Day of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Our Lord, Mother of God
August 15th, 2012
Mary can’t be sufficiently praised as a creature, but that the Creator himself comes to us and becomes our ransom—this is the reason for our rejoicing.
Martin Luther
Table Talk No. 494
Painting: Jungfrun i bön (1640-1650) by Sassoferrato; National Gallery, London.
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Categories: Church Year, Feasts, Festivals, Sermons, etc.
Sometimes I have the impression that the Blessed Virgin Mary today receives (other than at Christmas) pretty much “short shrift” from us Lutheran laymen, if not from our clergy. Why is that, other than because of poor catechisis?
Have I learned correctly that, for Luther and the early Lutherans, St Mary always remained “Queen of Heaven”, “Mother of God”, and “Perpetual Virgin”, and, at the same time, always was regared as neither a mediatrix nor co-redemptrix?
Today, much of Christianity celebrates August 15th as the Feast of the Assumption, when Mary was assumed (taken to Himself) by Christ. Luther knew and wrote of this day as “Mariae Himmelfahrt” or “Aufnahme Marias”. Its celebration was observed by many early Lutherans as part of their Marian piety, although they never regarded The Assumption as dogma because it could not be substantiated by, or reasonably inferred from, Scripture.
Even the Roman Church didn’t elevate The Assumption to the level of church dogma until 1950.Then, soon thereafter, the higly-regarded (by many), but controversial, German Catholic theologian, Hans Kueng, facetiously referred to The Assumption as “the great assumption”.
But, as to St. Mary’s perpetual virginity, Luther affirmed it (as did Calvin, Zwingli, and Wesley.) For all of them, it was never a question. Why, then, is it a question for some Lutherans today?
In any event, can we all join with Luther today and say as he did: “Hail Mary, full of grace, blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus”?
Today in the West, we are uncomfortable with the idea that a woman becomes unclean when she has a menstrual period (a flow of blood), or when she has a baby. We would take umbrage at the very thought. Yet we do know that 40 days after Jesus’ birth, Mary had to appear before the religious authorities to present her child and to be purified, most likely by dunking in a mikva, like the orthordox Jews still do in Mea Sherim. Mary for 40 days was ritually unclean. You may notice that Lutherans refer to that feast as “The Presentation” with their usual Christocentric focus, while many other Christians call it “The Purification of Mary” where the focus on Jesus gets a tad blurry but Mary is brought into sharp focus.
It could be that God picked Mary to be the mother of Jesus/God just the same way he may have picked the tree in the Garden of Eden that he didn’t want Adam and Eve to eat from. That tree is the forbidden tree that if you disobey me you will learn good and evil. That young woman, is a good Jewish virgin, who will mother my son to maturity, willingly and devotedly. Nothing intrinsicly different or special other than God’s choice. God blessed Mary by choosing her from among all women. She probably didn’t feel very blessed as part of the crowd watching the crucifixion of her son; she felt the sharp pain she was told she would. Her baby was born for a special death.
I think we do avoid Mary in our daily piety. We should name churches in Mary’s memory as much as we should for any of the other principle heros in the Bible, or the great Christian martyrs. But we don’t. And today we think of sex between a husband and wife as clean, natural, and normal. We think something would have been wrong between Mary and her husband if after her mission was complete, she would only be doing her duty and hopefully her joy to love sexually her husband and to have many children. Beyond her purpose to bring the Savior God into the world, her life was free now to resume as any young wife’s would.
I think Mary was in the room where they were all praying on Pentecost day when the Holy Spirit filled them all. I think that was her baptism and did for her what it did for the others in the room. She isn’t spotlighted, but the brief mention helps us to know that she had grown in her faith and was given faith that day by the Holy Spirit who made her too a part of the church. But it’s only a mention, Mary was there, siting silently in the back with the other women, older and dressed all in black as a widow.
But, I’m already inferring way too much, and I much prefer the plain and clear statements of Scripture. Mary was a great mother to the Son of God and for that she is called blessed by all people.
Mary is not another mediator but as LCMS Lutherans we can and should call on her for intercession. Even Luther did back in the day. We ask her to pray for us as you would ask a friend to pray for you. She is not another person we worship but we acknowledge and respect her as the mother of God. I agree with the gentleman who implied that Mary gets marginalized in the LCMS. I wonder how Jesus feels about this happening to his mother, the Blessed Virgin, the most highly favored lady.
No, we should not call on her for intercession. Prayer to the saints is specifically rejected in the Lutheran Confessions because it is wholly contrary to the Word of God. You are simply mouthing the Roman Catholic “party line” on “asking a friend to pray for you.” Your assertion is false doctrine.
@StatcatAtl
As Lutherans, we don’t pray to the saints, we honor them and give thanks to God for the gifts of their lives.
