St Luke 1:39-55/Isaiah 61:7-11/Galatians 4:4-7
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
In these latter days let us arise and with haste go to Judah, to the House of our Great High Priest, for the Lord has caused righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations. For the Seed which was sown in the virgin soil of Mary’s womb has come forth, even the Son of God, our Savior. Blessed is He who is the fruit of her womb!
Thus do we give thanks to God for His maidservant, the Blessed Virgin Mary, by whom He has become one with us, flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood.
She is, with us, a member of His Church. And in special way she is an icon of that royal Bride of Christ. In giving thanks for His great mercy upon her, we give thanks for His great mercy upon generation after generation, and upon us.
Because He is conceived and born of the Woman, this new Eve, He is conceived and born for us, the sons and daughters of the first Adam and Eve, that we might receive the new birth of water, Word and Spirit, and the adoption as sons of God our Father.
So has our Lord, Mary’s Son, accomplished for us. Firstly by becoming like us in all ways, save without sin, and then, with the fullness of His incarnation, by His Cross and Resurrection in our flesh. Born under the Law He submitted Himself to the Law on our behalf. He has kept and fulfilled the Law for us, in perfect faith and perfect love. Precisely in that same faith and love, He has suffered the judgment and punishment of the Law, the shame and humiliation of our sin and death, and has thereby atoned for our sin, defeated our death, destroyed our enemy the devil, redeemed us for Himself, and reconciled us to God forever.
All of this He has done once for all – for St Mary and St Elizabeth, for Father Abraham and all his children, for Adam and Eve and all their children, and also, no less, for you. It is an accomplished fact in His own flesh and blood, in His own body and life, in His own Person, in the Kingdom of His God and Father, even now on earth in His Church, as it is in heaven.
It is already true. It has been accomplished, finished, complete, perfected. So tightly has He bound Himself to us, by His incarnation of the Virgin Mary and so tightly are His Cross and Resurrection united to Him, in His body of flesh and blood like ours, that, even though you are small and weak and poor, lowly, and mortal, dying and wasting away a little more every day, yet you are resurrected and ascended in and with Christ Jesus, the Son of God and Mary’s Son. In Him your life is already hidden with God, seated on high in the heavenly places, exalted far above all angels and archangels, above cherubim and seraphim and above the whole heavenly host.
Surely you do not see or feel or experience that heavenly glory and reality now. It is known by faith in the Word of God, as it was for St Mary. This Word you hear, but do not comprehend by human sight. For what you see and feel and experience in your life on earth is hunger, want and need, sickness and death, hardship and pain, ridicule and persecution, disappointment and despair, suffering and sorrow. You bear the reproach of your neighbor and the world, the assaults and accusations of the devil, the humiliation and shame of your own sin and guilt and faults and errors.
You hear that your sins are forgiven, and yet, you still suffer many of their consequences. Maybe not all of them, but many,
You hear that the Lord is with you; that He loves you, that His gracious favor is upon you. Yet often you feel lonely and unloved, out of favor and forgotten.
You hear of the great blessings of Christ, but, as they come by and with and through His Cross, they are blessings often hard to bear.
You hear that God feeds and clothes you and preserves your life, but you still have to manage and juggle your finances, and work for a living, and pay your bills, and day by day you find yourself down, getting tired, sometimes sick, wearing out and wasting away.
Against all of this harsh experience, the Church in heaven and on earth sets the incarnate Son of God, Christ Jesus, crucified, risen and ascended in our human flesh and blood. Here is the true Man, conceived and born of Mary, who is our sister and mother; and He, the Lord Jesus, her Son, our Brother, has been tempted in all the ways that are tempted; He has suffered in all the ways that you suffer; He has borne all of your sins in His own body, and He has carried all the sins of those who trespass against you, so that by His stripes and holy wounds, you are healed.
He has shed His blood for you, for your redemption and atonement. He has suffered and died in your place, on your behalf. He has gone through hell on your account and for your benefit.
And God raised this same Jesus, the Son of Mary, from the dead. This One, who humbled Himself, even unto death, God has highly exalted above all heavens and has bestowed on Him the Name which is above every name.
That is why we make the crucifix a finely crafted, beautiful work of art. It is why we use the finest vessels we can for the Holy Communion, and adorn the Church in splendor. Why we reverence our crucified Lord with deliberate ceremonies. It is why we clothe the newly baptized in white garments, even though they may be crying or screaming or messing themselves as we so do. It is why we clothe the ministers of Christ with colorful and elaborate vestments, though they are mortal men, poor miserable sinners like anyone else. It is why we sing sturdy hymns of substance and great confidence, even in the face of sin and death. It is why we care for the things of the Church – the windows and organ and walls. For this is the House in Judah, it is the House of the Lord, the Home of your Priest and King, Savior and Brother.
