From the Assistant Bishop
Mary Mother of Our Lord
– Owning the Liminal Space
The Rt Revd Kate Wilmot, Assistant Bishop
In a typically Anglican approach, the lectionary designates 15 August as “Mary Mother of the Lord” leaving open the question of whether the mother of Jesus really was “assumed” (taken up into heaven without dying) although this is the original meaning of the feast day.
In scripture, the only figures who are assumed are Enoch (Genesis 5:21-24) and Elijah (2 Kings 2:11-12), although there is a tradition (also outside the bible) that this happened to Moses.
The assumption tradition puts Mary in some distinguished company, but she makes it extraordinary. There are many patriarchs and prophets but only one mother of Jesus.
Just as the story about Mary’s assumption involves liminal space (between heaven and earth, between life and death) Mary herself often occupies a unique position between two understood or expected poles.
Among world religions, Mary is revered by Christians and Muslims. though we have no evidence that she ever abandoned the faith tradition into which she was born. Within Judaism, Mary is not regarded with the same status that she has outside it.
In scripture there is a long tradition beginning with Sarah and Abraham in Genesis and proceeding all the way into Luke’s Gospel (Elizabeth and Zechariah) of older childless couples who conceive miraculously through the intervention of God. When this happens, the women in question are freed from the (unreasonable) blame that has previously dogged them. Elizabeth says “This is what the Lord has done for me when he looked favourably on me and took away the disgrace I have endured among my people.” (Luke 1:25)
We think we understand the direction these stories are taking until Mary the young, unmarried woman conceives by the power of the Holy Spirit. Then she faces the risk of being exposed to public disgrace (Matthew 1:19) before Joseph makes a different decision at an angel’s urging.
She has more than one daughter and more than one son (Matthew 13:55-56). She is a completely human being, as are all her children except that one, Jesus, is also God’s divine son.
Alongside another liminal figure (the Syrophoenician/Canaanite woman of Mark 7:25-30, Matthew 15:21-28) Mary is one of only two people who causes Jesus to change his mind (at Cana in John 2:1-11).
She exercises leadership but her power is not of a conventional worldly kind.
Mary’s story teaches us that the ambiguous or in between space is not a position of shame or disgrace or unbelonging but the ground on which God’s will may be seen to be at work.
She is a powerful example of what it may mean to occupy this ground, of how much distinction is available within it and of how God may work with the possibilities that lie between the poles of the expected.