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Sermon - March 25th, 2007
Mary, Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
John Hiestand
Scripture: John 12:1-8
I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1960's and 70's. When I was a teenager, I fancied myself to be kind of a hippie. In retrospect I have to admit I wasn't very good at it – I didn't use drugs, I stayed in school, never went to a “love-in”, much to my chagrin at the time. But, I did learn how to play the guitar, and I grew my hair long – right down to my shoulders. Now, a teenage boy with long hair in San Francisco in 1971 wasn't particularly remarkable, but that summer something happened that made me realize that every place wasn’t like San Francisco. I drove across the central valley and stopped in the little town of Manteca to get a dough nut. When I went into the shop the proprietor was busy, so I leaned up against the counter looking back out onto the street. A moment later the proprietor came up behind me and said “Miss? Miss, can I help you?”. I turned around and looked at him, and he looked at me for a moment and finally said “We don't serve hippies here!” I was aghast and embarrassed, and just ran out of the shop without saying anything. I've always regretted that I didn't have the presence of mind to say “Oh, that's alright: I didn't want one anyway.” And Vivian will tell you – I've been through Manteca hundreds of times since then, and I've never stopped to get something to eat.
What that shopkeeper did to me was something I later came to call “de-authenticating”. It's the way we look at someone and see what we think they should be, or what we want them to be, or what we fear they might be, rather than really trying to really see them not just as who they are, but as the way God meant them to be. The shopkeeper saw a pot-smoking anti-social drop-out, not a hungry teenager. Regrettably this de-authenticating is something that probably all of us have done on occasion.
Before we go too far down the de-authenticating road, it might be useful to talk about what I mean by “authentic”. In my reading I came across a good definition that will serve for us today. This is from a book by Harvard Professor Karen King called “The Gospel of Mary of Magdala”. Karen King is the Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard University Divinity School. She writes “In the Gospel of Mary, the 'Son of Man' is the child of true Humanity, the Image of the divine realm that exists within every person. ... To find and follow the child of True Humanity within requires identifying with the ... Image of Humanity as one's most essential nature and conforming to it as a model. Those who search for it will find it, the Savior assures his Disciples”.
Those who search for this Image of Humanity will find it. Authenticity is something within everyone, but we must seek it out. Jesus reminds us of this over and over and over again, both in the gospels and in non-canonical writings like the Gospel of Mary of Magdala. In Matthew “But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. (Mt 13:16) In Mark “Having eyes, see you not? and having ears, hear you not?” (MK 8:18) In Luke: Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see:” (Lk 10:23) and on and on – I found at least 14 references similar to this, and I'll bet there are more.
So, de-authenticating can be both active – we project our fears or fantasies onto another person – or it can be passive – we just never bother to really look for that essential nature. And, in Christian history, it is a sad fact that the one group that has suffered more from de-authentication than any other is women. So today, we're going to see some whiz-bang de-authentication in practice, and the serious affects it has had, through the historical treatment of three Marys from the bible: Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalen. Three Marys, quite contrary, and I think quite different when seen through the eyes of True Humanity.
Now, I won't ask for a show of hands, but I'll bet many of you grew up with the notion that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, redeemed by Jesus to lead a chaste life after her conversion. As many of you know, Mary Magdalene is not referred to as a prostitute anywhere in the bible – not once. She, along with Joanna and Suzanna, are cured of seven devils, a sort of generic term that could mean anything – and she faithfully follows Jesus. When all the apostles and other followers of Jesus have fled, who is sitting there at the foot of the cross? And who goes to the tomb first thing on Sunday morning? Who is called the first evangelist, bringing the good news “Christ is Risen!”? It's Mary Magdalene. She is the Mary mentioned the 2nd most in the New Testament, behind Mary, mother of Jesus. But history was not very kind to Mary Magdalene. In the first century, most Christian gatherings were in the home and were often led by women. But, s the church grew it came to be more and more male dominated. Some early writers, like a fellow named Tertullian (don't worry, there won't be a test), were absolutely vitriolic in their despising of women. Later, St. Jerome and St. Augustine would go on at some length about the evil temptations of the flesh which, by the way, both men were highly subject to, and that this evil was primarily the domain of women. And it really bugged these guys that right in the thick of things, right there next to Jesus, was this woman called Mary Magdalene. Well, we really can't have that, so the only way to put her in her proper place was to de-authenticate her by fabricating the idea that she was a prostitute. St. Jerome started the rumor, but Mary's fate was sealed in 591 (there won't be a test) when Pope Gregory the Great, believing that the Mary who anoints Jesus feet is Mary Magdalene, states “what do these seven devils signify, if not all the vices? ... It is clear, brothers, that the woman previously used the unguent to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts..." He goes on to proclaim her redemption, and Mary is bisected into the classical whore/virgin paradigm used by men for eons to keep women from being perceived honestly and authentically. And for 1000 more years before the printing press was invented, Christian truth was primarily the version orally taught by the Church, not what was written in the Gospels. It was not until 1969 that official Catholic Doctrine was changed to separate Mary Magdalene from Mary of Bethany and to take away the concept of prostitution as the only explanation for her sins. Nevertheless it is interesting to note that the story of Mary Magdalene at the tomb as the first evangelist – the apostle to the apostles - is not part of the Catholic Easter Sunday missive - it is relegated to a mid-week Mass. Now, there's really no way for us to know the historical Mary Magdalene, but the gospels show a strong, intelligent, passionate, faithful disciple capable of telling Jesus' story like nobody else, and capable of leading the early church. I'd really like to get to know that Mary.
