MEN'S BREAKFAST TALK OCT 15 2022 .. this was a talk to a group of men one Saturday morning. The breakfast was sponsored by CrossRidge Church, Cloverdale BC.
This sounds like a passage appropriate for a Women’s brunch not a Men’s’ Breakfast. Yet the lesson is not gender specific.
The village that Jesus entered was Bethany. A family became Jesus’ cherished friends. Martha and Mary are mentioned here. They had a brother named Lazarus. This brief anecdote contrasts the behaviours of the two women in the presence of Jesus. It was a big deal to have Jesus visit your house. Martha could hardly wait to feed him, preparing foods and serving him. Mary could hardly wait to be fed, sitting enthralled and listening to Kingdom words coming from the King. Then Martha became annoyed. When she complained to Jesus that Mary wasn’t helping her and asked Jesus to reprimand Mary, Jesus gently told Martha, “Martha, you’re consumed with worries about secondary matters. Mary has made the better choice. I won’t take that away from her.” – But isn’t food important? Martha didn’t ask that. I am supposing natural follow-up questions. Of course, food is important but when that household of guests became hungry, and if Martha had not prepared it, wouldn’t there be someone else who could do it? Jesus could have made something. I mean, Jesus turned water into wine one time, and he turned a boy’s lunch into a meal for a few thousand people. He was not a magician. He was divine. Listen to him. He existed in the beginning, and everything was made by him. He is wise and holy. Listen to him.
The lesson from the Mary and Martha story is this: Paying attention to Jesus is more important than being busy. That lesson has recently been meant for me. I want to tell you why.
I was a shy, introverted kid and youth. What I had was an artist’s eye since I was a child. I could paint dry portraits and paint landscapes at age ten. I became a Christian at the age of ten. Art was my passion. Art was my career choice. My application was ready for Ontario College of Art. God interrupted me with an unmistakable call to me and a distinct change of my plans. God wanted me, wanted me in His Word, wanted me praying. I enrolled in Bible College, married Christine, and God transformed me into a church pastor. The outcome has been forty plus years pastoring four churches and serving as president of a denomination of 150 churches. It has involved earning a master’s degree and a doctorate, studying constantly, officiating 200 weddings, a thousand funerals, preaching several thousand sermons, counselling, mentoring, visiting hundreds. I have been a busy person all of my adult life. But I also listened to Jesus a lot and talked to him a lot. My entire working life was soundly done on a foundation of scripture and prayer. I have been devout. It’s been a wonderful life.
The busyness was purposeful obedience to Jesus.
I was 27 years old, and I was a pastoral candidate at Calvary Bible Church in Smiths Falls ON. The church invited me to be their pastor. The denominational brass advised me, “Don’t consider it. You are a lamb going to the slaughter.” Why did they tell me that? The church had released three pastors within the previous five years. My faith filled response was, “I believe God has called me to go there.” During my second year, Charlie Paul, one of the church’s rigid fundamentalist vocal and influential elders took issue with something I had done and after a morning service he refused to shake my hand but had caustic words for me. I drove Christine and our two children home, and I went to Charlie’s house. I was a novice. How was I to handle this with a man twice my age? I remembered that David had picked up five stones to face Goliath. So, I selected five passages of scripture to read to Charlie. Charlie answered my knock at his door and at my invitation he sat in my car. We calmly discussed our strained relationship and got nowhere, and then I asked him for permission to read God’s Word. Like a stone in David’s sling, the Word of God hit Charlie and he began to cry, and he acknowledged how unfitting his conduct was between brothers in Christ. Charlie’s and my relationship right then developed the tensile strength that could resist any stretching. I was so impressed with the power of the Word of God; the way God’s Spirit invested it with power. Years later when I submitted my resignation to the elders, Charlie said, “Ron, we don’t want to see you go, but if God has called you elsewhere, go with our blessing. You have taught us how to love.” Many more years passed, and I was pastoring another church closer to Toronto, where on a certain day I had travelled to Toronto and I was sitting in a seminary classroom taking an M.Div. course. To my shock, Charlie showed up unannounced. He was standing at the window of the classroom door. I motioned him to come in. We hugged. He sat in the desk beside mine for the entire class session. Then we talked. He had driven six hours from his home. He had come to see me. He now had terminal cancer. Charlie was saying goodbye. He loved me.
