Apostle to the Apostles

Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, July 22

Judith 9:1,11-14
2 Corinthians 5:14-18
John 20:11-18
Psalm 42:1-7

“Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.” John 20:18

In the name of one God: Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier. Amen.

Today we celebrate the church’s feast day for Mary Magdalene, Apostle to the Apostles. The story of Mary Magdalene and her witness to the disciples of Jesus’ resurrection, his appearance to her at the place of empty tomb is the root of her title as Apostle to the Apostles.

But this is probably not the part of Mary’s story that you know best, nor is it the aspect of her relationship to Jesus that you and I hear about the most in our contemporary context.

Thanks to a history of distortion by church fathers who have confused and conflated this Mary of Magdala with other Mary’s and unnamed female “sinners” in the Gospels, the first word you probably think of when you hear her name is prostitute… maybe repentant. Or, even more recently than that, the phenomenon of Dan Brown’s popular novel and film The Da Vinci Code, has put into the mainstream an image of this Mary as, perhaps, Jesus’ secret lover, wife, the mother of his child. Could it be that Mary Magdalene represents the elusive Holy Grail, a divine bloodline that might mean that descendants of Jesus walk among us?

Of course Dan Brown is not the only one to have purported these images of Mary. Medieval folklore exists that describes Mary as a woman banished to the South of France, who spent her life in prayer, fed by angels, and raising a child believed to be the progeny of Jesus. The 1960 novel and 1988 film, The Last Temptation of Christ questions whether Jesus made a choice between a life with

Mary Magdalene as a husband and parent, or death on the cross. And even Broadway has had its crack at the story with Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar, capturing an image of Mary Magdalene singing to herself: “I don’t know how to love him.” Caught between his presence as a human man, and the divinity that exuded from him, this Mary struggles with how to relate to Jesus – an ongoing question in Christian theology – how to understand and hold onto one who is wholly human and wholly divine?

These versions of the Magdalene story that are best known can be a lesson in the reality that oftentimes women are spoken of only in their relationship to the male counterpart in scripture. “Joanna, wife of Herod’s steward Chuza” (Luke 8:3), Jeptha’s daughter (1 Kings), etc.

So many of the images used when discussing Mary Magdalene describe her in relationship to Jesus in light of her bodily self– be it as the repentant prostitute whose body was a source of revenue or as the potential partner in marriage and motherhood – whose body was the vessel of growth and new life - reproduction.

Though vastly different images, they are both very body-centered images of femininity. Again, her work, and her companionship amongst the followers of Jesus are overshadowed, and we do not think of her first as Mary Magdalene: Apostle to the Apostles.

Given this new awareness, this new understanding that there is more to her story than we may have thought about before, how might we open ourselves to all that Mary Magdalene has to teach us? What other words might we begin to associate with Mary Magdalene and her ministry? Today I would suggest to you: Commitment, and Leadership.

Mary is first described in the Gospel of Luke as one of several women traveling with Jesus and his twelve apostles. The women are noted as providing for this group out of their own resources. Mary and these women were present with Jesus at the foot of the cross and committed to the care of his body after it had been placed in the tomb. Their loyalty and presence amidst his disciples from the beginning to the bitter end of their journey sets a powerful example for us.

It causes me to wonder, where are the moments in your lives, in your experiences, in your hearts, where you met Jesus and knew that you would follow Him throughout the journey of your life? Some of you have made commitments similar to this in relationships such as marriage, parenthood, partnership, and in the various personal commitments that you have made to one cause or another. Something burned in your heart and you knew that you would work every day, in some way to work toward the betterment of that relationship, or that need of the world.

Mary Magdalene’s moment of transition, of knowing that she would follow Jesus is told in the context of a healing experience, having 7 demons removed from her. It resulted in her commitment to follow, to learn, to be in community with Jesus, the Apostles and the others whose lives were changed by Jesus’ words and actions. Following Mary’s example, of loyalty and commitment, how are you being called to respond to Jesus in this community, this country, this world in need?

As a congregation we do this through our financial commitments to support diocesan and national church ministry funds, as well as the variety of offerings that we take each month – ERD, York Place, the Day School, RAIN, Christians Feed the Hungry, Cange, Haiti, etc. This week members of this congregation will host a group of diocesan youth and young adults traveling to Ecuador to bring the Happening program to that diocese. What commitments of time, talent and treasure are you adhering to in your call to follow Jesus?