And this is why we say of this young girl from Nazareth, that she is rightly called and truly is the Mother of God. For her dear Son, the blessed Fruit of her sanctified womb, even as a tiny Baby, hidden within her body, is the very Lord, our God.
With all these things, with our lips and our lives, we confess before the world that the Lord has had regard for the humble estate of His servants. We confess that in His great mercy He has done great things for us; that with His mighty arm, His hands outstretched upon the Cross, He has done truly mighty deeds for us.
With St Mary and St Elizabeth, and all the faithful in heaven and on earth, we exalt the Lord, and our spirits rejoice in God our Savior. To do so is to exalt and rejoice in the Son of Mary, for He is true God, and she is the Mother of our Lord.
In remembering the Dormition of St Mary on this day – that is, her falling asleep in Jesus, in the sure and certain hope of His resurrection – the Church rejoices and confesses that Mary’s Son is not the God of the dead, but of the living. In giving thanks to God for St Mary, we believe, teach, and confess that her dear Son, Christ Jesus, has fulfilled all that God has spoken and promised.
In considering that she who was humble has been exalted, in counting her blessed among women, we confess the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, and count ourselves also exalted in Him. Even in the midst of lowliness and grief, in the midst of darkness, burdened by sin, threatened by death and destruction, this is most certainly true.
Thus, even here, we do not fear. We trust that just as the Son of God was conceived and born of Mary by His Word and Spirit, so have you been conceived and born of His Church as sons of God by grace through faith. And that, in the same Word and by the same Spirit that came to the blessed Virgin!
We trust that just as the Son of God became flesh and blood of her flesh and blood, and dwelt within St Mary’s body, so does the same Son of God with the same flesh and blood, which has passed through death and the grave, and has been resurrected and glorified, come to dwell in your body in the Holy Communion!
You have been united with Him in His Cross and Resurrection by your Holy Baptism. In faith you eat of His Body and drink of His Blood for the forgiveness of your sins. By these His Resurrection and Ascension surely your resurrection and ascension!
So surely are they also St Mary’s.
For the Lord our God, Christ Jesus her Son, our Brother in the flesh and Savior of us al, feeds the hungry with good things, in the remembrance of His mercy, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
In these latter days let us arise and with haste go to Judah, to the House of our Great High Priest, for the Lord has caused righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations. For the Seed which was sown in the virgin soil of Mary’s womb has come forth, even the Son of God, our Savior. Blessed is He who is the fruit of her womb!
Thus do we give thanks to God for His maidservant, the Blessed Virgin Mary, by whom He has become one with us, flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood.
She is, with us, a member of His Church. And in special way she is an icon of that royal Bride of Christ. In giving thanks for His great mercy upon her, we give thanks for His great mercy upon generation after generation, and upon us.
Because He is conceived and born of the Woman, this new Eve, He is conceived and born for us, the sons and daughters of the first Adam and Eve, that we might receive the new birth of water, Word and Spirit, and the adoption as sons of God our Father.
So has our Lord, Mary’s Son, accomplished for us. Firstly by becoming like us in all ways, save without sin, and then, with the fullness of His incarnation, by His Cross and Resurrection in our flesh. Born under the Law He submitted Himself to the Law on our behalf. He has kept and fulfilled the Law for us, in perfect faith and perfect love. Precisely in that same faith and love, He has suffered the judgment and punishment of the Law, the shame and humiliation of our sin and death, and has thereby atoned for our sin, defeated our death, destroyed our enemy the devil, redeemed us for Himself, and reconciled us to God forever.
All of this He has done once for all – for St Mary and St Elizabeth, for Father Abraham and all his children, for Adam and Eve and all their children, and also, no less, for you. It is an accomplished fact in His own flesh and blood, in His own body and life, in His own Person, in the Kingdom of His God and Father, even now on earth in His Church, as it is in heaven.
It is already true. It has been accomplished, finished, complete, perfected. So tightly has He bound Himself to us, by His incarnation of the Virgin Mary and so tightly are His Cross and Resurrection united to Him, in His body of flesh and blood like ours, that, even though you are small and weak and poor, lowly, and mortal, dying and wasting away a little more every day, yet you are resurrected and ascended in and with Christ Jesus, the Son of God and Mary’s Son. In Him your life is already hidden with God, seated on high in the heavenly places, exalted far above all angels and archangels, above cherubim and seraphim and above the whole heavenly host.
