JO Winstanley, of Hexham Quakers, comments this week on Luke’s Gospel, 10 v38-42:

IN this passage Jesus visits the home of two sisters, Martha and Mary, and their responses to him are contrasted: Martha busies herself with domestic tasks, while Mary sits and listens.

When Martha complains that all the work is left to her, Jesus says that Mary has chosen the better way.

I have to confess to finding this one of those parts of the Bible which have made me furious!

Why should Martha, who was providing food and hospitality in the way she knew was both necessary and within her gift, have been rejected by Jesus in favour of her sister’s way – which was just to sit and do nothing but simply listen to all the talk of spiritual matters?

Surely any minute now they will all be jolly hungry, the fire not lit, and the house in a mess?

So, my challenge in reading this story is the same as Martha’s – to try to make sense of this apparent rejection, and to pause in my indignation for long enough to ask if the words of Jesus here are, in fact, helpful.

Could it be that the turning point in my understanding needs to be a willingness to abandon all previously held convictions, conventions and habits, to open my mind and spirit to new light?

I turn for help to a collection of Quaker writings called Advices and Queries. Advice number 17 starts with the question: “Do you respect that of God in everyone though it may be expressed in unfamiliar ways or be difficult to discern?”

It ends: “Think it possible that you may be mistaken.”

Now, I think, I begin to understand.