Our Blog

By: Pastor Schlicht

The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:41-42

I could hardly bear the smell but I couldn’t leave. His eyes squinted as he rearranged his feet on the carpet. “I apologize for the mess,” he said. “So, what have you been up to lately?” shouted the naïve vicar. He looked down, and ran a thin hand across his chair’s armrest. “Just sitting here waiting to die.” I didn’t know what to say.

Every time I visited him, we came to this point. We talked about the weather, we talked about his previous work, even about his kids who hadn’t visited him in years, but it always came back to this thought. “Nothing to do. Just watching that stupid screen and waiting to go home.” And he was right. He had nothing to do. 97 years old, living in a rented room, filling up the last days of his life with soap operas and gameshows that he couldn’t understand. Dark ruts were worn into the carpet in lazy lines from the armchair to the bathroom and down the hall to his single bed. He hadn’t showered in a few days, waiting for the nurse who came by once a week. “Well, why don’t we get on with it then?” he said. “I know you’re busy.” We prayed, I gave him communion, and went out of the house. I took a breath of fresh air, started my car, and almost felt like I was escaping.

It was hard to see a man like that. I visited Don once a month and always hoped to bring him some comfort, but I was never sure if my youth did more to remind him of what he missed than to cheer him. Soon I pulled into the church’s parking lot and got back to work. There was a lot to do and I needed to be productive. But as I turned on my computer and started reading my emails, I realized that all of my busyness and striving could never save me from becoming Don.

What’s your schedule like? Are you wondering how to fill up the time? Or are you racing around so fast, you wish you could slow down the clock? How many practices and extracurriculars can a kid have in a week? Is there any spare time at all? Maybe you’re even wondering what a schedule is because you didn’t design yours; it is dictated for you by responsibilities and burdens you never expected. But for just one moment, step back and realize that nothing you are doing right now will ever save you from becoming Don.

Let the Lord’s words come to you today. “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but one thing is necessary.” We might think that what is necessary changes based on needs and circumstances, but God says only one thing is necessary. Mary didn’t sit at Jesus’ feet because she had nothing to do. There was plenty of work to get done, but she just had something more important to do. The eternal Lord offered his Word to her and she was going to take the time regardless of what was left undone. Because the truth is that everything we have can be taken away from us. And someday we may end up sitting with Don, wondering when we can go home. What will be necessary at that point will not be how good our kids were at basketball, or how much money we made, or even how many things we did for the church. What will matter are the same words that welled up tears in Don’s eyes, “May this true body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ strengthen and preserve you in the true faith, until life everlasting. Go in peace, your sins are forgiven.”

Christ was crucified for you; that message received through Word and Sacrament is the one thing necessary. It is the bond of peace that focusses you in the years of busyness and the cord of strength that sustains you when your time on earth becomes a desert drear. It is the truth that will save you, your family, and all who listen to the Word. It is the one thing necessary that secures for us an everlasting home where there is no stress or anxiety, no deadlines or bills, no comparison or judgment, no age restrictions, and no death.

This fall, take the time to be in the Word. What is important is rarely urgent and what is urgent is rarely important. Make sure that you and your family are getting your spiritual rest. Christ is the one thing necessary and his Word is truth. “Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.” It won’t be taken away from you either, not in this life or the next.