As we've seen, Mary Magdalene has often been confused with Mary of Bethany. It really does get confusing because there are so many Marys in the Gospels. All four Gospels tell the story of the woman who anoints Jesus' feet, but only the Gospel of John identifies the woman as Mary of Bethany. Since washing the Lord's feet seemed rather sensual to these over-excited early Fathers of the Church, they considered themselves quite justified in assuming that only a former prostitute would do something like that. Right then and there, Mary of Bethany is de-authenticated. As you might recall from Luke, Mary is the younger sister to Martha and Lazarus, who gets scolded by Martha as she sits at Jesus feet while Martha is doing all the housework. Jesus tells Martha that Mary has the better part.. Mary of Bethany has always struck me as a kind of every day follower of Jesus, perhaps a lot more like you and me. In the passage that was read this morning, she acts with respect and love as she tries to bring Jesus some measure of relief from his toils. Jesus sees who she really is – Jesus always sees the real person – but Judas jumps in to devalue and insult Mary.
Our third Mary to consider this morning is Mary, Jesus' mother. We've seen how de-authentication can be accomplished by so devaluing the person that their true self gets lost. In this Mary's case, she is sometimes so overvalued as to lose important parts of her reality. I'm talking about the alabaster Mary, the Mary virginal and pure. Some traditions go so far as to claim Mary herself was a product of a virgin birth, doubly insuring that Jesus was never really incarnated by an actual female. This allows people to place her on that alabaster pedestal, but also shoves her into an untouchable virginal box. Veneration of Mary is one thing, but, as I have grown older, I have realized that I can venerate my own mother, in part because of her human flaws that she struggled against like the rest of us. Mary, like most mothers I've known, never really lets go of her baby. She is always storing things up in her heart. She knows that Jesus is very special, and that she has born the Son of God, but she is still his mother – she disciplines him, loves him, cajoles him, and finally weeps for him at the foot of the cross. God assured no one, not even Jesus, that Easter morning would ever come. Every mother in this room would do the same. Casting Mary in alabaster dishonors her motherhood, and that mysterious bond of new life that all mothers share. Of course, the alabaster Mary was primarily invented by men. That mothering identity is much stronger with women, who can talk to or identify with Mary as someone who shares the unique issues of womanhood, without any threat of male intervention. I for one am not comfortable with the cold, virginal, alabaster Mary. I need to be able to see her Christ-light, her Image of True Humanity, or I deny myself the ability to see any woman's true self.
So, here we are two weeks before Easter. We've learned an interesting term – de-authentication – but, so what? We're post-modern now, we know that women have been mistreated by the church, but we're trying to make amends. All true. But let me see... hmmm... the stories about Mary Magdalene, which were quite useful in keeping women from participating in the church, are at least 1,416 years old. For 1,416 years, at least, we've hidden the Christ light of most women. One spot of icky-goo delivered centuries ago has had such a long-lasting affect. Such is the power of de-authentication. When Christ calls us to see, he is calling us to see him in everything. He is calling us to make an effort. To go beyond our prejudices, our blind spots, our desire to see people as we think they should be. As Christians who believe in the power of the Risen Christ, we are called to not let one more Christ-light be extinguished. Remember, when Paul asks us to put on the mind of Christ, this is part, and I think a big part, of what he meant. “Seek, and you will find”.”Blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. “ Amen