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Meeting ID: 825 1215 9155
A Celebration of Mary the Magdala
Reading
Cosimo (1500-1510)
Lynn (Denise): Welcome and Theme: Welcome all to our liturgy today, made meaningful by the presence of each of us along with the Spirit that calls us to be here.
We celebrate Mary of Magdala today and we ask the question of a two millennia -Who is this Mary Magdelene? and, how has she survived a history of being misunderstood and misrepresented?
Jean (Denise) Opening Prayer: Holy One, we come to the quiet and we find You. We are like a small, sleeping child, like a mountain climber gazing in awe at the summit. We are at rest. In the towering companionship of our brother Jesus and our sister Mary the Magdala, we are blessed to belong with each other Amen.
Opening Song: Come to the Quiet by John Talbot
Liturgy of the Word
Dave: First Reading: The Wisdom of Solomon (6:12 and 7: 7-10, 22-25, 28)
Wisdom is bright and does not grow dim.
She is seen by those who love Her and is found by those who seek Her.
I prayed for help and the Spirit of Wisdom came to my aid.
I held no precious jewel to be Her equal.
All the gold in the world was just a handful of sand compared to
Her and all the silver in the world was mud.
I loved her more than health or beauty;
I preferred her to the light of day.
She is an inexhaustible treasure to humankind,
And those who acquire this treasure become God’s friends.
In Wisdom, there is a Spirit of intelligence and holiness
that is unique and unmistakable:
subtle, dynamic, perceptive, unclouded, unconquerable,
compassionate, shrewd, compelling, generous and loving,
faithful, faultless, directing all, knowing all.
For Wisdom moves more swiftly than motion itself.
She is a breath of the power of God.
God loves the one who finds a home in Wisdom.
We affirm these words from the Wisdom of Solomon by saying, Amen.
Alleluia Eightfold by Jan Phillips
Gospel: John 11: 3-29
There was a certain man named Lazarus, who was sick. He and his sisters, Mary and Martha, were from the village of Bethany. Mary was the one who had anointed the feet of Jesus with perfume and dried his feet with her hair, and it was her brother Lazarus who was sick. The sisters sent a message to Jesus saying Martha went out to meet Jesus , “Rabbi, the one you love is sick.”
Jesus loved these three very much. Yet, he remained where he was staying for two more days. Jesus arrived in Bethany days later and found that Lazarus had been in tomb for four days.
When Martha went out to meet him she said, “If you had been here, my brother would never have died! Yet even now, I am sure that God will give you whatever you ask.”
Jesus told her, “I am the Resurrection and I am Life:
those who believe in me will live, even if they die;
and those who are alive and believe in me
will never die.
Do you believe this?’
“Yes, Martha replied. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah. God’s only begotten, the One who is coming into the world.” When she had said this, Martha went back and called her sister Mary. She whispered, “The teacher is here asking for you.”
As soon as Mary heard this, she got up and went to Jesus and brought him and the gathering crowd to the tomb where Lazarus lay.
We affirm these words from the gospel writer known as John by saying,
Amen.
Shared Homily: Lynn (Denise) and Community
Penitent, Temptress, Apostle to the Apostles, Woman of Wisdom, Survivor of Struggle, Jewish Mystic. Mary the Magdala has been painted into many corners. Misunderstood and misrepresented, we are still looking for the real Mary M.
The idea of Mary being a prostitute started with a Pope Gregory homily from 591in which he conflates the “sinful “woman who anointed Jesus with expensive perfume and the Mary in today’s gospel. Without evidence, Gregory declared her sins (unspecified by gospels) to be sexual in nature. Papal infallibility magically made all the Mary’s into one Mary.
What else has been mistaken? Mary Magdalene allegedly gets her name from her hometown of Magdala on the Sea of Galilee. In fact, there is now a Church of Mary Magdelene located where her house is said to have been.. In truth, the village wasn’t called Magdala in the first century when Mary is reputed to have lived there. Recent scholarship suggests that she probably lived in the village of Bethany with or near her brother Lazarus which would be nearly 70 miles away from Galilee. The word ‘Magdala’ in Aramaic means tower. It may be likely because of her being the first resurrection witness and other apostolic events, that she came to be known as Mary the Magdala or Mary the tower, standing tall in faith.
To support such a heroic title, we look at scholarship by Elizabeth Schrader, a doctoral student in New Testament Studies who did her thesis on Mary the Magdala. Schrader learned Greek and Aramaic and used a digitized copy of Papyrus 66, the oldest and most complete text we have of the Gospel of John from around the year 200.
She sees that the first Greek sentence in John’s gospel story about Lazarus reads: “Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and his sister Mary.” It seems awkward. It doesn’t say what we heard today, that Lazarus had two sisters, Mary and Martha and that Mary was the one who anointed Jesus with perfume. Zooming in on the text, Schrader notes that edits have been made in the margins. Apparently, sometime in the 4th century, a single letter change to the Greek makes Mary into Martha (iota is changed to theta making Maria into Martha). Every single ‘sister’ is changed to ‘sisters’ and pronouns are changed as necessary too.
As Theologian Bass tells it, maybe “Somebody…decided that John was confusing and had bad Greek. And so, the editor went in there to fix it.” This discovery has now been published in the Harvard Theological Review and Schrader has presented her findings to the guardian committee for the worldwide Greek New Testament in Germany. So, it is a real find.
But why is adding Martha so important? The scene in which Jesus declares, “I am the Resurrection and I am life…Do you believe this?” has him talking to Martha who has run out to meet him. Mary is still at home. Martha replies, “Yes, I have come to believe that you are the Messiah. God’s only begotten, the One who is coming into the world.” Mary’s minor role is merely to lead Jesus and the curious crowd to the tomb where Lazarus lay. This doesn’t make sense if we note that Mary the Magdala is mentioned 12 other times in the gospels and Martha only once.(when Jesus scolds her for being busy with housework details).
