Hospitality, service, welcome is at the heart of our faith.  Throughout scripture, those who fail to offer hospitality (the inhabitants of Sodom and Gommorah, the Pharisees, the elder brother of the prodigal son) are criticised whereas those who offer hospitality without hesitation or discrimination, as Abraham does in Genesis 18:1-10a, are blessed.

Why then, in Luke 10:38-42, is Martha, who opens her home to Jesus, criticised? Why is Mary, the sister who sat and listened whilst her sister did all the work, praised as choosing the better part?

Jesus does not criticise Martha for serving, he criticises her for attempting to limit her sister’s choices. 

All human beings are dependent on the services of others.  We are part of a web of interdependence.  Many of those on whose services our lives depend: from farmers to ambulance drivers to bin collectors (like the slaves who prepare Abraham’s feast) have little choice.  Perhaps we are called not only to serve as Martha did, but to reflect on Christ’s words as carefully as Mary did; and consider how we may change our choices so that they do not prevent others from being able to choose for themselves.

This is the point that the scholar in Luke 10:25-37 is missing.  He regards the law as something to  perform, something that defines others. He asks Jesus to define his neighbour, to categorise those to whom he owes an obligation.  When Jesus replies with the story of the Good Samaritan, he does more than widen the class of those who fall within the scope of the law, he asks instead who has the law within their hearts: who was a neighbour to the one in need.   The story is not about who is the object of our care but who is the one who cares for us.  Being a neighbour is our deepest identity: we act from love because it is who we are, who God called us to be.    Choosing love, is choosing life, not just for the one who receives love but for the one who gives it.  When we go and do likewise we too choose life and blessing. 

On Sunday 13th July at 6.30pm in church, our monthly choral Evensong service.

Some major roof maintenance started this week. The old roof is being re-covered but with new upstands and skylights ( to replace the existing, many of which are broken). The new ones are triple glazed, improving heat performance.