Our 'creative side'

Christmas is often a time of year when people’s creative side emerges. You see it in decoration, how gifts are handled and in all the baking and cooking that goes into its celebration. Have you ever stopped to think about where this ‘creative streak’ comes from? 

If you accept the theory of evolution you might think of all kinds of adaptive reasons for its development. I am not going to enter into any debate around that. As Christian, I believe we are creative because we are made in the image of God, however that occurred. God is creative. Most religions of the world believe that. We might say that’s why the whole universe is here, including us humans and the earth we live in. We have an account of creation in chapter one of our Judeo-Christian Old Testament.

Can we answer our original question more easily if we understand why God is creative? Interestingly, I am not sure that question is answered anywhere in The Bible, at least not straightforwardly. But I have a theory.

We are told that God is Love. What is love? One could possibly give many answers to that question. For my argument here, I will propose that at least one element of love is that it is an outward directed ‘force,’ for want of a better word. We are also told that God is all about Relationship. Now, if you want relationship, you need something, someone, to relate to. Now, we believe God exists in a Trinity wherein there is a tripartite relationship between ‘Father,’ ‘Son,’ and ‘Holy Spirit.’ At the same time, we believe that is only one being. Still no ‘other’ to share that love with. Follow my train of thought?

Well, yes, he had apparently created angels. We do not know a lot about these beings. They are most often seen in the Judeo-Christian tradition as servants and messengers of God. Were they not enough? Maybe not. And why not? Could it have something to do with their freedom? It would seem from our limited attempts to explain the origins of evil that there was an angel who did appear to exercise some choice and rebel against God. We call him Satan, the Devil, the Evil One, or, in more charitable moments, considering his origins, Lucifer, the Angel of Light. But we also speak of God as Light. But I digress, somewhat.

God had a plan. He has all kinds of plans. He created the universe and our earth in it, populated it with untold varieties of flora and fauna, not to mention the beautiful landscapes and seascapes, the skies. God is Good, so, naturally, everything he was created he saw as good. However, something was missing. When we love, do we not yearn for someone to receive our love, ideally to love us back. Why, that idea was even popularized in a Jefferson Airplanehit song in the 60’s, “Don’t You Want Somebody to Love?” After all, relationships are not a one-way street. That is not selfish. We realize, even scientifically now, it is essential for our health, our survival. All of what he had created from Days 1-5 was unable to reciprocate that love satisfactorily. 

Do we not love best when the other is like us? God’s solution was to create beings into whom he personally breathed the breath of life. Furthermore, we are told, he created them – us – in his image. Ergo, we are creative because God is creative.

So, why do we create? Do we not have a compulsion, a drive to do so? At least if we are healthy enough. And do we not do so because we enjoy it? Do we not like ‘the fruit of our labours?’ Just as God liked and called good all of his creation. 

However, there is more to this. I don’t believe we can separate these characteristics of person we have been talking about – love, reciprocity or relationship, creativity. Ultimately, we create because we want someone else to enjoy it. As I said with relation to our Creator, that is not selfish. Yes, in our imperfection, we have often made it less than what it should or could be. That means some of us seem happy to keep it all to ourselves, for a variety of reasons. Others are so starved for attention and acceptance, approval, they go overboard in trying to gain that for their creativity from others. Notice how relationship is tied in with this.

Also, I believe, in our imperfection, we often create things which are not good. But that’s a whole ‘nother story.

For most of us, who enjoy the creative process and feel compelled to create, we want to share our creativity with others. Does true sharing not come from love? See, again, how the strands of God and personality are inseparable?

So, does this help explain more about what we are about when we create? It’s a lot more than just wanting that ‘Like’ on Facebook, isn’t it?

Going on 42 years – I think that supports my sharing some comments about marriage.

Some say marriage is a dying institution. Others seem to put more stock (literally in some cases no doubt) in the wedding. You learn about weddings costing upwards of $20,000. And then the divorce follows 3 years later. So, what was all that about? I don’t think our wedding, including the clothes we wore, cost $500. And no, that doesn’t mean it would have been a lot more in today’s dollars taking into account inflation etc.

