SPIRITUAL PRIORITIES

             A Sermon by Rev. Kurt H. Asplundh

"Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many
things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that
good part, which will not be taken away from her" (Luke
10:41, 42).

     The account of the Lord in the house of Mary and Martha
dramatizes the importance of spiritual priorities. Martha
had welcomed the Lord into her home, and like any
responsible hostess, was eager to see to His comfort and
needs. We are not surprised at her annoyance with Mary, her
sister, who made no apparent effort to help with the
serving. We can imagine how Martha felt in this situation.
She was very eager to please this special guest, and upset
that she had been left to do all the work herself while Mary
simply sat at the Lord's feet and listened to His words.
     Martha's feelings surfaced when she complained to the
Lord and asked Him to tell Mary to help her. The Lord
answered: "Martha, ...you are worried and troubled about
many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen
that good part, which will not be taken away from her" (Luke
10:42).
     The Lord's answer needs elaboration, for Martha's
criticism of Mary seems justified. Why shouldn't she help?
Suppose Martha had sat down too. Who would have served then?
Who would have taken care of the practical needs of the
household?
     The Lord seems to raise a similar question for us where
He teaches that we should not "worry" about our life: our
food and drink, our clothing and other natural needs (see
Matt. 6:25-34). But if we don't worry about these things,
who will? Food may appear magically on the table in heaven,
but not at home here. Our clothes do not mend and wash
themselves. They pile up. While we live in the world, we
must work to provide for our everyday needs. To think
otherwise is a misunderstanding of the Lord's words. What
then did the Lord mean when He talked about the "good part"
that Mary had chosen while Martha was troubled and anxious
about the serving?
     We can draw a simple truth from this story. There are
spiritual values in life as well as natural values, and the
spiritual values take priority. So, for example, spiritual
food has a higher priority than natural food. We could be
fed delicious and nutritious natural food our entire life
but without spiritual nourishment we will be spiritually
starved. It is important for us, therefore, to set aside
time in our life for worship and instruction, to "sit at the
Lord's feet and hear His word."
     This should be a very real concern in the life of every
New Churchman. We know all too well how the duties and
obligations, as well as the pleasures and amusements, of
modern society distract and fill our waking hours. It is
hard enough to fit all of this into a busy schedule, let
alone a time for reading and reflecting on the Word of the
Lord. And how can we give quality time to this priority
rather than relegate it to a few minutes of dutiful reading
at the end of a long and tiring day? This is a
responsibility every one of us needs to address with
resolve, self-discipline, and creativity. There are ways we
all can develop an increasingly delightful habit of learning
and thinking about spiritual truths. Make this a priority in
your life.
     The Lord's response to Martha means much more than just
this. It should be clear first what it does not mean. It
does not mean that our daily responsibilities and natural
obligations in life can be ignored as unimportant. While we
live in the world, we must act responsibly in the natural as
well as the spiritual realm. Indeed, it is only as we live
in the world, our deeds motivated by a living spirit within,
that eternal spiritual values can be implanted, confirmed
and established.
     The Lord's deeper message was in response to Martha's
attitude, not her service. He loved her devotion to service
as He loves our good deeds to the neighbor. But she did it
grudgingly, selfishly. Her attitude comes out in her
criticism. "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me
to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me" (Luke 10:40).
     This is not only anger against Mary, but even against
the Lord. Couldn't He see how much she was doing? Didn't He
appreciate all her effort and care? She wanted recognition
and praise for the good things she was doing for Him. It
wasn't fair that He wasn't making Mary work too. If she had
to work, why shouldn't Mary be made to work? She despised
Mary for not doing what she thought was right.
     How different it would have been if Martha had served
unselfishly, from a regenerate love of wishing well to the
neighbor. The duty would have been a delight. It would not
have mattered to her that Mary chose not to serve.
     There is another occasion recorded in Scripture, six
days before the passover, when the Lord dined again at the
home of Mary and Martha. How pleasing to see that Martha has
changed now. She is not anxious or troubled, not envious of
Mary; she simply serves.
     And what of us? Have we learned the lesson? How much of
our life do we serve in the grip of that ugly attitude that
first held Martha? New Church martyrs. "Lord, look at what I
do for the church! Look what I do for the success of my
company! Look what I do to hold together my marriage and my
family! I work so hard and nobody else is helping! Why don't
You make those other irresponsible people work like me?"
     The attitude that so often grips us like this is
similar to the despair of Elijah the prophet when he
complained of his lot: "I have been very zealous for the
Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have
forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed
Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they seek
to take my life" (I Kings 19:14). But the Lord replied: "Yet
I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees
have not bowed to Baal..." (I Kings 19:18).
     It is our state of mind that is at fault. It must be
healed. This is the essential priority.
     In this sermon we are talking about spiritual
priorities. The account of Mary and Martha demonstrates a
priority that we can choose. Mary chose the "good part."
     Throughout our life we are faced with choices. What
should we value? What should we choose? The choices we make
determine the spiritual quality of our life.
     By hereditary inclination we have our priorities
inverted, giving greatest value to those things which are
pleasing to self and of purely natural consequence. The
things that appeal to the natural man relate to the two
great loves that motivate an unregenerate life: the love of
self and the love of the world.
     The Lord came on earth to teach about a kingdom "not of
this world." He warned against a love of the world that
would turn our hearts away from heaven: "Do not lay
up...treasures on earth..." He said, "but lay up...treasures