Leadership. Mary Magdalene is an example to us of the presence and importance of female leadership from the earliest Christian community. There is an important piece of history that goes along with the misconceptions about who Mary Magdalene was, and how women’s leadership in Christian history has had to be recovered.

The fact that a woman was the one who first shared the message of Jesus’ triumph over death is another example of God’s work taking place in an unexpected vessel. She was given the commission to go and tell, she was given a voice to speak the truth: that Jesus’ love for God’s people had allowed him to take the fear out of death – that what he had said all along really was the truth. She was the first, sent to proclaim this Good News to Jesus’ followers.

This question was posed to me recently, “Where does it say in the Bible that women should not be leaders in church?” It was a woman calling from another denomination, not with malice in her heart, but with a true and real desire to reconcile the teachings that had been rooted in her religious education as a child, that women ought not take places of leadership in the church, pitted against the fact that a woman pastor had been called to serve at the congregation she now attends. In the same week I responded to a phone call requesting a pastoral visit with a female clergy-person.

The witness of female leadership that this church provides, both in this community of Rock Hill, and as the Episcopal Church at large is an incredibly meaningful and important one to men and women alike. Following in the example of Mary Magdalene, both men and women in the world have something to hear and learn from the unique place of the female voice.

Each of us sees, hears, experiences and tells the stories of our experience of Jesus in the voice and understanding that is unique to our context, our understanding of the world. Following in the example of Mary of Magdala, what witness will you make to the life changing experience of knowing the risen Christ, of being fed by the worship and sacred meal that we share together as followers of Christ, of the work and commitments that we make as a community and as individuals as living examples of God’s love in the world?

Mary Magdalene: Apostle to the Apostles, a loyal, committed and faithful leader. How will her story nourish yours? And to whom will you go and tell, “I have seen the Lord!” Amen.

Delivered by The Rev. Mary Catherine Enockson

The Episcopal Church of Our Saviour, Rock Hill, SC. July 22, 2007

I will follow...

5 Pentecost (Proper 8) Year C

1 Kings 19:15-16,19-21
Galatians 5:1,13-25
Psalm 16:5-11
Luke 9:51-62

“And as they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’” Luke 9:57

“Go after, pursue, chase, tag along, go behind.” To agree to follow is to allow another to lead. To commit one’s self to following another is to let the life and example of that one be your guide. It is to step back from yourself, and your desire to be in charge, to be in the know, to be the one with the answers, and to trust in another to provide for your needs, to be your teacher, and to bring you into a way of being that is not of your own desire and your own creation, but of their desire and their hope and dream for your life.

To follow Christ is to allow the presence, leadership and teachings of Jesus to shape and direct your life, your choices and your way of being in this world. It is to pursue the hopes that Christ has for the safety and health of all of God’s children in this world. It is to challenge the status quo that allows extreme economic disparity to continue day in and day out. To follow Christ is to remember that he spent time with the undesirables that lived on the margins of society – the poor, the sick, the unclean, the outcast.

I will follow you wherever you go, one person proclaimed as Jesus and his entourage passed by, but did he really know what he was committing to? Was he really prepared to follow Jesus, whose face was set toward Jerusalem; whose path was leading to his death on the cross? To agree to follow one must consider the consequences – the cost they will have to bear with the choice they make. In the readings for today we are given some examples of the consequences that come when making the decision to follow.

I will follow you Lord, but can you assure me that I will be able to live my life the way that I want to?

No, that cannot be assured. From the passage we learn that to follow Jesus was to face rejection from people’s homes, like the disciples’ experience in Samaria. They were not given a place to rest; they were not assured the security and safety of a home, a place to lay their heads.

My guess is that not many people in this room have ever faced the question – where will I lay my head tonight? Where am I going to make my home? But maybe some of you have opened your doors to strangers, allowed people into your lives from whom you didn’t always know what to expect, and you learned something new from those experiences. To follow Christ is to open ourselves to the possibility of change, to allow ourselves to learn from unexpected places and unexpected people.

We open the doors of this church 4 times a year to the families of the Interfaith Hospitality Network, hosting parents and children who are struggling to remain together as a family through the hardship of homelessness. We open our doors and our hearts to them in hope and faith that they might know something of the security a home. In doing this we offer what we can in a way of support, and we hope that new life might arise where there was no hope before. We do so, not knowing how it will end, or if each family will succeed. But we offer what we can.

