Kimberly Majeski
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Preacher Girl School
  • Media/Publications
  • Speaking
  • About
    • Store
    • References
  • Stripped Love
  • Preacher Girl School Member Only
  • Webinar
  • Link Page

Jesus and Women: Anxious Cares

2/10/2012

0 Comments

 
It is February in the Midwest and today the ground is sprinkled with a fresh powder of new fallen snow; it is as if God the great confectioner decided to sift sugar to cover the trees and grass. Cold, snowy days are days when sofas should become altars and the world should be viewed from the warmth of our homes. There should be some sort of moratorium on days like this so that we could just opt out of the whole “get up and go” that is the signature of our culture. These should be the days to enjoy a second cup of coffee and read a good book, to snuggle with your children or hold your cat in your lap.

It would be lovely to slow down, to lean into the rest, the lullaby creation softly carols that is winter. Instead, we wrap and bundle and rush about as if we could defy the cold temperatures and hazardous roads not to mention the ill tempers and still no cure for the common cold.
Picture
I am reminded of the homily my dear friend and colleague gave yesterday in which he urged us to give thanks that our God is slow; slow to anger, abounding in love, proved most profound and true in the revelation of Jesus. As best we can glean from scripture, Jesus’ public ministry lasted only about three years yet he never rushed about or ran anywhere. Though he had important work, an eternal agenda, he rose with the sun and slept by the moon, he enjoyed long, deep conversations and reclining to share food and drink with friends. When the crowds became too much, he rowed away to a quiet place on the other side of the Sea to pray and wait so that when he encountered every needy soul he was fully present and devoted to the moment before him.

I am recalling the encounter Jesus had with Martha (the one I take after) and Mary (the one I want to be when I grow up, though her piety does grate on the nerves!) Martha, all busy and preoccupied with the wine and the bread and the salted fish and the one thousand other things she needed to do before Jesus’ and his friends arrived, was such a frantic mess that she almost missed the blessing of the divine presence in her midst. When Martha asked Jesus to insist that Mary help her in the kitchen, Jesus rebuffed Martha and said, “You have so many merimnao—anxious cares…only one thing matters and Mary has chosen well.”

Anxious cares—all those matters we believe we must address, appointments we have to keep, responsibilities we must bear, words that must be spoken, worries that we cannot let go, concerns that consume us and rob our joy until life is a whirl of regret and ingratitude. Mary, for her part, had excused herself from the women’s work of the kitchen, had decided that it would all keep and situated herself in the male space of the living room, perched and expectant leaning forward that her soul might be refreshed by just a drop of wisdom offered by her Rabbi and Lord. Jesus said it was Mary’s posture that was right, that it is in kneeling before and hearing Jesus that we find our power.

Praying that we all find Mary moments to know this slowness of God in Christ Jesus and even in the bleak mid-winter we would find rest and renewal and rebirth.

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Subscribe Today for Free Gift

    BLOG


    Picture

    Archives

    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    July 2010
    May 2010

    Categories

    All
    Advent
    Anderson University School Of Theology
    Anne Lamott
    Ann Voskamp
    Baptism
    Chick
    Church
    Church Of God
    Confessions
    Corinth
    Doubt
    Downton Abbey
    Egalatarian
    Fab Five
    Faith
    Final Things
    Found
    Graduation
    Grief
    Growing Up In Church
    Hagaar
    Hebrew
    Holiness
    Holy Land 2012
    Jesus
    Joanna
    Julie And Norberto Kurrle
    Kingdom
    Landmines
    Laughter
    Leaving Church
    Lent
    Living
    Loss
    Lost
    Love
    Lydia
    Marie Howe
    Mary
    Mary Magdalene
    New Life
    New Testament
    N.T. Wright
    Olympics
    One Holy Catholic Apostoic Church
    One Thousand Gifts
    Paul
    Peace
    Preaching
    Prisca
    Rachel Held Evans
    Real Housewives
    Reconciliation
    Revelation
    Sabbath
    Sarah
    Seasons
    Sex Workers And Soccer Moms
    Staying In Church
    Strippers
    Survivors
    Susanna
    Theology
    Watch And Pray
    Wesleyan
    Wisdom
    Woman At The Well
    Women
    Women Clergy
    Women In Geneaology Of Christ
    Women In Ministry
    Zumba

    RSS Feed

© 2020 Kimberly Majeski
Photo used under Creative Commons from garussell11
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Preacher Girl School
  • Media/Publications
  • Speaking
  • About
    • Store
    • References
  • Stripped Love
  • Preacher Girl School Member Only
  • Webinar
  • Link Page