What We’ve Made of Christianity
The Easter service was lovely, it really was. My favorite person was in church, and she tootled her fingers at us during the passing of the peace. And yet it wears me out, what we’ve made of Christianity.
Today, the Gospel reading on the most momentous day of our religious year began with Mary Magdalene. Early in the morning, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb. She does it in all four gospels, an incredible uniformity rarely seen in the Gospel tellings. I waited for some recognition of this. That while, as the priest said, all the boys were hiding after the killing of their Lord, Mary was out and about, going to the tomb. I wanted him to at least note in passing that the boys were scaredy-cats, but she wasn’t. In fact, she stayed at the tomb, returning after telling the boys about her discovery, determined to continue her vigil. I wanted it told that, because of her faith, she was there to greet the risen Lord when NO ONE ELSE WAS.
The Story of Christianity We Tell
In our Biblical tellings, Eve mothered humans before authoring their downfall. Mother Mary birthed and raised our redemption. Mary Magdalene midwifed the resurrection and our salvation. Yet in what we’ve made of Christianity, Eve is the snake’s accomplice, the amazing mother a Virgin, and Mary Magdalene a prostitute. The intention it takes to twist the story that way. Jesus did everything he could to crumble the patriarchal society into which he was born, including right up to this very moment when he WAITED until the boys had left before revealing himself to Mary Magdalene.
What kept going through my mind as the priest talked was the compliment a friend gave a mutual friend: he doesn’t take offense even when it’s intended. I can’t live up to that standard. I take offense when none is intended.
The Taking of Offense
My priest wasn’t intending to be offensive when he said “they” went to the tomb early in the morning. When he said “the disciples” were in hiding. When he said “they” didn’t know where “their” Lord had been taken. When he chose to not hold up Mary Magdalene as the greatest example the Gospels have of faithfulness. When he didn’t make her the counterpoint to the bumbling, confused, scared boys. When he chose to ignore that it was a woman’s faith, her tenacity, her perceptivity, her relationship with Jesus that gave us our witness to the resurrection.
I wanted an acknowledgement that it was incomprehensible that we had denied women—the first to preach the resurrection—the right to stand in the pulpit. What I wanted, what I illogically was waiting for, was an apology. For what we’ve made of Christianity. For what the church did to Mary Magdalene. What it did to us. To me.
But the children adding flowers to the cross was lovely. And the hymns were wonderful, my favorite of all liturgical seasons. The Holy Spirit swirled with the words: welcome happy morning! Christ is risen, and we announced it in church this morning. A truly lovely service.
Christianity and women, Christianity's hatred of women, Mary Magdalene, Mary Magdalene witnesses the resurrection, The first at the tomb, What Christianity has done to women
emma connolly
Ellen, I was thinking along the same lines. What is revealed in the resurrection story is not just the empty tomb. There are many layers within the words. The Shock! The Revelation! The Seeing! The Witness! The Faith!
This day is what we “Christians” live for; yet, we treat it as if someone found the golden egg and isn’t that nice.
I am contemplating my faith more and more these days, what it means, why I am getting more adverse to ‘going to church.’ I want to see excitement, rejoicing in the streets, walking to the beach and praising the God of the universe in the wide open sky!
I contemplate my faith, my need for community. My way to worship and give thanks. Every day can be Easter.
As I get older i see the essence of God everywhere I look. The women I am around all radiate love and peace and joy. It is all in the noticing. Most women I know are quiet worshippers. Quiet pray-ers. Quiet car-ers.
I place my faith in the little things.
In my heart I know I can do that every day.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Love all of this, Emma.The love and faith that radiates from it. “As if someone found the golden egg and isn’t that nice.” <3 I, too, was thinking of the struggle that might have been needed to resurrect. We've heard the stories so many times, we take them as inevitable, which decreases the courage, the will, the intention to serve God no matter the obstacles. May we run into each other on the beach one morning, rejoicing.
Marie A Bailey
I have no religion, Ellen, but I greatly appreciate your insights and share your sense of offense.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Thank you for reading, Marie, and identifying when this isn’t your bailiwick. That’s so gracious.
Marie Bailey
I am fascinated by people who do believe as you do, that is, who believe in God. I don’t know what is like. I don’t recall any time in my life when I truly believed there was a being … or entity … responsible for the creation of this world. I have a friend who was raised Catholic, and she has told me that she wouldn’t know what it would be like to not believe in God. Yet, she can’t “define” God for me. The best she could do was say that God is love.
