You are all one…the child of true Humanity exists within you
PART 1
(A Final) Introduction?
I have a feeling this will be the last article for a while. If that’s true, this will be a relief to many. Firstly, a relief for my family. Maybe also a relief for the internet. If I stop, there’ll be a party at the Vatican (only joking, every night’s a party at the Vatican). Perhaps most of all, there’ll be relief for those patient Christians locally who have tolerated my somewhat unorthodox exegesis (a posh way of saying borderline heretical interpretations) of the scriptures. How refreshing though, that “theology” turns out to be…fun.
I hope that at least something in my articles has brought someone, somewhere closer to Jesus. That’s the only reason, ever, for these articles. If one person moves just a tiny bit closer, if one barrier is just slightly taken down, that’s the only reason these writings exist. If you get just half a degree warmer, that’s all that matters. I’m upfront about it, I want you to believe this:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16).
I also hope it has actually been enjoyable, which would be entirely in keeping with the Spirit of the Lord. Just to be absolutely clear, I’m not adding anything to the Bible or taking anything away from it. There are some serious issues mentioned in these articles, the tone is never flippant, but the overall tone is supposed to be fun. So go nuts, put on Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus in the background. If you’ve already stamped this with a massive TLDR [Too Long Didn’t Read], just scroll to each Part’s final paragraph (or look at the pictures). Let’s see how we go.
What is “Sound Doctrine”?
Obviously, I’ve had my doubts that what I’ve been writing is righteous, whether I’m just telling people what they want to hear, whether I’m leading people astray, and so on. Hopefully the fact that I’m a spiritually unqualified nobody means that no one will have been moved away from Jesus by these writings — because they can fairly easily be dismissed as the ramblings of an eccentric person (some might say that’s putting it mildly). Quite clever really: if it brings you closer to Jesus you can think it’s “inspired”, but if it pushes you away you can think it’s mad — a win-win in terms of bringing people towards Jesus.
I’ll be honest, I have taken seriously the question whether the words of 1 Timothy 4 (Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils) and 2 Timothy 4 (For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables) were about me. I went to the Word, in faith, and it turns out they were, but not in the way I was worried about. I saw who these words were about as I witnessed the various ways people have tried to destabilise others in their faith around the world. I received the testimonies of humble people who shared words I was not worthy to receive. I have been trusted to discuss people’s deepest tribulations — communications in the presence of the Lord, with people right next to me and across the world. I have been humbled. I saw the news stories (about the teachers these passages are really about) and was blessed to be in contact with God’s beautiful believers who have endured assaults and repulsion. I pray that I was able to give them the right words to comfort them and bring them closer to Jesus. None of this could have happened without the Lord. When I was an atheist nothing like this happened in 37 years. One single day walking with the Lord brought gratitude and humility that was not accessible in 37 years of my previous choices not to walk with him. I saw the humanity in people, I saw them shining with love and potential — something that was not seeable without the Lord. In the words of a sister who loves Jesus and has been excluded by the patriarchal Pharisees of today: “I try to be honest and transparent and steward my words and witness well”.
Let’s see the whole of 1 Timothy 4:1–6:
1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
If I could be forgiven for opportunistically bouncing off these sacred verses: we must be very careful if we forbid ready and mature adults in Christ who are in a loving, caring relationship and wish to marry. If you forbid people to marry you risk repulsing them from Jesus. They might feel they have been left to follow their journey in love without the full presence of the Lord. I know that is not the case, the Lord will never abandon them, but the potential for harm is there. Others questioning the universal love of Christ from the outside looking in might be repulsed by an impression before they have even started to come home. It’s possible you might be giving people over to a serious risk of sin and darkness. You risk misusing Romans 1 to throw people to the wolves of Romans 1. Protect them instead. If your conviction is contrary to this, then that is OK. We can have respect, cooperation and coexistence in Christ. This was exemplified recently in a public church discussion in the UK. Working through our different convictions, with love, while protecting each other’s journey in Christ is surely what the Lord would have asked of us.
