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Author: Rev. Christopher Gillespie
Rev. Christopher Gillespie is a strange brew of husband & father; Lutheran pastor (St. John Ev. Lutheran Church - Sherman Center, Random Lake WI); media producer (gillespie.media); specialty coffee roaster (gillespie.coffee).
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Mary Magdalene’s True Story
Scholars argue about St. Mary Magdalene. We know from the Gospels that she followed after Jesus. She is listed by name at least 12 times by the Evangelists. Both Luke and Mark describe her as having seven demons cast out of her (Luke 8:2; Mark 16:9). Her name indicates she was from Magdala, a town on the western shore of the sea of Galilee. And we know from John, she was the first eyewitness and testifier of the resurrection of Jesus.
That should be enough to satisfy our curiosity. But idle speculation that began as early as the fourth century added more. Increasingly Mary was considered to be a prostitute or, at the very least, a woman with loose morals. The unnamed woman who anoints Jesus’s feet (Luke 7:36-50), well, now that’s Mary Magdalene, too. These opinions have lingered and have been further exaggerated by popular books, films, and a famous musical.
We get it. We’d like to know more. How much do we know about most of the apostles? Usually not much more than their names and, like Mary, there’s a whole lot of pious mythology. It’s interesting, though: The speculation around Mary largely is not positive. On the contrary, the additions to her history paint her in a bad light. Even her seven demons were theorized by Gregory the Great to not be legit demons but rather the seven cardinal sins.
We might think that the ancients made Mary look bad in order to make the rest of us look better. But let’s put the best construction on their motives. The worse Mary seems the more astounding the grace of God is. It’s one thing for Jesus to cast out seven demons and redeem such a poor woman. But to save the outrageous sinner Mary was, according to our stories—now that’s a testament to God’s forgiveness!
But that’s not how our stories are told. We’re really good at building up a popular myth to describe our own lives. But unlike that sad story of Mary Magdalene, the stories we usually tell feature our accomplishments, our family, our great reputation, our moral living. Our own stories end up being nothing more than long self-righteousness projects. We try to overcome the devastating truth, “For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). The Bible tells the true story—bleak and dark, poor and miserable—and stops our mouth. All the attempts to tell a better story about ourselves fail because they ring false.
And yet, that’s not how we talk at funerals. We try to tell good stories about the dead. Eulogies (“good words”), unless you’re Irish, rarely tell the true story. We set aside the failings, failures, and moral shortcomings as we remember our loved ones. We forget the sins and transgressions of the deceased. We talk about our dead like they’re bona fide saints. And that’s just right!
All the nonsense stories we tell about ourselves are finally dead in Christ. They are buried in His new tomb. We have a new story in His new testament. We are forgiven in Jesus’s blood. We are baptized into Christ. The last story is the story that carries us into eternity. We are God’s children: called, redeemed, purchased, and won. The true stories about our fleshly life aren’t held against us any more than they’re credited to us. Like the stories of Mary Magdalene, true or pious myth, all of our life stories tell of one whom Christ has saved.
As Pastors Riley and Brown close off their study of James, the importance of Christ and His Mercy shines forth through the end of James, a mercy that is shown to us and that is shown to our neighbors through us.
Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact.
Show Notes
Listen and Subscribe to The Gospeled Boldly Podcast with Rev. Eric Brown and Thomas Lemke.
Special Edition: Episode 43
After the death of John the Baptizer, Jesus predicted his own death, making it clear that His own “exodus” was bound up in His suffering, death, and resurrection. This theme informed many of his parables of grace. All point to Jesus as Messiah and foreshadow His seemingly ungodly death and victorious resurrection as the mode of operation for God’s saving work. Come and study the importance of Jesus’ parables of grace for our Christian witness to atheists, doubters, and even to other believers.
Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact or leave them on The SimulCast Facebook page.
As Pastors Riley and Brown go through James 4, they look at the foolishness that our desires and a love of the world can drive us to. Pastor Gillespie once again produces with cool jazz vibes.
Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact.
Show Notes
Listen and Subscribe to The Gospeled Boldly Podcast with Rev. Eric Brown and Thomas Lemke.
Christ, the Church, Love, Marriage, Economics, and Vocation. (Part 2)
As sinners, we think about our relationships selfishly, wondering, “What’s in it for me?” We even rank peoples’ value the same way. This way of thinking really becomes a big problem when we apply it to marriage and dating relationships. As Christians, we look to what God has revealed about marriage in Scripture, especially Christ and the Church. Join Sandra and Pastor Riley this week as they talk about what marriage is, how this relates to dating for youth, and what to look for in potential spouses.
Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact or leave them on The SimulCast Facebook page.
In James 3, Pastors Riley and Brown examine the dangers of an unchecked tongue that forgets the centrality of mercy in the Christian faith and life. God is to set the tone for how we speak for each other; He speaks mercy to us!
Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact.
Show Notes
Listen and Subscribe to The Gospeled Boldly Podcast with Rev. Eric Brown and Thomas Lemke.
Christ, the Church, Love, Marriage, Economics, and Vocation.
As sinners, we think about our relationships selfishly, wondering, “What’s in it for me?” We even rank peoples’ value the same way. This way of thinking really becomes a big problem when we apply it to marriage and dating relationships. As Christians, we look to what God has revealed about marriage in Scripture, especially Christ and the Church. Join Sandra and Pastor Riley this week as they talk about what marriage is, how this relates to dating for youth, and what to look for in potential spouses.
Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact or leave them on The SimulCast Facebook page.
I Just Can’t Believe That! – Part 2: Eventually, all Christians eventually face doubts about their faith. Whether it’s being unsure about something new or different from what they’ve known before, or an all-out doubting that all this Christianity business is true…sinners doubt. If you tell someone about your doubts, do you worry about being drummed out of the church? Should you just keep it all to yourself, try harder to believe, and hope your faith returns? Sandra and Pastor Riley discuss doubt, faith, confession and how as Lutherans, our confession of faith actually includes room for doubt. We believe that we can’t believe.
Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact or leave them on The SimulCast Facebook page.
Click here to listen to Part 1.
Pastors Riley and Brown discuss how James now reveals the folly of the sinful man, who shows foolish favoritism and also tries to separate faith and works, which always exist together.
Questions? Comments? Send them to us at http://higherthings.org/contact.
Show Notes
Listen and Subscribe to The Gospeled Boldly Podcast with Rev. Eric Brown and Thomas Lemke.
