One Thing

Genesis 18:1-10a; Psalm 15; Colossians 1:15-28; Luke 10:38-42

Preached at St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church in Belton, MO, July 20, 2025

I’m sure many of you remember the movie “City Slickers,” starring Billy Crystal and the late great Jack Palance. It concerned some men from New York taking part in a cattle drive, led by Curly, an old cowhand played by Palance. Crystal’s character, Mitch, is convinced by his wife to go along hoping to cure his rat-race burnout. At one point he asks Curly about the meaning of life. Curly holds up one finger.

“Your finger?” asks Mitch.

Curly replies “One thing. Just one thing.”

Crystal’s character says “But what is the one thing?”

Curly smiles and replies, “That’s what you have to find out.”

Today’s Gospel is a familiar one. Jesus comes to Martha’s house, and Martha’s sister Mary is also there. Martha gets busy doing all the things any hostess would be doing — preparing food, making sure everyone is comfortable, etc.

Mary, on the other hand, just sits and listens to Jesus. Martha complains that Mary needs to give her a hand, and Jesus basically tells her to leave Mary alone. “There is need,” he says, “of only one thing.”

Hospitality was a major virtue in first-century Palestine. When someone came to your house, the women of the house saw to their needs —  it was a patriarchal society, after all. And we like to think we’re hospitable and polite now, but this went way beyond that. If someone stops by our house, maybe we’ll get them a cup of coffee or a glass of tea, maybe some cookies. Back then, you would be expected to go all out. You would likely get them a pan of water to wash the road dust off their feet, provide them with a full meal — as Abraham did for three strangers in the Old Testament lesson today — and likely even provide them with a place to sleep for the night.

So Martha is only doing what her upbringing and culture taught her to do. She’s not doing anything wrong there. What she does do is complain about Mary. But at no point does Jesus say, “Martha, you need to stop being hospitable.” He doesn’t tell her to sit down and listen to him. What he says is “Martha, you’re distracted and bothered by all this stuff. Mary is getting what she needs right now, and I won’t take that away from her.” Jesus chides Martha for her distraction and her complaint. Her absolute focus on her tasks is getting in the way. In effect, Jesus is saying “You’re so busy doing things that you’re forgetting why you’re doing them.”

It’s pretty easy to see how this can apply to our lives today. We all have a lot going on. Everything is clamoring for our attention. Family, work, friends, church. Everything screams at us to pay attention.

But we have an advantage that Billy Crystal’s character didn’t have. We already know what that “one thing” is. Or, if we don’t, as Christians we should already know. That one thing, for us, is Jesus. That’s where we need to keep our focus. Not on the news, not on what’s going on politically, not on our business. Our focus needs to be Jesus.

Now, all that being said, this does not mean that we lock ourselves away from everything and just concentrate on Jesus 24-7, totally ignoring everything else. That’s not how we’re meant to live. We need to listen to Christ, yes, but once we listen, once we understand what he is telling us, we have a responsibility to take that understanding out into the world, to be Christ’s voice — and hands — in the world. But we can only do that effectively by focusing on that one thing.

In a few minutes Gabriel Sparks is going to make some promises. Those promises are designed specifically for the focusing of one’s attention on that one thing –  on Jesus. He will promise to pray daily, morning and evening. He will promise to study the Scriptures. And he will promise to be held accountable by another to help him stay on track in keeping his life pointed toward that one thing.

Now, not everybody is cut out for the religious life, but you can still make room for Jesus in your everyday life. Maybe it’s just a short meditation when you get up in the morning. The thing is, we all know what that one thing is. And if we tune out all the things that are screaming at us and pay attention to that one thing, even for just a bit every day, our lives are so much better. I know that Episcopalians are not the best at praying during the week, even those who are deeply involved in the life of their parish.

We come to church on Sunday to be Mary — to listen to Jesus, to hear the Word of God, to be fed with his Body and Blood. But so often we go out into the world and for the rest of the week, we stop focusing on that one most important thing. We need to do better.

At the end of “City Slickers,” Mitch realizes that the one thing, to him, is his family. When he makes that connection, he can come home refreshed and ready to be the person he needs to be. If we can keep our lives focused on our own one thing — on Jesus — we can be the people God intended us to be. We can change the world.

Amen.