I attended a Blue Jays’ game at the old Exhibition Stadium before Skydome was built, now Rogers Centre. I was there with a friend. Two friends of his showed up. One of those me was Don McMullen, who lived in Peterborough where I was then pastoring Ferndale Bible Church. The following week he bought me a coffee because he wanted to ask me questions about Christianity, the Bible and faith. After 2 hours I invited him to church on Sunday morning and to come for lunch at my home and to bring his questions. For four hours we looked at scripture to answer questions. Two weeks later he was convinced Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and he gave his life to Christ. He and I met every Monday for months to study scripture. He was hungry. He quit his managerial department store position, enrolled in Bible College, became a husband and missionary and parent, and then a successful entrepreneurial businessman and today is president of a Christian publishing company, Everyday Publications. He still walks with Christ and serves him.
Lynn Welch and her four children came to Sunday School and church. The commute was easy. She lived directly across the street from the church. Her husband Gary did not attend. Each good weather Sunday, he sat on his front steps with a cigarette in one hand and a beer can in the other. We would greet one another. Gary and I couldn’t miss one another. Our parsonage was beside the church separated by a parking lot. Many months went by until one day he asked me “What is this all about? This church thing, Christianity?” We sat down for hours to read what the Bible had to say. Gary put his trust in Christ. “What now?” he asked. I said, “Now we spend time together every week learning what it means to follow Jesus and serve him with our lives.” His spiritual growth was obvious. Two years later he was elected to the elders’ board and two years more, he was the chairman.
Jim was another unbelieving husband of a woman who attended our church, but he was not averse to attending social gatherings where there was fun and food. At one of those fun evenings, with limited seating in a farmhouse, he and I sat together on the floor with our backs to the wall. He was curious about faith and that resulted in his invitation to me to visit him in his home to talk about his questions. I went one week, and then at the second week, God’s light broke in upon him. He knelt at his couch and prayed for forgiveness and for Christ to be his Saviour. Then he jumped up and said I have to tell met mother and my brother. He got on the phone and talked to them. Over the following two weeks Jim’s mother, his brother Steve and Steve’s girlfriend Mary, accepted Christ. Jim, a lab tech, resigned that hospital position and he and Vicki and their children went to Prairie Bible College. After graduation he was employed at the college, upgraded his education and he eventually became Dean of Students. His brother Steve followed him to school and is still today a pastor.
Being busy like that for me was so fulfilling. 40 plus years of doing things and accomplishing stuff.
Last month on the 13th day, I marked 80 full years on planet earth. These last ten years have been bonus years according to Psalm 90:10. “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away.” So predictably I’ve had 70 years, and reasonably good health has afforded me 80 years. But I’m not to be overly excited about it because the proviso is that these so-called bonus years are difficult toil and trouble and then life is over and I fly away.
But until I fly away, I have some questions for myself. What about now. Who am I? Where am I in life? What am I doing? I have been retired for 14 years. I have stayed occupied, no problem. I have filled those years with painting portraits and landscapes, writing books, marshalling at a golf course, playing golf, preaching occasionally and grand-parenting and being a friendly neighbour. Sure, in all that activity I try to be light and salt and the presence of Christ.
But here it is, the tie in for me to Mary and Martha. Somehow, I felt in retirement that I was entitled to be a little less disciplined with my bible study and prayer life. That’s why Jesus’ lesson to Martha hit me.Paying attention to Jesus is more important than being busy. Men, I know this is not alcoholics anonymous, but this is my public confession today. Even when my busyness is for him, if I have forgotten or neglected attention and time with Him, I have chosen the inferior thing.
I wouldn’t admit that to you publicly if I didn’t intend it to be a wakeup call to you, if it applies to you. Wherever you are in life, your age, your job, your education, whatever … make sure you know what the primary thing in life is, Listening to and talking with Jesus. Reading the Bible and praying. This is the only place where we find calm in the midst of the chaos around us, guidance for the decisions we will need to make, composure and information for the net person who comes to us and asks us, “What this all about?”
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