Surely you do not see or feel or experience that heavenly glory and reality now. It is known by faith in the Word of God, as it was for St Mary. This Word you hear, but do not comprehend by human sight. For what you see and feel and experience in your life on earth is hunger, want and need, sickness and death, hardship and pain, ridicule and persecution, disappointment and despair, suffering and sorrow. You bear the reproach of your neighbor and the world, the assaults and accusations of the devil, the humiliation and shame of your own sin and guilt and faults and errors.
You hear that your sins are forgiven, and yet, you still suffer many of their consequences. Maybe not all of them, but many,
You hear that the Lord is with you; that He loves you, that His gracious favor is upon you. Yet often you feel lonely and unloved, out of favor and forgotten.
You hear of the great blessings of Christ, but, as they come by and with and through His Cross, they are blessings often hard to bear.
You hear that God feeds and clothes you and preserves your life, but you still have to manage and juggle your finances, and work for a living, and pay your bills, and day by day you find yourself down, getting tired, sometimes sick, wearing out and wasting away.
Against all of this harsh experience, the Church in heaven and on earth sets the incarnate Son of God, Christ Jesus, crucified, risen and ascended in our human flesh and blood. Here is the true Man, conceived and born of Mary, who is our sister and mother; and He, the Lord Jesus, her Son, our Brother, has been tempted in all the ways that are tempted; He has suffered in all the ways that you suffer; He has borne all of your sins in His own body, and He has carried all the sins of those who trespass against you, so that by His stripes and holy wounds, you are healed.
He has shed His blood for you, for your redemption and atonement. He has suffered and died in your place, on your behalf. He has gone through hell on your account and for your benefit.
And God raised this same Jesus, the Son of Mary, from the dead. This One, who humbled Himself, even unto death, God has highly exalted above all heavens and has bestowed on Him the Name which is above every name.
That is why we make the crucifix a finely crafted, beautiful work of art. It is why we use the finest vessels we can for the Holy Communion, and adorn the Church in splendor. Why we reverence our crucified Lord with deliberate ceremonies. It is why we clothe the newly baptized in white garments, even though they may be crying or screaming or messing themselves as we so do. It is why we clothe the ministers of Christ with colorful and elaborate vestments, though they are mortal men, poor miserable sinners like anyone else. It is why we sing sturdy hymns of substance and great confidence, even in the face of sin and death. It is why we care for the things of the Church – the windows and organ and walls. For this is the House in Judah, it is the House of the Lord, the Home of your Priest and King, Savior and Brother.
And this is why we say of this young girl from Nazareth, that she is rightly called and truly is the Mother of God. For her dear Son, the blessed Fruit of her sanctified womb, even as a tiny Baby, hidden within her body, is the very Lord, our God.
With all these things, with our lips and our lives, we confess before the world that the Lord has had regard for the humble estate of His servants. We confess that in His great mercy He has done great things for us; that with His mighty arm, His hands outstretched upon the Cross, He has done truly mighty deeds for us.
With St Mary and St Elizabeth, and all the faithful in heaven and on earth, we exalt the Lord, and our spirits rejoice in God our Savior. To do so is to exalt and rejoice in the Son of Mary, for He is true God, and she is the Mother of our Lord.
In remembering the Dormition of St Mary on this day – that is, her falling asleep in Jesus, in the sure and certain hope of His resurrection – the Church rejoices and confesses that Mary’s Son is not the God of the dead, but of the living. In giving thanks to God for St Mary, we believe, teach, and confess that her dear Son, Christ Jesus, has fulfilled all that God has spoken and promised.
In considering that she who was humble has been exalted, in counting her blessed among women, we confess the Cross and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, and count ourselves also exalted in Him. Even in the midst of lowliness and grief, in the midst of darkness, burdened by sin, threatened by death and destruction, this is most certainly true.
Thus, even here, we do not fear. We trust that just as the Son of God was conceived and born of Mary by His Word and Spirit, so have you been conceived and born of His Church as sons of God by grace through faith. And that, in the same Word and by the same Spirit that came to the blessed Virgin!
We trust that just as the Son of God became flesh and blood of her flesh and blood, and dwelt within St Mary’s body, so does the same Son of God with the same flesh and blood, which has passed through death and the grave, and has been resurrected and glorified, come to dwell in your body in the Holy Communion!
You have been united with Him in His Cross and Resurrection by your Holy Baptism. In faith you eat of His Body and drink of His Blood for the forgiveness of your sins. By these His Resurrection and Ascension surely your resurrection and ascension!
So surely are they also St Mary’s.
For the Lord our God, Christ Jesus her Son, our Brother in the flesh and Savior of us al, feeds the hungry with good things, in the remembrance of His mercy, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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