Worship

Sermon Archive

Sunday August 14, 2011
11:00 am - Saint Thomas Church
Preacher: Fr Mead

The Mother of All Christians

In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Karl Barth was perhaps the greatest theologian, certainly the greatest Protestant theologian, of the twentieth century. He was a Swiss Calvinist and the author of the multi-volume Church Dogmatics, the most monumental work of theology since Saint Thomas Aquinas’ encyclopedic Summa Theologia nearly 800 years ago. Barth is reputed to have said that when he died he wanted to meet John Calvin to show him how much he had improved on his theological system. In any case, when Barth did die about fifty years ago, our Lord himself took note. Jesus got off his throne and went down to the pearly gates, and asked Saint Peter to step aside so he could welcome Dr. Barth into heaven personally. “Dr. Barth,” said the Lord, “Welcome. You have written so many wonderful things about me, I wanted to be the first to greet you. I also came to make a particular introduction for you. I don’t believe you have met my Mother.”

It is a delight to have The Chancel Choir of First United Methodist Church, Salisbury, North Carolina, singing the liturgical music this morning. And look what they are going to sing: texts on the Virgin Mary by Bruckner and Grieg, among other delights! This seems like a good teaching opportunity to explain why non-Roman Catholic Christians, not only high Episcopalians but Methodists, do perfectly well to give traditional honor and praise, veneration, to Mary.

Each Sunday in August nearest the 15th, we at Saint Thomas observe the feast, as the Book of Common Prayer calls it, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Roman Catholics call that feast, August 15, the Assumption, or the taking up, of our Lord’s mother into heaven at the end of her life. The Orthodox Churches call it the Dormition, or falling asleep, of Mary at the time of her death and her going to glory with her Son, which comes to the same thing. We may well ask, if our Lady Saint Mary isn’t in heaven, then wherever is she? All Christians who believe in Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, should be on this same page.

The first Protestant Reformers in the Sixteenth Century, all of them from England to Germany to Switzerland, honored Mary as the God-bearer, or Mother of God. To say that is to say that our Lord Jesus, from the first to the last instant of his earthly life, is true God and true Man. He didn’t grow up into being the Word-made-flesh, our divine Savior. He was divine from conception, through birth, youth and maturity, and in suffering and death. That is why he has the power to save us.

You might be surprised to learn, as I was, that even the fierce Protestant reformer Zwingli of Zurich included the Hail Mary in the public prayers of his Church. Luther and Calvin went very far in honoring Mary as the Mother of God, as do the ancient creeds of the undivided Church. We are not out of line in this morning’s liturgy. It’s just that there has been slippage over the past five centuries, and at last there is movement of recovery and convergence.

Now let’s look at the New Testament and see what it is about Mary that makes her so important in the Gospel. First of all, she is the Virgin Mother of Christ because she said Yes to God. When the Angel Gabriel presented her with the disturbing news that, without intercourse with a man and as yet unmarried, Mary would conceive and bring forth a Son who would save the people from their sins, she consented. We could spend some time on the dangers she faced down (scandal, ostracism, death by stoning), but let us simply thank God for Joseph’s faith and courage as well.

Eve, our first mother, said No to God in her disobedience, and it has been a painful story of sin ever since, “East of Eden.” But Mary, by saying yes, is a kind of new Eve, opening the door to a fresh beginning for humans, through Christ. Overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, she conceived Christ, literally, by saying yes. If we are Christian believers, we too, in a spiritual similarity, must say yes to God in order admit Jesus Christ into our lives.

Mary did not just glide through life. Jesus’ ministry, and the dangers it presented, frightened her. She was afraid for his safety, and for good reason. He was developing lethal enemies by confronting evil, demonic evil, including the sham and pretense of the religious leaders. Mary at one point seems to have wanted Jesus to stop and come home. It was then that the Lord said that those who did the will of his Father were his family, his brother and sister and mother. Jesus was not being disrespectful of his mother; he was reminding her of the true ground of her motherhood!

So Mary grew and persevered in grace. We know that she was among the very few who did not run away from the foot of the cross. She was with the disciples who saw her Son die and who secured his burial. She was still there at the time of his empty tomb and resurrection. And she is listed as among those present in the Upper Room when the powerful Spirit of God descended on the disciples on Pentecost, sending them out to the ends of the world. In all this, Mary is not only an historical figure. She is a representative figure. She represents the Church at its best.

One final thing: let us back up just a bit, to the foot of the cross. There, Jesus commended St. John and Mary to each other. “Woman,” he said, behold your son. And to John he said, “Behold your mother.” From that hour, says Saint John, he took her into his own home. Tradition says that they eventually got to Ephesus, where Mary’s earthly life ended. Rembrandt, a Dutch Calvinist, has sketched the scene of her death, and it for all the world looks like either the Assumption or the Dormition of our Lady into heaven.

Not only can we non-Roman Catholics sing Mary’s praises and keep our most authentic and authoritative heritage in public liturgies. We can also, like the Beloved Disciple, take Mary along into our own homes. Jesus’ word to Saint John is meant for us all: Behold, your mother. We are also his beloved disciples. We can have icons, pictures and statues, and Marian devotions. Jesus has given her to us, and we can say, Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee…pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.