St John 20:1-2, 10-18/Proverbs 31:10-31/Acts 13:26-31
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Mary Magdalene is a woman who fears the Lord. She rises while it is yet night, dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong in order to do good for her Lord; to properly anoint Him for burial. And as the Proverb says, He has risen up, and He praises her; her children rise up and call her blessed (31:28). That is to say, her good works do follow her to praise her. For this is why we have the saints, that they may be remembered so that we may be strengthened in our faith when we see how they experienced grace and how they were helped by faith.
Today the Church celebrates the Feast of St Mary Magdalene. And no, she is not the mistress of our Lord Jesus as the media and fiction would have you believe. But she is a living member of His Holy Bride, the Church, as are all (both men and women) who believe and are baptized into Him. She is a faithful disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ, eyewitness of His Cross and Passion, and first witness of His resurrection from the dead.
The Eastern Church names her “the apostle to the Apostles,” which sounds a bit shocking to our ears. The ELCA, in fact, lists her among the twelve men commissioned by Christ. But she is not an Apostle to the Church nor is she a pastor; and her ancient title simply confesses that she was the one Christ sent, or apostled, to the Apostles with the news of His resurrection.
To us, says St Paul, has been sent this Word of salvation. First in the Word made flesh, sent by the Father, who then sends His Apostles to the Church in His stead and by His command to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins. But first He sends Mary of Magdala with the new of His victory over sin, death, and the devil.
Everything we know about St Mary Magdalene is bound up in and with her dear Lord Jesus. Jesus cast out seven demons from this dear woman, saving her life and cleansing her in both body and soul. She was forgiven much. He had mercy on her and called her to Himself. He gave her not only another chance, but a brand new life, here in time and thereafter in eternity.
Like so many faithful women, Martha and her sister Mary, Mary the Mother of our Lord, Salome, Hannah and Ruth, St Mary Magdalene received such excellent gifts and benefited from the ministry of our Lord, and so she supported His Ministry with her whole life and all that she had. She comes to epitomize the woman in Proverbs 31, not because she is empowered and strong and capable in herself, for none of us are, women or men; of ourselves we are poor, miserable sinners, capable of nothing pleasing to God.
Yet St Mary Magdalene is far more precious than jewels, and we sing praise to her Lord and our Lord, His Father and her Father and your Father, precisely because she feared the Lord. She shared in His Cross and Passion, not only by her presence as a witness, but also by Holy Baptism and daily repentance; therefore she is not only witnesses His resurrection, but she herself is raised up by His, in and with Him, to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.
Dear little lamb of Jesus, the same is no less true for you, as well. Though you are not an eye-witness of His Cross and Resurrection, you are in fact baptized into the very same, so that you die and rise with Christ Jesus through daily repentance and faith in His forgiveness of all your sins. Consider the great treasures of His grace, mercy, and peace, which are given you through the Ministry of His Gospel.
You are adorned with His beauty and His glory, as a bride is adorned for her husband; for He is your true and heavenly Bridegroom. He sought you out and found you, paid your ransom price not with gold or silver, but with His own holy, precious Blood, His innocent suffering and death, so that you may be His own. He has called you by name to be His holy Bride, that is, within His Holy Church, as a member of His Body.
Everything about you, all that you are and have, is bound up with Christ Jesus, for you are baptized into Him. You may tell yourself you have a life outside of this Church, but truly it is here that your very life is received and lived. You have died with Him – through your Baptism into His death – and so, for now, your life is hidden with Him in the bosom of God the Father.
How then shall your life be a witness of His resurrection? How shall your words and actions testify that God has raised your dear Lord Jesus from the dead? With what means, and by what works, will you support the Ministry of the Gospel, for your own sake and for your neighbors?
For you cannot cling to Christ in the dead and dying things of this world. Do not attempt to find Him and have Him for yourself in that which only has the appearance of beauty and is outwardly charming. Trying to hang onto Christ and His Life in the transitory familiarities of earth is futile and fatal.
