Sermon - All Change

Noli Me Tangere (Illustration for Andre Suares, Passion) Georges Rouault, 1871-1958

Sermon preached during the Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook at 12.45pm on Thursday 22nd July 2021 – the Feast of St Mary Magdalene. Based on the text of John 20.1-2, 11-18 and 2 Corinthians 5.14-17


Good News in under 100 words

We’re better at change than we think. But to see it we can’t rely on our own human sight; we need God’s grace to see His new creation. This means turning away from our old, established ways of measuring and labelling change to understand the world and turning towards Christ – just as Mary Magdalene did.  

Transcript

Well, its all change this week isn’t it!

Singing has returned! We can take off our masks, if we choose.

It would be hard for anyone to stand here, of all places, and say that we are not comfortable with change. Although that’s something we often hear. Particularly about Christians; about the church 

But here we are - Christians - sitting quite comfortably - in a space that has undergone radical change! 

A change that came about through a great deal of hard work and dedication from one man in particular but - let’s be honest – it’s the sort of change that probably comes about more easily when it’s being driven by a man of a decent pedigree - with power, money and good connections - even if it is to glorify someone who had none of those - when measured by earthly standards! This radical change happened thirty years ago, but it still feels rather fresh, rather new!

Last week we had a surprise service to thank Roger Hoath, another great servant and minister of this church followed by a belated celebration of one of those “round number” birthdays. 

Talking to him at the party, he told me that one of the special things about this place is the change you see on people’s faces as they walk in here for the first time and look up to the dome. It’s a shame we can’t capture and harness that moment! It’s as though the building itself proclaims the Good News! A good Baptist through and through, Roger reminded me that’s when you really see the Spirit at work!

It’s interesting that after they’ve looked around for a bit, one of the first questions that people ask is “what did it look like before”? When it comes to explaining change - to understand it - we like to have something tangible to hold on to. It’s a very human thing to want to do! So, we bring out the etchings of the church before it was refurbished that hang in the vestry; explain why the base of the columns are so high - to accommodate the old box pews; show them a triptych of black and white photographs of the bomb damage and the huge hole in the dome. 

It’s not just the case with this building - but with the radical change we see all around us. We seem to need to measure it against something we know. Why has a friend who is a lifelong supporter of one political party suddenly started supporting another? Why has this person decided to transition to a new gender; what were they before, what are they going to become, what are they now? 

When it comes to understanding change, we like to use labels. Labels which are often attached to a whole lot of baggage! 

St Paul had a changing relationship with the church he founded in Corinth - we get a glimpse of it through the two letters that survive. 

At the heart of many of the issues it seems  was that after the excitement and fervour of first receiving the gift of the Spirit through Baptism, members of the church soon started to ask questions to try to understand more about what being a Christian means. How does it compare to the identity they had before and the rules they lived by then? What can and can’t they eat? What should they wear? Can they remain married even if their spouse has not been baptised? Are children from such a marriage Christian or Pagan? What happens if they want a divorce? Some turned for guidance to rivals to Paul’s authority who seem to have appeared on the scene after he had left Corinth; challenging his status as Apostle to the Gentiles; promoting more traditionally Jewish practices. Perhaps these new kids on the block looked more the part - better turned out, more well-to-do, more erudite than a tent-maker like Paul? 

In the passage Susan just read, Paul explains that there is no place in the Body of Christ for measuring the change we see in ourselves and others by these external things - what Paul describes as regarding the world and each other from this “human point of view”. Whether someone is powerful, rich or well-connected, means nothing to God. 

Living a Christian life means turning away from ourselves and our understanding of and labels for the world around us, and turning to Christ. This is only possible when we are urged on by the love of Christ; when we are living “in Christ”. It is by God’s grace that we then see the world anew. Paul writes;

“if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”

In our gospel reading it is Mary Magdalene who was the first witness to that new creation. A new world she saw not by her own human sight - but with divine assistance. 

When she first encounters the empty tomb she runs off to summon Peter and John, uncertain where the body of Jesus is. When we find her back at the tomb she is so absorbed in her grief that the presence of two angels doesn’t seem to phase her - she converses with them quite naturally - as if they were human.  

When Jesus appears behind her, she fails to recognise him; believing him to be a gardener; still regarding the world from a human point of view - who else would be there at that time of the morning? 

It is when Jesus calls Mary by name that the penny drops; she turns to him and begins to see things differently. But even then, her first instinct is still to find something tangible to hold on to; to help her understand the nature of this change. Jesus commands her not to touch him. His transformation is not yet complete. By then, Mary does not need to touch to believe. By God’s grace she has “seen the Lord” - and goes off to tell the disciples all that he has said.

An act that led Hippolytus of Rome to call her “Apostle to the Apostles”. A title which stuck - at least for the next five hundred years or so. Mary Magdalene’s unique place in the Paschal story was revered by the early church. But in the sixth century, a series of sermons by Gregory the Great - the Pope who sent Augustine here to England - Mary Magdalene, Mary of Bethany and the repentant sinner of Luke’s gospel – three completely different people - were merged. Mary Magdalene of the gospels became Magdalene the myth. A reformed prostitute; a penitent sinner – the perfect model for Gregory’s mission into pagan Europe. Mary Magdalene had been labelled. And the label stuck – for centuries. Making radical change - setting a new narrative - seems easier when you are a man of a decent pedigree - with power, money and good connections. 

The Magdalene myth spread; reflecting not only the church’s notions about women, sin and redemption but also the social concerns of the time. By the end of the Middle Ages, hundreds of new religious institutions bore her name. Buckingham College became Magdalen College Cambridge, one of the patrons of this church. 

By the nineteenth century Magdalenism was being used in both medical and legal texts as shorthand for the great social evil of prostitution. Magdalene Asylums were founded - workhouses for the reform of fallen women. In paintings and sculpture, representations of Mary Magdalene the myth outnumbered portrayals of her gospel character. We find the same in music – witness the wild Kundry in Wagner’s Parsifal.

By the twentieth century, perhaps through a combination of scholarship and the pressure of social change, some began to reconnect with the view of Mary Magdalene held by the early church - the Mary Magdalene of the Gospels. Her strength, courage and love for Jesus once again placing her as a positive role model. The labels attached to her 1400 years ago began to fade. The prevailing view of Mary Magdalene started to change. 

We turned back and started to see things differently.

The next time you hear someone - or hear yourself - saying “we don’t cope with change very well” - “we don’t do change” - remember that, like Mary Magdalene, God has called us all by name and in that call is the power we need to see the world anew. 

The Good News is that in Christ you don’t need to be a powerful, wealthy and well-connected man to set the narrative. A man with none of those earthly things died so that we might all receive the gift of being part of the only narrative that matters – the love of God for us. By his call we have the ability to see this new creation. A gift that is as new to us today as it was to the first witness to it. A gift to which there is no label attached.  

As we look around at our “new normal” - what do we see?

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Image : Noli MeTangere (Illustration for Andre Suares, Passion) Georges Rouault, 1871-1958