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I want to talk to you about someone who is very important in the Christian story. Many Christians, not all Christians, but the majority of Christians world wide believe that when this faithful person came to the end of their earthly life, they did not die but were taken up bodily into heaven. Since then God has given certain Christians visions of this person that have helped them in their discipleship but above all pointed them more to Jesus. The intercessions, the prayers, of this person are powerful. This person has healed many people and performed many miracles. There are churches dedicated to this person. A relic, a Holy object associated with this person is alleged to have performed great miracles.
Who am I taking about?
[Take answer which will probably be Mary]
Well actually I am talking about the Prophet Elijah. All of these statements are true about Mary but they are also true of Elijah. He performed great miracles. At the end of his life Elisha saw him taken up bodily into heaven in a chariot. A relic, an item of clothing, his mantle was picked up by Elisha and used to part the waters of the river. (1) Three Christians, Peter, James and John had a vision on the mount of transfiguration in which they saw Elijah and Moses with Jesus. (2)
Many English people get their knickers in a twist about Mary. They say “That stuff about her is not in the Bible.” And I agree. Much of the stuff that the majority of Christians down the centuries believe about the Mother of God is not in the Bible. But it's not unbiblical. The book of Acts stops at Chapter 28. It does not tell us how Peter died or how Paul died. It doesn't tell us how Thomas planted the first churches in India. It does not tell us how the Ethiopian Eunuch took Christianity back to his own country. It doesn't tell how Christianity was first brought to Britain. It doesn't tell about all the miracles that have happened down the centuries, or about your prayer for your friend that got answered. The Holy Spirit didn't stop working when the Bible was finished. In one sense the bible history finishes with Acts 28. But in another sense it doesn't because we live in Acts Chapter 29. The things that God did in the life of Mary, of Peter, of Thomas, of Paul, as well as the things God does in the life of me, of you, of you and of you are all part of the Acts 29 story of the Holy Spirit’s continued work until Jesus comes again.
The story passed on by early Christians was that at the end of her life Mary was taken up bodily into heaven. It's not particularly important that you believe that or not, but it's certainly not unbiblical. The bible describes both Enoch and Elijah as having been taken up bodily into heaven. What is important is to recognise that Mary is an important part of the Christian Family. And as Father Denis Bradshaw puts it “If Jesus's mum hasn't got to heaven, what hope is there for the rest of us.”
England isn't a particularly hierarchical country but other countries are. When I visited South Africa, when people came to shake my hand they would often place their left hand just under their elbow like this [demonstrate]. Being a priest was seen as being high status, so they were showing respect. In the same way younger people would generally do that to older people because elders are to be respected.
Ancient Israel was a hierarchical place. When in Luke chapter 1:39-56 Mary rushes to share the good news with her cousin Elizabeth, how does Elizabeth respond?
Think of the situation. Elizabeth is an older woman past the menopause who has miraculously become pregnant with John the Baptist. Mary is just a teenager, and what is worse one who has become pregnant out of wedlock.
Mary should be doing this [The handshake thing] with Elizabeth. Yet what actually happens in Luke1:39-45? Elizabeth is the one who shows deference to Mary. “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry “ Blest are you among women and blest is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what would be spoken to her by the Lord”.
Imagine if on the first day at school the head teacher went up to a new pupil in year 7 and said this sort of thing. You would think there was something pretty special about the kid. In the same way, through Elizabeth’s upside down behaviour, the bible is telling us there is something pretty special about Mary..
As Bishop Philip North puts it “Christianity is not a lonely religion”. We are not Christians on our own. We are part of an amazing family. Look at these people around you. They are your sisters and brothers. But as the bible makes very clear “whoever believes in Jesus shall not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). So our family doesn’t just include these people sitting here next to you, it also includes those people who have gone ahead of us to heaven.
There’s two things that our Christian family in heaven do for us.
You see that St Barnabas banner there - can someone come and read the words on it please “ora pro nobis” - that’s latin for “pray for us”. The earliest Christian tombs we have from the second century in Rome, on the grave stones the early Christians wrote two sets of words “rest in peace” and “ora pro nobis” - pray for us. They were convinced that their loved ones who had gone ahead of them to heaven wouldn’t stop loving them so they asked them to pray for them.
Now of course we can ask people who were important to us in our own lives to pray for us, so I might think of Betty who first welcomed me into church when I became a Christian as a teenager and ask her to pray for me. But we can also ask big name Christians to pray for us - We are St Barnabas Church, so as this banner shows, we ask him to pray for us.
