TECH SUPPORT FROM BETHANY

Posted by Christ the King Lutheran Church on July 16, 2010 under Pastor's Message | Comments are off for this article

Would you believe it? I’ve figured out how to rip and burn CDs on my computer. Maybe I shouldn’t admit that in public because most teens in Canada have been doing it for years and I am still way behind on other technology. (For example, I have no idea how to download am MP3 file). There’s a whole feast of music and other wonderful things that I can’t yet access.

In my worry and distraction by all the technical things, the gospel of Jesus Christ brought me a moment of comfort. You see there’s this story in Luke 10 about Martha of Bethany welcoming Jesus into her home. The story includes a lounging sister and boiling kitchen (plus a boiling Martha). Jesus invites her to relax, to put aside lesser stressors so that she has time for what’s important.

How does that help? Well, follow this line of thought:
1. The lounging sister was taking time to talk and listen to Jesus. His time was short and he wanted, needed, appreciated, the attention of his friends to the important things he still wanted to say about his God and Father. He wanted to deepen the relationship and anything that got in the way of the relationship was secondary.
2. Most of the things I want to find and use on line are tools to help me study the bible, tools to help me preach more clearly, tools to help me draw closer to Jesus. What a wonder to be able to read things like letters of Basil the Great, writing to friend over 1600 years ago. Of course, in the letter I read, Basil WAS writing about things that distracted him from being face-to-face with Jesus. (I think the Holy Spirit got me again!)
3. Getting more comfortable with technology is not a bad thing, but it is not the main thing. When it becomes a worry and a distraction, I need to remember that gathering information isn’t the same as listening to Jesus.

Once again the gospel (good news) sets me free from tension about what’s secondary so I can focus on what’s primary. The truth is that what technical information I have will be “taken away from me” as computers and the Internet develop even faster. But the love and forgiveness that Jesus offers will not be taken away because they are gifts of my baptism. That I can trust, even when my computer locks up.

Thanks be to God.

Pastor Susan