May 14, 2006

Mother's Day

A little boy once forgot his lines in a Sunday school presentation. His mother was in the front row to prompt him. She gestured and formed the words silently with her lips, but it did not help.  Her son’s memory was blank.  Finally, she leaned forward and whispered the cue, "I am the light of the world."  The child beamed and with great feeling and a loud clear voice said, "My mother is the light of the world."   Sure, it was funny!  But there is some truth there.  Mothers who love their children and lead them to faith in Jesus are lights in this world!

In Romans 16, the apostle Paul sends personal greetings to a number of men and women who had been so helpful to him in his life and ministry.  Nearly half of that list are women who had been such wonderful help to him.  And he even includes greetings to one of their mothers, whom he considered to be a mother to him as well.  Paul appreciated the mothering, support, and love that he received from this woman, as if she was his own mother.  “Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother, who has been a mother to me, too.”

It’s important to greet our moms.  It is important to say thank you to those who mothered us.  It is important to let them know how much they are appreciated.  U.S. President Abraham Lincoln once summoned an Army surgeon to the White House. The Major assumed that he was to be commended for some exceptional work. But Mr. Lincoln asked the Major about his widowed mother. "She is doing fine," he responded.  "How do you know?" asked Lincoln. "You haven't written her.” “But she has written me," he said.  Lincoln continued. "She thinks that you are dead and she is asking that a special effort be made to return your body."  At that the President placed a pen in the young doctor's hand and ordered him to write a letter letting his mother know that he was alive and well!

How many of us can identify with the army surgeon?  Has it been too long since you have written to or spoken with your mother?  Has it been too long since you have truly told her how much she means to you?  Has it been too long since you have thanked her?  Children, have you always showed your mothers your thankfulness by gladly obeying her?  Have you been doing things you aren’t even asked to do to show your mom that you really appreciate her?  Or do we all have to admit that there has been some strain in our relationships with our mothers?  And that we have often been unappreciative of the selfless love that they have given us?

I would be the first one to raise my hand and say, “Guilty, your honour.”  I have not been the perfect child to my mother.  And because of that, I have not been the perfect child to my Father, my heavenly Father.  We have all failed at this.  Not just failed our moms.  But failed our God.  Let’s beg forgiveness. Then today, let’s look at what God teaches us and how He loves us through our mothers.  Let’s look at how God mothers us through our mothers.

Let’s start with a story about a man from an earlier generation named Olin T. Binkley. Olin was born and reared on a poor mountain farm in North Carolina. His parents, having only a grade school education, dreamed that their children would go to college. They surrounded Olin and his siblings with love and faith in Christ, and the discipline they needed to succeed in life. Olin led his class every year in school. Upon graduating from high school, he received a partial scholarship from Wake Forest University. That, with several hundred dollars he had earned working every odd job he could find, was all he had to start college.

Unfortunately when Olin came home for the Christmas holiday the first year, he brought along his trunk. He told his parents he was out of money and would not go back to college until he had earned considerably more. His mother urged him to reconsider and made Olin promise not to unpack his trunk yet.  At breakfast on the morning he was to go back to school, Olin turned over his plate, after grace, and was shocked to discover fifty silver dollars. He looked at his father; he was eating; he knew nothing about the money. He looked at his mother. Tears were flowing down her cheeks, and love flowed from her eyes. The smile on her lips was a tremendous encouragement for him to go back to college.

Then he looked at his mother's folded hands. They were stained black. Black from countless hours of staying up at night, picking fifty dollars worth of black walnuts to help her son gain an education.  Olin went back to Wake Forest, took a part-time job and finished at the top of his class. He went on to graduate school and earned his doctorate. He became a seminary professor and seminary president. Olin was driven with the love and determination of a poor mountain mother who had picked fifty dollars of black walnuts.  Mothers help us understand what it means to make sacrifices for children.  Does that help us see the sacrifice God made in sending his Son here to serve us?  Those who have mothered us have taught us much about the sacrificial, serving, selfless love of God.

Stephanie, a 46-year-old woman in San Diego, was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 30.  Her mother flew out to be with her so her husband could continue going to work and to help take care of their baby.  Her mother was there for her when she began her radiation treatment. As predicted, her hair fell out.  Stephanie had always had thick, wavy black hair--a source of pride and a trait she got from her mother, who still had the same wonderful head of hair.

One morning, Stephanie was tying a scarf around her head when Mom walked into her bedroom. She had a scarf tied around her head also, and Stephanie made a comment around their being mistaken for twins. At which point, her mother removed her scarf.  Stephanie gasped. Her mother had shaved her head as well. Her mother smiled and said, "There's strength in unity."  She had shaved off her beautiful black hair out of love for her daughter.