But you are curious about what makes a wedding last. Maybe even more so about how ours lasted so long? 

To be sure, to begin with, ours is what some call a mixed marriage, meaning my wife Anne and I are not of the same background, other than that we are human. Some would say that would be a strike against success from the get-go. Could be. But it’s never been a problem for us. Well, of course, there were a lot of significant values we shared. But with her being from the most conservative ethnic group of Taiwanese and me being from what some would call ‘ethnic Mennonite’ stock in Canada, well, you get the picture. 

One thing we both learned quickly about each other was that we valued family. Anne loved and appreciated her family back in Taiwan. She could see from my connections with my siblings up to my grandparents and even great uncles and aunts how meaningful family was for me.  We also both loved nature. I grew up in northern Canada, where the wild was a stone’s throw from the front door. She had taken to hiking in nature in her university years. We were both pretty thrifty, not materialistic. We both loved music, although my tastes are much more varied, including a lot more rock, blues etc., whereas hers tends mostly to classical, which I also like.  We both like good literature, reading. Gardening was also something we had in common. My family carried on our rural roots Mennonite tradition in that respect. Anne’s family also had all kinds of plants and trees for food in the compound that was part of her home growing up. We enjoy playing games together. As time went on we discovered a mutual fondness for travel and exploration. We tend to prefer nature or heritage sites, especially old buildings (homes, public buildings, churches and cathedrals), most often found in cities.

However, the core of our being together this long really has a lot to do with our faith. The seeds of Christianity had been planted in her childhood by Anne’s attending pre-school and Sunday school in a Roman Catholic mission in her hometown. She was led to join a group of Chinese immigrants who were actively involved with the Alliance Church in Winnipeg, where we met, even before I met her. So, it wasn’t much of a switch for her to start going to my Mennonite Church with me when we started going together. Eventually she was baptized into the Mennonite Church and is as staunch and well-informed an Anabaptist as you will find.

In this Christian tradition, marriage is seen as being ordained by God at the beginning. Monogamy and lifetime commitment are the expected norms. So, when you accept all that and have family and a faith community to hold and support you as you move along the path of your marriage, staying the course is doable. Unfortunately, many don’t even have that to begin with. This is not to say that having a faith is a necessary key to a successful marriage. There are people who have no spiritual faith who make their marriages last. However, they will no doubt still share enough of a belief system, of values, to sustain their relationship.

So, what about the quality of your relationship, some might well be asking. Indeed, that is important. No one wants a joyless marriage. I think the attitude you bring to marriage, in our case, increasingly shaped by our faith, still had a lot to do with this for us. I think we were very fortunate in this regard. I was nearly 28 when we met, Anne, going on 25. That brings a certain maturity to one’s assessment of things. At the same time, we quickly fell into a deeply passionate and intimate relationship. That, in my opinion, has formed an important part of the foundation of a good marriage, at least when it continues. When there are difficult moments, when we are apart, as we often are these days, for months at a time with Anne spending time with her aging parents in Taiwan, not usually with me there, remembering that love helps carry us through. The pictures from that era, the songs we shared between us that I wrote, all help. We are no longer young and as good-looking as we might have been then. But when you have a marriage like ours, founded on what we have, your beloved will always look beautiful to you – what you see is never separated from what you saw when you were younger.

A good marriage is something based on firm commitment that one works at to maintain. As the old “Sound of Music” line goes, “nothing comes from nothing.” Our world is too inundated with material from psychology and the media that creates unrealistic expectations of marriage. You have to be married to a soul-mate. Your youthful passion has to continue till – when? Movies, pop songs and checkstand pulp aside, marriage is not just better and better sex! 

