I am writing a book on Howard Thurman (who helped lay the theological foundation for the U.S. Civil Rights movement and was a mentor to Dr. King), the parables of Jesus (in particular the Prodigal Son and Good Samaritan), and the case for positive social action/justice.
I should add that, as a mystic, Thurman’s vision transcended Christianity (e.g., he was greatly influenced by Gandhi and was the leader of the first group of African Americans to meet Gandhi in India). Thurman believed that the divine exists within each human being, but my article is limited to a Christian biblical text in relation to his work, as I note in my conclusion:
truly understanding Jesus' radical message [should] create a profound moral obligation to reflect, decide and act accordingly, whether by working for civil and human rights, promoting justice in the midst of oppression, seeking peace among those who advocate for war or, in other words, proclaiming Jesus' good news to the poor, release to the captives and liberation of the oppressed (Luke 4:18).
Thurman is a much needed corrective to what often passes for Christianity, one reason why he always distinguished the “religion of Jesus” from “Christianity” (see his critique of Christianity and his understanding of the religion of Jesus in his Jesus and the Disinherited).
Yesterday, I published an article about Thurman, a painting by Johannes Vermeer, and the implications of interpreting the painting and text in light of Thurman’s insights. You can find it here (if you are interested in similar interpretations of art and the Bible, here’s a link to seven of my articles doing so; each of them is only ~1200 words and deals with ethical issues).
The title of what I wrote is: “Sit and listen; go and do: Mary and Martha as examples of faith and action” and I introduce the subject this way:
One of my father's favorite sayings was, "If all else fails, read the instructions." That humorous advice is insightful in its analysis of human behavior, and its subtle underlying message is applicable to most areas of human endeavor: One must sit and listen before one can effectively go and do.
I then note that the story ofJesus in the house of Mary and Martha (Luke10:38-42) was often misinterpreted as exalting the life of spiritual contemplation and minimizing a life of action. This pattern can be found in Vermeer's "Christ in the House of Mary and Martha," for example, because it subtly depicts the elevation of Mary's spiritual contemplation over Martha's service:
Jesus is the focus of the painting, and his authority and divinity are illustrated by the light emanating from his head. Martha, standing to the left and holding a basket of food, looks down at Jesus, and her raised eyebrows ask the question of Jesus that the text of Luke narrates. Mary, in contrast, sits at the feet of Jesus, with her eyes upraised to look at Jesus and her cheek resting on her right hand as she contemplates his teaching. Jesus looks at Martha, and points to Mary, demonstrating that Mary has chosen the better path.
Yet I also observe that Vermeer's painting presents Jesus, Mary and Martha as a unified image in its oval composition of the figures, with Mary and Martha balancing each other with respect to Jesus and that a more nuanced. complex portrait is found in the story itself: The story of Mary and Martha is immediately preceded by the parable of the good Samaritan, which ends with Jesus telling the lawyer to "go and do likewise" to prove to be a neighbor to those in need (Luke 10:25-37).
Here is where Howard Thurman comes in:
What the great theologian Howard Thurman realized, however, is that spiritual contemplation must be the foundation on which action is based. Thurman argued that a fundamental aspect of the religion of Jesus is to sit and listen in the quietness so one can experience the spirit of God and, therefore, ascertain the will of God.
Also key to Thurman's understanding of the religion of Jesus and religious experience itself is his insistence that personal, inner transformation is the foundational first step that leads to all other transformations of self and society. One's inner transformation includes the building of human relations, and true community should lead to social action. Sitting and listening is a prerequisite for, and must be followed by, going and doing.
As Thurman noted in his autobiography, With Head and Heart, about the church he co-founded in San Francisco, The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples: “It was my conviction and determination that the church would be a resource for activists — a mission fundamentally perceived. To me it was important that individuals who were in the thick of the struggle for social change would be able to find renewal and fresh courage in the spiritual resources of the church. There must be provided a place, a moment, when a person could declare, ‘I choose!’"
. . .
An essential element of Thurman's argument is that all human beings are children of God in a sacred community of humanity: We act because we become involved in an encounter from the core of ourselves to the core of other human beings, an inward community that then manifests itself as an outward community.
. . .
Both Mary and Martha, then, are examples of discipleship to be emulated. Mary can be seen as a paradigm of what it means to follow the first great commandment, to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, whereas Martha illustrates the second great commandment, to love one's neighbor as oneself (Luke 10:27).
The story of Mary and Martha illustrates that the proper response to the teachings of Jesus is, first, to sit and listen, to reflect, experience and understand. But an authentic engagement with the teachings of Jesus involves more than intellectual assent; it means "to go and do." Jesus' teachings not only challenge us to act; they demand that we act: to "go and do likewise, as Jesus instructed the lawyer just before making his way to Mary and Martha's house.
Understanding must lead to concrete action in the world, because truly understanding Jesus' radical message should create a profound moral obligation to reflect, decide and act accordingly, whether by working for civil and human rights, promoting justice in the midst of oppression, seeking peace among those who advocate for war or, in other words, proclaiming Jesus' good news to the poor, release to the captives and liberation of the oppressed (Luke 4:18).