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Martha, Martha, Martha… [Sunset Observer #53]

March 6, 2017 Victor El-Khouri 0 Comments

…By Whitney Farmer
@farmer_whitney (Twitter/FLICKR) or farmerwhitney (Instagram) and whitney.farmer.146 (Facebook)
#edcmooc #edcmooc3 #edcmoocrocks #ESL #TESOL #SoCalTESOL
Un Pop Culture

It’s a puzzle.

As a child, the story of Jesus in the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus had always made me uncomfortable.

Since Dad had his accident last week and was released from the hospital to recuperate at home, we have had problems with our landline, WiFi, drinking water system, my cellphone…and now the dishwasher. As the water poured out from it and ran underneath the fridge where our pet cricket squatter lives, all I could think of was wonder and worry if he was going to drown. I would miss his songs. The lemon tree also has got hit with a colony of something biting it on its tender new parts. It’s just getting ready to bloom with what is – in my opinion – the most important fragrance in the world. When the time comes, I sleep with my windows open so that the scent can climb up to the second floor and speak to me in my dreams. If I need to take an antihistamine the next day, so be it.

And one of the dogs has maybe blown out her right ACL and might need surgery. Her new leg brace finally arrived from Amazon, but it doesn’t fit. Thankfully, the other dog is over his pneumonia.

At times like this, I am tempted to curse. But from all symptoms, that has already been taken care of.

To sample from a joke I heard recently, life is sometimes like an alcoholic parent. Your calibration becomes so skewed that you are happy when no one is drunk and you don’t get beaten.

There is a story in the Book of Luke that I read again this morning. As Mary – not the mom One and not the Magdalene One – sat at Jesus’ feet listening to Him talk, her sister Martha was getting frantic in the kitchen, and then she was complaining to her guest the Messiah that her sister Mary was being lazy.

Martha had been the one who took the initiative and invited Jesus into the home that she shared with her sister and their brother Lazarus. It must have been the same feeling that I had on Sunday when I worked for two hours over a pot of what I wanted to be Dad’s favorite chili ever. My creation only became what it needed to be five minutes before serving when I threw in Worcestershire sauce and ketchup in defeat.

When Jesus looked at Martha in her frantic state, He must have seen that she was trying her best. He said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only a few things are needed – or really only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

I just read this again today and I saw something for the first time. What was the ONE thing…that…was…NEEDED? Sure, maybe the world’s best chili would have been nice, but maybe Jesus only needed a drink of water after walking for miles in sandals in the dusty desert heat.

A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and Thou… [Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, trans. by Edward FitzGerald]

When anyone juggles competing demands, it can be tough to keep eyes on the one fragile ball that can’t be dropped under any circumstances. Sometimes the only way to keep that one up in the air is by propping it up with temporary rickety structures, and then we hear the creaks and see the wobbles as our efforts are barely good enough rather than legendary.

Oh well. Today no bones were broken and no blood was spilled and no ambulances were dispatched.

Later in Luke 11, Jesus plans on returning to Bethany and to the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus their brother, who is sick. It says, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus…”

Martha was named first. The frantic one. The complaining one. The one who tried to get her sister in trouble with the Messiah. She was loved. All of her mistakes didn’t keep her from being loved. Mom told me that Martha was listed first so that we would know that she was loved equally, and that we modern pilgrims might have been suspicious if her name was buried further in the series.

Okay. That’s good. That’s exactly all that I needed to hear right now. Selah. Amen

Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow, maybe I can even finally have a bath.

Regardless, dirty or clean, I am loved.
Quote of the Blog, from Bilal at the Verizon store in Huntington Beach, CA on Edinger and Bolsa Chica – (who gave me over two hours to help me figure out what was wrong with my cell phone, load all my files onto my laptop, help me delete my data from the evil Cloud, offer me something to drink, and set me up with a new pink phone) – after I told him that anywhere else would have sent me home, when I asked him how to say ‘thank you’ in Urdu. “Shukraan.”
Picture of Eve Plumb as Jan Brady on “The Brady Bunch”, uttering the famous ‘Marcia…Marcia…Marcia…” quote.
For the archive of my previous Un Pop Culture blogs, click here.

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Comments

  1. Martha Thomases
    March 6, 2017 - 10:51 am

    I thought this column was going to be about my rants to the site managers about running the column I sent in ten days ago.

    So I guess “frantic” and “complaining” fit me very well.

  2. Whitney Farmer
    March 12, 2017 - 10:15 am

    Martha…Martha…Martha…

    I just saw this comment! No idea why the alert didn’t come in.

    So, now – as is sometimes said – I’ve really given you somethin’ to cry about.

    RATS!

    Apologies, M!

  3. Whitney Farmer
    March 12, 2017 - 10:19 am

    BTW…Sorry I missed you while you were in L.A.

    But CONGRATULATIONS on Art’s wedding, Momma!

Comments are closed.