Mothers can also teach us about the perfect, sacrificial love of Christ.  Christ identified with our suffering. He took upon himself our burden. Don’t our mothers do that too?  And by doing that, they are not only living out their love for God, they are also teaching us about God’s love.  They are teaching us about a Saviour who came down and walked in our steps, went through what we go through, identified with our suffering and hardships.  And He did that to make us right with his Heavenly Father.  Not because we deserved it.  But just because He loved us with his amazing love.  A love reflected in the mothers He has given us.

You remember 1 Corinthians 13?  That well-known chapter which describes the perfect love of God?  Listen to this application of it for mothers:  “If I live in a house of spotless beauty with everything in its place, but have not love, I am a housekeeper--not a homemaker.  If I have time for waxing, polishing, and decorative achievements, but have not love, my children learn cleanliness - not godliness.  Love leaves the dust in search of a child's laugh. Love smiles at the tiny fingerprints on a newly cleaned window.  Love wipes away the tears before it wipes up the spilled milk. Love picks up the child before it picks up the toys.  Love is present through the trials. Love reprimands, reproves, and is responsive. Love crawls with the baby, walks with the toddler, runs with the child, then stands aside to let the youth walk into adulthood.  Love is the key that opens salvation's message to a child's heart.  Before I became a mother I took glory in my house of perfection. Now I glory in God's perfection of my child.  As a mother, there is much I must teach my child, but the greatest of all is love.”

Of all that mothers do, the most important thing they could do as they teach their children about the God’s love is to teach them about how God loved them through Jesus and to lead them to faith in Him.  Because we need Jesus and the love He has given us.  We need the forgiveness that He won for us on the cross and empty tomb.  And we have it!  You have forgiveness for all the times you haven’t thanked and haven’t loved.  You are forgiven for the times you haven’t treasured and obeyed your mothers.  And mothers, you are forgiven for the times you have failed at your many responsibilities as mothers.  I am sure there are countless times each day, that you feel you are failing your job.  But you are forgiven by a Lord who loves you too.

So now it’s time to thank our loving God for “mothering” us.  How can you thank Him?  By being “mothers.”  By filling your roles of “mothering.”  There’s a great insight in a book by Staci Elderedge called “Captivating.”  She writes: “As large as the role is that our mothers play, the word mother is more powerful when used as a verb than as a noun.  All women are not mothers, but all women are called to mother.  To mother is to nurture, to train, to educate, to rear.  As daughters of Eve, all women are uniquely gifted to help others in their lives become more of who they truly are – to encourage, nurture, and mother them toward their true selves.  In doing this, women partner with Christ in the vital mission of bringing forth life…
You can mother other people’s children.  In truth, our world needs you to… We mother each other when we offer our concern, our care, our comfort.  We mother each other when we see a need and rise to meet it whether it is a sweater for a friend who is chilly, a meal for a struggling family, or a listening ear for a friend who is hurting.
All women are called to mother.  And all women are called to give birth.  Women give birth to all kinds of things – to books, to churches, to movements.  Women give birth to ideas, to creative expressions, to ministries.  We birth life in others by inviting them into deeper realms of healing, to deeper walks with God, to deeper intimacy with Jesus.  A woman is not less of a woman because she is not a wife or has not physically borne a child.  The heart and life of a woman is much more vast than that.  All women are made in the image of God in that we bring forth life.  When we enter into our world and into the lives of those we love and offer our tender and strong feminine hearts, we cannot help but mother them.”

So, in essence, being a “mother” is being someone who nurtures, cares for, and brings life and love to another person.  Someone who cares for us in very much the same way that our loving God cares for us.  Someone who leads us to God through his Son.  And there is no better way to thank our God for what He has done for us than by mothering others with his love.  And let’s not forget to thank our mothers, either.  And those who mothered us.  Just like St. Paul did.

During the Holocaust, Solomon Rosenberg, his wife and their two sons were placed in a concentration camp. The rules were simple. As long as they did their work, they were permitted to live. When they became too weak to work, they would be exterminated. Rosenberg watched as his own father and mother were marched off to their deaths and he knew that his youngest son David would be next because he had always been a frail child. Every evening Rosenberg came back into the barracks after his hours of hard labor and searched for the faces of his family. When he found them they would huddle together, embrace one another and thank God for another day of life. One day he came back and didn’t see those familiar faces. He finally discovered his oldest son, Joshua, in a corner sobbing and praying. “Josh, tell me it’s not true.” Joshua turned to his dad and said, “It’s true. Today David was not strong enough to do his work, so they took him away.” Mr. Rosenberg asked, “But where is your mother?” Joshua could barely speak, “When they came for David, he was afraid and cried, so Momma told him there was nothing to be afraid of, took his hand, and went with him.”

Thank you mothers, for holding our hands and walking with us in our darkest hours – for sacrificing convenience and ease so that we might have companionship. Thank you for overcoming the bitter and negative life experiences and instead of projecting that on to us, you have shown us gentleness and kindness. Thank you, mothers, for teaching us about God.  Thank you for teaching us about the love God gave us through Jesus and leading us to faith in Him.  Thank you, Lord, for mothering us with mothers.   Amen.

 

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