16th Sunday 2025
Genesis 18: 1-10; Colossians 1: 24-28; Luke 10: 38-42
By heck! We have a triple whammy today—three very powerful readings. What are we to make of each of them?
Our reading from the Book of Genesis brings three strangers to visit Abraham. Who are they? And why are there three of them? In some sense at least, they are God, because the first verse begins “The Lord appeared to Abraham”, whereupon the three men materialise.
The Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) doesn’t always distinguish between “the Lord” and “the angel of the Lord”: sometimes the terms appear to be indistinguishable as titles of God. Here, three men appear, yet Abraham addresses them in the singular, saying “O Lord”. Towards the end of the passage we are told that “they” (plural) ask Abraham “Where is Sarah, your wife?” yet after he has answered them, we are next told that it is “the Lord” who comments further “I shall surely return to you about this time next year and Sarah your wife shall have a son”.
If anything can be called “clear” in this passage, it is clear that, in some way, the three men are a presence of God. Things become even more complex a few verses further on, though, when the three men go on towards Sodom, whilst “the Lord” remains speaking with Abraham. So God is somehow separate from the three men, yet identified with them.
How significant is it that there are three? Is this an early intimation of the Trinity? There is a famous icon depicting the three, and effectively identifying them with the Holy Trinity. It is unlikely that the author of this passage in Genesis was thinking in Trinitarian terms, but might we consider that the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was at work?
Turning to the reading from the Letter to the Colossians, I find one of my favourite scriptural quotations. I knew a priest who, finding himself in a group in which people were asked to quote their favourite passage from the Bible, and considering this unduly intrusive, replied “A vain hope for safety is the horse” (Psalms). I was never in danger of being made a bishop: had I been so, I would have been sorely tempted to take as my motto “He stinketh, for he is four days buried” (originally about Lazarus). Here however, I find a particularly encouraging quotation.
“In my flesh, I am making up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His Body—that is the Church.” What does that mean? It tells us that, when we suffer, as all of us do at times, our sufferings can be part of the Passion of Jesus, and so can help to redeem the world. This is the understanding that underlies the old encouragement to “Offer it up”. It won’t necessarily make the suffering any less painful, but it will make it less futile, less apparently pointless, because we can understand that we are helping Jesus to save the world.
Finally, we encounter Martha and Mary. The crucial sentence here arrives towards the end: “One thing is necessary”. I still have vivid memories—which tends to be true of anything more than forty years ago, but less so of anything recent—of the Lenten retreat delivered during my first year in the seminary (1971/2) by Fr. Denis Clinch, who subsequently spent many years as the Rector of the Hidden Gem, aka St. Mary’s, Mulberry Street, Manchester.
Those words to Martha formed the backbone of the retreat, as Fr. Clinch clearly saw them as addressed to all followers of Christ. Lowering his voice dramatically, he would announce at some point during practically all his talks “Few things are necessary. INDEED—only one”.
What is the one thing necessary? It is to carry out God’s will in every moment and every situation. Martha’s problem here is that she hasn’t taken the trouble to find out what Jesus wants of her on this occasion. She is anxious to serve Him, but hasn’t asked how He wants to be served. In this moment, He has a greater desire for her attention than for her sausage and mash, even if served with mushy peas. The Jerusalem Bible translation runs “You worry and fret about so many things”. Is that as true of you as it is of me? Can you and I seek instead, the one thing necessary?