in heaven..." (Matt. 6:19-21). "One's life does not consist
in the abundance of the things he possesses," He said (Luke
12:15). "For what is a man profited if he gains the whole
world and loses his own soul?" (Matt. 16:26).
     The Lord also warned against a love of self that
desires to exercise worldly authority. He rebuked the
disciples when there was rivalry among them as to which of
them should be considered the greatest. "You know that the
rulers of the gentiles lord it over them.... Yet it shall
not be so among you," He said, "but whoever desires to
become great among you, let him be your servant" (Matt.
20:25, 26; Luke 22). Love of self is impatient, demanding,
critical of others.
     The Heavenly Doctrine spells out the raw effects of the
loves of self and the world. "The evils which belong to
those who are in the love of self are, in general, contempt
of others, envy, enmity against those who do not favor them,
hostility on that account, hatreds of various kinds,
revenge, cunning, deceit, unmercifulness and cruelty; and
where such evils exist, there is also contempt of the Divine
and of Divine things.... But the love of the world consists
in wishing to draw the wealth of others to ourselves by any
artifice, in placing the heart in riches, and in suffering
the world to draw us back and lead us away from spiritual
love.... They who are in that love covet the goods of
others, and so far as they do not fear the laws and the loss
of reputation for the sake of gain, they deprive others of
their goods, yea commit depredations" (NJHD 75, 76).
     The Lord has taught these things so we may become aware
of our hidden loves. He has taught us to know ourselves.
     Martha had complained to the Lord about her sister
Mary. Yet the Lord commended Mary's choice. She had chosen
the "good part." The Lord wanted to teach that Martha also
had a choice; indeed, that we all have a choice.
     The Martha we see in this account had chosen the love
of self. She had welcomed the Lord into her home,her private
kingdom.  She served in the belief that she was responsible
for the good works she did, and that she deserved credit for
all her efforts. She served in the belief that she knew the
right thing to do, and that others should join in her plan
of action. When Mary did not assist her, she became angry
and despised her.
     The Lord's lesson to Martha was not that she was wrong
in serving; that she should have sat at His feet instead.
His lesson was that she, like Mary, should have chosen to
shun the evil of self-love.She should have put the priority
on correcting her attitude. If her motive had been to serve
without thought of reward, apart from a sense of her own
importance, she would not have been troubled or anxious
about her duties.
     The matter of spiritual priorities is clearly shown in
the Lord's parable of the pearl of great price.The kingdom
of heaven, we are told, is "like a merchant seeking
beautiful pearls,who, when he had found one pearl of great
price, went and sold all that he had and bought it" (Matt.
13:46).
     The merchant in the parable placed the highest value of
all upon this single pearl. This is apparent from the fact
that he was willing to sell everything else he had in order
to buy it. This pearl was at the top of his priority list.
     Doctrine reveals what the hidden meaning of this
parable is. "Pearls" signify knowledges, and also truths
themselves, we are told; and "the one of great price"
signifies the acknowledgment of the Lord. We are like
merchants as we seek out the truths of religion. As we learn
and trade ideas from the Word with others, we become "rich"
in knowledges. However, we must find the one great truth
that is the most important of all: the truth about the Lord
God who is our Creator, Redeemer and Savior.
     The pearl of great price is the knowledge, and our
acknowledgment of it, that all life, all truth, and
everything that is good is from the Lord alone. It is said
of the merchant when he found it that "Going away he sold
all that he had and bought [that pearl]. This signifies "to
reject what is one's own [proprium]...," [to set aside
things that are of one's own love] in order to receive life
from the Lord" (AE 1044:3; 840:9).
     This is the priority of all religious life: the
acknowledgment of the Lord; the setting aside of our own
loves which compete with Him and the reception of His life.
     What could be so important as to cause us to set aside
or reject all of our natural loves for the sake of religion?
The Heavenly Doctrine calls it "the spiritual affection of
truth." This is the uniquely human ability to be affected by
truth to such a degree that we love it and wish to possess
it at any cost.
     Not surprisingly,, the name Mary, in Scripture, seems
to define this quality. It was Mary, the wife of Joseph, who
was chosen to be the mother of the Lord. So the Divine truth
can be born only within the womb of a spiritual affection, a
love for that truth. Would not the Mary of our text also
represent that love for truth, for she it was that sat at
the Lord's feet to hear His Word. Mary chose the "good
part."
     The spiritual affection of truth is a precious human
quality we must cultivate in ourselves. It is the love that
longs for truth and causes truth to be esteemed above every
good of the world. "The spiritual affection of truth
consists in loving the truth itself," we are told, "and
esteeming it above every good of the world, because through
it man has eternal life, and the only means by which eternal
life is implanted in man are truths, consequently the Word,
for through the Word the Lord teaches truths" (AE 444:10).
     The spiritual affection of truth, then, is the "good
part" we must choose in our relationship with the Lord. We
serve the Lord best by loving the truth of the Word. It is
this truth which allows us to know ourselves, to know our
evils, and to put away those things of the love of self and
the world which stand as obstacles to the reception of life
from the Lord.
     Martha did not have to "sit at the Lord's feet" to
exercise her affection of truth. She could seek and find
truth applying to her natural uses, and having received it,
could spiritually enliven the uses she served. And so for
each of us. Whatever our responsibilities or our duties in
life, be they exalted or humble, we may also choose that
"good part" from the Lord that will change our very
attitudes of life. Make this a priority!
     "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you
who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come buy wine and
milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money
for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not
satisfy? Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good, and
let your soul delight itself in abundance. Incline your ear,
and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live..." (Isaiah
55:1-3). Amen.

