I always have mixed feelings about celebrating Saints Days, or even making a big deal about Patronal Festivals of Churches – on the one hand, it’s wonderful to celebrate the years that God has blessed the Church, the work done and the people who have passed through the Church, on another I think as Churches we really do need to celebrate more as we seek to share the love of Jesus, but on yet another (and it’s really confusing because you need to have 3 hands really for this !), it is not a single day, or number of days that is important in our Christian lives – it is the way we live and the relationship we enjoy with Jesus that is the most important thing of all, and it is far more important to see a Church consistently filled with people through the year than to have one that is empty all year, but can turn in a good crowd for really special occasions.
Special occasions come and go, but the love of Jesus and our response to that love must be ongoing.
There’s a famous saying, ‘How the mighty have fallen’. This week we have seen a perfect example of this if you keep in touch with football news – Sven Goran Erickson, a former top manager in the Italian league, the former England manager, Manchester City manager and Mexico manager, was installed as the new Director of Football at Notts County, the team who finished 87th in a league of only 92 at the end of last season.
It’s a remarkable change for a man who has been at the top of football for so long. However although Sven has enjoyed great success at times in his career, it is not those successes that he will be most remembered for – it is the times when his teams have failed, and the complicated personal circumstances that Sven has enjoyed at times for which he will be most remembered.
It is an obvious fact that people actually like to remember the bad rather than the good in people. We only have to look at the news papers to recognise that ! It’s bad news that sells best, and a bad image that is most difficult to overcome.
And how that has applied with Mary Magdalene ! The Biblical information about Mary Magdalene is fairly limited. Of course, what we actually really know about Mary has not stopped there being huge speculation – she has been thought of as a prostitute or some kind of fallen woman, and some have ludicrously speculated on her relationship with Jesus. There is no real evidence for any of this – all we actually really know of her is how devoted and committed she was to Jesus, and how she stuck by him when many others had run away, but if you ask many people, it will be the juicy bits that they recall !
But what we should remember, what we really should focus on is what we know ! Certainly Mary Magdalene developed a wonderful relationship with Jesus. Like every one of us she approached him as someone who had done things wrong – she approached him looking for forgiveness, and she received it.
And then she determined to follow him, devoting her life to his service, and to the proclamation of the gospel message, and ultimately earning the nickname of ‘Apostle to the Apostles’, as she triumphantly told the other disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’.
And that is the example we must learn from Mary Magdalene – not to speculate about things we don’t know, and certainly not to look for or remember the bad things people have done, but to recognise that, like Mary, all of us are blessed by the grace, mercy and love of God.
All of us, just like her, are welcomed into his outstretched arms to enjoy a life transforming relationship with him, and that is the way we must live – as God’s people, people who know we are loved and forgiven, people who have seen the Lord ! AMEN
Special occasions come and go, but the love of Jesus and our response to that love must be ongoing.
There’s a famous saying, ‘How the mighty have fallen’. This week we have seen a perfect example of this if you keep in touch with football news – Sven Goran Erickson, a former top manager in the Italian league, the former England manager, Manchester City manager and Mexico manager, was installed as the new Director of Football at Notts County, the team who finished 87th in a league of only 92 at the end of last season.
It’s a remarkable change for a man who has been at the top of football for so long. However although Sven has enjoyed great success at times in his career, it is not those successes that he will be most remembered for – it is the times when his teams have failed, and the complicated personal circumstances that Sven has enjoyed at times for which he will be most remembered.
It is an obvious fact that people actually like to remember the bad rather than the good in people. We only have to look at the news papers to recognise that ! It’s bad news that sells best, and a bad image that is most difficult to overcome.
And how that has applied with Mary Magdalene ! The Biblical information about Mary Magdalene is fairly limited. Of course, what we actually really know about Mary has not stopped there being huge speculation – she has been thought of as a prostitute or some kind of fallen woman, and some have ludicrously speculated on her relationship with Jesus. There is no real evidence for any of this – all we actually really know of her is how devoted and committed she was to Jesus, and how she stuck by him when many others had run away, but if you ask many people, it will be the juicy bits that they recall !
But what we should remember, what we really should focus on is what we know ! Certainly Mary Magdalene developed a wonderful relationship with Jesus. Like every one of us she approached him as someone who had done things wrong – she approached him looking for forgiveness, and she received it.
And then she determined to follow him, devoting her life to his service, and to the proclamation of the gospel message, and ultimately earning the nickname of ‘Apostle to the Apostles’, as she triumphantly told the other disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’.
And that is the example we must learn from Mary Magdalene – not to speculate about things we don’t know, and certainly not to look for or remember the bad things people have done, but to recognise that, like Mary, all of us are blessed by the grace, mercy and love of God.
All of us, just like her, are welcomed into his outstretched arms to enjoy a life transforming relationship with him, and that is the way we must live – as God’s people, people who know we are loved and forgiven, people who have seen the Lord ! AMEN
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