Mothering Sunday – 14th March 2010
Introduction and Call to Worship
Come young and old, women and men, parents and children: come one and all to give thanks to God the Father of us all, and to Jesus Christ his Son, our friend and brother. Come, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, rejoice that we are one today in praise and thanksgiving.
Today’s Readings
First Reading
Exodus 2:1-10 Moses’ mother and sister save his life.
Second Reading
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
Paul and his readers share suffering and consolation.
Gospel
John 19:25b-27
Jesus entrusts his mother and the beloved disciple to each other.
HOMILY
Motherhood has changed a lot since the time when Mothering Sunday began. It was originally the day when live-in servants, who were little more than children were allowed a home visit. They would often be given to bake a special cake, known as a seminal cake to take home toe their family as a sign of good will. Being Lent, this cakes didn’t have the usual refinements of icing, but rather simply was decorated with marzipan and 12 marzipan balls, each one for the disciples.
Today, the church remembers mothers and their important part within our community. But life as a mother, although different from years past, is no less challenging. Often there are huge expectations placed on mothers and on their relationships with their children. With increased equality in the workplace for women and men, similar demands are beginning to be loaded onto both mothers and fathers, with demands upon their time causing stress and anxiety! Being a parent today is still a very challenging role.
The Bible is, on the whole, fairly unsentimental about motherhood. In times gone by, producing a child who lived to adulthood was a challenge in itself. The Old Testament regards children as a blessing from God to be welcomed and celebrated, and assumes that in the extended family each generation will look after the other in turn.
But it also recognises the demanding nature of motherhood. Eve is warned of the trauma, both physical and emotional, that becoming a mother entails. Moses’ mother takes extraordinary measures to save her baby boy, including allowing him to be adopted by her oppressors. Moses is plucked from the bulrushes in the river, saved and given the opportunity as an adult to be God’s servant.
And then there’s Mary the mother of Jesus, having to watch as her boy grows into adulthood, growing into the ministry the he is destined for, creating for himself a new family of followers and then, wilfully putting himself in danger, and finally is painfully executed upon the cross. Mary stands at the foot of the Cross, with John, the disciples that Jesus loved, looking upon her Son, with eyes full of tears and her heart broken with love. But like Hannah and like the mother of Moses, Mary knows that the best thing parents can do for their children is to let them go and do what they have to do for themselves.
God is spoken of in the Bible as a father, but also occasionally as a mother. If good human parents know that they need to let go and allow their children the freedom to grow up and make their own way, how much more must God our father, our mother, know that same truth?
Sometimes we are tempted to make the parenthood of God an excuse to adopt a childish attitude to our relationship with ‘Our Father, who art in heaven.’ It is as if we expect everything to be handed out of planned for us, as if we expect God to tell us what to do, to answer all our prayers when and how we want and manage our life for us. How foolish we are when we think this! Yes God has a plan, but he longs for us to participate within it! Yet, as children of God we sometimes try and evade our responsibilities. But God is a good parent, one who knows about giving up control and letting children ‘grow up.’ God wants us to be adults, to make our own choices, even if that means we make mistakes. Of course God also wants us to keep in touch regularly, to talk about what has gone right and what has gone wrong, and to get a fresh perspective. God longs for us to be in connection with him, and that my friends is part of the purpose of the Church, to help us remain ‘connected’ to God’s love and God’s will for us.
Like Moses in the basket, we are not abandoned, but adopted! We have hope because God longs to be in connection with us and we only need to trust him, and he will guide and support us. What a relief it is to know we are not on our own! Amen.
SUMMARY
1. Our society tends to have a rather sentimental view of motherhood, and has high expectations of parents.
2. The Bible recognises the demanding nature of motherhood, including the necessity for mothers to let their children go so that they can find their own ways to serve God.
3. God is like a good parent, wanting us to grow up and take adult responsibility for our lives, continuing to love us and wanting us to connect to his love for us through the church.
Revd Damian Stewart Miles, BTh 2010
Original bible notes produced by Redemptorist Publications,
‘Living Word’ for Common Worship, edited by Jane Williams.
