Sermons
The Dormition
The Rev. Rob McCann
Interim Rector, St. Matthew's Episcopal Church
None must
All may
Some should
Allow these six words to stay with you during this sermon.
All will be well
All will be subtley.
A decade ago it was hard to find good books about BLESSINGS, ANGELS or Saints in any bookstore. Then, all of a sudden, entire shelves began to line up with - "Everything is a blessing" and "Everywhere you look there are celestial beings."
Out of that time a film appeared about the angel who finds love on earth better than love in heaven and so delays his flight home. (These days we're all delaying our flight home.)
Where did we go wrong? There really are some people who would prefer to hang around celestial sentimentality than deepened sacramentality?
Quite recently it was hard to buy a book about the many faces of Mary through the centuries.
Kris Kristof in his column in the Times last year made mention of the mid-August feast day of Mary. This celebration is the oldest feast of Mary and it appears in the Liturgical calendar of Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Anglicans and Lutherans.
Interestingly, the feast day goes by at least three different names and is a study of the symphony of subtleties.
There was a fella who loved to go to the races. Lately, he noticed something kind of peculiar. It seems that a certain priest was always there ahead of him praying over each of his favorite horses.
"Well this must be a sign from heaven," he said. The good Father himself! There were, however, wins and there were loses! So he finally went up to the Priest for an explanation - There was a bit of a pause! Ah! In his best brough! You must be a Protestant. For you don't know the difference between a simple blessing for a quick recovery and the last rites.
In the Roman Catholic tradition there is the greatest leap of faith - "a presumption of the Assumption"- as a special act of God taking Mary into heaven - to use poetic language.
In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, it is called the Feast of the Dormition or the Falling Asleep of the Virgin. The Eastern Orthodox tradition makes less of a verbal claim as to how. It honors her in her leaving, as the title implies. The details of how and what happened after that belongs "in the cloud of unknowing." They never try to explain the unexplainable. Mystery is what's it about for them.
Anglicans speak of the feast of St. Mary the Virgin. And don't go beyond that. Lots of religious wiggle-room.
I grew up with statues of Mary - either representative of the nations of the world or not of this world. And then, not so long ago, I saw something for the first time - at St. Mary's College, Moraga, in the church they call a chapel, a 15 year old representation of Mary dressed in a pinafore and pinned up hair. It is human and endearing and draws a great deal of attention from visitors.
It might be said that the great number of titles of Mary corresponds to the various pieties throughout the ages and the variety of cultural needs. Mary has often come through the ages as the reflective face of what is pressing upon society.
Mary appeared in the early patristic age as the Daughter of Zion emphasizing the connection of the NT with the OT -as the Second Eve, - an interplay of Eva and Ave (read backwards), original sin, disobedience; and the fiat or "Let it be done" theology of Mary consenting to be the mother of Jesus.
In the Middle Ages the Black plague was an over-riding concern. The people reached back into the pain of Mary's life in order to comfort themselves in their own sorrow. Mater Dolorosa became prominent, modeled as Mary beneath the Cross. The stations of the cross grew out of this piety.
Her widely popular image has reflected the life and the times in Central and South American cultures. She has become through the Virgin of Guadalupe a way of offering self-esteem and support for the poor and the down-trodden. This was the first time, or one of the first, in which the Virgin appeared as an indigenous person.
The purified image of Mary is closely related to the Gospels and the traditional teaching about Jesus. However, popular enthusiasm does not stop the fertile imagination from working in over-drive.
Teresa of Avila called popular religious imagination the mad aunt in the attic who creates a wide place in which to play - offering diverse ways of expression.
In the 16th century the Reformers, while affirming Mary, as a character in the Gospel message, denounced the invocation of her and all the saints as contrary to the faith. The Protestant traditions rejected stories about Mary that were not directly substantiated in Scripture.
As Protestants left the old devotions behind, Roman Catholic of the 17th century Counter-Reformation heavily underscored what they saw as the tradition. It was almost like "You take the high church and I'll take the low church." And I'll be in the Episcopal Church before ye at the 8 and before you at the 10. I want you to know that this original saying of mine goes well with " wee doc and doris." (spelling?)
Eventually, in 1950, church definitions tied papal infallibility to the Assumption of Mary. This positioning of papal infallibility allowed a hardened patina of certainty to something that was not scriptural as such, but clearly in the early tradition.
Unfortunately, Mary and the Pope have become for some the symbols of Christian disunion.
Nonetheless, the Second Vatican Council, in the first half of the sixties cracked the door a little to a fresher view of Mary. The Mother of Jesus, it is made clear, belongs to the church community and is not above it.
In addition, the Decree on Ecumenism set down the principle of a coming together when it recommended that Catholics in explaining their doctrine of Mary should remember that there exists an order of importance. The foundation of the Christian faith is Christ himself.
In the International Anglican-Roman Catholic Final Report released in 1983, the following clarifying comment was made that no interpretation of Mary's role is acceptable if it obscures the unique mediation of Christ.
The most thorough-examination of Mary by an ecumenical group was undertaken by Lutherans and Catholics in the US. All together the result was an impressive statement of no less than 121 pages, supported by 15 background papers that had been discussed in the course of the debates.
Mary is further seen in the context of the Communion of Saints. (It was Malanchthon, Luther's colleague, who argued that devotional practice cannot be self-validating.) In other words the more feasts the merrier adds to the festival feeling, but doesn't add to the foundation.
I sense that we will always have those who have an embracing devotion to Mary and those who do not. Christianity has a wide spectrum of belief and practice whether it's admitted or not.
But I sense that the role of Mary is not done. Our 1979 Book of Common Prayer and 1982 Hymnal extol her during Advent and Lent; and celebrates the Annunciation, Visitation and St. Mary the Virgin.
I will never forget the work of an artist of the sixties on the faculty of the College of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in L.A. - Sister Corita Kent. In one of her celebrated serigraphs she described Mary as "The juiciest tomato of them all" -today we might add from the organic earloom vine.
What more or less can I say? How grateful we should be that the Episcopal Church, in its experience and, I would say, wisdom, knows that people's customs and traditions vary. How disappointing to those who joined up thinking that we were lock-stepped.
I feel that Mary fits into the wide umbrella of our Communion. How we reference her is a wider and deeper question.
There is Anglican principle that crops up in conversation when we reach a place of wondering, especially, around something that is not essential to salvation. I first heard it used with reference to private confession and devotion to Mary. And I must say - it was so refreshing when I came across it 30 years ago. These six words epitomizes the minimalism espoused by the Episcopal Church.
Beyond what is apparent in the New Testament there has also grown up a variety of customs and extensions that have added comfort and care to people. But they fall under this principle - (and you have been so patient.)
None must
All may
Some should
Private confession and private devotions to Mary and the saints fall under this principle for us. The big umbrella opens up to welcome everyone. We are not a confessional church. We live by the Gospel framed within the living Christian tradition, personal experience and wisdom.
And so we say follow this principle -
None must
All may
Some should
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