Let’s see 2 Timothy 4:1–6:
1 I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
I asked the Lord if I am a “false teacher”, and yet again, Jesus spoke directly through his sacred Word, and assured me (not without a sense of humour) that I am just as much a false teacher as every other Christian, because all humans only “see through a glass, darkly” (1 Corinthians 13:12). We’re always going to get many things wrong. The Roman Catholics think the Eastern Orthodox Catholics are wrong and the Protestants think they’re both wrong. It is only Jesus who won’t tell you anything false. This is the living Word. I asked God a question personal to me and he answered it. If you ask him a question personal to you, it’ll be a different question, so he’s going to answer you differently. The Bible is a spiritual book. You are in a conversation with the Lord when you read it. If you think your truth is the only truth, you might be underestimating the power of the living Word. If you think your truth is absolute, do you not think more would be added and corrected for you when you go to Heaven? Won’t at least one of your convictions be wildly false? Isn’t it likely you’ll be at the gates saying, “oops, well I got that one wrong, didn’t I?” Maybe I’ll get there and Jesus will say: “you wrote what? And you put that on the internet?” — and we’ll have a good laugh about it. We should not presume God’s infinite truth at the level of our finite human capacity.
“Coincidences”
In my journey so far, I have found that certain themes have kept coming back around. There is no non-spiritual reason for these particular themes to be the ones (and not any other of the thousands to choose from). They keep coming back around and illuminating, even directing, my journey. Why them? I interpret this as the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Others will have their own interpretations. More than this though, some of what I have written is against many orthodox Christian interpretations, so I am left wondering, where did I get all this stuff from? I got a lot of it directly from God’s Word. I was occasionally left thinking, “am I reading the same Bible everyone else has been reading”? I got the rest from his Spirit. For me the essence of the Spirit is pure love. I was occasionally left thinking, “am I seeing the same Spirit my fellows in Christ are seeing”? Of course, the answer is yes and no.
These articles have assembled themselves, coming together every Sunday, since I was in Christ. It is very hard to believe that a cardiothoracic surgical trainee with zero spiritual knowledge before December, has produced these articles without some kind of assistance from the Holy Spirit (come to think of it, can any of us do anything without the assistance of the Holy Spirit?) When I published the first message, I had been a servant of the Lord for about a month. It’s hard to imagine a less qualified person there could be to write on these subjects. I certainly do not claim to be any kind of authority. I certainly do not claim to speak for the Lord. There will be loads of error. God certainly does not need me. I don’t have the answers…
…But if the Lord uses me, to bring who-knows-what messages to who-knows-which people, if I can be a lighthouse reflecting light so one person doesn’t crash, so that even one person is moved towards Jesus or prevented from walking away: good. Wonderful, in fact. I consider this the greatest blessing and honour of my life.
We Walk By Faith, Not Exclusion Of Others
It is not in doubt that the past three months walking with Jesus have been the most beautiful and profound of my life. It is only natural that I want everyone else to experience his love as well.
If my experience has not been like your experience, that’s OK. It can feel exclusionary to hear of someone else’s journey when it is different to your journey. If your walk with the Lord is extremely God-fearing, you might be forgiven for wondering if I even “fear” God at all (but I certainly do). Maybe I am occupying a space too dominated by love and not fear. Maybe your space is too dominated by fear and not love. Or maybe they’re both in communion. If Jesus’ love for you is characterised by a kindness of discipline and mine by a kindness of freedom, are we not equally blessed in the eyes of the Lord? He knows what you need and he knows what I need — we shouldn’t project our own situation onto our siblings in Christ. What loving parent doesn’t tailor their parenting style according to that which each child needs to thrive? Should we bicker between ourselves about which style is “right”? If the Jesus you need is currently “fire and brimstone”, why can’t the Jesus I need be “love and cornerstone”? All we have to do is go directly to Jesus and he will open up and expand our journey in miraculous ways. The more you give in faith and love the more you will receive. A much better Christian than me once said: “all progress in Christian life is by faith”. Or for a similar biblical version: “we walk by faith not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7).