And in doing this we make ourselves vulnerable. We learn to be honest with ourselves about our own needs, and wants, and to open ourselves to the possibility that others may have needs that are greater than our wants. When IHN is present with us we commit to giving a part of ourselves to them. We do not know what we will receive, but more often than not, we are changed by the experience of having them here. We make ourselves vulnerable to change when we open our eyes to the fact that there are people in Rock Hill who struggle to survive every day. We make ourselves vulnerable when we agree to be in relationship with people who live on the margins of our community, and whose presence is rejected by society at large.

I will follow you Lord, and I do so knowing that it will change me, and it will change the way that I live my life.

I will follow you Lord, but I can’t leave my home until my duties are done here. I must finish my work in the field. Then Lord, I can follow you.

There is always work to be done. There is always fun to be had. There is always family to be cared for. There are always things that are a natural part of our lives that can interrupt or distract us from our call to follow Christ. As Americans our lives are filled with endless possibilities of how to use our time, talent and treasure: weddings, birthdays, baptisms, funerals, sporting events, dinner parties, ski trips, beach trips, family reunions… To follow Christ is to recognize that at all times and in all places we are called to be disciples.

To follow Christ is to balance those times and places where we do the work we need to do, and to give ourselves the rest that we need to have while recognizing the needs of our community and how our gifts, talents, time and treasure might make a difference for someone in need.

Our Junior High Youth Missioners followed a call to leave their comfortable homes and surroundings, to join with youth from 7 Episcopal congregations from Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. They agreed to give 5 days of their time and energy, to rest their head on the floor of the library and the cafeteria of the Episcopal Day School in Augusts Georgia. They did so by lending their hands and their hearts to a variety of work projects that will contribute to improved education of children from a lower socio-economic class. They did so by volunteering at a food bank, sorting and packing hundreds of pounds of food: food that will go to families that can’t always afford a trip to the grocery store at the end of the month. Food that will be available to local groups that provide monthly, weekly or daily meal programs for people who have no place to rest their head, no security of a home of their own.

As the work week progressed we asked the youth to consider why they had agreed say, “Here I am, Lord, send me,” to give of their time and join in the work. We asked them to share with one another where they saw Christ on the weekend, and how they might continue to do the work of ministry through the Holy Spirit. Again and again we heard young people say, I saw Christ in the people we helped, I saw Christ in the friendships that I made, I saw Christ in the work we did with our hands, I saw Christ in this community.

To follow Christ is to take ourselves out of our own lives and busy schedules, to step back and to see the needs of others, and how we might be able to have an impact.

I will follow you Lord, and the responsibilities of my daily life will not keep me from doing your work in the world as well.

I will follow you, but I must take care of my parents, for they are old, and when they die I must be here to bury them. And I must say goodbye to my friends one last time. Then Lord, then I will follow you.

One year ago, I left my family and friends, I left my home state, I left the school that I had attended for three years and the community that I was a part of there. I set my face toward South Carolina, and I followed a call to come here to Rock Hill.

“South Carolina, God? Really? Me? Okay, if you say so.”

I discerned, I prayed, I contemplated, and I made the decision to come here, and you all invited me to come here as well. But the real reason that I made it here in the first place, and the reason that I am so glad to be with you here today, and gladly face the year and years to come, the real reason for this is the fact that I was called to be here. And even though it seemed like a shot into left field, I knew that it was a call that I needed to respond to. I was being called to follow Christ, to come into your midst and to become a part of this family. It does not mean that I am no longer connected to my family of origin, it does not mean that they matter less to me. But when my call came, I listened and I followed.

“Go after, pursue, chase, tag along, go behind.”

When we listen for and follow the call of Christ we are challenged, we are vulnerable, we have much to learn, and we learn that we have much to offer.

When we follow the call of Christ we may find ourselves in new and unexpected places, but we often find ourselves right in the place we were meant to be. Where is Christ calling you today? And are you ready and willing to say, “I will follow you, wherever you go”? Amen.

Delivered by The Rev. Mary Catherine Enockson
The Episcopal Church of Our Saviour, Rock Hill, SC July 1, 2007