Maybe for me, God is nature. I have been tempted many times to attribute the crazy beauty of a plant, for example, to a being greater than ourselves. But, then, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and not everyone would agree that the swirl of thorny leaves at the base of a thistle is a thing of beauty 😉
I’m okay with not believing in God, although it definitely raises the issue of what happens after we die. What I envy (yes, indeed, envy) is how a belief in God can be a comfort. Case in point: in 1976, tragedy struck my aunt’s family. First, her husband died following surgery for a stroke; shortly after, one of her daughters miscarried at six months; and shortly after that, one of her sons and two of his friends drowned in a canoeing accident. Her youngest son was with them, but he was rescued. At her son’s funeral, she hugged me and said that God worked in mysterious ways. I always hated that saying and yet I felt that she really took comfort from it. Raised a Methodist, she became a Catholic when she married her Italian immigrant boyfriend. It suited her somehow. Through all the sadness, she always projected an inner strength that I admired and that made me feel safe. I’m sure she grieved and maybe even felt anger at God, at least disappointment, but I do believe her faith helped her cope. When tragedy strikes, it helps to have something to believe in, someplace to go.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
I’m part of a Contemplative Justice Group, and one of the members recently said she has replaced “I believe” with “I experience” (i.e., “I haven’t experienced an angry God,” rather than “I don’t believe in an angry God”). I really loved that because it seems so much truer. I’ve often questioned if I actually have “faith” because my belief in God is based on my experience of God, not in trust. That experience is a very specific energy that’s between everything. I’m in the distinct minority of Christians who experience God this way and not as a personified being or at least a being. I, too, envy folks like your aunt who trust there’s purpose in random, awful events. My dad dying when I was so young probably prevents that for me. Yet, I experience God in the world where those random, awful events happen. I frequently rail against this system of life we’re in. It doesn’t seem ideal. 🙂 But the moments of experiencing God are the most real moments I have. Thank you for talking with me about this, which can be really painful when you’ve had a recent tragedy as you have. I wish you the comfort of the swirl of the thistle.
Marie Bailey
What a kind response 🙂 I do like the concept of “experiencing” God. Hey, for all I know, that’s what is happening when I become enchanted with the swirl of the thistle 🙂
Ellen Morris Prewitt
❤️
Joanne Corey
I think you have identified an important part of the problem – the obliviousness that allows what is offensive to not even be recognized by the speaker and a large share of the listeners. The societal systems and the patriarchy took over the radical welcome and right relationship that Jesus modeled very early in the history of the church. Our modern efforts to live gospel values have not made much of a dent yet in the structures of organized religion, although there are some that are further along the path than others.
Wishing you a joyous Easter season! Blessings to you as you follow the example of Mary Magdalene in spreading the Good News to others!
Ellen Morris Prewitt
I keep seeing the priest’s happy face. He would be mortified to know I experienced his sermon as harm, which gave me pause in writing this. Yet, my truly supportive cousin shared this post with his associate minister and she said, “She’s got it right, too!” Thank you for adding your wise summation of how wrong it has gone and why. And a happy Easter season to you as well (I’m gonna have to sit with the idea of my following Mary Magdalene in spreading the Good News–almost too much to absorb.)
Joanne Corey
I’m grateful to hear that you have been receiving support as a result of sharing this post.
And remember that there are many ways you spread the Good News of Divine Love. Your blog and other writing, your volunteering, your anti-racism work, your recognizing Christ in each individual are part of the apostolic mission that Mary Magdalene began on the first Easter.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
I read this out loud to my husband. He says I need to copy it and keep it and use it for inspiration when I flag. He’s right, and I’m doing just that. TY again–your comments are so thoughtful and helpful and kind.
Joanne Corey
Just now, I read this article that addresses another possible interpretation of being a Mary Magdalene today: https://www.globalsistersreport.org/columns/who-are-modern-day-mary-magdalenes?
Ellen Morris Prewitt
So powerful. Like the quote in this article, when working with the Door of Hope writers, I really gave up the concept of “the voiceless.” The members of the group had plenty of voice. Too many folks just didn’t want to hear it. TY for sharing this article that embodies coming at action in the world from a base of love and spiritual conviction.