So, one of the themes that has been coming around and around is inclusion over exclusion. Galatians 3:28 has come around again and again, in, frankly, miraculous ways. It says: it doesn’t matter who you are, we are all one in Christ. This doesn’t mean you can just stay as a non-believer and receive Jesus’ full set of blessings. One has to question: why, of all the verses in the Bible, is this the one that keeps coming back around and filling me with the Holy Spirit?
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
Constantly Approaching
There have been many other themes and you can see them in my previous nine articles. Another theme has been the primacy of the idea of moving towards Christ. This is an idea which does not work in absolutes. It is not a yes or a no. It is about constantly deepening love. It can be compared to an infinite number, always able to be added to. It can be compared to a half-life curve, always approaching an axis. Always moving towards Jesus, hoping never to move away. If this sounds strange, maybe it is! But if you think about it, how many people say that Jesus shows them something new every day? Well, with each day, with each experience with the Lord, love for Jesus is deepened, so if you think you had it all the day before, he surprises you again, and again, and again. The cup is full but he keeps filling it. Every new day he deepens my love for him. That is not to say there are no challenges. That is not to say that there aren’t moments when I feel his presence more acutely than others. That is not to say that I never fall short myself. Maybe there will one day be a “dry spell”, where I feel I am wandering a desert like Ruth or Naomi. I hope that if this happens, I will never lose sight of that movement closer and closer to him.
So, I guess you could say that another theme has been a personal, living relationship with Jesus. The same personal relationship has existed with the Word. Walking with the Lord, experiencing his love. Going into the Word, experiencing his love.
Revival and Return
I have felt very strongly that revival is linked to a return to the Christianity of the early Christians. A return to the essence of what Jesus is about:
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6).
It is almost as if, with every writing, translation, idea, interpretation or other layer built upon Christ in the two millennia up until now, the potential for human error has crept in. With every beautiful believer added, a chance for fighting. Do we all remember what fellowship means? We should be like a team of carpenters, building beautiful things together that people need for their lives, not rival businesses who’ve outsourced the carpentry and forgotten how to work together. If one carpenter gets tired, a teammate steps in. If someone needs a table and we have a carpenter who’s especially good at tables, she can make it. If I’m no good at woodwork, I can stand outside and tell people how great the woodwork is and why they should come and see it. We don’t have to have the same style as we craft the wood from the same design plans. We can add our personal flourishes. Would it not be an act of self-harm to set up a rival flatpack furniture store next door?
(Un)holier Than Thou?
My teaching has been that we are not God’s holy people unless we put ourselves below the unholy. I do not mean we should be unholy, but we should recognise that part of sanctification is that we do not think ourselves holy. The less holy we think ourselves the closer to Christ’s holy servants we become. So, we put ourselves below the unholy and this is part of the essence of holiness. If you are walking around thinking you are really rather holy then you may not be especially holy at all. If you think that someone else is less holy than you for one reason or another in the eyes of God, then the likelihood is that you might even be the more unholy one.
But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exhalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exhalted. (Matthew 23:11-12).
From my world of comfort and safety, I am absolutely nothing compared to the persecuted Christians being killed around the world for their faith. I am completely unholy in the face of these martyrs who are giving up everything, enduring torture and being killed rather than saying words renouncing Christ. I am unworthy to call myself a follower of Jesus in the same breath as them. All I’m doing is writing articles hoping to move hearts, but I would not have the bravery, and I have to ask myself would I even have the faith, to go where they go for the Lord?
If you think you’re a “good Christian”, you might not be as good a Christian as you have the potential to be.