Other sources dating to before the edit confirm that Lazarus has only one sister and it is Mary of Bethany. Tertullian wrote a commentary on today’s gospel in the 3rd century in which he identifies Mary as the one to acknowledge Jesus to be the son of God in this gospel story. Egeria, a pilgrim from the early 4th century wrote a travel diary in which she mentions the place of a church near “where Mary, the sister of Lazarus, ran out to meet the Lord.”
Okay, so No Martha and a highlighted Mary the Magdala. What really makes the identity switch critical is that Jesus has a very similar exchange with only one other person in any of the gospel records. Jesus asks Peter, “Who am I?” Peter answers, “You are the messiah, the son of the living God.” Jesus then says, “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church.” Schrader suggests that Peter is solid rock and Mary is a Magdala or tower.
Mary the Magdala is a survivor. She will not be erased. She will not be forgotten. Like Ginger Rogers, who did everything that Fred Astaire did in their dancing routine except that she did it backwards and in high heels, Mary the Magdala, the apostle to the apostles followed Jesus and spread the good news— except that she did it in the midst of misogyny and patriarchy.
So, what are your feelings about Mary M. and our readings?
Statement of Faith (All)
We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery
beyond all definition and rational understanding,
the heart of all that has ever existed,
that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of the Divine Word,
bringer of healing, heart of Divine compassion,
bright star in the firmament of the Holy One's
prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus
as a vehicle of divine love,
a source of wisdom and truth,
and an instrument of peace in the world.
We believe in the Spirit of the Holy One,
the life that is our innermost life,
the breath moving in our being,
the depth living in each of us.
We believe that the Divine kin-dom is here and now,
stretched out all around us for those
with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it,
and hands to make it happen.
Intentions
Jean: (Denise) As we prepare for the sacred meal, we voice our intentions
beginning with the words, “We bring to the table…..”
Lynn (Denise) We pray for both our blessings and concerns and the
unspoken intentions in our hearts. Amen.
Liturgy of the Eucharist
Lynn: (Denise) Please join in praying the Eucharistic prayer together with open hands:
All: O Holy One, you birthed us in goodness, gifted us with life and You cherish us in love. In the heart of our being, your Spirit dwells; a Spirit of courage and vision, a Spirit of wisdom and truth.
In the power of that Spirit, we lift our hearts together with Mary of Magdala in prayer, invoking anew the gift of wisdom and enlightenment. We yearn to know your will and to be thankful in union with all who sing the ancient hymn of praise:
Holy, Holy: Here In This Place by Christopher Grundy
ALL: Holy One, we see around us the work of your hands, the fruit of your wisdom and love. The unfolding story of creation witnesses unceasingly to your creative power and generous love. We, your creatures, often deviate from that wisdom, thus hindering your creative, loving presence in our midst. And yet, we believe and cherish our guiding faith.
Sending among us Jesus, our brother, you birth afresh in our world the power of Sophia-Wisdom, and in the gift of Your Spirit, your creative goodness blooms anew, amid the variety and wonder of life.
Presiders move to friendship table, (as applicable)
Jean: (Denise) Please extend your hands in blessing.
All: We recognize Your Spirit upon the gifts of this Eucharistic table, bread of the grain and wine of the grape, that they may become gifts of wisdom, light and truth which remind us of our call to be the body of Christ to the world.
On the night before he faced his own death and for the sake of living fully, Jesus sat at the Seder supper with his companions and friends. He reminded them of all that he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly within them, he bent down and washed their feet.
All lift their plate and pray the following:
When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the Passover bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread and offered it to them saying:
Take and eat, go and share my love with one another.
All lift their cup and pray the following:
Then he took the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take and drink of the covenant, made new again through my life in you.
Whenever you remember me like this, I am among you.
What we have heard with our ears, we will live with our lives,
As we share communion, we will become communion
Both Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge.
Lynn: (Denise) Please receive the bread with the words, You are a tower of wisdom
(consume bread and wine)
Communion Song: I’m Learning to Sit Without Knowing By Carrie Newcomer
All: We seek to discern wisely your call to speak truth with courage. We seek to act faithfully as Mary of Magdala has done, to witness all that is sacred and to bring peace in times of suffering and grief.
May we be alert to the opportunities Your Spirit makes possible in us, nudging us to be full participants in the risky yet wonderful challenge of co-creation.
Like Jesus, we will open up wide all that has been closed about us, and we will live compassionate lives, for it is through living as Jesus lived, that we awaken to your Spirit within, moving us to glorify you, O Holy One, at this time and all ways.
Amen.
Jean (Denise): Let us pray the prayer of Jesus:
O Holy One, who is within, around and among us,
We celebrate your many names.
Your Wisdom come.
Your will be done, unfolding from the depths within us,
Each day you give us all we need;
You remind us of our limits, and we let go.
You support us in our power, and we act with courage.
For you are the dwelling place within us,
the empowerment around us,
and the celebration among us, now and forever. Amen
(Miriam Therese Winter)
BLESSING
Lynn: (Denise) With raised hands, let us bless one another.
May we go forth completed by Love and inspired by the wisdom of those like Mary the Magdala who have come before us.
May we be true to ourselves and to our God.
May we be open to wisdom, to understanding the struggles of others and always willing to change for the greater good.
Amen.
“My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison
Sources
Bourgeault, Cynthia. The Meaning of Mary Magdalene. Shambala Pub. Inc.,; Boulder, CO.2010 pp. 19-27.
Butler Bass, Diana. All the Marys Wild Goose Festival Closing Sermon 7-17-2022. pp.1-17.
https://diana butlerbass.substack.com/p/mary-the-tower
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