Mary Magdalene

As Mary Magdalene recognised the risen Jesus she did perhaps what any close friend would have done on seeing a loved one and gave him a great big hug. But Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me… but go and tell the others that I have risen.’

In this one encounter between Jesus and Mary Magdalene I think we get the full sense of the urgency with which Jesus encouraged people to share the good news that he was, and he is, alive. From the depression that must have covered the group of Jesus’ followers immediately after his death, the whole situation is turned around as Jesus appears again to them.

The disciples, naturally, I think, must have wanted to just revel in the celebrations, and spend time with someone they thought had gone forever. They must surely have just wanted to spend time alone with him, and not share him with others, but Jesus had other plans. He was to be with them only for a short time, and none of that time could be wasted.

And so Mary Magdalene was called upon to go and tell the others, and in that request of Jesus we are reminded that everyone, even the most unlikely people, are called to tell people about the gospel – the gospel that Jesus is risen, and is alive.

Mary Magdalene has become the source of huge debate and controversy in recent times, but the real facts are that not a huge amount is known with any certainty about her. Theories have been made up and made to sound plausible, but actually all we know is that she was an unlikely sort of preacher. She seems to have had little religious background, and for whatever reason, seems to have had a rather dubious reputation.

But Jesus called her to be amongst his closest friends, he valued her company and friendship, and even more than that, he believed that she had a role to play in sharing the gospel. Today all kinds of unlikely people are being called to proclaim the gospel – rich, poor, good, bad, young, old, all races, and people of every nation, are called to witness to the risen Jesus.

Mary Magdalene was the first called and she was ready to go and do her work. And this leads on to the second point – whilst all are called it doesn’t mean that all will respond. In all different parts of life one of the things most necessary is commitment. Jesus knew that he could rely on Mary Magdalene. She had been there with him all the time, she didn’t run away when many of the others did, but stayed with him to the cross, and was there tending his grave immediately afterwards.

Mary never quit. She never gave up on Jesus, and she never forgot that her calling was a constant calling. Being called to be a disciple of Jesus is a huge privilege, but it’s not an easy calling. It is not a calling that has anything to do with turning up for Church on a Sunday.

Rather it is about living our lives, the whole of our lives, with an intention to give glory to God, and to serve him in whatever way we can. When we do things we should strive to do them well, because everything we are doing reflects on God. When we serve the Church we must do so with commitment to do it well, because in serving the Church, the body of Christ on earth today, we are serving God.

Jesus called on Mary because he knew she was committed. He knew that she would do anything for him… and that is our calling too. What opportunities are we missing because we’re not committed enough ? What more opportunities will we find to share the gospel of love and peace and hope and joy, if we put a little bit more into our commitment ?

The building of God’s Church has nothing to do with the building at all. It is about developing a community, a family, committed to serving Christ. Together we enjoy fellowship, company and comfort, we share joy and sometimes pain, we support each other, we love each other… But we also go about doing Christ’s work – feeding the hungry, helping the sick and needy in whatever way we can, clothing those who need clothing…

A family is built on the commitment of it’s members to be a family – following the example of Mary Magdalene, may we respond to the love of Christ and to each other to build a family that everyone wants to be a part of.

There’s a story about a man who took his son to Church one day, and they went to say the Lord’s Prayer. It was in a morning service where the Lord ’s Prayer stopped after, ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…’ For a little while the boy continued, ‘For thine is the kingdom, the power…’ and he stopped there as he realised that nobody else was saying anything. He turned to his father, and said, ‘there is no power and glory in this Church…’

Our Church must reflect the power and glory of God – a power and a glory that can never be restricted to a building but must work its way out into every corner of the earth. That is the sort of family that people will surely want to join.

And so if we recognise the calling of Mary, and our calling, and if we consider her commitment and our commitment, we move on a stage further to the command of Jesus to build his Church, his family on earth, fast ! I’ve said before how easy it is to become comfortable in the Church, and to convince ourselves we are doing a good job if we get people in on a Sunday.

And it is good to see people in Church on a Sunday – we all need that time of fellowship and praise as we gather together to pray, to celebrate and to encourage one another. But that must then lead out into our work for the rest of the week.

It’s not too dramatic to say that all around us people are dying spiritually. People need God… All around us there are people who are sick or lonely, who are depressed, angry, tired, materialistic, hurting, afraid; people who have nothing.

When Jesus spoke of sharing the gospel he didn’t talk about filling buildings, he didn’t talk about negative things, or about guilt or about punishment – he spoke about good news for all people. He talked about people having hope; people having life, and having that life abundantly !

Many years ago, a young mother was carrying her child over the hills and got caught up in a terrible blizzard. She never made it to her destination. After the blizzard had subsided, her body was recovered. But they discovered that before her death, she had taken off all of her outer clothing and wrapped it around her child, who was alive and well. She had given her life for her child. That child was David Lloyd George, who of course grew up to be Prime Minister.

The love of God for each one of us, and for everyone in the world, is just like that love, only it’s magnified to a limit that we can never understand. That is the message that we respond to – God’s love for us, and that is the message that we must seek to share with all people, regardless of what we might think of them, because God loves them, every one of them, just as he loves us.

Today we celebrate the Patronal Festival of St Mary Magdalene Church, which has stood as a witness for over 750 years in this area. On Wednesday of this week we celebrate the Patronal Fesitval of St James’ Church, a place of witness for nearly 600 years – hopefully these Churches will continue for many more years as we look outside as we are called to proclaim good news of life for all people, and we commit ourselves to that task, a task we must undertake unceasingly and urgently, moved and inspired by the Spirit of God at work within us. AMEN