Martha, Martha

Friday July 26^th, Luke 10:  38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" Sometimes having to show all that hospitality can make us rather inhospitable.  It is then we know the focus is on “me” not “thee.”  I am sure the meal and the preparations were nice.  I even think Mary could have practiced a bit of hospitality here and helped her sister. In a more modern US context I wouldn’t be surprised if Jesus wouldn’t hop up and cut up some veggies, cracked open a good bottle of wine and practiced hospitality and preached some in that context. In our world some of the best conversations take place around the center island in the kitchen with cutting boards.  But even in today’s kitchen we must remember that there is a fine and fuzzy line between serving and self-serving.