From the outside some marriages might look like the couple never argue, fight or has a disagreement. As Anne would say, “Get real.” But when these things happen, you have to look at the bigger picture and stay the course, making whatever adjustments seem necessary remedy the situation and sometimes just weathering it until it passes, however that occurs. Don’t jump to dire conclusions about the end of your marriage looming ahead of you just because you had a spat! Back off, survey the scene, cool down and let reason re-emerge. Don’t live on feelings and emotions. Of course, as I said, you do need them – in their place. If the temptation of divorce surfaces in the heat of the moment, think about what you have done together over the years, the life you have created together. Think of your partner. What have they done and put into the relationship? How can you selfishly and foolishly think of throwing all that away? 

That brings me to another important aspect of a good marriage, which also has roots in our faith, particularly some of the injunctions in the letters of the New Testament in our Bible about marriage and love. True love wants the best for the other person. Look at who your partner is, what they like that’s valid, what they are interested in, what they are capable of, what their dreams are. Do what you can to support and help them enjoy and achieve all that. I don’t mean put them on a sacred pedestal to worship and adore. That helps no one.

I know some marriages don’t succeed. Some should not continue because, for whatever reason, whether it’s abuse or infidelity, for example, it is really no longer a marriage. I feel for those caught in these situations. Sometimes, with the right help, those situations can be successfully changed. Sometimes divorced couples do successfully remarry, but that’s the exception.

Marriage might not be for everyone. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with singleness. Far be it from me to imply that if you don’t get married life can’t be enjoyable and meaningful. Yes, you will miss out on some things such as the nature of mutually shared love and all that offers, but there are other things in life that can satisfy, provided the single person doesn’t pity him or herself, or envy the married. Singleness has its advantages too. 

A successful marriage is a relationship that requires enough communication to share what’s needed, to solve the problems that arise. It is not created from the moment you say “I do.” It has a beginning, yes, but it is built, over hours, days, weeks, months and years. If you have enough good common ground to begin with, and build on that, maintain it, with a healthy appreciation for the past and hope for the future, hopefully within a supportive community, lifelong marriage can be a love that just keeps on getting deeper and better. That would be my prayer for you, married or contemplating it, dear reader. 

2018 11 4 Sermon – Living in the Shadows: Mary Who? - John 20:1-2 & 20:11-18

I.             Introduction

Good morning. Today we are two thirds through this sermon series Living in the Shadows, addressing feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt we sometimes experience. These messages are to ‘reframe’ our notions of self-worth by observing the lives and legacies of biblical characters who seem to have played secondary roles in the scriptures. Instead of comparing ourselves with the lives of others who seem to be more gifted or successful, looking at these ‘shadow’ biblical characters and how God used them, we [can see that the lives of each one of us has meaning and a special place in God’s plan. We need to get God’s perspective on our personal worth, significance and legacy.

II.           Women in The Old New Testament vs. The New Testament

Today’s text takes us from the Old Testament to the New, with two significant changes:

1.    None of the women written up in the Old Testament came as close, literally, to God, as these two women.  

2.    Whereas the stories of the women of the OT are generally left there, for the most part unchanged, the stories of these two women continue on past the time of the writing of the Bible into the Early Church and beyond with lessons for us from those periods as well as from the Bible.

III.          Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Bible Story

1.    Called… 

Let’s look first at Jesus’ mother Mary, whom we meet first. Our introduction to this young woman is the familiar story of an angel appearing to her and telling her, as recorded in Luke 1:30, “…you have found favor with God! You will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 1:32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David.”

Our first thought here might be – Mary must have been one special person. To find such favour with God! One thing one might say Mary had going for her to begin with was her royal lineage - she was a descendant of King David. She was nowhere near the throne, but this had to be her place to fulfil prophecy, as Jesus was to sit squarely in Israel’s history as a king. We also know from Matthew’s gospel that she was already engaged. So, she was following the customs of the day. Someone found her desirable as a future wife and mother – besides God!

If we think back to other stories we have already looked at though, were we told anything about the person’s character or what they did that caused God to give them the appointed task before they were called? No, our call comes from God’s grace and that’s usually the first time we hear of these characters. We don’t earn God’s favour. That’s a basic lesson we never seem to totally accept. I believe we have these stories to show that God, when he comes calling, wants our obedience, and these stories are examples for us to learn that from.

