As Jesus and the disciples continued on their journey, they came to a village where a woman welcomed Jesus into her home. Her name was Martha and she had a sister named Mary. Mary sat down attentively before the Master, absorbing every revelation he shared.
But Martha became exasperated by finishing the numerous household chores in preparation for her guests, so she interrupted Jesus and said, “Lord, don’t you think it’s unfair that my sister left me to do all the work by myself? You should tell her to get up and help me.”
The Lord answered her, “Martha, my beloved Martha. Why are you upset and troubled, pulled away by all these many distractions? Are they really that important? Mary has discovered the one thing most important by choosing to sit at my feet. She is undistracted, and I won’t take this privilege from her.”
Luke 10:38-42
Sometimes, paradoxically, we’re given what we’ve earned.
In the “Tale of Two Benches,” Archbishop Niederauer describes sitting on a bus bench. When one waits for a bus, one is filled with expectations: The Blue line bus should be here at 8:11. If I look up at 8:11 and don’t see it, I begin to panic. At 8:13, my day is ruined. I want to get off this bench and get going somewhere else! The bus should be here now!
The park bench, however, is a time to sit and listen and watch. We wait for nothing. It's a sunny day, nothing's scheduled. The local squirrels that showed up yesterday may or may not be here today. And, that is okay. We don’t call the city squirrel police if they don’t show up when we want them to show up.
Both of the benches might look and feel in exactly the same way. You might find the same wood, the same metal and the same back rests in both of our benches, yet our expectations will be radically different. Niederauer uses this image of the Bus Bench to describe those times we ask (or demand) things from God and the Park Bench describes those times we are simply communing with those things greater than us in the universe. Sometimes we pray either way.
In general, the park bench is more about Being, and the bus bench is about Doing.
Prayer might be better, and living life more enjoyable and more "easy yoke," if we were Park Benching all the time. But prayer is a verb, and our prayers move us into action. There is a time to go and do, and God has placed passion in our hearts to move us to the bus bench. We are His workmanship, created for good works which He has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Sometimes the bus bench becomes the driver's seat as we drive the bus.
And, the corollary is also true; the park is a place to play and practice and perform, not only to spectate. We can do tai chi with the group there on the grass, we can swing on the swings, we can dig in the sand, we can place the park bench into our tennis shoes and walk the perimeter of the park for exercise and an ever-shifting viewpoint. We can talk to the squirrels and we can walk on the water of the pond.
Because we have all things doesn't mean that we walk in all things, yet. The park is a place to practice what is our passion - which is, at its most foundational, a passion to know the Lord. So we work our passion as we sit and converse with the One next to us on the park bench. But this work isn't "work," it's the flow of our innermost self finding our reason for being, and that's all sweetness, not labor.
Okay, so not Being vs Doing, but Mary vs Martha. My takeaway is that, at work or still, I still pursue. Not to be better in all the stuff to be a better Disciple, but to be better in all the stuff is what I am made for. It’s a religious work to make merit in order to please God. It’s no work at all to please oneself by chasing the passion of doing what I see the Father doing. Pursuing the things of God is still a part of who I am - I who cannot help myself but to die to the Less and press into the More. And the pressing in, if not done out of compulsion, is really living.
Here on the bench, any bench, we Be and Do best when it's out of who we are. Let the pleasure of passion lead the way. The compass needle points toward our pleasures because we flow best when we are being and doing in our true selves, pleasing the God Who created these passions within. Mary's addiction to recollection and relationship into the Father’s pleasure is the truest park bench course. Pleasure! If Martha had only done out of her desire, instead of some egotistical need for recognition or self-righteousness martyrdom or to be good enough. Pleasure is ours for navigation and God placed it in us to draw us, for the gospel is good news. Religion tries to make it hard, or a system, or something to whine about and Martha-do, when the pursuit’s all about enjoyment. We, as the credo says, were created to love God and enjoy Him forever.
Freaking Enjoy, and in this chasing of your own compass needle, find the true North of the Father’s pleasure. Pleasure in passion, a passion for not only yours but God's pleasure as well, because He enjoys as He sees us enjoying our lives – like a father enjoying watching his children play and laugh.
As a toddler, still only three years old, I have everything that a superhuman has; in my DNA, in my future, in my innate abilities, in my access – but this doesn’t mean that I am walking in these... yet. Walking some, toddling some, but intent on fluency, for running, for Olympic pole vaulting ... and movement in all this supernatural Godly athleticism is my passion. Practicing, pursuing, training... but doing all of this because it’s pure enjoyment.
The bus doesn't need to arrive any time soon, either. There's lots of time to become. There's time after all time is exhausted to keep enjoying the pursuit of passion for this everlasting son.
