Sermon - Sixth Sunday after Trinity - Mary Magdalene

I am taking a few weeks off, so this sermon comes courtesy of my good friend "Mr. I", i hope you enjoy!

Here are the readings, and the sermon....

Jeremiah 23.1-6;
Ephesians 2.11-end;
Mark 6.30-34, 53-end

Adam was walking around the Garden of Eden one day feeling very lonely, so God asked Adam, "What is wrong with you?" Adam said he didn't have anyone to talk to. God said he was going to give him a companion and it would be something called a woman. He said this person will cook for you-and wash your clothes, she will always agree with every decision you make. She will bear your children and never ask you to get up in the middle of the night, to take care of them. She will not nag you, and will always be the first to admit she was wrong when you've had a disagreement. She will never have a headache, and will freely give you love and compassion whenever needed. Adam looked thrilled with this idea and asked, "What would a woman like this cost me? God said, "An arm and a leg." Adam replied, "What can I get for just a rib?"

Today we celebrate the Feast Day of perhaps one of the most well known of all imperfect women, Mary Magdalene – and one of the reasons she is best known of course is that she was reformed by faith in Jesus. Mary is given a very privileged part in each of the gospels – probably from Magdala by the Sea of Galilee, she is described as having been healed by Jesus before accompanying him during his ministry.

Along with only a few others she remained faithful to Jesus - even to the cross and the crucifixion. On that first Easter Day, she was the first of Jesus followers to discover the empty tomb. She was then sent out to tell the others the good news that Jesus was risen from the dead. For this she has earned the title of the ‘apostle to the apostles.’

But despite her transformation, and the fact that most of what we hear about her is of her devoted following of Jesus, Mary still retains something of a dark reputation. The healing that she received from Jesus has been the source of great intrigue through the centuries – what was her crime ? was she, as suspected by many, formerly a prostitute ?

And it is that suspicion that I want to think about mainly this morning – and the worry that all of us may too, at times, judge people on their past, without offering them a future. This is clearly not the example that Jesus offered.

Some time ago I watched the film ‘Philadelphia’. In the film Tom Hanks plays a successful young lawyer who has AIDS. As the illness becomes known about at work, he is sacked by his employer. The other partners at the firm of course give different reasons for the sacking, but it is widely recognised that he is going only because of his illness. Tom Hanks’ character then decides to sue the firm for unfair dismissal, and he goes around various firms trying to find a lawyer to represent him.

In one scene he approaches a black lawyer who, when he becomes aware of the condition, changes his whole attitude. He no longer touches him, after shaking his hand warmly before he knew about the illness, he becomes keen to wrap up the conversation and politely but firmly declines to handle the case.

The scene shows how difficult it can be for people who are different in some way to get support – at one stage in history it would have been Tom Hanks’ character who would have refused to approach a black lawyer – thankfully that has moved on, but now we have different stigmas – AIDS being one of the main ones.

And this scene challenges Christians to think about our own view of people. Jesus, during his time on earth, spent time with the underprivileged, with the outcasts of society, those who were shunned by everyone else. Mary Magdalene was a perfect example of such a person, yet Jesus, unconcerned by popular opinion, invited her to spend time with him. He valued her company and her friendship.

I wonder how we welcome people in Church today. How would we treat a Mary Magdalene type character – would we question her repentance and her life transformation, or would we invite her to sit next to us in Church. We live in a very sceptical age – sometimes we need to just ask God to help us to handle a situation in the way that he would.

Jesus went out and found people like Mary and drew them in to his family – he did it by loving them. In what ways are we loving people into the family of God today ? It is hopefully true that we are all good to family and friends and maybe we help out with charities or do other good work – all tremendously important.

But as a Church what are we doing ? It’s tremendously important that we are here today – we are enjoying the fellowship with each other, we are worshipping God, and we are offering him our prayers as we accept his grace and his mercy, but what we do here must also make a difference outside.

It seems a terribly harsh thing to ask, but how many times in the past week has something been done in the name of this Church, in the name of Jesus Christ, that has made a difference to someone who doesn’t come to Church ?

As a Church we must constantly be seeking to do new things for Jesus – making a difference in the lives of people who need him… The example of Jesus was of a sacrificial and unbreakable love for all people and that is the example that we as a Church must seek to follow. Today is a very important day in our Church calendar in this Church/ Parish as we celebrate the Patronal Festival of this Church/ St Mary Magdalene Church.

Both of our Churches represent a great tradition of the Christian message being shared through many centuries – in the week we had a party of children from the local primary school visiting the church – and as we talked about baptism and the font we thought of how many thousands of people have had their lives changed in some way or another in our Churches – whether it be through a baptism, a wedding, a funeral of a family member or friend, or some other occasion.

The challenge for us, as we celebrate another birthday in the life of both of our Churches, is to see how we are making a difference today, and how we are going to in the future.

Jesus gave this example of love which we must follow… Love is a great idea – it is something we know we should all do, but it can also be a dirty business, because love involves a lot of effort at times, it requires a lot of work and a lot of patience. It can mean us having to do a lot of things that perhaps we don’t really want to do… Particularly loving the ones who are difficult to love – that can be really difficult…

But as we move on in our Churches we must sit up and take notice of the fact that many people couldn’t care less about what we are doing here this morning - that is the sad and the harsh reality, and that is the sad and harsh reality that we must work to change.

Mary saw the risen Lord Jesus and she ran to tell others people ‘I have seen the Lord’ – Jesus didn’t offer us the choice of proclaiming the gospel message to other people – he told us to do it. In our care and concern for people, in our welcome for people in Church and in our prayer lives we can offer the sort of love that can transform lives, breaking down any barriers that may be in the way.

The welcome that Jesus gave Mary is a welcome that is contrary to much of our culture today – when Jesus talks of care and concern for people whatever their colour or background, or wealth, or anything else, he is talking about something which is alien to so many people today – it must never become alien to his Church.

Mary Magdalene came to Jesus because she recognised that he loved her, and that he was not going to condemn her or treat her differently for things she had done in the past. We must ensure that our Church doors are welcoming people in – and we must seek every opportunity that we can find to reveal the love of God to people…

God is love, and it is him that we are representing... In all that we do and all that we say let’s pray that God will make us more like him so that his kingdom on earth might grow. AMEN

Sermon - The fifth Sunday after Trinity

Sorry people, no sermon this week. I had a certain amount of help from the famous "Mr. I" who allowed me to share some of his thoughts with a weary public at the end of the school term. There was no "sermon" as such, just about ten minutes of stories and a rather bad joke, which I shouldn't share here.

Normal (haha) service will resume in a few weeks after I have had a break. This week however, I thought I would share a picture with you, and invite any comments you may have.

I will attempt to post a couple of semi-precious gems here in the next few weeks.

God Bless you all