You’ll remember the story of the wedding of Cana in John Chapter two (3). “On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Gallilee and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine had given out, the mother of Jesus said to him “They have no wine”. “Woman what concern is that to you and to me? My hour is not yet come?” His mother said to the servants “Do whatever he tells you”.
You remember the parable of the persistent widow who keeps nagging the corrupt judge until she gets justice and how Jesus uses that as an example of prayer.(4) Well perhaps he had in mind his own mum and how she nagged him until he helped the poor people at this wedding and created somewhere between 120 and 180 gallons of wine. And that was his very first miracle
So we know that during her earthly life Mary interceded with her son on other people’s behalf. And we know from the bible she is an important Christian.
So when we ask other people to pray for us - whether people sitting next to you or people in heaven, many Christians have thought it makes sense to ask Mary too.
The second thing about our Christian Family in heaven - well in 1 Corinthians 11:1 - St Paul says “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ”. The people sitting next to you, and the Christians in heaven serve as example to us.
In our confirmation class, I asked Michelle, Elijah and Joshua what questions they had. We had all sorts of good questions - why does God let good people suffer? What are we meant to think about predestination? What do different religions say happens when we die? And one of the questions we had was about the place of Mary in Christianity. So I was talking about 1 Corinthians 11:1 and I asked our young people “Why don’t we just use Jesus as an example? Why do we need St Paul - or Joshua or Elijah or Michelle - or Mary as an example. They got it immediately. St Paul for example converts to Christianity from having murdered Christians. If You have done some really bad stuff in your life, Jesus can’t serve as a total example, because Jesus never did anything wrong. But St Paul whose life was turned around by Jesus can do. If you are a mother, Jesus can’t serve as a total example, because while God is neither male nor female, in his human form Jesus is a bloke. But Mary can serve as an example of what it means to be a Christian mum.
In Anglican churches we are keen on stained glass windows. Much keener than Orthodox or Roman Catholic Christians. When you have a picture of a saint in a stained glass window, the sun light shines through - and the message is that just as the sunlight shines through the window, we are meant to see the light of Jesus shining through the life of that saint. “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ”
In the history of St Barnabas Church, Mary has in the past been an important part of our story. In the link you will see a copy of the funeral service for our former vicar Father James Rhodes Wrigley who died earlier this year. And you’ll see that one of the songs he chose was a hymn celebrating Mary and asking her to pray for us. Over by the candles there you’ll see a card with the words of the Memorial of the resurrection “Joy to thee o queen of heaven”. That wasn’t put there by me. In fact it was here in the 1990s and being used when I was here as a lay person. In fact Mary is in the very architecture of the church. Not only do we have numerous statues of her. Behind the altar we have the two monograms - one IHS for Jesus and the other MA for Mary.
Now for some of you Mary is your thing and for some of you she isn’t your thing. That’s OK - unless you are up at the front taking a leading role, don’t feel you have to say or do anything you are uncomfortable doing. Church is a family and just as Mary and the saints are part of that family you are part of that family. We don’t get to choose our family. Yes, at St Barnabas we are an Anglo-Catholic Church and Mary is important to us. But in every church- be it a low church or a high church, a Greek Orthodox church or a Baptist church - the congregation will be full of people with all sorts of views, not just the “official view” of the Church. Churches that try to make everyone sign on the dotted line of every belief aren’t healthy churches. So while it’s helpful for you to understand why Mary was important to the people who built this building or why she is important to Patty or why she’s important to me, it doesn’t matter if you don’t agree with us. What’s important is what defines us -as the pagans in the time of teh early church put it - “see how these Christians love one another” “A new commandment I give unto you, love one another as I have loved you.”
I could say much more. I could talk about why many Christians give Mary the honorary title,Queen of heaven.(5) I could talk about the biblical reason why we call Mary Mother. (6) I could talk a lot more about why Mary is good example for teenagers (7) - or for people who lead worship songs (8), or for evangelists (9) or for prayer ministers (10) or for people who are passionate about social justice (11) or for people who believe God is calling them to do something unpopular (12). All that will wait for other occasions.
What I want to leave you with is that the Church is a family. A family of people here on earth and a family of those in heaven. A family which prays for each other. A family where we can learn from each of other’s example. And above all, a family that loves one another. “A new commandment I give unto you, love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34)
(1) 1 Kings 17:1-2 Kings 2:14
(2) Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36
(3) John 2:1-12
(4) Luke 18:1-8
(5) Revelation 12:1-17
(6) John 19:25-27
(7)Luke 1:26-27
(8)Luke 1:46-55
(9)Luke 1:39-40
10) Luke 1:35
11) Luke 1:46-55
