Breaking through the stereotypes that can restrict us and our faith

We encounter an extraordinary woman in today’s gospel and an extraordinary act of love and faith – it is inspiration for us this morning

Firstly a question - what are some of the key characteristics of women and men?

The characteristics we list will have been drawn from our experience; our cultural conditioning (same exercises in another country/culture would get different results); from the media; from the Bible and Church – this is true even for those who don’t go to church or have no faith, because the Christian faith has historically been key in shaping UK culture and tradition.

Now let us look closely at the woman in our gospel:

  - the woman (traditionally identified as Mary Magdalene) is identified as a sinner; the implication, with the touching of Jesus seems to be a sexual one – the fear is that she is a temptress and will compromise Simon the Pharisee and Jesus, his guest

  - in fact the woman demonstrates and affinity with Jesus way beyond the emotional – Simon is the powerful figure here – and yet from her vulnerability and social weakness she demonstrates the strength of love and generosity that is characteristic of God’s own self-revealing in the mystery of the cross

  - the power of this sort of love reveals a person’s true character and the character of others

In contrast Simon is hostile to Jesus, not even offering the basic courtesies of hospitality.

This women has gone beyond any stereotypical view of women and men, what caused her to break out from the restrictions of these was a love of God, trust in his goodness and an irrepressible desire to express this.

We can apply the straightjacket of stereotyping in many aspects of faith. Take prayer for example – we can think and believe that prayer is done in one sort of way or another, that some people’s prayers are more effective than others, that prayer mainly relies on us and often we’re not probably quite good enough for God to really listen, and anyway he does not seem to be answering the call. At other times we can find the deepest meaning in prayer, experience comfort and healing, sense God’s presence…

Jesus always encouraged us to pray – to have communion with God. I invite you to take the example of the woman in the Gospel as an inspiration for pray – to explode it out of stereotype and fix it in the truth of God’s love, self sacrifice and generosity. She did not let the constrictions of her gender, social status, perceived worth or controlling structures of others get in the way of worshipping, praying (with words and actions) and serving God.

This morning I invite you to break free in your prayer, hang loose, be yourself – don’t be restricted from giving and receiving from God

We begin regular prayer ministry after today’s service – we do that in confidence and trust in God. In God’s love, self sacrifice and generosity we can know, as the woman did that ‘we are saved, and we can go in peace.’