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Deeper understandings Mary


A model, means and mirror for many throughout history


Editor’s note: This series is intended to be a public conversa- tion among teaching theologians of the ELCA on various themes of our faith and the challenging issues of our day. It invites readers to engage in dialogue by posting comments online at the end of each article at www.thelutheran.org. The series is edited by Philip


D.W. Krey, president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadel- phia, on behalf of the presidents of the eight ELCA seminaries.


By Sarah S. Henrich and Mark W. Oldenburg


Mark W. Oldenburg: Surprisingly and unfortunately, Mary doesn’t seem to be among the top 10 topics for conversation among American Lutherans. Yes, we mention her every time we confess the creeds. But, com- pared to many of our Christian sisters and brothers, we don’t pay much attention to her otherwise. Only three ELCA congregations


seem to be named for her, while Paul gets 521 and even James gets 95. We even seem afraid of including her in our prayers.


When the Service Book and Hym- nal was introduced in 1958, the only criticism I could find of its hymns related to “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones,” in which we call on the “bearer of the eternal Word” to mag- nify the Lord. People were concerned that we were praying to Mary. Yet no one seemed to mind it 20 years later when, in “Earth and All Stars,” we did the same thing for test tubes and dry leaves.


Henrich Oldenburg


Henrich is professor of New Testament at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minn. Oldenburg is dean of the chapel and professor of the art of worship at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg (Pa.).


Sarah S. Henrich: I was a little sur- prised, too, when the topic for this conversation came our way. I don’t hear much about Mary in my church or other churches I visit. We certainly don’t make much of any of the “Mary holy-days,” like the Annunciation or Visitation, and her story is just a little part of the Christmas story when we read Luke’s Gospel. (Editor’s note: The Roman Catho- lic Feast of the Assumption is cel- ebrated on Aug. 15, and the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholics cel- ebrate the Dormition of the Theoto- kos [the falling asleep of the mother of God] on the same date.) Women’s groups don’t seem to spend as much time seeking bibli- cal models for understanding their roles in the faith as they did when the roles of women and men were just beginning to change. So it was a sur- prise that this was the second recent request to investigate Mary that came my way. A colleague of mine had been


18 The Lutheran • www.thelutheran.org


studying Mary with a Bible study group and wanted me to bring them to the art museum to look at Mary in the visual arts. Her group may not be typical in what they studied, but they were typical in the interest and delight they found in looking at representations of Mary through the church’s history. Through the study, and through the artwork, the group felt more con- nected as Christians and as Luther- ans to the many meanings that have been drawn from Mary’s story and portrayed over time. They knew how important Mary is in Luke’s story of Jesus. The scenes of Mary at the beginning of the Gospel show us a young woman willing to risk so much as she experiences and follows out a call from God. She is called to be the one who bears God’s Word into a world that sometimes understands and more often does not.


Oldenburg: That’s why I said it was unfortunate that Mary seems to be ignored. You’re right that she only shows up sporadically in the lection- ary, usually as a bit player even when the lessons come from Luke’s Gos- pel, where she is so important. But she does show up, subtly, in one of the regular refrains in worship. Every time a worship leader says to me, “The Lord be with you,” she is echoing the greeting Gabriel gave to Mary at the Annunciation (Luke 1:28). That is, she is saying we are playing the role of Mary, bearing the Word of God into the world. We’re the ones now who are called on to risk answering the call of God. That short conversation is a call to every-


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