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1–2)
PART 2
The Gospel According to Mary
So, this brings me on (sort of) to the gospel of Mary Magdalene. Before anyone gets nervous, I want to reiterate I’m not adding anything to your published Bible. There are many sources outside the Bible which can reinforce our faith and enhance understanding: The Incredible Amount We Know About Jesus From Sources Outside the Bible | by Kyle Davison Bair | Hope You’re Curious | Feb, 2024 | Medium. There are many writings on Biblical events that didn’t make it into your canonical Bible (including writings that are actually referenced in the Bible itself but aren’t in it). The gospel of Mary isn’t in the Bible. Some people think it is not holy. Is it possible that it contains some gospel just as precious as the canonical gospels that are in the Bible? Is it possible that if you ski off-piste there’s still snow? Pristine snow, even? Even if you ski on-piste with everyone else there’s danger: you might get hit by another skier or fall on the ice. If you ski off-piste you might be more likely to get lost or caught in an avalanche. Luckily there’s a forgiving mountain rescue dog that can find anyone under any mountain of snow, even if it kills him to get to you, even if you did something foolish to get yourself buried. (I did warn you in Part 1 that I was going to have fun with this!)
Opposition
You may or may not believe in “satanic opposition”, but if you read the story of the gospel of Mary it certainly had a lot of opposition to seeing the light of day. The story goes: it first surfaced in 1896 with many pages torn out. It was worked on for 16 years and finally printed in 1912 in Leipzig. At the final stages of printing a burst water pipe destroyed the prints. Then the Great War broke out so Leipzig was inaccessible. Then the scholar working on it got it back together but died in 1938 before it was finished. Then World War II broke out. Eventually another scholar managed to get working on it but it was delayed by the war and by resurfacing of other manuscripts of the text which had to be factored in. Eventually, it was first published in 1955 (after 59 years of trying). In 1983 another fragment was discovered and incorporated. The current manuscript is actually a strongly attested gospel with multiple scripts corroborating the other fragments that survived, in different languages pointing to vastly different geographical locations (so not all copied out from one single late-surfacing source). Nobody knows when it was written but probably sometime in the 100s. There are some Christians who believe that the more opposition something good for the Lord encounters, the more the adversaries of Christianity don’t want it. If you believe that, there’s no known gospel that received such opposition to its surfacing. Whatever you believe about an evil force, one obvious thing it would attempt to assault would seem to be God’s Word (especially as humans translate it, process it and try to get it out to as many people as possible). The defence against evil is to pray to Jesus for protection and guidance (even non-believers start praying when they’re caught in an avalanche). God will always turn things to the good. Humans may or may not do this (with or without any spiritual “opposition”).
The gospel of Mary describes Jesus telling some of his disciples the following before he departs (Chapter 4):
1 ‘When the Blessed One had said these things, he greeted them all. “Peace be with you!” he said.
2 “Acquire my peace within yourselves!
3 Be on your guard
4 so that no one deceives you by saying, ‘Look over here!’ or ‘Look over there!’ For the child of true Humanity exists within you.
6 Follow it!
7 Those who search for it will find it.
8 Go then, preach the good news about the Realm.
9–10 Do not lay down any rule beyond what I determined for you, nor promulgate law like the lawgiver, or else you might be dominated by it.”
What a profound message.
Before I lose half of my two readers who’ve got this far (perhaps it’s just myself and the Holy Spirit at this point), I’d better return to the canonical Bible itself. In the Bible it implies that the law will naturally fall into place for you if you pay special attention to only two of the ten commandments (Matthew 22:36–40):
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Taken together, the message may be essential: the child of true Humanity (the Son of Man) makes a home in God-loving hearts. If you start creating all these extra rules you will be dominated by the rules you go around making. Rules will dominate you instead of just knowing the peace of Jesus within yourself. Rules will not help you to know God in your heart.
Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? (Galatians 4:21).
A passage before (Mary 2) records Jesus answering a metaphysical question, “will matter be utterly destroyed or not”?