Lessons: Matt. 13:44-46, Luke 10:38-42, AE 933:2; 934:2

Preached in Bryn Athyn August 28, 1988

                       * * * * * * *

Apocalypse Explained 933:2, 934:2

     It has been said in the previous article that at this
day it is scarcely known what is meant by charity, and thus
by good works, unless it be giving to the poor, enriching
the needy, doing good to widows and orphans, and
contributing to the building of temples, hospitals, and
lodging houses; and yet whether such works are done by man
and for the sake of reward is not known; for if they are
done by man they are not good, and if for the sake of reward
they are meritorious; and such works do not open heaven, and
thus are not acknowledged as goods in heaven. In heaven no
works are regarded as good except such as are done by the
Lord with man appear in outward form like those done by the
man himself, and cannot be distinguished even by the man who
does them. For the works done by the Lord with man are done
by man as if by himself; and unless they are done as if by
himself they do not conjoin man to the Lord, thus they do
not reform him. That man ought to do goods as if by himself
may be seen above (n. 616,864, 911c).

     It was said of works in the preceding article that
those done by man are not good, but only those done by the
Lord with man. But for works to be done by the Lord and not
by man, two things are necessary: first, the Lord's Divine
must be acknowledged; also that He is the God of heaven and
earth even as to the Human, and that every good that is good
is from Him; and secondly that man must live according to
the commandments of the decalogue by abstaining from those
evils that are there forbidden, that is, from worshiping
other gods, from profaning the name of God, from thefts,
from adulteries, from murders, from false witness, from
coveting the possessions and property of others. These two
things are requisite that the works done by man may be good.
The reason is that every good comes from the Lord alone, and
the Lord cannot enter into man and lead him so long as these
evils are not removed as sins; for they are infernal, and in
fact are hell with man, and unless hell is removed, the Lord
cannot enter and open heaven. This is what is meant by the
Lord's words to the rich man, who asked Him about eternal
life, and said that he had kept the commandments of the
decalogue from his youth, whom the Lord is said to have
loved, and to have taught that one thing was lacking to him,
that he should sell all that he had and take up the cross
(Matt. 19:16-22, Mark 10:17-22, Luke 18:18-23).
     "To see all that he had" signifies that he should
relinquish the things of his religion, which were
traditions, for he was a Jew, and also should relinquish the
things that were his own, which were loving self and the
world more than God, and thus leading himself; and "to
follow the Lord" signifies to acknowledge Him only and to be
led by Him; therefore the Lord also said, "Why callest thou
Me good? there is none good but God only." "To take up his
cross" signifies to fight against evils and falsities, which
are from what is one's own.