Today we are celebrating the feast of our patron Mary Magdalen, but what do we really now about her and what can she teach us? She seems to have been a woman around whom myths and legends have gathered. These have included that she was descended from a noble family, that she was the sister of Martha and Lazarus,that she married Jesus and had his child, that she was a high priestess in a Roman temple at Magdala, after the crucifixion and resurrection she went to Franceor she went to Ephesus with Mary the mother of Christ. Both those last two statements can not be true, so what do we know of the real Mary Magdalene?
In the New testament she is introduced as Mary who is called Magdalen. The most likely explanation for this is that she was from Magdala, a town on the shores of lake Galilee near Tiberius. We don’t really know much about her family background, however she is listed as one of the women who travel with Jesus and support him financially, therefore she must have had some sort of independent source of income. According to both Mark and Luke, Mary had had seven demons driven out of her by Christ. She was present at the crucifixion, the burial and of course, as we heard in the gospel today the resurrection of Christ.
Now, there seem to be several key scenes missing from that little summary, wasn’t Mary the woman caught in adultery, and didn’t she pour ointment over Jesus’s feet and wipe it all up with her hair?
We don’t know who the woman caught in adultery was. The Mary who poured ointment over Jesus’s feet in John’s gospel was Mary the sister of Martha and Lazarus and from about 591 until 1969 the Roman catholic church did say they were the same person, although the Eastern Orthodox church has always claimed they are two separate people. However the story of the anointing of Jesus’s feet in Luke’s gospel doesn't name the woman. It may have been Mary Magdalene we just don’t know.
What we do know is Mary was a woman of great courage. It must have taken courage to walk away from her family and everything she knew to follow Jesus. It certainly took courage to remain at the foot of the cross, with the suffering Jesus and the jeering Romans, when most of the male disciples had fled into hiding.
Mary Magdalen was a woman who loved Jesus, not in a romantic way, but with a grateful love for what he had done for her. Whatever Mark and Luke were referring to when they said Jesus had healed her of seven demons, Mary had clearly been in a dark place. Like many people with mental health problems today she had probably felt at rock bottom that no one could care for her or love her. Then Jesus came along and showed her that she was loved and cared for. Mary responds by loving him back. It is this love that may have given her the courage to follow him and stay with him until the bitter end. It was this love that took her to the tomb to care for his body and allowed her to be the first to meet the risen Jesus.
Mary is also ready and willing to tell others about Jesus. In part of Chapter 20 of John’s gospel that we didn’t hear this morning, Mary has seen the empty tomb and fetched Peter and John. The gospel tells us that Peter and John saw the empty tomb,but not the risen Jesus, they saw and believed and went home. Peter and John believe but they don’t understand and they go home. Mary meanwhile stays at the tomb and has her encounter with the risen Christ. She receives the full revelation of the resurrection. She then rushes to tell others, in this case the disciples the wonderful news about the risen Christ. This is the action that earns her the title apostle to the apostles, she is the first evangelist, the first to spread the good news of the resurrection.
So, what does all this mean for us? In the coming months as we adjust to the interregnum we may need the courage of Mary Magdalen. As a community we need the courage to face an uncertain future, like the early church, we need to be sure of our identity and as a community face any problems that may come our way. Individually, now may be the time when we need courage to maybe volunteer to take on a new role or responsibility within the church community. After all as the saying goes many hands make light work. It can be tempting to think it’s easier to sit back and wait for a new priest first, but that may be a long wait. As a church community we need to pull together so that we can keep doing God’s work in this place. Have the courage of Mary Magdalen to do your part.
As Mary was grateful for what Jesus had done in her life, so we can be grateful to God for the ministry we shared with Fr Edward over the past five years, for how he helped us grow individually and as a community. We can give thanks for what he taught us and how he helped us to learn from each other. Marys gratitude led to her love for Jesus and her giving her life to his service. So for us, gratitude to God for what we have received in the past can help reaffirm our desire to follow him now.
Rather than feeling sad for what we have lost, we should be grateful for what we had and be able to look forward in hope for how we will continue to serve God in Chapelfields going forwards.
Mary was the apostle to the apostles, the first to spread the good news of the risen Christ. So, we too, need to be prepared to tell others of the life changing good news of the gospel. In a culture where many people do not even know the basics of the Christian story, where misinformation is rife, it is even more important that we are able and have the confidence to explain to others the faith and why it is so important to us and could be to them.
So, as we celebrate our patronal feast, let us try to be a little more like Mary Magdalen, have courage, be grateful for what we have had, love God and tell people about him.
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