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Scripture: Psalm 8

The story of Mary and Martha is one of the more well-known stories of the Bible, like the story of the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, the story which this immediately follows, by the way. And I don’t know if this ever happens to men, but I can tell you that if you are a woman and you’ve attended enough women’s retreats, you will eventually spend some time talking about the Martha and Mary story. You’ll be asked to indicate which one you identify with, and the vast majority of the women in the room will identify with Martha. And since Martha is scolded by Jesus, the whole thing ends up deteriorating, with the Martha-identified women commenting that if Martha hadn’t been cooking and preparing, how did Jesus think that dinner was going to get on the table?

To and from work, you drive I-35W through the city twice a day, a couple hundred times a year. You drive it so often surrounded by rush hour traffic that you no longer even notice that part of your route passes some 60 feet over the Mississippi River. Or you’re heading to meet extended family for dinner like you have so many times before and find yourself late and crawling along in traffic on that same stretch of road. Or as a construction worker you’ve endured another hot day of Minnesota road maintenance, with impatient motorists shouting drive by obscenities over their inconvenience while you simply look forward to finishing your shift and heading home to family. Or on a whim, just this once, you decide to take the highway instead of the road less traveled.

Ole and Lena were sitting down to their usual cup of morning coffee listening to the weather report coming over the radio. “There will be three to five inches of snow today and a snow emergency has been declared. You must park your cars on the odd- numbered side of the streets.” Ole got up from his coffee and mumbles, “For Pete’s sake, Okay”. A few days later, again they both are sitting down with their cups of morning coffee and the weather forecast is two to four inches of snow with another snow emergency declared.

Jesus is invited to dinner by a Pharisee, and takes the opportunity to offer some advice to those gathered around. First, he offers some advice on how to be a good guest. Dinner was often an event in Jesus day, and guests would gather, reclining around a cushion in groups of 3 or so. The closer to the center of the room you were, the more important you were. Don’t risk disgrace, Jesus advises, begin by reclining at some far away place, and let your host elevate you to a better position. Don’t start in the center, only to be moved further out. The advise wasn’t unique to Jesus, it was pretty common advice for his day. The kind of thing you’d see in a column from Miss Manners or an answer from Dear Abby on how best to handle a dinner engagement.

This program year in worship we’ll be addressing the overarching theme of “Finding Our Way”. Our worship committee and staff spent a great deal of time capturing an image of the individual spiritual journeys we are on and our collective commitment to move in a common direction and support each other on the path. For each liturgical season throughout the year we’ve selected a sub theme and accompanying symbol. They all appear on the beautiful banner in the narthex stairwell created by members and friends of our worship committee. Matching bulletin covers are also being created for continuity. This fall, we start our process of finding our way with a walk through the Gospel of Luke.

This program year in Sunday worship we’re addressing the overarching theme of “Finding Our Way”. A banner hangs in the narthex stairwell reminding us of this spiritual journey we are on together including symbols for milestones along the way. This fall, we start our process of finding our way with a walk through the Gospel of Luke. As we reflect on the biblical history of Jesus’ life and ministry, may HIS story, become OUR story. “Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them. Leave them alone and they will come home, wagging their tails behind them.” The popular children’s nursery rhyme “Little Bo Peep” can be traced back in oral tradition to the latter half of the 1800’s.