…And obedient

Mary’s greatness in God’s story likewise comes only after her calling. What if Mary had said, “No, I can’t do this. Who am I?” Perhaps her asking how is this possible because I have never had sex was a way of saying that. But no, Mary was obedient from the outset. She submitted to God’s calling, to his will.  

2.    Tested…

As the story unfolds we begin to see what kind of a woman she was. She does not appear to have been timid, one to hold back. The first thing we read after accepting the word of the Lord is that she treks off across the Palestinian countryside to visit her aunt in Judea. I can’t imagine that it was an everyday occurrence for young pregnant women to go travelling. She likely did not travel alone in those days either. She was probably accompanied by a male relative. Still, there had to be a certain amount of strength, bravery there. 

And that was not the end of her travels. Just before Jesus is born, she has to obey an imperial edict and travel with her betrothed, Joseph, from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Not long after Jesus’ birth, she and Joseph have to flee with their newborn to Egypt. This was in obedience to another angel-delivered command from heaven, to prevent Jesus falling prey to the murderous wrath of King Herod. His visit with the wisemen who came to see the baby Jesus led him to believe someone had been born in the Bethlehem vicinity with the potential to become a king, and he could not accept that. One has to think that these travels were something of a test too. Travel was not easy in those days. But again, Mary was obedient.

…  and faithful

Mary also appears to have been a good Jew from a religious standpoint. She and Joseph did their duty by going from Bethlehem to the temple in Jerusalem shortly after Jesus’ birth for her purification. They also presented an offering in lieu of their new firstborn son. And when Jesus was 12, they took him from Nazareth to Passover in Jerusalem. 

Mary also had a thoughtful nature, as we see from the brief comment that follows the story of Jesus staying behind in the temple. The story says she “pondered these things in her heart.”  Her idea of introducing the possibility of a miracle when Jesus turned water into wine at Cana also tells us she had already heard or seen something of what Jesus could do and kept it in mind. 

3.    Mary the Devoted Mother

Mary was also a concerned and caring mother. We are told that on one or two occasions she took Jesus’ brothers, no doubt for moral support, and went to see Jesus after he had begun his ministry and was in Capernaum. She seems to have been of the opinion that Jesus was overdoing things. Maybe she thought he needed to come home for a rest and some good home cooking.  Jesus reply to Mary though seems almost rude to us; he seems to scarcely give her an audience at the time.

But she did not give up on Jesus.  She was there, as a mother, at what was surely the most trying time of her life – when Jesus was on the cross. It seems she stayed in Jerusalem after the crucifixion and resurrection, as we are told in Acts 1 that both she and Jesus’ brothers were with the rest of the disciples when they continued to meet there before Pentecost, waiting for the Holy Spirit.

IV.         Mary Magdalene, the Bible Story

1.    Called…

Then, there is the other Mary. We are introduced to her in Luke 8, as one of a group of women who traveled with Jesus. According to verse 2 she had been “healed of evil spirits and disabilities.” In other words, she was “possessed’. Somehave come to believe she was a prostitute, but nowhere in the Bible does it say that. In fact,I would really like to dispense with that idea and get it out of the way so we can look at the biblical and Early Church Mary Magdalene.

… and obedient

To help with this, I quote Walter Unger, former President of Columbia Bible College.He writes: She was not connected to [Jesus]in any other sense [than as a disciple]. If she were related to a male, the Gospels would have recorded this as they did of the other women in [this] group.

What about Mary’s severe case of demon possession, as indicated by the number “seven”? [Knowing what we do about the use of the number 7, this could simply refer to her having been delivered from a very large number of demons, or very troubling ones]Jesus delivered Mary from what was undoubtedly a very distressing existence, yet there is no reason for connecting the demons with immoral conduct. Such possession is more usually associated with mental disorder.”

