:: In.a.Mirror.Dimly ::

When I say that Mary was a spiritual mother to me, I fear that I may call up an incomplete image of who she was to me and to so many others. Mary cared for many of us like a mother, but she was also a spiritual dynamo who played every bit the role of a pastor.

She was the first woman that I knew who led with tremendous spiritual authority. She certainly wasn’t the last. Mary’s leadership, pastoring, whatever you want to call it, began with lunch.

Sitting down for a meal with a group of people creates opportunities for tremendous conversations and even transformations. I think Jesus intended his followers to keep gathering around an actual meal when remembering his death and resurrection—there’s something more life-giving when we face one another and actually interact.

I don’t know when Mary started this, but since she had several sons attending my college, Taylor University, she hosted a huge lunch once a month on Sunday afternoons. She led the college Sunday school class, and we were her flock that she cared for like a mother and like a pastor—which when you think about it, have a lot in common.

She prayed with and for us.

She fed us with pot roasts and vulnerable teachings from scripture.

She sat in the presence of Jesus while alone and then showed us the way to him when we gathered together.

When I try to sit in the presence of the Lord each day, I’m often reminded of Mary. She modeled it for us. We followed. That is the kind of spiritual authority that the audience of Jesus saw in him.

That spiritual authority was also the thing that the Pharisees didn’t understand.

You’d think that everyone in our church could see the love of Mary and her care for us as a good thing. But no, certain men couldn’t see through a couple of Bible verses. They clung to a few scripture verses about the role of women in the church and missed everything else that the Bible says about women who prophesy, who are apostles, who speak as God’s representatives, and who guide entire nations.

They chose to focus on a few words on a page and missed the life-giving power of God at work in Mary that lined up with everything else in the scriptures. They put pressure on her, and sometimes even killed the freedom of the Spirit in our Sunday school class.

These men who claimed they were standing on the Bible showed none of the love that Mary modeled from the Bible. They did not exhibit the fruits of patience and self-control. They didn’t welcome us into their homes. They never offered to pray for us.

Whatever they tried to assert by the authority they claimed, the power of Jesus in the life of Mary trumped them. She became the lowly servant before Jesus, and God exalted her through her weakness.

Mary did so many small things that built up into a kind of tidal wave that swept into my life and left me forever changed.

She prayed each morning.

She read scripture.

She shared from her heart.

She prayed with us.

These were all small things that took discipline and commitment. She didn’t see immediate fruit sometimes, but her faithfulness changed many lives.

Before any of those changes could take place, we needed to know that we were welcome and more importantly, that we were loved. All of the spiritual impact of Mary did not begin in a Sunday school class with us, though it would help.

Mary’s spiritual power began over lunch—serving us and sharing her life with us.

May we find God in the small things today and faithfully remain in him so that we can courageously serve others with his authority and power.

Read more stories about the importance of small acts at Faith Barista today: The Penny Man by Guest Blogger Billy Coffey