Week beginning Sunday 20th of July
Lectionary Reading: Luke 10:38 – 42

SESSION THEME:

Responding to the Holy Guest

Centring Our Service in Christ

Begin with time of quiet.
Breathe.
Light a candle if appropriate.

I Wonder

• What might it feel like to host Jesus in my home?
• When have I felt torn between listening and doing?
• What helps me recognise that Christ is already here?
• Invite stillness and attention before reading the text.

Scripture Reading.

Luke 10:38–42
Read aloud slowly, twice if possible, pausing after verse 40.

Martha’s Voice:
A First-Person Midrash

Read this reflection aloud or share in pairs.

I remember the scent of bread, warm and sharp, rising from the oven as the sun dipped low and golden across the courtyard. My sleeves were rolled high, arms elbow-deep in preparation. The pot hissed. The jug cracked.
A hundred tasks tugged at me.

And there she sat.
Mary. Cross-legged in the doorway, like she had no sense of time or duty—eyes fixed on Jesus, drinking in his words like water in a drought.

I know what hospitality means. My hands were busy in love—but my heart began to fray.
“Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself?”
He looked at me—not in anger, but with knowing:
“Martha, Martha… you are worried and distracted by many things. But one thing is needed.”
That word merimnaō—pulled apart—lodged in me like a seed. And oh, how often I’ve lived that way.

But now I see—he wasn’t favouring Mary. He was inviting me, too. To sit. To be. To serve from peace, not pressure.
The kitchen can be a chapel when your heart is whole.
Come, then. Sit a while.

And when you rise, let it be from love.

Heartbeat Reflection

Scripture Prompt:
Jesus says, “Mary has chosen the better part.”
He does not scold Martha for serving but invites her from division into devotion.

Input to group: Things to ponder

Merimnaō:
“To Be Pulled in Many Directions”

The verb μεριμνάω appears in Jesus’ gentle rebuke to Martha:

“Martha, Martha,
you are worried (merimnāis)
and distracted by many things.”

(Luke 10:41)

Root and Meaning:

Derived from merizō (to divide), merimnaō paints the picture of a person whose mind and heart are split—tugged in different directions by competing concerns. It conveys a sense not just of anxiety, but of fragmentation.
So when Jesus says Martha is merimnāis, he’s not only addressing worry in the modern psychological sense. He’s recognising that she is mentally and spiritually scattered, drawn away from presence, and disconnected from the “one thing necessary”—which Mary, in her attentive stillness, has chosen.

Theological Implication:

In the language of Jesus, merimnaō is not about guilt-tripping Martha, but about inviting her to wholeness. He’s calling her back from fragmentation to integration, from being split by many tasks to being centred in love and relationship.

It’s a word that speaks profoundly to our own overextended, overanxious lives today:
We are often not just busy—but divided. And Jesus invites us, not to abandon responsibility, but to re-centre our hearts.

Group Wondering:

• Which phrase or image stayed with you from Martha’s story?
• Where do you recognise merimnaō—being pulled apart—in your own life or ministry?
• What happens in your community when service becomes anxiety rather than love?
• What does a Mary-like moment look like for you this week?

Growing the Gospel Together

Practice:
Contemplation before action

What actions could your place of worship take to live out Contemplation before action?What photo could you take to accompany the gospel today that might help people think about living an integrated life ?

I wonder:

• What one small Mary-moment could you embed this week?

Non-Dual Living:
The Kitchen is a Chapel

Reflection:

Flour-dust mingles with incense.
Jesus is both Guest and Host.
When we centre ourselves in Christ’s abundance, we serve with freedom, not frenzy.

Prayerful Silence
(2 minutes)

Sit in the presence of Christ.
Let the doing rest.
Let the love remain.

Closing Prayer

Holy Guest and Gentle Host,
draw us to your feet
until our hearts are quiet
in your presence;
then send us to the sink,
the streets, the spreadsheets—
not driven by need
but carried by love.
May our listening deepen our labour,
and our labour return us to listening,
until every breath
and every task
speaks one language:
abundance.
Amen.

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