Sun. Oct. 17, 2010 (Janice Kreider)

Janice Kreider first talked about Amos (8.1-3), which includes a pun on words for "figs" and "the end", words which sounded similar when spoken by people in Northern Israel. Amos was asked, "What do you see", he replied "figs", yet people would have wondered whether he meant 'the end'. Amos suggested that God was also going to withdraw from the people both as a provider and protector, and that there would also be a spiritual withdrawal (8:11) causing a famine of the Word. Luke 10:38 gives the story of Martha and Mary, which also focuses on the importance of the Word. However, this enigmatic story also raises all sorts of questions about hospitality, work and servanthood, and how to balance them with reflection and intellectual/spiritual growth. Jesus acknowledged that Martha had a lot to do, yet he concluded by appearing to criticize her for labouring on his behalf instead of listening to his teaching in her home. The bottom line was that the kingdom of God is what matters most. Was she distracting Jesus from his teaching (kingdom work) by interrupting, or even by publicly putting him in conflict with Mary? But what about that much praised kingdom notion of Servanthood? Was Jesus ungrateful concerning his being fed, likely including a number of his followers? The two passages remind us that if we have a famine of the Word, nothing else really matters. But we must also realize that life, even in the kingdom, somehow requires special balance between working and reflecting. [JEK] Listen to the sermon audio MP3 recording from Sunday, October 17th, 2010 using your browser's preferred media player.