In this second sermon of a series on the Gospel of Mary, Rev. Sara Ewing-Merrill examines the text's dramatic confrontation between Peter and Mary Magdalene — in which Peter dismisses Mary's spiritual authority out of jealousy and gender bias — drawing a direct line between that ancient dynamic and the ongoing subjugation of women in Christian nationalist rhetoric today. She concludes with a call rooted in Jesus's own teaching: that worthiness is not a ladder to be climbed or a hierarchy to be enforced, but a truth to be claimed equally by all people, especially those whom society has told they are less than.