2 The Savior replied, “Every nature, every modeled form, every creature, exists in and with each other.
3 They will dissolve again into their own proper root.
4 For the nature of matter is dissolved into what belongs to its nature.
To a scientist, this seems like a rather beautiful explanation consistent with the second law of thermodynamics (matter in the universe moves towards entropy — a posh way of saying it naturally disassembles). The words are appropriate for Jesus’ audience almost two millennia ago and us today — they seem universal. If you want a quick physics summary of the second law of thermodynamics, someone called Eugene Khutoryansky explains it concisely here: Thermodynamics and the End of the Universe: Energy, Entropy, and the fundamental laws of physics. (youtube.com). To a Christian, Jesus’ words are presumably entirely consistent with the idea of a soul and a return to that essence. In the Bible, even hell seems to be thrown into some form of oblivion eventually:
And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. (Revelation 20:14).
Sin
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What follows in no way belittles the seriousness of sin. But it is also profound, what Jesus is recorded to have said about sin in Mary 3. Peter asks Jesus “what is the sin of the world”:
3 The Savior replied, “There is no such thing as sin;
4 rather you yourselves are what produces sin when you act in accordance with the nature of adultery, which is called ‘sin’.
5 For this reason, the Good came among you, pursuing (the good) which belongs to every nature.
6 It will set it within its root.”
In the Bible itself it states “the works of the flesh are manifest” (Galatians 5:19–21) and the first in the list of these works is “adultery” (which can be interpreted narrowly or broadly). There’s an interesting double meaning of the word “manifest” here (it can mean “obvious” but “to manifest” something means to externalise and make it a reality). My interpretation of Jesus’ words here would be: there is no external, concrete “sin” of the world. You should not go around thinking that sin is external, like a plague, enacting itself on helpless you. You should probably not move responsibility for sin outside of yourself. Sin is secondarily created from within us ourselves, for which we are responsible, which we bring into existence when we give ourselves over to the “nature of adultery, which is called ‘sin’”. Our true natures seem to be characterised by the “the good” just as much as potential for bad: the good even seems to be our default position. We ourselves choose to generate sin, which is against that inherent good nature which is within us all. You have the choice (and power) within you to not do that. Sin is generated by us. At root, our souls might, actually, be good.
The teachings in the gospel of Mary are complementary to other teachings that we are sinful. It doesn’t threaten the idea that we’re unable to free ourselves from sin without Christ. But there’s a subtle implication here that maybe it isn’t quite the whole story to say we’re all hopeless sinners to our core and the dominant part of our soul is inherently one of deep sinfulness alone. That would mean it isn’t quite right to ruminate on our inherently sinful natures rather than celebrate the child of Humanity within us. It would mean that Christ not only takes the penalty for our sin, but also unlocks the child of Humanity within us, allowing us to love and realise the full potential of that part of our nature. We are not 50:50 good and bad. We are, at our essence, made of love; sin is only generated and not who we are. You can see why enemies of Christianity might have wanted this suppressed. It opens the door to a fundamentally positive worldview. Imagine if millions of people in psychological darkness had been told directly from the words of Jesus that they were born to love, at root, with a child of Humanity within them and sin is a secondary process (instead of you’re inherently a dark sinner to your core and so is everyone around you). With this message, would human history have looked a bit different? Just when you thought the good news couldn’t get any better…not only did Jesus take the penalty for the sins you manifest, but he also frees your soul to realise your full potential as a child whose essence is light and not dark. Did Jesus just solve the nature vs nurture question? Are we born good? I leave it to you to think on.
I told you theology was fun, let’s explore this space together.
Infighting
So, the moment the Lord departs is the moment the infighting begins.
According to this gospel, the disciples are initially afraid about what harm will be done to them if they go to the world with Jesus’ teachings. Then Mary stands up and says to them:
“Do not weep and be distressed nor let your hearts be irresolute. For his grace will be with you all and will shelter you. Rather we should praise his greatness, for he has prepared us and made us true Human beings.”
