Gospel of Mary 9
Today’s passage is the main part of a vision of Jesus Mary is describing. It begins after a hole in the manuscript, so we make assumptions about has come just before based on what we have. Mary’s vision seems to be a description of the soul ascending through heavens on its way to eternal rest. People of many faiths in the second century believed that the soul left the body at death, and many also believed that the soul returned to the spiritual realm. It was common to describe this return as an ascent through many levels with tests and trials at each level the soul must pass. People often envisioned this as rising upward past the realms of the known planets in order until escaping the last influence of this world.
In her vision, Mary passes four Powers, each of which tries to stop her. The Powers represent ways the world works which are different from her soul’s spiritual nature. Because Jesus has taught Mary that she is a Child of True Humanity, she understands that she is connected to the Good, the essence of God, and therefore resists the lure of worldly ways. By focusing on her true nature, she can enter into heavenly rest – not only after her physical death, but during her life on earth. She can find freedom from what isn’t godly in this life by understanding the Good and living by it.
The four Powers are Darkness (which is not seeing God’s light), Desire (valuing the attractions and false pleasures of life in the world), Ignorance (not knowing our true spiritual nature) and Wrath (anger and violence). When Mary gets to Wrath it is described by a list of sub-Powers which include Darkness, Desire and Ignorance and add Zeal for Death, the realm of the flesh, the foolish wisdom of the flesh, and the wisdom of the wrathful person. Second century folks would have had clear descriptions of what each of these meant. We can guess that they are the attitudes people hold and the behaviors that come from those attitudes which deny everything good and holy.
This seems pretty far removed from pictures we have of life and afterlife today. Aside from being historically amusing, what help is it to us? Let’s summarize what we’ve learned so far:
God is the underlying Good which is present in all of life an in each human life.
Human’s true nature is in connection with this Good. We are children of true humanity.
Jesus taught disciples (and still teaches us) how to recognize this Goodness and how to live by its values.
That life isn’t described by rules but by learning to trust the knowledge of Good that comes from within us, from our hearts and minds.
Jesus is present with us to help us in this effort, as we also help and encourage each other.
When we step back from the specifics of the second century world view and look at the overall picture of life this Gospel holds, it looks remarkably like our project to list godly values and our commitment to being light in the world. Being a follower of Jesus means holding on to his vision for goodness within this community and bringing it as good news to those around us. While the Gospel of Mary sounds like a description of the spiritual life, second century folks and some of us twenty-first century folks believe there’s not a spiritual life set beside “real” life. There’s just life, and our connection to God is part of it all because it’s who we are.
Early followers of Jesus lived in a world of violence and domination by powerful leaders resulting in poverty, hunger, illness and hardship for most people. This darkness was papered over with public circuses and lavish Roman baths and feasting for the rich – pretending life was good and ignoring what was hard. They had no rights to protest, to vote, to make changes reflecting God’s values. But they could protest under the radar by living out those values in community. They provided shelter, food, jobs and hope to their neighbors as they could, and in the process built loving connections and found joy. We also live in a time when life is hard for many and getting harder. Wealth and power make rules to benefit themselves and demonize those who are poor, hungry, without healthcare, coming from another country, looking brown or black, speaking other languages. We have some ways to object, but they seem inadequate to address a growing tide of injustice.
Now is a good time for us to read the Gospel of Mary as a message from our spiritual ancestors who lived in hard times and believed in the Good. Not only did they believe that God was good and would eventually make things better in the afterlife, they also believed that God was within them and they could live by the Good in this life. That was their Good News to the world.
While I was procrastinating writing this sermon down, I was scrolling through my phone. In no time as all I came across two articles celebrating people who lived in hard situations and did something about it. In both cases I read about teachers who provided food for hungry students, beds for those falling asleep in class because they had no bed at home, mentoring for students without stable adults in their lives, hope and assistance that got students through both high school and college. Students who went on to become helpers themselves. This is a good time of year to remember that teachers have hard jobs and are not well paid, but they are kind and generous with time and resources and they become lights of Good to those around them.
We can focus on what’s broken in our world - there is more than enough near and far to make long lists of brokenness. Or we can hear Jesus reminding us that each of us is a Child of true humanity. That each person could see themselves as a Child of true humanity. That selfishness, greed, violence, disrespect and all those other dark qualities are not eternal. They are going to pass away. We may be impacted by them now, but we never have to agree to be them. We can be the light. We can make a difference bit by bit, day by day. And we can invite others to join us, to be part of our community, to share our vision. One day light will win.