We recognize them as examples of God’s mercy, examples for strengthening our faith, examples worthy of our imitation. St Mary is among the saints whom we honor in those ways.
More visibly, we honor the saints by naming many of our congreations in their memory, e.g., “LC of St. John” or “LC of St. Paul”. But, what about “of St. Mary”? Seemingly (in America), that’s rare, at most!
Might the day come when some one or more new Lutheran congretation, using one of Luther’s several different appelations for St. Mary, “dare” to be named “Mother of God Lutheran Church” or “Queen of Heaven Lutheran Church”?
Doing so might shock some Protestants. But, it also might cause others among the communion of saints to smile.
Hi,
having grown up LCMS-Lutheran (very conservative congregation) in a Very Roman Catholic town in MA, I think we distinguished ourselves FROM the RCs in town by NOT making the sign of the cross, and I certainly don’t elevate Mary; She was chosen by God to bear Jesus. To me, that is what she did – she fulfilled her role. She had other children, was NOT a perpetual virgin, and was NOT assumed into heaven.
She also was NOT immaculately conceived, as the RC church teaches.
Remember too, that Judas had HIS place in God’s plan; his place was to betray Jesus by leading the Romans to him, with his ‘Judas’ kiss.
We don’t know why God chooses or plans as He does; we accept that it is part of His divine will. Only Jesus is special; the rest of us humans are here to serve Him as HE wills.
As for Mary, we really don’t know what her condition is in heaven. I would never be so bold as to pronounce that she’s Queen of anything. In fact, I once proclaimed in St. Peter’s Cathedral in NY, horrifying my catholic-brought up husband, “Mary is dead, get over it!”
Probably not the brightest thing to pronounce, but it was getting really silly in there with people worshipping Mary…
As for the sign of the cross, Lutherans always made the sign of the cross for hundreds of years after the Reformation…it is recommended in the Small Catechism.
Yes, our pastor is encouraging the congregation to do so, but not having grown up doing it, I find it difficult to remember or even, just to do…
“As for the sign of the cross, Lutherans always made the sign of the cross for hundreds of years after the Reformation”
But, have Lutherans ALWAYS have made the sign of the cross, or have they done it for hundreds of years after the Reformation (implying that they haven’t really ALWAYS done it)?
just wondering…
That is fine if you personally do not want to make the sign of the cross, just as long as you recognize it is not a uniquely “Roman Catholic” practice. I never made the sign of the cross either until I was well into my twenties. My parents started making the sign of the cross when they were in their fifties. The sign of the cross was part of Christian piety and practice since the very earliest days of the Church wherein we find references to tracing it on their forehead, etc. and then on their body, Lutheranism, as in many things, reformed the practice, removing its superstitious abuse and simply continued the practice, as Luther indicates in the Small Catechism. Yes, Lutherans have always made the sign of the cross, in some places it fell out of use due to misunderstanding [and ignoring Luther's Small Catechism!], but yes, Lutherans have always made the sign of the Cross. It not a “Roman Catholic” practice, simply a historic Christian practice in both Eastern and Western Churches.
@Marla
I believe the difference between RCs and Lutherans making the sign of the holy cross goes to when, the circumstances under which, they do so.
I was raised in a home and congregation in the tradition of Lutheran Pietism (German Evangelical Synod). Early in life, we learned to “cross ourself” simply as an act of Lutheran piety (remembering our baptism first and last thing each day.) This we did privately in our bedroom and at the dinner table following prayer before meals. It was not a “show”.
In hight school, my RC buddies crossed themselves very publicly, on the basketball court prior to attempting to make a foul shot, for example. I used to think and wonder … what does their baptism have to do with this foul shot?
For us, crossing ourselves was “no big deal”. But, for sure, it wasn’t a matter of saying to the world “Look at me.”, either.
There have been many queens of Heaven. Isis, Hera, Inanna, etc., but only one that wasn’t a goddess, at least not yet. Mary in the majority of late medieval art is shown being crowned by her son Jesus, or already crowned holding her infant Jesus. If the crowns were modest, simple, and humble, one would instantly think that Jesus is giving his mother her crown of life as her soul reaches heaven. But, the crowns are rather more queenly in appearance, usually as large as the crown on her son. According to tradition, Mary fell asleep in death and securely in the faith on August 15th. We don’t know what year or what place that happened. The Dormition, the Keimesis of the woman who bore the God of all creation.
God chose a peasant girl whose lineage went way back to a great king, so just any girl would not do. He took her human egg and his seed and made a human man who was a God and the Son of God. Mary gave him the necessary humanity and lineage, doing whatever God told her to do, in faith. God kept her from all harm, but warned her that the work of this child would give her great pain, right through her body. But, her pain would turn to joy just like at childbirth.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is blessed among all women forever. May our feeble attempt to remember her death, keep our respect and appreciation for her alive forever.