The Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary – August 15, 2024

Psalm 34; Sirach 24:7-8, 10-15a; Galatians 4:4-7

St. Luke 1:39-55

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”[1] What are those things which were told to Mary from the Lord?

Mary is told to rejoice for the Lord is with her.[2] This is fulfilled from the moment of her conception, when she was born in the faithful anticipation that God would come to save His people. God is with her all the days of her life. It is fulfilled again when that same Lord is incarnate in her very womb. God is with her intimately as He grows in her womb, soon to be born a man. The Lord is with her as she watches Him be crucified. He is with her when He rises from the dead. He is with her even as she lay dying, some 15 years after His ascension.

Mary is also called blessed among women. This is fulfilled already during the ministry of our Lord, when a woman in the crowd cries out to Jesus, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!”[3] It is fulfilled again tonight and every time a Christian refers to her as the Blessed Virgin Mary. And it is true. Mary truly is blessed among women. Not only is she blessed with faith, but she alone was granted the holy privilege of carrying the Christ in her womb. She alone beheld the Word by which creation was made within her own body.

One of the greatest of things told to Mary by the Lord is that she would be the mother of God. She would bear the Son of God and call His name, Jesus.[4] Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is true God, begotten of the Father before all worlds and true man, born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Since the Incarnation, His humanity and divinity cannot be divided. He is one Person, although with two natures. Because of this, it is fitting and correct to call Mary the mother of God.

Perhaps the greatest thing said to Mary is that this Son of God and Son of Mary would inherit the throne of David and that He would reign forever.[5] Her Son would be David’s Son and David’s Lord, the everlasting Prince of Peace, the Savior.[6] Mary was told by God that her Son would save her from her sins.[7] That He would go before her to prepare a place for her to rest for all eternity.[8] That He would reconcile her to His heavenly Father, making peace where sin once made for enmity.

I say this is the greatest thing because when you think of all the things Mary heard regarding her Son, this might seem like the least of things. It was accomplished by death. There is no physical sign, per se, that it was accomplished. And yet, it is the entire purpose of the Scriptures and the Incarnation. The salvation of Mary and all who believe is the reason God became man. And if there is anything we are to learn from Mary, it is that God chooses the lowly to be exalted. Jesus was born in a cattle stall, not a grand palace. He was born to a virgin girl, not a queen or empress. He made Himself lower than the animals for the sake of His beloved mankind.

The same is true for you. Just as Mary was promised that everything said to her by the Lord would be fulfilled, so too, those things the Lord has said to you have been, are, and will be fulfilled. In your Holy Baptism, Jesus declared that you are righteous. You have been born again into Christ. He said that you are a son or daughter of the Father. Your sins have been washed away and He prepares a place for you in the heavenly mansions. This is most certainly true.

Why come to church on a Thursday evening to celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary? Because she is the sign, the image, of Christ’s church. Jesus was alive in her womb. He sought a resting place, a dwelling among His people.[9] Her body was His holy temple, just as you are the Holy Temple of the Holy Spirit. If you have been born again through the waters of Holy Baptism into Christ, then you too, have been born into His holy habitation.

For centuries, Christians have looked at Mary as the mother of all Christians. That doesn’t mean we worship her or elevate her to some “demi-goddess” status. No. She is our adoptive mother just as the Church is our mother. The Church is our mother because she is the place where we are given new birth. We ought to love and respect Mary because she was a lowly virgin who placed all her hope and trust in her Son, the same Son of God that we worship. She is an example of faith and an example of one for whom Jesus died. And just like you might celebrate the birthday of your beloved mother or grandmother who has died, for the sake of her memory, we too celebrate the death of Mary for the sake of honor.  

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] St. Luke 1:45.

[2] St. Luke 1:28.

[3] St. Luke 11:27.

[4] St. Luke 1:31.

[5] St. Luke 1:32-33.

[6] Psalm 110; Isaiah 9:6.

[7] Genesis 3:15.

[8] St. John 14:3-10.

[9] Sirach 24:7-15.

The Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary – August 15, 2023

Psalm 34; Sirach 24:7-8, 10-15a; Hebrews 4:1-10

St. Luke 10:38-42

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Brethren, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.”[1] The word “dormition” is simply a fancy way to say, “the falling asleep” and in this case it is a euphemism for death. Other cultures, believers and unbelievers alike, have compared death to sleep. For the unbeliever, this can only ever be a euphemism, a nice way to say something unpleasant. For the Christian, it is a euphemism, but it is also true on its face. When the Christian dies, she enters rest. Her body is laid in the earth to finish the decay wrought in the flesh by sin. There is no tension, pain, or stress remaining in the flesh. It is at rest even as it is returned to dust.

