Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Mary and Martha Story":
…continuing… The way this story is told reflects the thinking of the time for whomever told the story as one to include in the Bible. Jesus may, indeed, have invited Martha to sit or reflect as you suggest. The caution is to realize the possible human bias of those who decided the lesson and how it should be told in the Bible.
"Human bias" is one of those all-too-often neglected points in Biblical exegesis. Very astute of you! There is also the cultural context of male dominance, that runs throughout scripture, that often discolors the story being told. I have talked about this in other blogs. Reading scripture is a multifaceted challenge between context, culture, language and other forms of conditioning
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So lets look at the passage that came to my mind while working with the above discussion. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
God is reminding the wandering Israelites of his famous Red Sea Event. An event that Hebrews will never forget. Then in verse 19 he tell them that things are going to change. He tells them "Do not remember former things, or consider the things of old, I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."
God is telling them I am still working, still intervening on your behalf. I have never stopped! Never will!
That was thousands and thousands of year ago. But it is still true today as well. And the sad thing is, we don't remember this precious truth. As we attempt to exist in this sophisticated world of today.
Question! Have you ever been to the desert? I am not talking about places like Plan Spring! I am talking about undeveloped desert. Like Death Valley, California. When you stand on that kind of desert land you see nothing! Nothing but sand, sage brush, cactus and desert holy now and then. You think you are standing on ground with nothing too it. Certainly no water! At least none that you can see.
That is what, I imagine, the Hebrew people must have observed! And, as they stood there, they must have wondered about God's promises.
I was born and raised seventy-five miles from Death Valley. I know, or have a pretty good idea, why the Hebrews might have had a difficult time "perceiving" anything resembling "a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."
The desert soil in not soil! It is grainy white, or beige, grainy sand that is dry. Very dry! So dry that a strong winds can cause a blinding sand storm within moments. If you think a rain storm is bad! Try sand blowing in your face! That blowing sand can remove the finish on your car. Not funny!!!
You can stand on the desert floor and see nothing by sand and sage brush for miles. Flat and wide and expansive barren land that goes forever. That is what your eye can see on most hot summer days.
What people don't see is the wealth of possibility flowing just beneath the sand. A water table just waiting to be taped. Water that can, and does, produce green life. That after a rainy spring can produce the most breath-taking wild flowers.
But today we will, for the point I am trying to make, focus on just what normally is seen in places like Death Valley.
What we see, isn't always what is!
The promise? God does do new things with the old, dried out places, of our lives!
So, when it comes to God's activity and purpose, it would be good to look past what we think we see. To think past, what we think, we know. Because there truth is, no matter how much we think we know one minute. The next minute it could all change. Just like that!
In the same way, we can never know what God may be doing; or planning to ask us to do.
You know one of the themes a pastor hear is "the good old days!" When life was better and things were easier and all was well with the world. Right!!!!!
When was it really ever that way?
What I want you to entertain, this morning, is the possibility! The possibility that just maybe life could be better! That God just might be trying to do a new thing! A brand new thing within and around your being.
Remember! God did a pretty good thing, when he brought the Israelites out of the oppressive condition of slavery, in Egypt. And yet those silly people kept falsely reminding themselves about how "good it was" slaving under Pharaoh's cruel rule.
I think it is interesting how we humans tend to remember. "Like it was always greener on the other side of life!" Right?
Now I invite you to remember the part of the story when God gave those complaining and absent minded people a Savior. A Savior whose name was Jesus! That is when God came in Jesus' skin to help them learn a new thing. A new way of being God's people. To be in a new, and different, relationship with God.
Do you also remember? They rejected that gift, that change, too!
That has got to make us all wonder! Wonder that is, when we are going to stop talking! And begin to listen!
Because the truth is simply this! God has been trying to get our attention since the beginning of time.
I have come to believe -- have great faith in -- this God who is quite capable of doing new with me! And yes, even better things than before.
And I faith that God is capable of doing that with you as well! It may be different! Quite possibility it will be! But he will walk with you to make it all happen if! If you begin to at least try to put your trust in him. In him, not in your own ability or knowledge.
God really likes it when we trust him. That is made clear throughout scripture!
When we trust in God to work in us. Actually, when we allow -- invite -- God to have his gracious way with us. Life will begin to grow in that new way he promised all those years ago. That is what I have learned in this long long life I've live. When we put our lives in God's hand! When our hope is in God! All will be right! Right God's way! Will we have bumps in the journey? Yes! Absolutely! We will fall and scrap our knees! It will hurt! But, it is all part of the journey!
However, along the way we will have learned some wonderful lessons. Because we have listened! Because we have trusted!
So my invitation, to you this morning, is to begin to listen, to trust in God's possibilities moving in, around and through you. Making a new and different place of grace for you to live in.
I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
16 Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters,
17 who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
18Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.
19 I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.
20 The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people,
21 the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.(Is. 43)
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