Don't Be Distracted from Meditative Growth

Jul 21

Today's message can be found below.

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Breathe Mackinzie Ziegler

Pray Loop Song Supaman

Opening READINGS

From Biblical & Hebrew Scripture

Luke 10:38-42:

As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

From Swedenborg's Theological Writings
Click here for free ebooks of Emanuel Swedenborg's Theological Writings

Don't Be Distracted from Meditative Growth

By Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts

In today’s scripture we’re told a story many of us know: Jesus (“God with us”) is welcomed into the home of a lady named Martha, and while he’s there Martha’s sister Mary sits at the Lord’s feet and listens to him, while Martha keeps herself busy and “distracted” with “many tasks.” Now, these tasks might have been somehow related to the Lord’s presence there – making tea, cleaning a mess, fluffing pillows, we don’t actually know. What we do know is that when she turns to the Lord to complain about her attentive sister, he says, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

Can we identify with Martha in this story? Maybe more than we know. I definitely identify with a drive to tidy up when I have a guest, let alone the Lord/Lady! Especially if the guest surprises me, I’ll probably behave much like Martha, at least until I’m told to just sit down and listen. Which is kind of what today’s message and today’s scripture is about: just sit down and listen to the wellspring of peace within and around us.

I think it’s easy to be Martha today, and this scripture highlights that as well as the problem that being distracted – or not being mindful of Divinity – brings. According to our unintentional namesake theologian and mystic, Emanuel Swedenborg, like all scripture, this story is a spiritual parable which has deep insights for our health and spiritual growth. We each have the Messiah, no matter what we call him, knocking on our doors and sitting in our spiritual homes: our hearts, our minds. This Messiah is a deeply compassionate and infinitely understanding Being: the Great I Am, “the Universe,” Allah, Sophia Buddha Christ. In other words, there’s only one Divinity calling on us to receive more of her, and we see that Divinity in all things, all stories, and all peoples in diverse ways, but especially in our sacred stories and when we look for her.

Martha and Mary’s story highlights how we each have God in our hearts and yet we are often distracted by so many other tasks, every task except what we’re told Mary does: just sitting and listening to Divinity.

In the last few messages we’ve been exploring this idea that we can feel God’s presence and insight if we allow ourselves to and remember to do so. Scripture tells us that feeling God near and knowing that presence is always with us is just the beginning, we must become more and more like Mary – attentive, listening, contemplative.

Let’s take a moment to think about what it may mean to be more like Mary and for what purpose we’d want to do such a thing. When we read scripture I think we hear again and again this call for transformation, repentance, salvation. We’re told that this is for our own joy, happiness, and life – as well as for the sake of the oppressed and the downtrodden. God(dess) strives endlessly to make each of us into the most glorious, beautiful fruit trees imaginable: humane, eternal, human beings. It truly is in our interests to know that we can always sit at God’s feet and listen, or on the other hand, we can keep being distracted, caught up in our own motives and selfish drives.

But how do we keep our ear out for Divinity? How do we listen better to that Divine internal voice within, the one we talked about last week, and let it pull our hearts and minds into greater forms of humaneness? The answer to this question can take many forms, but I think it tends to center on some type of centeredness and centering practices. Or put another way, to follow Mary and scripture’s example, we must turn toward meditation, which will help spur on our continued reception of Divine qualities and her transformation.

Meditation is a practice espoused throughout many, many holy texts and traditions, and its emphasized throughout Hebrew and Christian scripture as well. The entire first Psalm, for example, is an homage to a continually spiritually meditative mindset; “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.”

Emanuel Swedenborg was also a huge practitioner of meditation. We hear throughout his diaries and published works reflections on his meditations and visions he had while meditating. We can gleam from his descriptions, his meditations tended to involved breath-work and contemplation on specific subjects. Moreover, I think each of us will find that in order to truly relinquish our destructive habits and help this world transform toward social justice and away from its vast horrors, more and more meditative walks will be needed. Meditation can happen at any moment, even in the midst of conversation – it involves centering ourselves on the Peace and portion of Divine Wisdom that we’ve received from God within – which is the “law of the Lord” as described by Psalm 1: how Divinity has spoken to us and is trying to speak to us. Further, prayer is a type of contemplative meditation toward Divinity – which is why it’s so emphasized and why we’re actually told to “pray unceasingly” in Thessalonians, which is not beyond us especially when we realize what prayer is.

In our scripture today, the Lord emphasizes that there is “only one thing” needed from anyone – and he says that it’s not the distracted mindset that Martha exemplifies. Not only does God point out that Mary is choosing “the better part,” but before he points this out Martha goes as far as to criticize what Mary is doing. It’s easy to fall into this self-made trap, isn’t it? The part of us that’s Martha can get so caught up in its distractions, our work, our bad habits, that we actually judge others for not being like us. We may tell ourselves, I have to do this – its my job, but do we have to do that work the way that we’ve been doing it? With no meditative focus on Divinity, health, and the Divine spark in others? Do we always have to be anxious, frayed, angry, judgmental, and lustful?

No. In fact, we’re told and we can discover that these distractive things are the greatest threats to our eternal joy than we can ever imagine. Indeed, they dispel the peace, love and gratitude that we can be having right in those moments – attributes from Divinity that we can always be receiving more and more of. Like Martha, instead of sitting with the One Divinity, enjoying her presence in our lives, we constantly hurry around paying attention to everything but.

No longer. Don’t be distracted from the meditative mindset and transformation that the Lord wishes to work in your heart forevermore. We are at the feet of the Lord this very moment, only just starting to know the lowest, external portion of God (her feet), and yet she’s speaking to us, inviting us to enjoy that much, to live in rightful harmony with her and creation. Let us not be distracted, but instead opening our hearts and minds to a listening, growing posture, meditative – alive – all day and night.