Mary of Bethany: the loving friend WOMEN of the BIBLE Mary of Bethany: the loving friend Luke 10:38-42 John 12:1-11

Forgiven

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The Body of Christ (All the same. All different.)

THE WOMEN FROM JESUS’ FAMILY TREE. Rahab and her choice THE WOMEN FROM JESUS’ FAMILY TREE Rahab and her choice Tamar and her fight Bathsheba and her decision Ruth and her love Mary and her trust Mary Magdalene and her faith Mary the loving friend Martha the servant-hearted friend Role models?

  The humble learner The wise chooser The mystery worshipper

Mary the mother of Jesus Mary of Bethany Mary Magdalene Mary the mother of James and Joseph ‘The other Mary’ Mary the wife of Clopas Mary the mother of John Mark Mary ‘who worked very hard’

THE HUMBLE LEARNER (Luke 10:39) “She (Martha) had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what He said” “‘Sitting at someone’s feet’ doesn’t mean (as it might sound to us) a devoted, dog-like adoring posture, as though the teacher were a rock star or a sports idol. When Saul of Tarsus ‘sat at the feet of Gamaliel’ (Acts 22:3) he wasn’t gazing up adoringly and thinking how wonderful the great rabbi was; he was listening and learning, focusing on the teaching of his master and putting it together in his mind. To sit at someone’s feet meant, quite simply, to be their student. And to sit at the feet of a rabbi was what you did if you wanted to be a rabbi yourself.” TOM WRIGHT

Do you sit at the Lord’s feet listening to what he says?

Do you know what you’re called to? THE WISE CHOOSER (Luke 10:42) “Mary has chosen what is better” “We would be wrong, then, to see Martha and Mary, as they have so often been seen, as models of the ‘active’ and the ‘contemplative’ styles of spirituality. Action and contemplation are of course both important. Without the first you wouldn’t eat, without the second you wouldn’t worship. And no doubt some people are called to one kind of balance between them, and others to another.” TOM WRIGHT Do you know what you’re called to?

Worship is WOR(TH)SHIP THE MYSTERY WORSHIPPER (John 12) “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.” Wor Worship is WOR(TH)SHIP “In Jesus’ honour”

How do YOU worship? Why that way? Could you consider a different way? “Are you with the shameless Mary, worshipping Jesus with everything she’s got, risking the wrath of her sister who’s doing all the hard work, the anger of the men who perhaps don’t quite trust their own feelings when a woman lets her hair down in public, and the sneer of the person who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing?” TOM WRIGHT How do YOU worship? Why that way? Could you consider a different way?

How do YOU worship?