"What Assumptions are we talking about?" Sermon for the Sunday after the Assumption, 8-16-26

† To assume, the dictionary says, is to take upon oneself; to understand one’s duties; to adopt; to put on; to affect appearance or possession of; to suppose.

What was Mary’s assumption?

The Church-Catholic says that the Assumption is the doctrine that Mary, the mother of Jesus, the God-bearer, her time on earth completed, was taken, soul and body, into heaven. For the rest of us, while our souls may ascend, our bodies remain here, in coffin or crypt or columbarium. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust. Until the resurrection of the dead promised in scripture and in the creeds.

For Roman Catholics, the Assumption of Mary is dogma, an essential part of the faith. For Anglo-Catholic Episcopalians, the Assumption of Mary is a devotional tradition that may or may not be assumed, that is taken up by the faithful. Our Protestant heritage is clear: that which is not found in the Bible – Mary’s assumption, for example – is not to be used for establishing that which must be believed. Our Catholic heritage, however, gives us permission to celebrate the tradition of Mary’s Assumption if we wish. Thus, our celebration today.

But I think that Mary had other assumptions, more important to the lives of the faithful than the doctrinal one. Mary assumed that God’s Word, spoken through the Archangel Gabriel, was true. Mary assumed that she would conceive and give birth to the Son of God, the Messiah, the savior. Mary assumed that God is the Mighty One who looked with favor upon her. Mary assumed that the strong-armed God, who made and kept covenant with Abraham, would humble the proud and lift up the lowly.

And God had assumptions of Mary. God assumed, given the choice to say “Yes” or “No” to Gabriel’s announcement, that Mary would say “Yes” and continue God’s plan for our salvation. God assumed that Mary would have the fortitude, the wisdom, and the humility to bear God’s Son and to raise Jesus to comprehend and embrace his full humanity. God assumed that Mary would survive the many sorrows that such a task would entail, up to and including her witnessing Jesus’s brutal torture and execution upon Imperial Rome’s crucifixion cross.

Mary has assumptions of us. Mary assumes that we will listen to and obey her son Jesus. “Do whatever he tells you to do,” Mary said to the servants at the wedding at Cana after the wine ran out. That is wise advice to us, and essential to our discipleship – to do whatever Jesus tells us to do. We find his instruction principally in scripture, in the sacraments, and in the liturgies of the Church.

This assumption of Mary is but a refrain and an echo of God’s assumption of us – that we will keep commandment and covenant, law and liturgy, trust and tradition. That we will say “Yes” to God and continue God’s plan for our salvation. And when we say “No”, that we will come to our senses and come home.

We, too, may make assumptions of God and of Mary.

Our assumption of God is like Mary’s assumption: that God’s Word is true and faithful, that God is merciful and just, that God one day will set things right. And that God the Holy Spirit will fill us, like the Holy Spirit filled Mary, with the gifts that we need to follow God faithfully.

And our assumption of Mary – whom tradition holds is Queen of Heaven and Queen of All Saints – that Mary is a patient and persistent intercessor, pleading for us to her Son as we pray to him. That Mary is both the blessed mother of Jesus and our powerful big sister in faith. As Jesus’s mother, Mary comforts us, affirms us, encourages us, and points us to her Son. As our big sister – a fellow child in God’s big family – Mary tells the bullies in the schoolyards of our hearts to back off, and she might just punch them in the nose when they don’t.

The Assumption of Mary merits celebration among all the saints, because it shows God’s great love for us and God’s great trust in us. Like Mary, you and I are highly-favored by God – beloved! – and we are entrusted to carry Jesus within us, and then to point him out to others … Wouldn’t you assume? †

Father Daniel S.J. Scheid, SCP

The Sunday of the Assumption – August 16, 2026

All Saints’ Episcopal Church, San Francisco

“What Assumptions are we talking about?”