Dear Friends,
There’s a phrase which has been in my mind for a few weeks now: “the one thing necessary.” Its source is the story of Mary and Martha in scripture where Martha is complaining to Jesus that her sister, Mary, is sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to his teachings rather than helping her serve the meal. Jesus answers that while Martha is preoccupied by so many things, Mary has chosen “the one thing necessary” and that will not be taken from her.
The way the phrase has been alive for me these past few weeks is as a Query, “What is the one thing necessary?” rather the way the Query “What does love require of you?” has been a guiding voice at various points in my life.
Something I’ve rediscovered during this pandemic is how vital it is to my spirit to have spaciousness, time to simply be, to sink down into the place of prayer and communion with God. I’ve become even more aware than before of how being pulled in many directions, even though they may be very good directions, can become overwhelming and distracting. I know there have been periods of my life when I had multiple involvements which didn’t feel this way; they were enriching, challenging in a good way, energizing, learning opportunities. And I know that for some people this is their way of being, and of being nourished most of the time, so I don’t mean to suggest that it’s impossible to stay centered while being outwardly very busy.
What I think is important, whatever our outward circumstances, is not losing sight of “the one thing necessary”—which to me means making God the center, the axis around which everything else turns. Are the activities with which we’re engaged springing from or creating a heightened awareness of this center? Are they making a witness to and drawing others toward this center?
I think we all have our Martha days, weeks, or even months. We know that we feel depleted by such preoccupation with the many details calling for our attention. Responding to what his plans for the day were, Luther famously responded “I have so much to do today that I'm going to need to spend three hours in prayer in order to be able to get it all done. ... In fact, I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” I can’t say I’ve ever emulated his example, but I do know that pausing to be in prayer (if only 15 minutes) in the midst of busy-ness helps me see what is most important to do and helps to stop my mind spinning.
There are two other readings which occur to me related to the idea of the “one thing necessary.” The first is from the end of Matthew, Chapter 6:
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Or as The Message rendition puts it: Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.
Maybe it’s because I’m a tea-drinker that I love that phrase “steep your life in God-reality.” It resonates with me because when you’re steeped in something, it changes what you were before and becomes an integral part of you. There’s no way after steeping your tea that you can separate the water from the tea. It carries the sense of surrender to being transformed. I also love the list of what to be steeped in: God-reality, which I understand as the vital, dynamic dimension of Spirit in everything; God-initiative, the sense of yielding to the Spirit’s guidance; and God-provisions, which suggests to me both awareness and gratitude for all the ways the Spirit nurtures and sustains us.
The second reading is from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Friends:
Simplicity does not mean that all conform to uniform standards. Each must determine in the light that is given him what promotes and what hinders his compelling search for the Kingdom. The call to each is to abandon those things that clutter his life and to press toward the goal unhampered. This is true simplicity.
I love this way of looking at simplicity, as the clearing away of that which distracts us from being centered in God-reality, responsive to God-initiative, and being aware and enjoying God-provisions.
This idea of “the one thing necessary” has also been occurring to me more and more in regard to life as a spiritual community. It’s been this past year of enforced inactivity that has caused my own meeting to grow and strengthen its spiritual connections, both with one another and with Spirit. We have been doing “the one thing necessary,” which is being a place of spiritual grounding. We’ve had a chance to see what happens when we focus on why we exist as a spiritual community “seeking first the kingdom of God”: becoming “steeped in God-reality.” Everything else flows from and is added to that: the loving care of one another, particular actions, support of one another’s leadings, the joy of fellowship.
My prayer for us all, as individuals and as a spiritual community, is that we will continually hold to “the one thing necessary” and return to it each time we feel ourselves distracted by that which doesn’t center us in God-reality.
In faith,
Maggie Edmondson