Peter then asks Mary, saying that she had a special connection with the Lord, to tell them “the things which you know that we don’t”. She recounts Jesus telling her in a vision about the “ascent of the soul” (Mary 9). What she says is unsettling for the male disciples. Andrew essentially calls her a liar. Peter essentially says they shouldn’t believe her because she’s a woman:
“Did he, then, speak with a woman in private without our knowing about it? Are we to turn around and listen to her? Did he choose her over us?”
Levi (aka Matthew) rebukes Peter, speaks peace and goes to preach the gospel as instructed.
The Trusted Disciple
You can study it for yourself, but it seems pretty obvious the history of the churches contains a little bit of infighting. The Lord told us to love him and love one another. And look what we did? What is the Lord going to say when he comes back for us? In the gospel of Mary there is one person in the room who is not exchanging verbal blows — Mary. In fact, she is disbelieved, dominated and verbally undermined in public by men. How relevant this gospel might seem to many people today.
Do not get me wrong, there is no value to a “men vs women” debate. The “versus” format is never likely to lead to truth. But (if I could be a bit playful here with a humble tongue in cheek) this is a fact: there are currently (March 2024) 84,469 male prisoners in the UK compared to 3,664 female ones (a 23:1 ratio of men to women) Prison population figures: 2024 — GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). In fact, hardly any of the women are there for violent crime and it has been argued that they shouldn’t be there at all: Why doesn’t prison work for women? — BBC News. Is masculinity as a characteristic particularly susceptible to dark forces? In Genesis 2:18 it says “And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him” — could this mean that Adam was somehow at risk and needed help (even protection)? If you’ve ever observed a large group of men on holiday in the Mediterranean or an all-masculine Whatsapp group, God might have been trying to tell us something. I’m being playful here (but maybe it’s one of those jokes that has some truth behind it?) On balance, if you were an adversary to Christianity, would you want it dominated by masculinity? Open the history books and today’s news to see the manifest results.
The focus of this article is not about men and women, but if I could be permitted to be a tad more playful than I’ve already been, isn’t it interesting the resurrected Jesus gives his message to Mary Magdalene first. Isn’t it interesting that men have tried to write her out of history over the centuries — she is not even listed as one of the twelve disciples and yet the male disciples said she understood Jesus especially closely? It seems she’s been slandered, called unreliable, gossiped about…
In the past, have you ever slandered? Called someone a name implying they’re promiscuous? Used violent gendered insults? Done things that would seriously displease your mother? I have. You still think you don’t need Jesus? Are you going to stop saying no to him today? Tomorrow? You say: no, I don’t need Jesus, I’ve got my other ideas, the ones my human family gave me. So if that’s true, how’s your behaviour been? Your thoughts? Realising your full potential? “Well, what about “Christians”, what about their behaviour”, I hear you say. And my reply is: “yes, absolutely”. Why don’t you ask Jesus directly if he is who he says he is?
Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? (Galatians 4:16).
Seems like (at the very least) the person trusted to receive Jesus at this most critical moment for humankind and then go to tell the other disciples was, well…trusted. John 20:11–18:
11 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,
12 And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
13 And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.
17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.
18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.
Could Mary Magdalene be a key to understanding more about your own faith journey in Jesus?
Since I’m about to end by calling for reassembling the dispersed limbs of the Body of Christ, maybe I’ll hold my peace and close this section with some unarguably “sound doctrine” — Jesus’ words on which we can all agree (Matthew 13:31–33):
31 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field:
32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
33 Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
Repair The Body Of Christ
If you seek humbly, in Christ, you will not go astray. If you seek from me or another human, you might. If you seek, in Christ, and I seek, also in Christ, and at any given time our conviction becomes contradictory, what does that mean? Does it mean I did not seek properly, or you sought but were de-railed? I do not think so. I think it means we are both on a journey. If we stop and look at each other at any point in time, we might think we’re different, but we’re the same. We are experiencing the living Word of God. This is a paradox of faith. There are other paradoxes. One example from science is the duality of light (it is both a particle and a wave at the same time). One from families is how a family member can be wonderful and not wonderful. Loved ones can be flawed but you wouldn’t change them for the world. One from the scriptures is that the father is God, the son is God, the Holy Spirit is God: the same and different. Another is that God knows the future yet changes it according to what we pray for.