2.    Faithful…

In any case, Mary Magdalene appears to have become a devoted follower. Traveling with Jesus and his disciples, she was responding to what Jesus had done for her. As Unger says, “Jesus entered Mary’s life to do for her what she could not do for herself. He gave her sanity, serenity and wholeness, and she was forever grateful.”

Because Mary is included in the group of women who are described as “[providing] for them [Jesus and his disciples that is] out of their resources” Unger writes: Mary must [therefore] have been a woman of independent means, which was very unusual in first-century Palestinian society. She shared of her means in support of Jesus’ ministry, and travelled with Him, as pupil with rabbi. Supporting a rabbi was one thing, but for a woman to leave home and travel with a rabbi was unheard of. Indeed, according to the Talmud, rabbis were not allowed to teach women… 

Jesus broke such oppressive patriarchal norms. He welcomed women into His company, accepted their devotion, and taught them… Jesus treated Mary Magdalene and His other women followers with dignity, showing them that women and men were equally worthy before God. That view of women was revolutionary in that society…

… and courageous

Quoting Unger again: It also took enormous courage for Mary Magdalene and other women to follow Jesus. One can just imagine the gossip and innuendo as people saw these women moving in our Lord’s entourage.

Three aspects of Mary’s journey with Jesus are especially heroic [though].

1. Along with other women, Mary Magdalene stood by Jesus in His suffering on the cross (John 19:25). It was risky to be found in the proximity of the crucifixion of an enemy of the state, but Mary Magdalene’s devotion to Jesus outweighed such danger. It is noteworthy that it was women who stood by Jesus when all the disciples except John had fled in fear.

2. Second, Mary Magdalene was prepared to anoint our Lord’s body. This was another courageous act, for being near the grave of an enemy of the state was just as risky as being found near the cross (Mark 16:1). [End quote]

But it was the faith and courage of this woman that was rewarded with the highest of honours when it comes to the resurrection story. This is the third noteworthy feature. 

            3. Her rewarded firsts

3. Quoting Unger again: Mary Magdalene was the first to see the empty tomb, the first to see the resurrected Lord. According to John 20:17, when Mary saw Jesus, hesaid, “Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” And, just like the other Mary, Jesus’ mother, this Mary was obedient. She went and informed the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” and told them what Jesus had said to her. She was “the first to announce His resurrection (Luke 23:54–56; 24:1–12; Mark 16:11; John 20:11–18)...  In Luke and Mark, it is recorded that Mary’s words seemed to the disciples as an idle tale. Of course. In that culture, the credibility of a woman’s testimony was zero. The male disciples did not believe Mary and the other women’s initial reports of the empty tomb and the angels’ words until they went to see for themselves. Again, our Lord struck at such tyranny against women by entrusting the announcement of the most revolutionary event in the history of the world to a woman – Mary Magdalene.

Mary Magdalene was thus, in Unger’s words, if we can use a literary versus biblical term, a true “heroine, a woman transformed by Jesus and willing to risk all to follow Him. Her mission to announce “Jesus is alive!” is the mission of every true believer today.” 

3.    Mary of Nazareth in the Early Church

Mary of Nazareth seems, after the resurrection and ascension of her son, to have been given a prominent place as the matriarch of the young male disciples. She appears from the biblical story to have met them early in Jesus ministry. They certainly saw each other at the miracle of the wedding wine in Cana, perhaps even before. She was together with them in Jerusalem after Jesus’ resurrection. No doubt she had a lot to share with them and they had a lot they could learn from her. Not just stories about Jesus, but from all those attributes of herself we have discussed this morning, as a model of obedience, including through some very trying times, faithfulness and devotion.

4.    Mary of Magdala in the Early Church

And in time, Mary Magdalene seems to have been given credit.  Many bible scholars, basing their conclusions on their reading of the New Testament stories and other non-canonical writings as well as those of the Early Church fathers, believe Mary Magdalene held a prominent a place at the time. She was given the title, Apostle to the Apostles, for being the first one to tell the good news of the resurrection to the 11 male Apostles, a title still honoured more in the Eastern Church. When it came to the women, she seems to have equaled on behalf of the women the place Peter held as a male in the Early Church. 

