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The Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost
Almighty God, who hast given thy only Son to be unto us both a sacrifice for sin and also an example of godly life: Give us grace that we may always most thankfully receive that his inestimable benefit, and also daily endeavor ourselves to follow the blessed steps of his most holy life; through the same Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (Proper 15)
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The Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost
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Scripture citation(s): Luke 1:46-55
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Luke 1:46-55
✛
Mary, Mother of Us All
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For behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed; for he that is mighty hath magnified me, and holy is his name.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Today’s Gospel from Saint Luke is the Song of Mary, commonly known as the Magnificat, from the first word in the Latin translation. Saint Luke says Mary said the Magnificat during her visit to her cousin Elizabeth, when both women were pregnant – Elizabeth with John the Baptist and six months ahead of Mary with Christ. The Magnificat has the form of a psalm, and it is the first canticle used at Evensong, or Evening Prayer.
At the beginning of the Magnificat, Mary says her “soul magnifies the Lord, and her spirit rejoices in God [her] Savior.” A few verses later, she says that God, who is mighty, has done great things for, has magnified, her, and holy is his name. Today, let us take a few minutes to reflect on why Mary is thus magnified, and why therefore all generations shall call her blessed.
For over 35 years at Saint Thomas, we have kept the Sunday near August 15 to celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary. Roman Catholics call August 15 the Assumption, or the taking up of the Blessed Virgin Mary, body and soul, into heaven at the conclusion of her life. Eastern Orthodox call this the Dormition, or the “falling asleep” of Mary, as her death opens up into her heavenly bliss. The Episcopal Church Prayer Book, using similar prayers and lessons as our Roman Catholic cousins, calls this day simply The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In this day when the Church, particularly our own Anglican/Episcopal branch of it, is pressed and sometimes divided over controversies related to sexuality, it is good to hear (at least I think so) about growing convergence among Christians – Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican (who include both high church Anglo-Catholics and low church Evangelicals); that is, convergence on the Blessed Virgin Mary. Two years ago, a remarkable Agreed Statement on Mary was issued by the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission. Appreciation and understanding are expressed, for example, by Anglicans in that broadly representative statement for the theology behind such Roman Catholic dogmas as the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Mary.
Most importantly, I believe, is something all orthodox (small “o”) Christians have in their tradition, and that is the affirmation by the Early Undivided Church that Jesus Christ, from his conception at the Angel Gabriel’s Annunciation to the Virgin Mary to his death and resurrection, is the divine Son of God, that is, God the Son incarnate; and that Mary, therefore, is truly the Bearer or Mother of God. As CS Lewis wrote in his book Mere Christianity, what is important is to realize that “the Virgin’s Son is God.”
Beyond this, what can we ourselves draw from the life of the Mother of God? For Mary is by no means distant from us. I was brought up in a Liberal Protestant, though devout, home. After a detour away from faith, I became Episcopalian forty years ago in college. It has been the gentle tutelage of our Church that has led me increasingly to appreciate Mary, and I want to tell you that in my own experience in prayer and daily living, Mary is truly “our Lady the Help of Christians.” I do not have enough fingers to count the times I believe her example, her prayers, in fact her direct influence, have brought grace notes to my life, my family, my parish and parishioners, and my friends, sometimes even my enemies. I am by no means alone, and I know there are a good number of you here at Saint Thomas who know the same sorts of things – and some of you have begun life as, and still are, good Protestant souls.
Here are three things about Mary that have a bearing on us. First, she became the Virgin Mother of Jesus Christ, the Mother of God, by saying Yes. Whereas our first, natural, mother, Eve, said No; Mary is the mother of the redemption, because she said Yes, “I am the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” Mary in an important sense was the first person to hear the specific Gospel of Jesus Christ, straight from God’s Angel Gabriel. She believed (in spite of fear of the obvious scandal and danger) and consented. And she kept believing God and consenting. We similarly “conceive” Christ in our lives hearing, believing and consenting to the Gospel of Jesus.
Second: Jesus did not make it easy for Mary or for Joseph, even in his youth. To make a long story short with instances too many to recount, Mary grew in her faith even as she feared for what was coming to her Son as his ministry advanced. She would have preferred he come home and stay out of harm’s way. But by God’s grace she overcame her natural fears and entered what Jesus called his family of those who hear the word and do the will of God his Father. It can certainly be said that Mary carried her own cross daily and followed her Son; the “sword,” prophesied at her Son’s presentation in the Temple, was piercing her heart more and more, especially and most acutely at Calvary. We too have to be stretched and, yes, wounded, in our faith in order to grow to fullness.
Third, Mary was present with the other disciples in the days of Jesus’ Resurrection appearances. There is not a recorded appearance of the risen Lord to his Mother in the Gospels, but Luke tells us Mary was in the upper room with the apostles on the Day of Pentecost. Mary, tradition says, stayed with Jesus’ kinsman and beloved disciple John the Evangelist until her death; John himself tells us he took her into his own home from the time Jesus commended her to him at the cross, calling John Mary’s “son” and Mary John’s “mother.”
This last point literally brings it all home. We are invited by the Gospel to do the same thing, to take Christ’s mother into our own homes. This was an invitation that took me some years to hear and to accept. But when the day finally came, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Mary lives with Christ. I can’t imagine living without her grace, which is nothing more than the maternal care that nurtured our Lord himself. He intended the whole church to be his family. What’s a family without a mother? And we have the best there is.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