Her soul is taken to the bosom of Christ, her true rest. Here, the Christian knows rest like she’s never known before. All tears, worries, cares, and anxieties are wiped away. All that she now knows is peace and joy.

All of you have the promise of this peace and rest at this very moment. By virtue of your Holy Baptism, by being placed into the name of Jesus, you have been given the promise of eternal rest with Christ. This promise does come with a warning. The promise cannot be taken from you, but you can forfeit it. You can give up your claim to the promise. This happens when you stop paying attention to the promise and to the One who has given that promise to you.

In the Gospel, we heard of Mary and Martha—Mary who chose to listen attentively to Jesus and Martha who busied herself with much serving.[2] I’m still not convinced this is the same Mary that bore our Lord, but she exhibits the same type of faith as the Blessed Virgin. Both understand the importance of the Word of God and how to place her own wants and desires beneath that of God. Both trust that what God has to say and what God is doing is to her benefit, even if neither comprehends it fully. ‘The dishes can wait, Jesus is speaking.’ ‘My plans for a fancy church wedding can wait, I am to be the mother of God.’ 

“Brothers, and all who have come to this place at this hour of our mother Mary’s departure, you have done well to light lamps that shine with the fire of this visible earth. But I wish that each of you will also take hold of his immaterial lamp in the age that has no end; this is the threefold lamp of the inner person, which is body and soul and spirit. For if these three shine forth with the true fire, for which you are now struggling, you will not be ashamed when you enter into the marriage-feast to rest with the bridegroom. So it is with our mother Mary. For the light of her lamp fills the world, and will not be quenched until the end of the ages, so that all who wish to be saved may take courage from her. Do not think, then, that Mary’s death is death! It is not death, but eternal life, because ‘the death of the just will be proclaimed glorious before the Lord’ (Ps 115:15 [Psalm 116:15]). This, then, is glory, and the second death will have not power to do them harm.”[3]

These words are spoken by St. Peter in one of the earliest records we have of the death of St. Mary. They are a summary of the importance and purpose for remembering her death. It is good if you have faith in this life but if you allow the lamp of faith to falter in your dying hour, then that faith is for nothing. Throughout this account of St. Mary’s death, she is preparing to die. Even the mother of God is frightened over the prospect of death. She knows that it will be Satan’s last chance to tempt her away from the faith and he will be like a cornered and rabid dog, viciously seeking to tear her away from her Son and Lord.

St. Paul gives the Hebrews a similar warning: “Since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it.”[4] This is not so much in the spirit of a finger wag, “You better start paying more attention or else…” as it is a warning of danger. Know that death is real. Know that Satan is real. Know that the demons are real. Do not fear them, for Christ has conquered them for you. But do be cautious of them. Do know that your own strength, your own efforts, are not enough to overcome them.

At the same time, know that your life as a Christian is not to sit on the couch and just assume that Jesus does everything so you can watch TV. This is the laxity that can damn. On the other hand, there is the business which can damn. Martha is distracted by serving such that she doesn’t have time to hear the Word of God.

What does St. Mary do when she is concerned about the impending temptations associated with her death? She prays to Christ. She prays, remembers the promises He has given her, reminds Him of His promises, recites Scripture, then lays the outcome in the pierced hands of Jesus.

If the mother of God, who saw multiple angels in her lifetime, bore the Son of God, watched Him die, saw Him rise, and likely watched Him ascend into heaven, had a moment of fear, doubt, or worry concerning the temptations which arise before death, don’t be ashamed of your own fears, doubts, and worries. The Lord regarded the lowliness of His handmaiden, and He will do the same for you. He who is mighty has done great things to her and He will do the same to you.

We do not gather tonight to worship St. Mary. Scripture makes it clear that the promise of eternal rest does not lie in created humans. “If Joshua had given them rest, then [God] would not afterward have spoken of another day.”[5] Even the early accounts of St. Mary’s death have people try to claim miracles on her behalf, to which an angel says, “No one can perform miracles apart from [Jesus’] hands. For He provides power to everything that is.”[6] And when some relatives scoff that Mary is concerned about temptation, she rebukes them and tells them to pay attention to their faith, lest their own lamps go out and they miss the Bridegroom.[7]

We gather to give thanks to God that He has shown mercy on us by the Incarnation of His Son. We give thanks that St. Mary was the vessel chosen to bear the Christ child so that all mankind could be saved. We give thanks that God has chosen to give to His church a mother, not infallible, but as the figurehead of the Church.

We gather tonight that our faith would be strengthened. If Mary could tremble at temptation and yet be given holy rest in Christ, then so can we.