Indeed, there is a nice little story in the non-canonical Gospel of Mary. The disciples after Jesus’ Ascension are feeling abandoned, rather hopeless, grieving and simply not feeling motivated. It is Mary Magdalene who gets their attention and basically say, “Come on, men, ‘buck up!’ Jesus gave you a mission and the power to do it. Get to work!” The disciples seem to shake their collective heads and say, “Yes, you’re right” this time. Perhaps the lesson of Mary being the first to tell them of the resurrection, which they had not believed at first, had been learned. 

Warning – Patriarchy returns

However, sadly, old traditions don’t go away that easily. By the 3^rdcentury, the leadership of women in the church began to fade, not to revive in a large measure till the 20^th century.  This was due in part to the union of church and state that began to take shape then and which held sway until not that long ago. I would say the loss of the voice of women was an evil, a result of the church moving away from where God in his wisdom, as part of his plan, began to include women in a wonderful way and from where it should have continued! The politics of the state and church for the most part since, have been the domain of the male, so it is not surprising that women lost their place and their voice.

There are other warnings in what has happened in the stories of the lives of these two women. They have to do with what happened after the Bible was written.

5.    Lessons from the Post-Early Church Era

A.  Mary, the Perpetual Virgin

When it comes to Jesus' mother, I refer to what the Roman Catholic Church has done with what some call Marianism or Mariology. I have to acknowledge my indebtedness for much of this Catholic history to A Short History of the Catholic Churchby theologian Hans Kung who, admittedly, is not popular with many Catholics, especially the leadership. They refer to Jesus’ mother nowadays in capital letters as The Perpetual Virgin. Their theologians believe it is essential to believe that Mary remained a virgin, as that is how they explain the fact that she could be selected as the mother of sinless God. This began already in AD 431 when the Council of Ephesus moved from calling Mary the Mother of Jesus to the Mother of God.  This really took hold in the 12^thcentury with Bernard of Clairvaux describing Mary in cosmic terms as The Queen of Heaven. Pope Sixtus IV formalized the Doctrine of Immaculate Conception in 1476 as a dogma and as recently as 1854 Pope Pius IX made it his mission to promote this to further traditional piety and reinforce the Roman Catholic system. Indeed, Jesus was God, but Mary was only the mother of his human form. God, the full Trinity, has no mother. 

Then, in spite of the Reformation’s fight against idolatry, the Catholic Counter-Reformation supported increased veneration of Mary to the point where Mary herself became the subject of numerous statues in the churches, an object of worship and even pray to. Ironically, Mary was being promoted in Catholicism by a totally patriarchal hierarchy. One more fanciful dogma that Pope Pius XII introduced in 1950 was that Mary, like her resurrected son, was taken up into heaven and never died! Apologies to Roman Catholics here but so much of this is contrary to what we believe the Bible clearly teaches, that Jesus alone is our mediator with God and worthy of worship. Mary, for all the good that can be said of her, was no more than an ordinary mortal, but given a special place in history because of God’s call and her obedience. However, from the biblical point of view, her story essentially ends with Acts chapter 1.

B.   Mary the Harlot

As for Mary Magdalene,I quote again from Walter Unger:

Preceding the passage [in Luke 8 about Mary following Jesus], in the last part of Luke 7, is the story of the sinful woman..., who washes the feet of Jesus with her tears and anoints His feet with ointment. The proximity of these two stories has led many to believe these two women were one and the same – a prostitute.

