Sermon: Dedication (Year C) | Sunday 26th October 2025 | St Mary Magdalene, Outwood (Eucharist)
John 2:13-22 | Ephesians 2:19-22
There’s one on every street corner….
Or maybe one in every town?
Perhaps not, but just how many are there?
Well, according to The Internet, there are over 225 Church of England churches dedicated to Mary Magdalene.
Turns out, I have been to several of them, such as the church in which I was confirmed, many years ago!
Perhaps you know others, too.
The naming of a church is a significant moment in the life of a worshipping community. I have never experienced that.
For churches built long ago, the reasons for the dedication may have been lost to time, or even if records were kept, choosing a saint may have been a local tradition, superstition even, but mostly, known only to the Holy Spirit.
The parish website informs me that this church was opened in 1858. I want to know about the discussions, in this community, in the early 1800’s?
How did our forbears decide that it would bear the name of Mary Magdalene.
What does “dedication” mean, for us?
This building was dedicated along time ago.
That which is dedicated to God: is it all a temple?
And what about ourselves?
When a person says “my body is a temple” – I have to ask, well what about the rest of you? Your soul? Your very being? Is it just as worthy?
Each Sunday, we are dedicated to God, in sacrament, worship and prayer, sent out into the world to love and serve the Lord.
I would ask then, how might we be inspired by Mary Magdalene in our discipleship this week?
Johns Gospel, today, has Jesus visiting the Temple at the start of His ministry. He sets the scene and responds to questions, although cryptically, with a clear picture: Jesus – the Word made flesh – the true Temple of God – turns the accepted norms upside down. He says that the Temple could be destroyed and then rebuilt, in three days.
He speaks of His own death and resurrection.
He reveals a Temple of God that is so much more than stones, activities – both good and bad, and even worship…..
This place, this house of God, filled with prayer and music and life – endless hope, for nearly 170 years – it is our place of transformation.
We don’t just sit waiting.
We come here, to change.
Whatever we receive or share here, even when it makes no sense, or when we actually just want it to be the same every week, or … we’re bored….
We cannot fail to change.
To be transformed.
We are a part of something.
We choose to come here, to live as Christian Disciples – yes, we might feel called but, essentially, we make choices.
How will we respond to this change, this transformation?
Can Mary Magdalene inspire us in this, I wonder?
We are encouraged to pray in and through the Saints, in light.
Is that something we do?
Does the congregation in Alverthorpe, pray to St Paul?
And if they do, I wonder: will they become good at writing letters, about travel…! [waits for chuckle… doesn’t happen!]
Prayer isn’t really like that though, is it?
Inspiration from our patron saint can be in prayer, but it can also be in how our attitude to healing, salvation, unconditional love and encouragement, is revealed in us, and how this gives us a hope that we have more to offer.
Mary was a witness – present at both the Crucifixion and the Resurrection – and she became a Messenger – akin to the angels themselves – bearing a Message from the Risen Lord – she calls Him “Teacher” – a Message to the other Disciples, in hiding:
“…I have seen the Lord;” (John 20:18)
Mary….
One can’t help but notice that there are two Mary’s revered in this place.
It is not for us to give precedence of one saint over another, and I don’t believe that is what the Holy Spirit calls us to do.
I do believe that we are all encouraged to live, pray and worship in such a way that we are also transformed in Christ, as was Mary Magdalene.
She was saved, and transformed to live a life renewed – so that when Jesus sent her from the tomb to tell the others what she had seen, she went.
And in so doing, she changed the world.
That is our calling….
Today, each Sunday, and all of the days in between.
We don’t sit passively, waiting for Good News, to then do nothing with it.
No!
As our church bears the name of Mary Magdalene, are we then able to bear her witness, her spirit, her mission and message into the world that we live in? To say “come and see”?
The Church might always want more people to attend – to come in through the door and be a part of something. Most of the time, we are outside the church, trying to live a life that echoes the mission of Jesus – just a little bit….!
I encourage you to take this church with you – wear the mantle of your patron saint – take the message from death to life – in how you live, speak, engage and struggle! In how you love!
As Paul tells the community in Ephesus, you are all citizens with the saints, in the household of God, built on apostles and prophets! Yes – you and me, and all who find hope in such a faith!
It is not easy to be like Mary Magdalene, or Mary the Mother of Jesus, prophets, apostles or indeed any of the stand-out figures from theological history.
And it is all too easy to think:
‘Well, I am no saint, don’t want to be one either! I’ll just sit here quietly…. And then go home.’
Ok, then.
Or….
You just might ponder on something that stayed with you from worship today – or last week – or from reading or prayer….
What might God be saying to you that needs sharing – revealing to someone else…?
Where might Jesus be sending you this week?
I don’t know if you have ever done any biblical contemplation – the sort that asks: “which disciple would you be… or would like to talk to… if you could…?”
You might use your imagination to stand next to Mary Magdalene – maybe at the tomb, in the Upper Room, around a campfire or at a feast, with Jesus.
Stand in her sandals, for a moment this week, and feel her hope, and use her courage.
To finish, regardless of how you pray, or who inspires you; as you prepare to be ‘sent out’ from this temple, as messengers of Christ, be guided by these words from Genesis:
How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. (Genesis 28:17)
God be with you.
Amen.
Feast of Saint Magdalene 22nd July on Church of England
Church Dedications here
Image: ChatGPT (“Sandals, dusty, no feet, biblical…. The sort that Mary would wear”)