Contemplation: The Spring and Action: the Stream
- davidwperk
- Jun 6
- 5 min read
Devotional Reflection, Friday, April 6. 2025
The week of the seventh Sunday of Easter
The Rev. David W. Perkins,Th.D.
Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 964)
AM Psalm 102; PM Psalm 107:1-32
Ezekiel 34:17-31; Hebrews 8:1-13; Luke 10:38-42
Today we celebrate the Feast of Ini Kopuria. (See below.)
Daily Office Gospel, Luke 10:38-42
38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. 40But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.’ 41But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; 42there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.’
David's Reflections
This deceptively brief episode brims with interpretive difficulties. Verse 42 has several variations among the ancient handwritten manuscripts because the scribes who preserved Luke by hand copying felt the difficulties the story involved and altered the text to bring out what they saw as its meaning. For instance, does the "one thing" refer to the menu for dinner or to Mary's action of listening to the Word? Variant readings take both views. (The footnotes in most English translations will point out some of the variations.)
How do we welcome Jesus' presence into our lives and express our devotion to him? This text presents two different responses, both of which are appropriate and necessary. Mary represents the contemplative response, Martha, the response of action and service. Obviously, other forms of spirituality find expression in the biblical record and in the experience of the church, but these two, spiritualities of contemplation and action, continue as two prominent and contrasting styles.
In Jesus' cultural setting, a woman did not study with the rabbis nor join in discussions, as Mary did in this instance. Martha assumed the traditional feminine role of preparing the meal. Jesus refused to force Mary into that role; rather, he called for Martha to be less focused on the struggle with hospitality and to make more space for a contemplative dimension in her own life.
This story offers an important witness to Jesus’ unique openness to and hospitable treatment of women—rather out of step with his cultural conditioning. Carol Lee Flinders summarized this well. “The Gospels themselves . . . have made it indisputably clear that Jesus himself loved women and took them seriously as spiritual aspirants, and if there had been any lingering doubt as to their suitedness for full membership in the church, the accounts of the early Christian martyrs would certainly have dispelled it.” +
We also learn from Jesus’ teaching here that contemplative and action-oriented discipleship are not oppositional. Nor are we limited to one or the other. Rather, both dimensions are essential to us all. There must be something of a Mary and a Martha in each of us. Some are given more to contemplation and some more to action, but balanced living as a Christian involves some admixture of both.
Thomas Merton, the contemplative Cistercian monk who practiced a very active ministry of writing and speaking, had a clear focus on the relationship of contemplation to action.
Action and contemplation now grow together into one life and one unity. They become two aspects of the same thing. Action is charity looking outward to others (men), and contemplation is charity drawn inward to its own divine source. Action is the stream, and contemplation is the spring. The spring remains more important than the stream, for the only thing that really matters is for love to spring up inexhaustibly from the infinite abyss of Christ and of God. *
+Carol Lee Flinders, At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst (New York: HarperCollins, 1998), p. 130.
*Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967), p. 65.
Collect of the day, Seventh Sunday of Easter: The Sunday after Ascension Day
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (BCP, 226)
A Collect for the Weekdays of Easter
O God, by the glorification of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit you have opened for us the gates of your kingdom: Grant that we, who have received such great gifts, may dedicate ourselves more diligently to your service, and live more fully the riches of our faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever Amen. (Weekday Eucharistic Propers, pp. 68-69)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Ini Kopuria, founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood (died 7 June 1945 CE).
Collect of the Feast of Ini Kopuria
Loving God, we bless your Name for the witness of Ini Kopuria, founder of the Melanesian Brotherhood: Open our eyes that we, with these Anglican brothers, may establish peace and hope in service to others; for the sake of Jesus Christ, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
A Collect for Fridays
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 97)
In the Evening
O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen. (BCP, 833)
A Collect for Mission
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 280)
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
Bình luận