Entire church schisms have happened over a point of difference of interpretation (such as whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the father or from the father-son). The history of schisms has been concisely summarised elsewhere. As I learn about these differences, I wonder how many people lost closeness to the Lord as they argued over these things. How many Catholics have been destabilised by another Christian telling them they haven’t been born again, or winding them up by being irreverent about the Madonna. Do we not know that it is ungodly to use the mother of Jesus as a weapon of offense to a fellow follower in Christ? How many Anglicans have been destabilised by being told their church is illegitimate because it was founded on the sin of a 16th-century English king? Do we not know that the Lord thwarts adversaries by turning their efforts to the good? How much time has been wasted that could have been given to the Lord? How many people excluded? How many killed?
Is it a dream to unite the churches? Can we repair the divided body of Christ by accepting that we’re all journeying in him, together? Is it time to just decide to wake up tomorrow and not be divided? Instead of being a severed limb, can we just accept that each part has its function and celebrate that function as part of the whole? Just as the upper limb has an arm, a forearm and fingers, can the church not realise that the shoulder can be different to the index finger and still be part of the functioning body? Why should the index finger attack the thumb? Does blood not circulate with many components, all working together to stop the blood from clotting inside and keep the body alive? Upon injury, don’t those same components work to generate a clot and stop the bleeding? During heart surgery there’s a massive team working together, not just one person with a knife — so why are the churches working against each other. Do they think they can do surgery on their own? Do they think the arm is better than the hand? You think this, I think that: so what? — you’re the left eye, I’m the right eye. We can be light: particle and wave at the same time.
Sisters, brothers, all the beauty in between, most Holy Pope, Archbishop, first among equals, elders, leaders…when you read this, give each other a call. Unite the body, in difference, and celebrate its parts.
“If only it were that easy” I hear you say: so do you not think the Lord would do it if we all asked for it?
Galatians 4 states:
1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
From the inception of Christianity the infighting began amongst God’s servants (and, we have to admit, men have been firmly in the driver’s seat for this). We have to ask ourselves, at this moment are we reacting like Mary, Andrew, Peter or Levi — no option is exactly “wrong”, but which will bring people closer to Jesus? What are we doing to repair the body of Christ? Have you prayed for it? Are we being true to the Lord if we find something strange to us and dismiss it because of ourselves? You can curry favour with the orthodoxy as well as with the unorthodoxy. Changing your mind is an act that requires humility. All we have to do is trust in Christ.
Closing Remarks
Please forgive your author for one last metaphor about carbon-based forms: diamonds and coal are the same and different (they actually originate in parallel not in series). Coal is full of ancient energy. Diamonds are beautiful, but they are hard and cannot release fire. Coal is outwardly dirty, with potential for fire inside. Diamonds are outwardly flawless but contain flaws under the microscope. Diamonds and coal can be faked for appearance. Whether diamond or coal you have the potential for good and harm. Let’s not be diamonds looking down on coal. Let’s not be coal aspiring to diamonds. Let’s try to all remember the evangelical imagination of the early days when our songs were just like prayers.
My fundamental message when I was converted was about moving closer to Jesus. Part of that movement toward Jesus might mean going back to what the first Christians were. There was a time of faith before the Nicene creed was finalised. Before the New Testament existed as a book. Before the infighting got out of control. Just fellowship: a wooden table, with a candle, a drink and some bread, shared amongst friends with work to do for the Lord. He hasn’t given up on you. It’s all for you. No expense is spared. In Jesus’ name, approaching Easter.
You want to know why you were created? You were created to love.
Follow it!
Amen.
The Greatest Gift
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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Welsh Christian Revival (Celebrating International Women’s Day from Friday, Mothering Sunday today and International Dream Day on tomorrow’s Monday)
10th March 2024
