Assumption Sunday 2019

Sermon given by Donna Miller
August 25, 2019

The Assumption of Our Lady is the main theme of this Festival. General Church doctrine defines the Assumption like this: “…[Mary] having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” Some argue about whether she died first and was resurrected like Jesus or whether she was just taken up to Heaven without dying. But, among most theologians, that distinction was not considered particularly important. The main thing was that she was fully assumed into the glory of God due to her purity and devotion.

One of the Liberal Catholic Church’s founding bishops, Bishop Leadbeater, gave the Assumption a cosmic interpretation. He said, “The doctrine of the final drawing up of the root of matter into the Absolute, so that God may be all in all, is what is typified by the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” That is, all of manifestation is eventually destined to be absorbed into Divine Unity—to be fully assumed into heavenly glory.

Bishop Leadbeater also equates Mary and all her Festivals with the story of how the Feminine Aspect of the Divine plays itself out in each person’s spiritual evolution (regardless of our biological gender).

He quotes a poet (whom he doesn’t identify) in a succinct expression of this:

I must become Queen Mary
And birth to God must give,
If I in heavenly blessedness
For evermore would live.

Bishop Leadbeater goes on to say that everyone will accomplish this heavenly blessedness—it is an inevitable culmination of the human path of evolution. Oneness with God is gained on all levels when we are cleared of whatever is blocking the birth (or expression) of our true divine nature—the indwelling Christ in all of us.

Again, on a spiritual level applied to all of us, Bishop Leadbeater refers to each of the Festivals of Our Lady and says that her Nativity represents our own soul taking on a human form in which to evolve. The Annunciation (where the Angel Gabriel informs Mary that she will give birth to a Divine Child) stands for what is commonly called conversion—a transformation we experience when we allow the Holy Spirit to penetrate our soul and guide us in the right direction (that is, in the direction of union with God). This acceptance on our part makes the birth of Christ within us an inevitable result and with it the peace, strength, joy and love that Christ enlivens within us. Along this same path, the Assumption represents the full and final drawing up of the soul into complete Unity with God. This does not refer only to after death of the body but to whenever the human soul is living that eternal Oneness.

So even as we are celebrating the Assumption of Our Lady today, we are also celebrating the opportunity available to all of us to grow into spiritual purity and a life in heavenly glory. The readings for today—the Epistle and Gospel—give us knowledge about how to do this.

It’s lovely that the two readings are linked, both highlighting our own opportunity of transformation. The passage in our Epistle reading emphasizes Wisdom and speaks directly about the experience of asking for and accepting the ongoing guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the ancient Church the earliest words pertaining to the Holy Spirit were feminine, and in the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, from which our Epistle text is taken, Wisdom itself is referred to as “she.” I think it’s important to recognize, though, that when referring to God, this does not mean biological gender but the more cosmic Masculine and Feminine Aspects of the Divine and all of Nature, which exist in everything and everyone, regardless of biological gender.

Anyway, back to out beautiful Epistle reading. I want to quote directly from a portion of it that I find quite personal and very reassuring. It is a prayer to God:

“O send her (Wisdom) out of thy holy heavens and from the throne of thy glory that, being present, she may labor with me that I may know what is pleasing unto thee. For she knoweth and understandeth all things and she shall lead me soberly in my doings and preserve me in her power; so shall my works be acceptable. For whom can think what the will of the Lord is and thy counsel who hath known, except thou give wisdom and send thy Holy Spirit from above?”

Personally, I have found this to be the most reliable thing to ask for when praying to God. It’s risky to ask God for something too specific, like getting a job we want or a mate we want or any other precisely defined request. As we’ve all experienced, many times we want something, don’t get it, fret like crazy and even rant that’s it’s totally unfair, etc. only to find something way better around the corner that wouldn’t have happened except for that “bad luck.” So praying for wisdom, guidance, and discernment seems much more efficient and responsible, but it also involves trust in God—that God’s will is always going to be higher and better than our own often is.

Praying for healing is also best when broad enough to allow God to work out the healing, whatever it may be, in the widest possible way, whereas, sometimes, making it too specific could make us attached to an outcome that is far less wonderful. “Dear God, please heal my broken ankle in time for the soccer game in 6 weeks” may seem to address the greatest boon, but it could be that sitting out the soccer game may lead to meeting the love of your life in the bleachers and the healing of a long term loneliness may be a much more profound healing. That’s one little example but the same principle could be applied to many situations.

The story of the Annunciation is told in today’s Gospel reading—the story of the Angel Gabriel revealing to Mary her special destiny.

When I was traveling through Europe in 2004, I discovered that there were countless depictions of the Annunciation—paintings, frescoes, relief sculptures—by many artists and over many centuries. They were found in museums, major cathedrals, and little chapels. I began to seek these out, because of the profound effect each one of them had on me.

Both the Angel Gabriel and Mary are depicted in different ways, depending on the time period, the country, and the spiritual subtlety of the artist. My own feeling was that this was not merely coincidence but rather a way to ensure, on some cosmic level, that the message of the Annunciation could spread out and be seen as relevant to many different types of people and cultures. For example, in some the Angel Gabriel was portrayed as if giving a command—“You will do this! You have no choice!” whereas other artists have Gabriel gently offering a lily to Mary with the gesture of a gift giver. In others Gabriel is bowing in reverence to her, as if he is honored being able to deliver this holy message.

Mary, on her part, is sometimes shown humbly bowing to Gabriel as if to say, “I’m unworthy of this, but I will surrender to it.” In others she looks downright astonished, even frightened, as if she is saying, ‘You’ve got to be kidding! Me?!” In a few, she is even turning her back to St. Gabriel, with a hand up as if in protest. In others she looks nonplussed, sitting there reading the scriptures, as if she knew somehow that this was coming and she’s willingly following the script.

What all of these interpretations say to me is that, for each of us, when God calls us in some way—to a particular path or direction or experience—we may react in any of these ways or any other way, but it doesn’t matter. Whether we initially resist or immediately say yes, God knows that the indwelling urge to give birth to Divinity in our own lives is stronger than our resistance. And that eventually, our humble surrender to the will of God will carry the day.

The call to each one of us is offered all the time by God—the path that is best for us. Messages may come from an angel, as it did for Mary, or it may come from any other source. God will find a way, through patient and ongoing Love, to bring us into our Blessed Heritage of Unity—represented today by the Festival of the Assumption.