We gather tonight that we might learn to imitate the faith of St. Mary, she who always displayed a proper orientation toward the will of God, submitting her own will to His. We learn to imitate her humility and her steadfastness, insisting that God keep His promises to her now and at the hour of her death.

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] Hebrews 4:1.

[2] St. Luke 10:38-42.

[3] John of Thessalonica, “The Dormition of Our Lady, the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary,” On the Dormition of Mary, Popular Patristics Series, Vol 18, translated by Brian E. Daley, series editor John Behr (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997), 58.

[4] Hebrews 4:1.

[5] Hebrews 4:8.

[6] John of Thessalonica, “The Dormition of Our Lady,” 50.

[7] John of Thessalonica, “The Dormition of Our Lady,” 53.

The Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God

 The Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God – August 15, 2022

Psalm 34; Isaiah 61:7-11; Galatians 4:4-7

St. Luke 1:39-55

***What follows are the outline and general notes used to preach the sermon on this festival.*** 

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Augsburg Confession “approves giving honor to the saints. This honor is threefold. The first is thanksgiving: we ought to give thanks to God because he has given examples of his mercy, because he has shown that he wants to save humankind, and because he has given teachers and other gifts to the church. Since these are the greatest gifts, they ought to be extolled very highly, and we ought to praise the saints themselves for faithfully using these gifts just as Christ praises faithful managers. The second kind of veneration is the strengthening of our faith. When we see Peter forgiven after his denial, we, too, are encourages to believe that grace truly superabounds much more over sin. The third honor is imitation: first of their faith, then of their other virtues, which people should imitate according to their callings. The opponents do not require these true honors. They only argue about invocation, which, even if it were not dangerous, is certainly not necessary.”[1]

I. We give honor to the saints in thanksgiving for the examples of God’s mercy.

II. We give honor to the saints in the strengthening of our own faith.

III. We give honor to the saints in imitating first their faith, and then their other virtues.

Mary is not a co-redemptrix.

“People imagine that Christ is more severe and that the saints are more easily conciliated, and so they rely more on the mercy of the saints than on the mercy of Christ. Thus, they flee from Christ and turn to the saints. In this way, they actually make them mediators of redemption…

“Two conditions must be met for a person to qualify as a propitiator. First, there should be a Word of God from which we know with certainty that God wants to have mercy upon and to answer those who call upon him through this propitiator. Therefore, such a promise exists for Christ [John 16:23]: ‘If you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.’ No such promise exists for the saints. Therefore, consciences cannot establish with any degree of certainty that we will be heard if we call upon the saints…

“The second qualification for a propitiator is this: his merits must be authorized to make satisfaction for others who are given these merits by divine reckoning in order that through them, just as though they were their own merits, they may be reckoned righteous. It is as when a person pays a debt for friends, the debtors are freed by the merit of the other, as though it were by their own. Thus, Christ’s merits are given to us so that we might be reckoned righteous by our trust in the merits of Christ when we believe in him, as though we had merits of our own.”[2]

“Here and there this form of absolution has come into use: ‘The passion of our Lord Jesus Christ and the merits of the most blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints be to you for the forgiveness of sins.’ Here an absolution is pronounced that declares that we are reconciled and accounted righteous not only by the merits of Christ but also by the merits of the other saints. Some of us have seen a case where a teacher of theology was dying and a certain monastic theologian was summoned to offer consolation. He could do no better than press upon the dying man this prayer, ‘Mother of grace, protect us from the enemy; receive us in the hour of death.’

“Now we grant that the blessed Mary prays for the church. But she does not receive souls in death, conquer death, or give life, does she? What does Christ do if the blessed Mary performs all these things? Even though she is worthy of the highest honor, nevertheless she does not want herself to be made equal with Christ but instead wants us to consider and follow her example. The fact of the matter is that in the court of public opinion the blessed Virgin has completely replaced Christ. People have called upon her, trusted in her mercy, and through her have sought to conciliate Christ, as though he were not the propitiator, but only a dreadful judge and avenger. We contend, however, that we are justified by the merits of Christ, alone, not by the merits of the blessed Virgin or the other saints.”[3]

In + Jesus’ name. Amen.

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[1] Apology to the Augsburg Confession XXI: 4-7, hereafter referred to as "Ap." Quoted from The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Edited by Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, Translated by Charles Arand, Eric Gritsch, Robert Kolb, William Russell, James Schaaf, Jane Strohl, and Timothy J. Wengert (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 238.

[2] Ap XXI: 15, 17-19. Kolb / Wengert, 239-240.

[3] Ap XXI: 25-29. Kolb / Wengert, 241.