LCMS beliefs.

[Livindesert]

What do the LCMS believe about Mary?

 

[DaRev]

What do the LCMS believe about Mary?

The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod - Mary

 

[Tangible]

There is quite a wide variety of personal beliefs or "pious opinions" regarding Mary, the mother of Jesus. We consider many these beliefs to be adiaphora - neither commanded nor forbidden in scripture.

Many LCMS Lutherans lean toward the set of beliefs about Mary common to popular American evangelicalism, while others approach a more Catholic-like set of beliefs. In our Lutheran Confessions, it seems to take for granted a belief in her perpetual virginity - that she remained a virgin after Jesus' birth, that any siblings of Jesus would have been cousins or other children of Joseph by a previous wife - but such a belief is not required.

LCMS Lutherans do not hesitate to honor Mary as a woman specially blessed by God, and do not have a problem referring to her with her ancient title of Theotokos - God-bearer or Mother of God - since Jesus is indeed God, and Mary was indeed his mother.

Yet we do not pray to Mary, or ask her to pray for us. We do not believe that she participated in or is due any veneration for Christ's redemptive work on our behalf. We do not believe that Mary was conceived without sin or that she herself was sinless.

Here are some links for more information at the LCMS website.
The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod - Mary
The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod - Mary Gets Her Day Too

 

[Livindesert]

Great links! Thanks all The Lutherian psition on Mary makes more sense so far than the Orthodox or Catholic set in stone beliefs.

 

[Tangible]

Since Lutherans follow sola scriptura, we historically have not created doctrines or dogmas about anything that is not taught in the bible.

 

[Tangible]

Swinging to the more Catholic-leaning side, here is a selection from The Rule of the Society of St. Polycarp (a Confessional Lutheran society).

Preface. As Lutheran Christians who understand ourselves to be a part of the One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, we have joined ourselves voluntarily in a fellowship to be known as the Society of St. Polycarp. The Society is made up of Lutheran clergymen and laity committed to the confessional, liturgical, sacramental, and spiritual renewal of the Church of the Augsburg Confession. Since our Church's problems are not political, but rather spiritual, we pray God to grant us repentance, and seek no political aim. Members of the Society commit themselves to the following Rule.

...

VII. As the Lutheran Symbols confess the Blessed Virgin Mary to be "the pure, holy, and ever-virgin Mother of God" (Theotokos, Gottes Mutter), as well as "that the blessed Mary prays for the Church" (Ap. XXI, 27; SA I, IV, Latin; FC SD VIII, 24), it is altogether fitting, proper, and consistent with the Faith of the Church Catholic to honor the Blessed Virgin in liturgical celebration. Members of the Society will seek to restore the traditional Marian feasts of the Church of the Augsburg Confession (i.e., the Feasts of the Purification, Annunciation, and Visitation) as a testimony of the grace of God through her, that we might imitate the Blessed Virgin in word and example, and in thanksgiving for the Incarnation of the Son of God through her humble submission to the will of God. Members of the Society will also promote the observance and celebration of saints' days and commemorations. This is wholly in keeping with the evangelical and catholic tradition of the Church of the Augsburg Confession, whose Symbolical Books acknowledge the saints as fitting exemplars of the catholic Faith worthy of imitation, as well as our heavenly intercessors (AC XXI, 1; Ap. XXI, 4-9).

 

[Livindesert]

That's interesting about the Polycarp society.

I have been reading a bit about Confessional Lutherianism and picked up a Portals of Prayer book at my bases chapel office today. The is also a LCMS church in town I visited once and liked.

 

[Tangible]

That's interesting about the Polycarp society.

Yes the SSP is interesting.

I would like to know a little more about what exactly they mean in the passages "that the blessed Mary prays for the Church" and "the saints as fitting exemplars of the catholic Faith worthy of imitation, as well as our heavenly intercessors."

I would hope that they do not encourage asking Mary or the saints to pray for us, which IMO is dangerously close to praying to them instead of our one Mediator, Jesus Christ (1 Tim 2:5).

I know we have at least one member of the SSP here. Perhaps we could get a comment?

I have been reading a bit about Confessional Lutheranism and picked up a Portals of Prayer book at my bases chapel office today. The is also a LCMS church in town I visited once and liked.

Both my wife and I were lifetime Baptists until a year ago. We had our children enrolled in the local LCMS school for a while after we found that homeschooling wasn't working for us. We visited the Church and were blown away by the reverent, Christ-centered worship and strong yet encouraging preaching. After attending the adult inquirer's class we were very impressed by the internally consistent and thoroughly biblically-based Lutheran theology. So we decided to become Lutherans (even though our families can't understand why.) I know I could never go back.

 

[DaRev]

Yes the SSP is interesting.

I would like to know a little more about what exactly they mean in the passages "that the blessed Mary prays for the Church" and "the saints as fitting exemplars of the catholic Faith worthy of imitation, as well as our heavenly intercessors."

I am not a member of SSP, but...

The Lutheran Confessions make the assumption that the saints in heaven do pray for the Church much as the angels do (Zech 1:12). I don't believe that the SSP statement encourages or supports invoking the saints or Mary.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

I am not a member of SSP, but...

The Lutheran Confessions make the assumption that the saints in heaven do pray for the Church much as the angels do (Zech 1:12). I don't believe that the SSP statement encourages or supports invoking the saints or Mary.

You are correct Rev.

As per the Apology XXI, 8-10, 27; (9)The Saints pray for us; (8)the Angels pray for us, and (27) "...the blessed Mary prays for the Church."

(10)We Lutherans (and all Christians for that matter) are not however to invoke the Saints.

Mark SSP

 

[Tangible]

I thought that was the indeed case. Thanks for the clarification.