The truth is that apart from His Word and His Voice of the Gospel, you do not know where or how to find Him. You do not live apart from the gifts He bestows at this Altar and from this Pulpit! He is your Light and your Life. Apart from Him you are still in the dark, and so you are confused and afraid. We seek comfort and security and answers to our questions from our old Adam. But he is laid to rest in the tomb and remains there to rot. And so we fumble about in the dust and the dirt, unable to recognize the risen Lord Jesus.
Lift up your eyes and perk up your ears; Brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the family of Abraham, to us has been sent the Word of this salvation! And the One Mary mistook for the gardener, is in fact the Chief Gardener, the Second Adam, who tends to His redeemed creation with mercy and love. He nourishes and cares for you with that which flows from His own Body – water and blood – Baptism and the Eucharist. By these are you healed of your infirmities and made whole.
Beloved, He does for you as He did for dear Mary: He calls you by name. He calls you with His sweet Voice of the Gospel – which forgives you all your sins, casts out all your demons, heals you of all your diseases, and raises you from death to life.
And more. Not only does He call you by name, He names you with His own Name. Strength and dignity are your clothing, fine linen and scarlet, for you are robed in the righteous blood of Christ, covered over with His mercy and life through the wardrobe of Holy Baptism. For He who is risen from the dead for you, has ascended to His Father and your Father, His God and your God. And so you are no longer in the dark, for Christ your Light is risen from the dead. You are made strong in Him, clothed with the forgiveness of sins, in order that you may strengthen your household and family, your neighbors and friends, all your brothers and sisters in Christ.
For as He so sweetly speaks to you His life and salvation, He opens your mouth to speak in wisdom and kindness to others; even as He spoke to Mary and then sent her to His Apostles.
Do not weep, for your Jesus has risen and ascended on high. His Father is your Father. He is seated at the right hand of God, thus are you seated with Him in the heavenly places. You belong to His most holy Bride.
With St Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, Mary the Mother of our Lord, with Peter and John, and all the witnesses of the resurrection, with all the baptized in every time and place, you belong to the Wedding Party of the Lamb, and you are seated with Him at His Table. He has taken you to be His very own, to have and to hold forever, and all that is His, He shares with you.
“Now all the vault of heaven resounds in praise of love that still abounds: ‘Christ has triumphed! H is living!’ Alleluia!” Amen.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Mary Magdalene is a woman who fears the Lord. She rises while it is yet night, dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong in order to do good for her Lord; to properly anoint Him for burial. And as the Proverb says, He has risen up, and He praises her; her children rise up and call her blessed (31:28). That is to say, her good works do follow her to praise her. For this is why we have the saints, that they may be remembered so that we may be strengthened in our faith when we see how they experienced grace and how they were helped by faith.
Today the Church celebrates the Feast of St Mary Magdalene. And no, she is not the mistress of our Lord Jesus as the media and fiction would have you believe. But she is a living member of His Holy Bride, the Church, as are all (both men and women) who believe and are baptized into Him. She is a faithful disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ, eyewitness of His Cross and Passion, and first witness of His resurrection from the dead.
The Eastern Church names her “the apostle to the Apostles,” which sounds a bit shocking to our ears. The ELCA, in fact, lists her among the twelve men commissioned by Christ. But she is not an Apostle to the Church nor is she a pastor; and her ancient title simply confesses that she was the one Christ sent, or apostled, to the Apostles with the news of His resurrection.
To us, says St Paul, has been sent this Word of salvation. First in the Word made flesh, sent by the Father, who then sends His Apostles to the Church in His stead and by His command to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins. But first He sends Mary of Magdala with the new of His victory over sin, death, and the devil.
Everything we know about St Mary Magdalene is bound up in and with her dear Lord Jesus. Jesus cast out seven demons from this dear woman, saving her life and cleansing her in both body and soul. She was forgiven much. He had mercy on her and called her to Himself. He gave her not only another chance, but a brand new life, here in time and thereafter in eternity.
Like so many faithful women, Martha and her sister Mary, Mary the Mother of our Lord, Salome, Hannah and Ruth, St Mary Magdalene received such excellent gifts and benefited from the ministry of our Lord, and so she supported His Ministry with her whole life and all that she had. She comes to epitomize the woman in Proverbs 31, not because she is empowered and strong and capable in herself, for none of us are, women or men; of ourselves we are poor, miserable sinners, capable of nothing pleasing to God.
