Dionysus on a Bike

John 20:1-2, 11-18 – 7/22/2026 – The Feast of Mary Magdalene, the Apostle

Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.”

John 20:18 (NRSVue)

Of the many things that alienated me from the life of the church was a church community that did not allow women to lead. The Calvinist-Baptist, “evangelical,” non-denominational church I went to would not allow women to preach and held a “complementarian” view on gender. According to that view, men must always lead, and women follow men’s leadership while they bare and raise children. This church taught that in a “Christian” marriage, men were the spiritual leaders only subject to Christ, while women were to be subject to her husband.

In this environment I saw some of the most miserable, joyless women I have ever encountered, subject to domineering, petty men who seemed oblivious to their wives’ unhappiness. These churches never got to hear a woman’s perspective, and genders were often segregated, depriving congregants of other genders’ perspectives in conversations on many topics. The religious prohibition on women leaders in the church was continually transformed into an all-encompassing misogyny and sexism. It was a harmful environment for women, and an impossible one to navigate for men who rejected or subverted those kinds of gender norms.

Today in the ELCA and the rest of the West, we celebrate the first Apostle, the Apostle to the Apostles, the first witness to the resurrection, Mary Magdalene. Mary’s inclusion among the Apostles and her testimony to the central event of the Christian faith are reminders that the narrow view of women I saw in “evangelical” Christianity is not the model the church should follow. In the ELCA, Mary is the first of many women who lead the church to this day. In society, the family, and the church, women can and do lead just as much as men do. There is no distinction in Christ, and nor should there be in the world, between men and women as far as their worth, their vocation, their authority, or the respect that is due their leadership.

I’m grateful for a church community where women preach and lead and where subverting gender norms is not merely tolerated but even encouraged. Inequality between the genders is contrary to the gospel and must be resisted. As we feast in celebration of Mary Magdalene, the first witness of the resurrection and the Apostle to the Apostles, let us also celebrate the vocation of women in Word and Sacrament and all of the other offices and ministries of the church.

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Revised Common Lectionary Readings for 7/21/2026:
Daniel 12:1-13
Matthew 12:15-21
Psalm 75

Feast of Mary Magdalene, the Apostle readings (ELCA):
Ruth 1:6-18 or Exodus 2:1-10
Psalm 73:23-28
Acts 13:26-33a
John 20:1-2, 11-18

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Reflections of a Dionysian Lutheran, comments on the daily readings of the Revised Common Lectionary by Justin Marquis