison. We know that Martha had an idea who Jesus was since she called him “Lord” and, after all, we have established that she and her whole family had spent some time with Jesus – friends even. She had invited him to spend time in her home. Think about it – If this were simply being nice to a guy traveling through town she could have just given him 5 dinari and sent him to McHerods for a camelburger or something. She wanted Jesus to be in her home.
And that is when she got lost in the details. She was so concerned about the small stuff on HOW she would treat the Lord, she forgot to LISTEN to the Lord. It was a question of mixed up priorities.
And this is easy to do. We do this all the time. There is a HUGE amount of information that barrages us every day – more than any other time in history. We have more to do and less time to do it in. We have more possibilities and options but life speeds up. We feel sometimes like we are running flat out all the time and there aren’t enough hours in the day to do the things that we HAVE to do.
And that is how we can get lost in our priorities.
This was what Martha did. She got lost in the details.
About 70 years ago, an conversation happened between Charles Schwab (then president of Bethlehem Steel Company) and Ivy Lee who was a motivational speaker and self help advisor. Lee was a confident, aggressive man who, through perseverance, had acquired this interview with Schwab – one of the most powerful men in the world.
During the conversation, Lee proposed that if Schwab would follow his advice, Bethlehem Steel would be more prosperous.
Schwab answered: “ If you can show me a way to be able to accomplish more with the time I have, it’ll be my pleasure to listen. In fact, if it works, I’ll pay you whatever you ask within reason.”
So Lee gave Schwab a blank piece of paper and told him:” Write down the most important things that you have to do tomorrow.” Schwab did so.
“Now”, Lee continued, “number them according to their importance.” Again, Schwab obliged.
Lee then said, “Tomorrow morning, start with number one. Then go on to number two and so forth…. Don’t worry if you haven’t completed the list by the end of the day. At least you will have accomplished the most important projects. Do this every day. Afterward, if you are convinced of its value, have your people follow the same system. Test it for as long as you like and then send me a check for what you think the advice was worth.”
The two men shook hands and Lee left the president’s office. A few weeks later, Charles Schwab sent Ivy Lee a check for $25,000 – an astronomical amount in those days. He said that it was the best lesson he had ever learned in his long career in business.
What Lee had taught Schwab was to set priorities. Maybe this is what Jesus was doing too. Jesus was trying to tell Martha that she needed to stop being wrapped up in the small details and set her priorities.
Or maybe Jesus was telling Martha to recognize the spiritual gift that she had been given. Spiritual gifts are those things that are given to each person by God. By using these gifts, a person makes their community better. They can take the form of teaching, preaching, healing, translating and a whole host of other things.
Martha’s spiritual gift – that thing which made Martha, Martha – seems to be the gift of hospitality – an important gift by the way. This gift is referred to in several scriptures like 1 Peter 4:9-10 “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:” And there is also Romans 12:13 “ Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” Not to mention Hebrews 13:2 “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares”
Martha knew what her giftedness was and she was willing to put it to use. I’ll bet she was one of those people whose home is always open. I’ll bet she would have agreed with Mary Lou Retton when she said, “ As simple as it sounds, we all must try to be the best person we can: by making the best choices, by making the most of the talents we’ve been given.”
But she started to go awry. Martha was like many of us in that we don’t see the gift we have for what it is. We assume that since we are able to do something, it must be pretty simple for everyone to do it. Perhaps Martha was trying to apply HER gift to Mary in this case.
Martha says to Jesus “Hey! Make Mary help me!” But Jesus knows that hospitality is not Mary’s gift. Mary has a different one and she has found it.
Jesus knows that there needs to be balance in life. Balance in your own life and balance in the community. Think how terrible it would be if everyone in this church had the same gift. We would have everyone working on the woodwork and no one playing the organ; or everyone would be caring for the lawns and no one speaking from the pulpit. Same with the community of Crown Point – Imagine if everyone were a storekeeper but no one manufactured anything to sell.
You can see how important balance is. And each member of this congregation has a gift that they can contribute to this group – which is what allows us to accomplish things like the Strawberry Festival. For instance, I am lost when it comes to repairs. When the doorknob fell off at the Parsonage, I wouldn’t have a clue what to do about it. But John did -- pretty simple for him to handle. On the other hand, I remember a conversation I had with John about standing up here. A team of horses couldn’t get him up here. He would feel like a square peg in a round hole – Just like I would feel with a broken doorknob in my hand.
That’s why balance is so important. And God knows that. Look at the world around us. He created a male and a female; a summer and a winter; comedy and drama; joy and pain; water and solid ground. All of this is about balance. And it is through this balance, with each of us contributing our gifts, that we can accomplish so much.
Maybe this could be the one thing.
Or maybe it is more simple, this one thing. Perhaps what Mary learned was to listen to the Lord. Could it be that simple? We have spoken in the past about how the Bible – the Word of the Lord – is a guidebook for how we should live. If the one thing is to listen, then perhaps that means that we should set aside some time every day to listen to what the Lord is trying to tell us.
In the Scripture Lesson today, Martha wasn’t listening was she? Mary was but Martha was bustling around. Knowing what we know of Jesus, I suspect that he didn’t really care if he had a big fancy dinner – heck he probably would have been just as happy with a PBJ – but he did want people to heed his words. He wanted to teach Martha something and she wasn’t slowing down long enough to listen to him.
Maybe it has something to do with the words in Matthew 6:33 which says “He will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern”
Was this what Jesus meant about the one thing?
It can be terribly confusing, can’t it? 5 verses from the Bible – just one paragraph – and we have examined 3 possible meanings for one comment that Jesus made. It would have helped if he had explained himself a little better, wouldn’t it?
Personally, I think he didn’t on purpose. You see, I think that all of these explanations for the one thing are right. And I think that there are many more. I believe that we each have a one thing.
I don’t think that, even if Billy Crystal’s trail boss hadn’t croaked, he would have expounded on what the one thing is. He couldn’t. He no more could explain what Billy’s one thing is than Billy could have understood the significance of the trail boss’ one thing.
The one thing is very personal. Each of us comes with different gifts and different experiences. We look at life through eyes that see things differently. We have to find what the one thing is for us. For some of us it will be listening to God; to others it will be recognizing our gifts; others will find it with priorities – still others will find that the one thing hasn’t been talked about this morning. And there is nothing wrong with that.
And remember that God is there to help us. In Matthew, the words are clear. “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened”
We have but to ask and to seek to find our one thing. And when you have found
it, like Mary, God won’t take it away from you.