Mothering Sunday 2007
Exodus 2:1-10Colossians 3:12-17
John 19:25b-27
The Maternal Instinct
Mothering Sunday.A female preacher with children would be much better placed to comment on the experience of mothering. I’m unqualified, and can only theorize, though I, like all of you, had a biological mother, and have had the blessing to grow up nurtured by her. Not everyone in our world enjoys that privilege, sadly. I can also reflect on the examples of other mothers I have known and appreciated, in order to understand just a little about mothering.Curiously, the Bible suggests that Jesus, although male, feel a motherly love for his children, the people of Israel – whether they were open to his ministry and message or not. (I guess part of mothering is sticking with it and loving your children even when they do not express love back; but that, too can be said of fathering.)In Luke 13:34, which we heard only 2 weeks ago, Jesus wept over Jerusalem, saying, ‘34Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” ’Jesus, the very one who taught to pray to Our Father in heaven, to strive for an intimate parent-child relationship with our own Creator, Jesus showed a mother’s love. Even for his own earthly mother, Mary. As she stood at the foot of the cross (Stabat Mater), an emotional sword piercing her soul as Simeon predicted. She witnesses one of the most difficult things any parent can witness, the death of her child. But her Son, even as he was dying, loved her, and took responsibility for her, telling John, his beloved disciple and friend to take Mary into his home. We may wonder why that would have been necessary, since Jesus had siblings. But commentators suggest that those siblings may not yet have believed in Jesus the way his mother did. Maybe Jesus brothers saw her belief as bizarre, an absurd delusion. Every mother thinks the best of her favourite child, but that he was God? That would be hard to swallow for anyone, let alone to perhaps jealous siblings who only later came round. This is all theory, but the fact is that Jesus looked on his people, and his human family and friends with a maternal instinct, with a mother’s love.Having said that, we have to admit that Jesus took a challenging line on family in general. Many claim that Jesus was a family values man, but the Bible suggests we be careful. Here is a man who honoured his father and mother according to the Law, but also declared that ‘anyone who loves his father and mother more than me is not worthy of me’ (Matt 10:37). Once his family wanted him to stop teaching and come home for supper. His reply seemed to disown his blood relatives: ‘Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?’ (Matt 12:48) Implication: these people here, learning and sharing, not my nuclear family. Jesus clearly loved God above all, and wanted us to treat our own parents with respect and insure they are cared for. But he did not intend for us to be controlled by our parents or held back by them. We owe an immense debt to our mothers and our fathers, but eventually we have to stand on our own feet. For centuries, the Church, particularly the RCC, has had a tradition of observing Mothering Sunday (Lent 4) to remind us of Mother Church. This is good, to remind us of the immense debt we owe to the faith community for nurturing us and our ancestors.But we are not to be captured or coddled by it, but become spiritually mature Christians, exhibiting the virtues Paul so beautifully lists:3:12As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. 13Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. 17And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. This is a brilliant description of what it is to be a grown-up Christian, regardless of your age.Being a grown-up Christian means honouring your parents and your church community. But all these are simply aspects of honouring God, who loves us as the best Father or Mother could. Being a grown up Christian means benefiting from all that love and nurture, but also standing up for God, in your turn.The ladies of Exodus 2:1-10 show this wonderfully. First the Hebrew midwives disobeyed the fierce and ruthless Pharaoh’s command to kill all Hebrew baby boys. Second the Hebrew mothers ignored the Pharoah’s demand to turn over their baby boys. Moses’ mother put him in a skiff and sent him down the Nile. Third, the Pharoah’s own daughter defied her father to protect and provide for little Moses. The NIV commentary says: ‘Throughout this early part of Exodus, all the Pharaoh’s efforts to suppress Israel were thwarted by women.’ The males out there will not be surprised – at the power of a determined female, or group of them. So long as they are following God, they are showing an essential faithful independence that proved necessary then, and is still essential today. If our children are to be protected and put on the right path, we all have a maternal duty to them, to nurture them. To mother them in a way that does not smother them, but rather in a way that lets them know they are loved and free to develop into mature Christians too. For that is their birthright. We can even pick out our own clothes, eventually. The best clothes are compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love, peace and gratitude. We may learn them from our own mothers, from our church, or from some other maternal figure along the way. But they all come from God, who loves us as only the very best mother and father can. Thanks be to God. Amen.Any questions? Contact:
The Chaplain, Revd Sam Van Leer, 026 495 062
