The Two Sides of Faith



Mary and Martha, Annette Everett

Luke 10:38-42

Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

"Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!" exclaimed Jan Brady. Such was the rallying cry of middle children and kids of all types that felt snubbed of their due attention. The Brady Bunch had locked on to a silent majority that needed to scream out its concerns. Jan Brady represented kids worldwide who possessed nothing special except their braces. Kids who tended to fade into the wood paneling in the den and shag carpeting. Kids whose presence in the family could easily be replaced with a lava lamp. Now I am not a middle child (I'm the baby) nor am I a child of the 70's (80's baby) but I learned about both of these demographic groups by studying massive amounts of Brady Bunch reruns throughout my youth. My summer morning ritual consisted of the following: wake up, watch cartoons, watch Brady Bunch reruns, go play basketball, buy a Sprite, go play Nintendo. From my research of all things Brady I have come to understand the nuance of sibling conflict. I also know that evil tiki necklaces in Hawaii will ruin your surfing and make you susceptible to tarantulas in "To be continued" episodes. It also leads me to see a little of that sibling rivalry at work in the family of Mary. Martha and Lazarus. They seem to have been Jesus' favorite family to visit. Consider it: they were a multi member family that all chose to follow Jesus. They chose to follow Jesus one unit. As I read more and more it appears that the clash between Mary and Martha pictured in Luke 10 is less about the differences in siblings and more about the differences in faith.

There are two side to faith: one traditional and one progressive. Mary may have seemed to just be sitting and listening but in her sitting she was doing something revolutionary. If you have ever seen the movie Yentl with Barbara Streisand then you know the taboo of a Jewish girl studying under rabbis in 20th century Poland. Mary was in 1st century Palestine... you do the math. Men and women were segregated in worship in Jesus' time and throughout much of Christian and Jewish history. By accepting Mary as a student Jesus was showing that faith goes beyond religious traditions. Faith (in its conservative and liberal formulations) is about extended the barriers of access to God. But maybe this story of Mary and Martha is about something more...

There are two side to faith. one contemplative and one active. Mary sat, listened and contemplated Jesus' words while Martha literally served the Lord. A few months ago I visited my favorite used bookstore in West Los Angeles and discovered a book that would eventually lead me to write this blog. The title of the book is The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture. Now most of the art that I refer to in this blog is not featured in this book, but the book reminded me of the marriage of the Christian Scripture and Christian Art that was a staple of Western Civilization for so long. Under the entry of "Mary and Martha of Bethany" this reference book cites that Mary and Martha became types of the active and contemplative lives. In Faith there are those, like Thomas Merton, who have spent a life of contemplation of God and his works and those, like Mother Theresa, who have spent a life of service acting out God's works. Both are models of God's grace in the life of a believer. Neither was perfect in their faith... but one has to remember that faith is not a skill to be attained but is a gift mediated by God. No one is ever perfect in their faith and no one truly exerts the practice of it in one area, be it contemplation or action. So maybe this story of Mary and Martha is about something more...

There are two side to faith. one that focuses on Orthodoxy and one that focuses on Orthopraxis. By "Orthodoxy" I do not mean Eastern, Russian, Oriental Orthodoxy or any other Christian denomination that officially uses the word "Orthodox" in its official name. I mean the wider definition of the word. "Ortho" means "right" or "correct" and "Doxy" means "thinking" or "belief." So by orthodoxy I mean an adherence to accepted norms and theological beliefs. Every Christian group from Catholics to Baptists have their notions of orthodoxy and correct doctrine. It is "thinking what Jesus thought." Orthopraxis is about having the "right action." It is a focus on "doing what Jesus did." It is what Christians like Jim Wallis at Sojourner Magazine term a "Red Letter Christian" (since the words of Christ are usually printed in red in many Bibles). This division between the theological Left and Right can lead to rifts within individual Christian denominations. In the Baptists (the crew that I "rep") it can be seen in voices of conservatism like many in the Southern Baptist Convention versus those on the theological liberal side like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Tony Campolo. The problem is that sometimes these waters can get muddied by politics, social issues and current events and the opinions of Jesus never completely fold into either category. Jesus urged us to have a "right heart" that poured out love towards God and man thus motivating our "right thinking" and "right action." Honestly it isn't easy to do this. Both Mary and Martha sincerely saw that what they were doing as the best way to exercise their faith at that moment. I am convinced that this story of Mary and Martha is about something more...

Maybe all of these dichotomies of faith that I have presented are false. maybe all of the barriers that we put up to working harmoniously with our fellow Christians are not what we should focus on. Faith is not split into an even two but it can be dissected into innumerable parts (depending on the time and influences). These parts cannot operate by themselves, but rely on each other...even when it appears that they do opposing functions. This is because the Faith is the Church and the Church is more of an organism than an organization. The Church is the Body of Christ. The thing that Mary possessed that Martha lacked, the thing that "will not be taken from her" is that she was listening to the mind of Christ. There are many parts to the body: some for consuming fuel (food), some for the expelling of spent fuel, some for work and some for rest. The factor that makes every member of the body useful and harmonious is if they have received messages from the mind. If we as members of the body of Christ do not listen to the mind of Christ then we risk working against the overall body. We risk moving from a member to a cancer. Like the Brady Bunch we are a blended family, that doesn't always get along and has room to grow, but "this group is much more than a family" we are God's eyes, hands and feet serving the world.

^"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 
-1 Corinthians 12:12-27, St. Paul