In the walk of faith, we often hear the instruction to move from praise to action, to put our faith to work, to move from Sunday to Monday. “Faith without works is dead,” says James 2:26. To be sure, faith and action complete each other, but the order isn’t always set.
In worship this week, we reverse that familiar order as Gail preaches on the story of Jesus and his good friends, sisters Mary and Martha. This story in the Gospel of Luke follows the one we considered two weeks ago, the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan.
Biblical scholars say these stories are back-to-back in scripture for a reason. The Good Samaritan is about action. The story of Mary and Martha reminds us that we also need to slow down, to look at Jesus and to learn from him for strength to do the work.
As we have said here before, we are “called well,” but we also need to “fill our wells” as we go.
God calls for us to be “both/and,” not just “either/or.” In Christ and in scripture, God equips us for that high calling- to build a strong faith through study, reverence, prayer and praise … and then to get to work.
See you Sunday.
In Christ,
John