Sunday’s readings encourage us to pray. They make prayer sound easy: Take a walk with God and have a talk. Realize the short “Our Father” contains all that we ever need to say to God. Beg God. Persist. Be bold.
Today’s readings in many ways finish yesterday’s readings—in a context that can be hard for us to hear and appreciate. Today’s readings introduce the role of time in prayer.
Not how much time we spend praying—but how much time God takes to answer. I have been known to ruefully say, “God has all eternity—and sometimes he takes it.”
Sometimes he does.
First Reading in Context
The setting of the first reading is the Hebrew camp just a few months after the people left Egypt. God has worked miracles to get them out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, and to care for them on their journey. About a month and a half ago (recorded in chapter 20 of Exodus) God called Moses up on Mt. Sinai, where God spoke in thunder and smoke to give Moses and the people the 10 Commandments. Moses was on the mountain three days.
At the end of the three days Moses came down the mountain with the 10 Commandments and the people were afraid. Moses carried their fear to God. God told him to tell them: “You have seen for yourselves that I have talked with you from heaven. You shall not make gods of silver to be with me, nor shall you make for yourselves gods of gold. An altar of earth you shall make for me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause my name to be remembered I will come to you and bless you.” (Exodus 20: 22-24)
Then God called Moses back up on the mountain. This time Moses disappeared into the cloud on the mountain. He stayed 40 days. God gave Moses the details of Mosaic Law. It is detailed and contained in chapters 20-31 of Exodus.
40 Days seemed like a long, long time. The people grew impatient. This God up there on the mountain—who was he? Could they trust him? This was a God of relationship….and rules. The 10 Commandments, according to scholars, were not radically different from legal codes in the kingdoms of the Middle East at that time—but they were laws and they had penalties named. They weren’t exactly like the laws of Egypt. And Moses was telling them they were to obey them.
So, while God and Moses worked out the details of Mosaic Law, Aaron and the people did EXACTLY what God said not to do. They made a Golden Calf—a God of their own materials, their own doing. Not a living God, but a contained one. One, perhaps, they could worship without worrying that it would see, hear, know, and respond to what they thought, said, and did.
God had all eternity—and he took 40 Days of it to design the Hebrew way of life that God’s people were to live. Not an eternity. But too long for the people.
Martha in the Gospel
Today is the Feast Day of St. Martha—the hostess with the most-est who “welcomed Jesus” into her home throughout his ministry. We heard a week or so ago how Jesus corrected her for thinking the work of hospitality was more important than listening to guests.
Today’s story of Martha is a different one. The setting is likely just a few weeks before Jesus’ death. Jesus was staying “across the Jordan where John baptized.” The religious leaders were plotting against Jesus. He was camping out to avoid them. Yet Scripture says, “Many came to him…and many believed in him there.” (John 10: 41-42)
The story of today’s Gospel begins with the next verse: “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha…So the sisters sent to him saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” (John 11:1, 3)
Then there is a MOST INTERESTING PHRASE: “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.” (John 11: 5-6)
What? Come again? What sense does that make? Jesus loved them. He could heal Lazarus in a heartbeat. But he delayed BECAUSE HE LOVED THEM?
Yes.
We know the rest of the story. Jesus delayed, because he could do more than heal Lazarus—he could raise him from the dead.
That raising Lazarus from the dead logically fit in with God’s larger plan—it both gave Jesus’ inner group of disciples and friends a “taste” of resurrection that could give them some comfort when Jesus faced his own death AND it sealed his own fate: resurrection from the dead was something the scribes and Pharisees could not grasp—or allow.
The Difference in Martha’s Faith
I have often wondered what tone of voice Martha used in today’s Scripture when she said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” I do not think it was accusatory or disappointed. It might have been sad. But because Martha added, “But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you,” I believe it was patiently, trustingly pleading through tears.
Jesus responded, “Your brother will rise.” Yes, Martha understood SOMEDAY he would. But then Jesus said those beautiful words, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
Then Martha said, “Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”
IS COMING and my GPS
I don’t remember ever noticing the tense of that last sentence. “Is coming.” Jesus IS COMING. Even today.
He is coming through those words that sometimes I read when I take communion to the carebound in our parish. He is coming in whirlwinds in Africa, in ordinary homilies, catechesis, and parish planning across the globe. In the patient, constant prayer of those who pray the Liturgy of the Hours every day around the globe. He is coming in me, in you.
Last week I traveled. When I was unsure of how to get somewhere, I plugged in the address to the GPS system on my phone. Sometimes where the GPS led me made no sense at the time. Sometimes it was very convoluted—and definitely not the shortest, fastest, most practical route. My GPS does not always lead me well. Yet, I tend to trust it.
As I have prayed with these scriptures, I am facing the question: why is it easier for me to trust a voice from my phone than it is to trust in God?
The answer that comes is that the voice on the phone is contained. I can turn it off. I know it is technology—useful, manageable to me, of humans own doing. AND it answers me instantly. I do not have to wait more than a few moments for it to redirect me.
It is far more like that Golden Calf than I want to admit.
With God, I must wait. God’s vision is far better than any satellite system or technical device. I know that. But how well do I KNOW that when God seems to take all eternity responding to my prayers?
Lord, give me faith to have the eyes of Martha and see to wait, to love, to trust.
Prayer:
Jesus, I trust in you. Give me the grace to say that while I wait and continue to pray…like Martha. Give me the patience of real, deep faith.
