{"id":267,"date":"2025-07-14T14:05:43","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T14:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/?p=267"},"modified":"2025-07-14T14:05:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T14:05:44","slug":"distractions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/2025\/07\/14\/distractions\/","title":{"rendered":"Distractions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Martha, Mary, and a World of Distractions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>We live in a world full of distractions. They ping us on our smart phones and lure us to doom scroll through the overwhelming news of all that is going wrong in the world. And then, when we feel overwhelmed, we medicate with cat videos or the eye candy of your choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;m as guilty as anyone of falling prey to these distractions, I must confess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Gospel reading this week takes us to the story of Martha and Mary in Luke 10:38-42. Luke places this story as part of Jesus&#8217; journey from the mount of Transfiguration to his climactic week in Jerusalem. Each scene in these travel narratives is part of Luke&#8217;s presentation of what it means to participate in the Kin-dom of God that Jesus proclaimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>God&#8217;s voice said from the cloud on the mount of Transfiguration, <strong><em>&#8220;This is my beloved, <mark class=\"has-inline-color has-maroon-color\">listen<\/mark> to him!&#8221;<\/em><\/strong> Martha was too distracted by her household responsibilities to sit. Mary sat at Jesus&#8217; feet and focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What distracts you today? What steps might you take to slow down, sit down, and listen to the voice of God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peace on your journey, friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/07\/Luke_10_0002_Martha-was-Distracted-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"The story of Martha and Mary from Luke 10:38-42.\" class=\"wp-image-268\" srcset=\"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/07\/Luke_10_0002_Martha-was-Distracted-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/07\/Luke_10_0002_Martha-was-Distracted-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/07\/Luke_10_0002_Martha-was-Distracted-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/07\/Luke_10_0002_Martha-was-Distracted-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2025\/07\/Luke_10_0002_Martha-was-Distracted.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:31px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Midweek Focus<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>For those on campus this week&#8230;Join us for a simple summer service of <strong>Holy Communion<\/strong> on Wednesday at 11:00am. We will simply read scripture, pray, and gather around the the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then&#8230;<strong>bring your bag lunch<\/strong> and we can eat together!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This could be a great opportunity to come together as a community, push aside the distractions, and focus on our relationships with God and each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hope to see you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Martha, Mary, and a World of Distractions We live in a world full of distractions. They ping us on our smart phones and lure us to doom scroll through the overwhelming news of all that is going wrong in the world. And then, when we feel overwhelmed, we medicate with cat videos or the eye [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267\/revisions\/275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inside.luthersem.edu\/deanofthechapel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}