The immoral Mary myth really took hold after AD 591 when Pope Gregory the Great preached a sermon on Mary Magdalene in which he turned the sinful woman of Luke 7, and Mary Magdalene of Luke 8:2into one woman, and, according to him, she was a fallen woman. Once this medieval pronouncement of Mary the Harlot was made, artists began to embellish the story of Mary Magdalene, the reclaimed courtesan, until the real Mary got lost. Hundreds of voluptuous Mary Magdalenes were splashed onto canvasses throughout Europe. In the 20th century, movies and musicals like Jesus Christ Superstarcontinued to portray Mary as a prostitute,[not to mention novels by writers like Dan Brown and his The Da Vinci Code.]

So, what the church did with Mary of Nazareth, though not biblical, could be said to have elevated her in human eyes into a holier and saintlier position than what the Bible really calls for. When it comes to the story about Mary Magdalene, my warning is thus of a different nature. What man was done with poor Mary Magdalene since the days of the early church has been to turn her into little more than a trashy prostitute. Here the Church is guilty of making someone’s reputation worse, not better. What Pope Gregory had said about Mary Magdalene opened the floodgates to literally paint this Mary in an increasingly questionable and negative way. 

6.    Comparing the Two Marys

Beginnings

Some would say Mary of Nazareth got off to an ideal start – a pure virgin, of royal lineage. We don’t know the whole story of the other Mary, but it was obviously nothing like Jesus’ mother’s when Jesus found her. One could say she got off to a pretty bad start. 

Their call

But both Marys ended up in their respective respected and beloved positions because they were singled out, called by God, to their places in God’s story. God sent an angel to announce her mission to Mary the mother of Jesus. Jesus himself singled out Mary Magdalene and cured her of demon possession, freeing her to follow him.

The lesson

Mary Magdalene’s story disproves the idea that a bad life is an obstacle to God's grace. The lives of both women illustrate the point that God takes us where he finds us and can turn our life around from there in unexpected ways. We just have to obey and follow his call. In the end, both of these women were immensely privileged by the role they were given in God’s story.

A new place for women in God’s Kingdom 

These two women exemplified a new place in God’s kingdom for the female sex that had simply not been there before. Protestants now also recognize that there is some benefit in paying more attention to Mary of Nazareth, Mary Magdalene and other women in God’s story, partly to counter patriarchy, but simply because half the world is women and their representatives in God’s story also need to be upheld for what they can teach us! Interestingly, on a personal note, my very first sermon, preached 50 years ago, was about these women and how their place in God’s story supported that women be treated as equals and be given the vote in the Mennonite community!

Out of the shadow: Mary Magdalene, A new model of love and the first missionary

Indeed, if we disregard those negative influences on the stories of the 2 Marys I have described, which I would say are none other than the efforts of Satan on who Mary of Nazareth and Mary Magdalene are, but just go by what the Bible and Early Church said, we will arrive at a much lovelier and purer understanding of these woman, especially Mary Magdalene. 

Mary of Nazareth did not receive much extra attention in the biblical story after Jesus birth and early years, other than being at the cross and later in Jerusalem with the other disciples. It is humans, not God, who have elevated her to god-like status. 

If we look at the bible account and the Early Church, it is obvious that humans have given little positive attention to Mary Magdalene when she played a much more significant role in God’s plan. No one else appears to have had a more model relationship of love and devotion to Jesus. No one else has been as fortunate in that regard, to experience this, then Mary Magdalene. Apart from Jesus' mother, she appears to be the only other woman who most fully lived in the brilliant light of the love of Jesus as a human to human, indeed, as God to human, something we can only yearn for and imagine. Maybe she did think, “I don’t know how to love him, I don’t know why he moves me, he’s a man…”as in the well-known Andrew Lloyd Webber song from Jesus Christ Superstar. But we can ignore the rest of the song for it still wants to see Mary as possibly a prostitute. But this was a pure love, not a sentiment of desire or lust. And again, God, in the form of the resurrected Jesus, chose her to be the first missionary, a woman, the first to begin the spread of the good news of Jesus’ resurrection, the gospel. I hope that what I have said about her today, paints her in a much more positive light, and that we keep her there as a reminder that God does great things even with those humans consider less important! 

Lorne Brandt, 2018 11 4