Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

From the Old Testament of the Day: I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garment of salvation. [Isaiah 61.10a]

From the Epistle: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that w might receive adoption as sons." [Galatians 4.4]

From the Holy Gospel: "For He has looked on the humble estate of His servant, for behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed." [Luke 1.48]

Today we celebrate the minor church festival of The Dormition of St. Mary, mother of God, which falls on August 15 on the historic Western church calendar.  The term "Dormition" refers to Mary’s death, coming from the Latin dormio, "to sleep," from which we get the common term on college campuses, "dormitory," "a place to sleep" – though there isn’t much of that going on in many of those dormitories. The church marks the heroes of the faith on the day of their death, their falling asleep. So, the 15th of August has been adopted as the day by which to mark the Dormition, the falling asleep, of the Blessed Virgin Mary. And thus today, we do so, under the theme, "Forgotten, but Not Gone."

I.

You will not even hear of such a festival as this in Protestant-Evangelical churches, not to mention in many Lutheran Churches, for one reason, because most churches today have abandoned the historic church calendar, along with her appointed readings in favor of whatever topic happens to be in vogue, or whatever mood happens to be in the preachers head that day.

Moreover, the roles assigned to Mary by the Roman Catholic Church makes this feast day suspect to many modern day Lutherans, especially those who live with Catholic phobia, where even the mention of Mary brings tension, even in churches that flow out of the Lutheran Reformation. In the Middle Ages, it can be said that the Western Church began to make too much of Mary, viewing her in godlike dimensions. It equally can be said that in many Lutheran churches and virtually all Protestant churches today, as an over-reaction to Medieval Rome, too little is made of Mary. In so doing, we contradict the Holy Spirit-inspired and therefore infallible Word of God concerning St Mary, Mother of God, "Behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed!" And so we rightly say, "The Blessed Virgin Mary!"

The festival of St. Mary, Mother of God, is not set aside to tell us what kind of person Mary is, but what kind of God you have!  On this feast day, we are really celebrating anew the day when Christ enters this world through the womb of Mary, when God proves that, in spite of our continual rebellions against Him, He still loves us.  Christ "came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made Man."  Christmas may have Bethlehem as its host city, but God’s surpassing love for sinners begins in Nazareth for it is there that the Word was made flesh, in Mary.  And Mary responded in faith to Gabriel’s announcement by saying, "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord!  Let it be to me according to your word."

II.

Prior to the day when Christ became flesh, God’s Law reveals Him to be your enemy, your torturer, and your prosecutor.  But, in and from the womb of Mary, the one who is thought to be the tormentor of men’s souls unveils Himself as the friend of fallen mankind by being made in the likeness of sinful flesh.  Becoming flesh and blood through Mary is not only a great for man, but it is also a great day for God.

God’s true nature and His essence is not unveiled in the frightening scene at Mount Sinai with the lightning flashes and sounds of thunder, in the pillar of cloud by day or pillar of fire by night, or in the threats of the Law given through Moses.  No, God’s true nature seen in the quiet chamber of the virgin maid who, by the Holy Spirit’s act in the angel’s word, conceives the eternal God, there in the insignificance of the Galilean village, Nazareth, the town of His childhood.  Now, it is seen that God threatens you with the terrors of the Law so that, with a frightened conscience, you find sweet release by finding Him in Mary’s child.

Most Christians marvel at the virgin birth as a miracle, but many are uncomfortable with the notion that in Mary, God permanently became a human being. To make matters worse for them, Christ assumes all of humanity into Himself in order to save it all in His flesh.  In the womb of Mary, heaven and earth were joined together in an indissoluble marriage.  Genesis 1:1 is repeated here, for Christ, conceived in Mary, brings heaven and earth into fellowship again, even as Christ’s death and resurrection pave the way for the new heavens and the new earth, the home of righteousness.

For those who are embarrassed because of the seemingly Roman Catholic implications of God’s participation with us through Mary, let them know that this day as another Lutheran holiday, praising the most unique teaching of our faith concerning Christ -- that Christ, not at His birth, and not at His Baptism, and not at His Resurrection or Ascension, but at His conception was so filled with God’s essence and attributes that, through His momentous incarnation and conception, we will confess that no God exists other than the God we know as Mary’s Son. Through Him and because of Him, we claim as our own the song of Isaiah, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garment of salvation"

III.

For Dr. Martin Luther, all there is to know about God is found in Christ.  One of the many interesting aspects of Luther’s theology is his life-long devotion to the Virgin Mary.  This devotion does not come about from some blind infatuation with Medievalism, but it comes from his firm commitment that God has involved Himself with the human race through Mary’s boy.  God’s total being and all of world history are bound together in what happens to the young Jewish maiden from Nazareth.  The incarnation is not a thing that God is compelled to do, but it is that one act that God really wants to do!  The Old Testament saints may have longed to see their God come in the flesh to save them, but God’s longing to bring man back to Him was even greater.

When Christ takes on your flesh, God does not scoop up the dirt of the earth to do so, as with the first Adam.  Instead, He creates a new and acceptable humanity from the old and rejected race.  The creature has sinned, but the sinful creature is still God’s – and this God proves by reworking the creature into Jesus Christ, the new Adam.  St. Mary represents all of us, when she receives the Savior into this world – "Let it be unto me according to Thy Word." She incorporates all humanity with its corruption and fallennesss within her self.  For, as the first Eve has her human life from the first Adam, so the second Adam, Jesus Christ, has His human life from the second Eve, Mary, and thus He, who is the eternal Son of God, becomes the first-born Son of a new humanity.  Mary is the funnel, chosen by God, through which the entire human race is poured into the Son of God, so that for all time Jesus is as much the brother of sinners as He is the Son of God.

Suddenly, the claim that you, a sinner, have on Jesus equals the claim of God on Jesus. Even as God claims Jesus as the only-begotten Son of God, you now claim Jesus as the Son of Mary and hence your brother.  For, as you and all men were present in Adam when he sinned, leaving you condemned along with Adam, you and all believers are even more present in Jesus, Mary’s Son.  In Him, through your Baptism, you have been died and been raised from the dead.  In the first Adam, you and all mankind become enemies of God, and in the second Adam, who is infinitely greater than the first, you share in more divine blessings than the first Adam lost.  In Mary’s Son, the human race is reconstituted as God’s own people.  "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive!"

In Christ, when God looks at you, He does not see the rebellious Adam of Genesis 3 standing before Him.  That rebellious Adam has been swallowed up by the second Adam.  As God the Father now sees it, only the second Adam, Jesus Christ in the womb, the Son of Mary, is reality.  Just as the treachery of the first Adam became your inheritance, even more so is the obedience of the Son of Mary now yours. 

So far as God is concerned, the first Adam is dead, and you belong to the Son of Mary, the second Adam, Jesus Christ. In this Son of Mary, who is your brother and who stands at the right hand of God, you are holy, spotless, and blameless, now and forever. This reality exists for you only because of Jesus has flesh and blood – your flesh and blood. Jesus in the flesh accomplishes all things for your good only because His is God. He is God in the flesh only because His is conceived and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This, her role, remains today. Today, in not forgetting her, you celebrate her Son’s unity with fallen mankind. Thankfully, St. Mary is the Mother of none other than God!