Yet St Mary Magdalene is far more precious than jewels, and we sing praise to her Lord and our Lord, His Father and her Father and your Father, precisely because she feared the Lord. She shared in His Cross and Passion, not only by her presence as a witness, but also by Holy Baptism and daily repentance; therefore she is not only witnesses His resurrection, but she herself is raised up by His, in and with Him, to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.
Dear little lamb of Jesus, the same is no less true for you, as well. Though you are not an eye-witness of His Cross and Resurrection, you are in fact baptized into the very same, so that you die and rise with Christ Jesus through daily repentance and faith in His forgiveness of all your sins. Consider the great treasures of His grace, mercy, and peace, which are given you through the Ministry of His Gospel.
You are adorned with His beauty and His glory, as a bride is adorned for her husband; for He is your true and heavenly Bridegroom. He sought you out and found you, paid your ransom price not with gold or silver, but with His own holy, precious Blood, His innocent suffering and death, so that you may be His own. He has called you by name to be His holy Bride, that is, within His Holy Church, as a member of His Body.
Everything about you, all that you are and have, is bound up with Christ Jesus, for you are baptized into Him. You may tell yourself you have a life outside of this Church, but truly it is here that your very life is received and lived. You have died with Him – through your Baptism into His death – and so, for now, your life is hidden with Him in the bosom of God the Father.
How then shall your life be a witness of His resurrection? How shall your words and actions testify that God has raised your dear Lord Jesus from the dead? With what means, and by what works, will you support the Ministry of the Gospel, for your own sake and for your neighbors?
For you cannot cling to Christ in the dead and dying things of this world. Do not attempt to find Him and have Him for yourself in that which only has the appearance of beauty and is outwardly charming. Trying to hang onto Christ and His Life in the transitory familiarities of earth is futile and fatal.
The truth is that apart from His Word and His Voice of the Gospel, you do not know where or how to find Him. You do not live apart from the gifts He bestows at this Altar and from this Pulpit! He is your Light and your Life. Apart from Him you are still in the dark, and so you are confused and afraid. We seek comfort and security and answers to our questions from our old Adam. But he is laid to rest in the tomb and remains there to rot. And so we fumble about in the dust and the dirt, unable to recognize the risen Lord Jesus.
Lift up your eyes and perk up your ears; Brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the family of Abraham, to us has been sent the Word of this salvation! And the One Mary mistook for the gardener, is in fact the Chief Gardener, the Second Adam, who tends to His redeemed creation with mercy and love. He nourishes and cares for you with that which flows from His own Body – water and blood – Baptism and the Eucharist. By these are you healed of your infirmities and made whole.
Beloved, He does for you as He did for dear Mary: He calls you by name. He calls you with His sweet Voice of the Gospel – which forgives you all your sins, casts out all your demons, heals you of all your diseases, and raises you from death to life.
And more. Not only does He call you by name, He names you with His own Name. Strength and dignity are your clothing, fine linen and scarlet, for you are robed in the righteous blood of Christ, covered over with His mercy and life through the wardrobe of Holy Baptism. For He who is risen from the dead for you, has ascended to His Father and your Father, His God and your God. And so you are no longer in the dark, for Christ your Light is risen from the dead. You are made strong in Him, clothed with the forgiveness of sins, in order that you may strengthen your household and family, your neighbors and friends, all your brothers and sisters in Christ.
For as He so sweetly speaks to you His life and salvation, He opens your mouth to speak in wisdom and kindness to others; even as He spoke to Mary and then sent her to His Apostles.
Do not weep, for your Jesus has risen and ascended on high. His Father is your Father. He is seated at the right hand of God, thus are you seated with Him in the heavenly places. You belong to His most holy Bride.
With St Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany, Mary the Mother of our Lord, with Peter and John, and all the witnesses of the resurrection, with all the baptized in every time and place, you belong to the Wedding Party of the Lamb, and you are seated with Him at His Table. He has taken you to be His very own, to have and to hold forever, and all that is His, He shares with you.
“Now all the vault of heaven resounds in praise of love that still abounds: ‘Christ has triumphed! H is living!’ Alleluia!” Amen.
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