✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
Philippians 2,1-4 4012
7. Sonntag nach Trinitatis 052
Mary Magdalene, † mid to late 1st c. W
22. July 2012
1. O Heavenly Father, Divine Providence for the world, help us to put aside the poor role-models of this wicked world that entice our greedy hearts, and instill in us the desire to emulate Godly Christians, both past and present, so that we are encouraged by their holy lives to leave the banks of the sinful life. Strengthen our desire, and make us satisfied, to be conformed in Christ’s image in the sanctified life we now enjoy by the merit of His justification through the gospel. Amen.
2. So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, then complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
3. These words of the Apostle Paul are in stark contrast to how life is often lived in America. We encourage rugged individualism over unity in thought and mind. Our jobs are often cauldrons of rivalry and pride, so much so that our stress levels are often elevated. In school, the workplace and sports humility is ridiculed as people strive to beat others up the ladder of success. Our interests take precedents over the interests of others.
4. All these attitudes are opposite the gospel that the apostles and their successors proclaim. These attitudes are counterproductive to the message of Christ crucified. Today’s sermon text from Philippians 2 ends short of Paul’s thoughts. Paul continues: »Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the nature of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be held onto, but deprived Himself of power, taking on the nature of a slave; and being found in the likeness of men, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, yes, death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Jesus and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven, upon the earth and under the earth, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father« (Philippians 2,4-11).
5. We sinful human beings chaff at Paul’s admonition to be humble and united in thought with other Christians. Our very fallen nature rebels against these apostolic words, therefore Christ humbled Himself. He humbled Himself for us, and in our place, in order to redeem us back to our Heavenly Father. Jesus does what He says: He puts His Father’s allegiance and will first and foremost, performs what we in our sinful nature cannot do, and walks to Jerusalem, to the cross, into death, is buried in the tomb, descends into hell and rises again as our Victorious Redeemer. Jesus did this willingly and lovingly for the world, and for you. He sends you the Holy Spirit with the gospel to create the love, unity and humility that He exhorts from you through the Apostle Paul.
6. It may seem an impossible task for the gospel to change people’s lives; it may seem to take forever. Yet many examples of this very sanctified life are showcased for us in the Holy Scriptures. For this reason, the Lutheran Church follows the Church tradition of highlighting the lives of the disciples as paragons of sanctification. 22. July is set aside for Mary Magdalene. She is a faithful disciple of Jesus. The Gospels tell us that she was from the town of Magdala, which is believed to have been between Capernaum and Tiberias in Galilee, thus her descriptive name of Magdalene: one from Magdala. Jesus exorcised seven demons from her (Mark 16,9; Luke 8,2), and she is not the adulterous woman of John 8 (Pope Gregory I (590-604) identified her as the prostitute of Luke 7,37-38, but this opinion has essentially been rejected by the Roman Catholic Church). The Gospel according to Luke tells us that she traveled with Jesus as a disciple and provided for their needs from her possessions (Luke 8,1-3). Tradition says that Mary was young, attractive and came from a wealthy family. Three of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark and John) list her by name as being at Jesus’ crucifixion, and all Four Gospels list her by name as one of the women at the tomb on Easter Sunday. She was the first to see the Risen Lord, and subsequently announced His Resurrection to the apostles. Accordingly, Hippolytus writing about her in Rome around 200 in his commentary on the Song of Songs calls her „the apostle to the apostles“. Ambrose and Augustine refer to her as the „new Eve“, and Augustine also calls her „the apostle to the apostles.“
7. Tradition relates, that in Italy Mary Magdalene visited Emperor Tiberias (AD 14-37) and proclaimed to him Christ’s Resurrection. According to tradition, she took him an egg as a symbol of the Resurrection. Tiberias responded that no one could rise from the dead, anymore than the egg she held could turn red. Miraculously, the egg immediately began to turn red as testimony to her words. Tradition also states that she remained in Rome until the arrival of the Apostle Paul, and for two more years still, following his departure from Rome after the first court judgment upon him. From Rome, Mary Magdalene, already bent with age, moved to Ephesus where the Apostle John lived as the last of the living apostles, and was writing his Gospel. There Mary finished her earthly life and was buried.
8. Her bones were transferred in the 9. century to Constantinople, and were placed in the monastery Church of Saint Lazarus. During the Crusades they were transferred to Italy and placed at Rome under the altar of the Lateran Cathedral. Some of Mary Magdalene’s bones are located in Marseilles, France, where Saint Maximum’s Basilica was built over them at the foot of a steep mountain in her honor (http://www.thenazareneway.com/mary_magdalene.htm).
9. The Greek Orthodox Church maintains that the Mary Magdalene retired to Ephesus with the Virgin Mary and there died, that her bones were transferred to Constantinople in 886 and are there preserved. Gregory of Tours (De miraculis, I, xxx) supports the statement that she went to Ephesus. However, according to a French tradition (see Saint Lazarus of Bethany), Mary, Lazarus and some companions came to Marseilles and converted the whole of Provence, France. Magdalene is said to have retired to nearby La Sainte-Baume, where she gave herself up to a life of penance for thirty years“ (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09761a.htm).
10. Churches around the world are named for her, including St. Mary’s Church (Marienskirche), which is the Lutheran Stadtkirche of Wittenberg has existed on the same site since the 13. century. Luther did much of his preaching there. He was married there, and he baptized all six of his children there, along with the children of Melanchthon and Cranach.
11. The Confessions of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church exhort us to remember with thanksgiving those who have gone before us in the sign of faith. The Confessions also exhort us to imitate the life and faith of the apostles, disciples and martyrs. We give thanks for the faithful witness that Mary Magdalene gave to the Christian faith. Mary Magdalene loved Christ Jesus and the apostles. Mary and the Twelve were in full accord and of one mind. She did nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility counted others more significant than herself. She looked to the interests of others.
12. Mary Magdalene lived such a sanctified life solely on account of the gospel. She is an example of how we should love Jesus and live a life of service to Him. Just as Jesus changed Mary’s life with the gospel, so does He change our lives with the gospel. By the gospel we are empowered to live sanctified lives of love, unity and humility for the glory of God and the service of our neighbors. Amen.
13. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, from the rising of the sun to its setting, Your Holy Name is to be praised! You provide all our earthly needs, so also remind us that You daily give us all our spiritual needs as well, so that we never forget that You are our both our Creator and our Redeemer. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
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