READING John Chapter 19 v 25 – 27
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
SERMON: Today is “Mother’s Day”! I have a PROBLEM with Mother’s Day! It’s not that I don’t like Mother’s Day or that I disagree with it or that I dread it.
My problem is … that Mother’s Day is perhaps (for me) the most difficult sermon to preach all year. Why? because is it so HARD to preach a Mother’s Day message? Because while Mother’s Day can be a very happy, joyous day, it can also be a very sad day, a day of pain & grief and so not everybody looks forward to Mother’s Day for various reasons.
I do not believe that anything has ever been said or ever will be said that is eloquent or expressive enough to articulate the true value of a mother. I am sure that we can all sit here this morning and think of what our mothers taught us? Here are some examples of what my mother taught me:
My Mother taught me LOGIC: “If you fall off that swing and break your neck, don’t come running to me” as well as, “If everyone else jumped off a cliff would you do it too?”
My Mother taught me MEDICINE: “If you don’t stop crossing your eyes, they’re going to stick that way.” My Mother taught me TO THINK AHEAD: “If you don’t pass your spelling test, you’ll never get a good job!”
My Mother taught me TO MEET A CHALLENGE: “What were you thinking? Answer me when I talk to you… Don’t talk back to me!”
My Mother taught me how to BECOME AN ADULT: “If you don’t eat your vegetables, you’ll never grow up. My mother taught me about HEREDITY: “You are just like your father!”
My mother taught me about the WISDOM of AGE: “When you get to be my age, you will understand,” or, “I will explain it all when you get older.”
My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION: “Just wait til your Dad gets home.”
My mother taught me about RECEIVING “You are so going to get it when I get you home.” And the all time favourite thing my mother taught me – JUSTICE: “One day you will have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you. Then you’ll see what it’s like! I can’t wait!”
So yes today is Mother’s Day – unless like vicar’s up and down the country who may be informing you that today is not Mother’s day, it is Mothering Sunday, and we will come to why in a little while.
So what do you find on your cards? Teddy Bears? Roses? And what does the Church of England give us for Mothering Sunday?
A Mother’s Day card with a picture of Mary standing at the foot of the cross watching her son die. Anyone get a card this morning with a picture of that?
The biblical picture of Motherhood isn’t quite the sugary sweet image that we have from card manufacturers.
We have Mary. Mary the teenage mum becoming pregnant when she is not yet married. Mary the young widow for we don’t know exactly when Joseph died, but we know that by the time Jesus is a grown up Mary is maybe 45 or so, and Joseph is dead. Mary who stands at the foot of the cross watching her son die.
This biblical image of Motherhood doesn’t quite match that of the card producers where nothing is ever difficult and everyone has 2.4 children.
One woman who had three children was asked, “If you had it all to do over again, would you have children?” “Yes,” she replied, “But not the same ones.
Another mother says, “The joy of motherhood is what a woman experiences when all the children are finally in bed.”
In the church we are careful not to call this day Mother’s day, because there are people in our own congregation and in every congregation who find Mother’s day difficult.
In the Bible we find women like Hannah struggling with infertility or those who never met the right person or who for whatever reasons cannot have children. There are those like Mary cradling the dead Jesus for whom today brings up thoughts of grief,
who had seen their adult child before them. There are many others for whom it is the loss of their mum that is painful. We may not all be mothers or have our mothers still with us but all of us need mothering.
I read a saying, origin unknown, “It takes a village to raise a child,” in other words, every single one of us needs more mothering than any one mother could ever provide. And although motherhood is a unique honour and challenge, all mothering takes place within families and communities and networks of support and influence.
Jesus entrusted Mary to the disciple John but he didn’t entrust her to his brothers and sisters who were still alive. We know that he had four brothers – James, Joseph, Simon and Judas – and some sisters who are not named. That seems a little strange. Surely one of them could have looked after their mum into old age? But Jesus doesn’t pursue that option. Why? What else is going on here?
There is something quite profound about what Mary and the disciple John represent to us here. Because here are two people who are there with Jesus at the foot of the cross, two people who believe in his mission, two people who believe in his claim to be the Son of God – the Lord and Saviour of the world. This is in stark contrast to Jesus’ brothers. In John 7:5 we are told quite starkly, “Not even his brothers believed in him.”
So it seems that what is happening here between Jesus the Saviour and the two people at the foot of the Cross who believe in him, is that a new family is being created. “Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so he said to his mother, ‘He is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘She is your mother.’ From that time the disciple took her to live in his home.”
And so a new family is created in the shadow of the cross. Through the blood of Christ shed for us, a new home, a new community comes to life – a new family is born. It is here, at the foot of the cross as Jesus sheds his blood and a woman embraces a boy and a boy embraces a woman – it is here that the church is formed!”
But the family formed at the foot of the cross is bigger than that. The story of John being entrusted to Mary and Mary to John is the start of a new family which is incredibly supportive. In John’s Gospel – John represents all of us – that’s why he is never given a name – just referred to as the disciple Jesus loved. It’s like one of those films where you don’t see the main character because they are behind the camera – John is behind the camera – we see the Gospel through his eyes. So when John is entrusted to Mary, we all are entrusted to Mary. And because death is not the end for us, because Jesus has defeated death, that relationship continues.
That’s why many Christians over the centuries and still today think of Mary as being a Mother to us.
Mary is also an example to us. As former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams puts it, “For centuries, Christians have kept coming back to the idea that what happens in Mary is what has to happen to some degree in each of us. She, uniquely and once for all, says a yes so complete that her entire material life is changed by the coming of God to her; God’s everlasting gift of himself that is the Son, the Word, emerges from her to begin that life which will change everything in creation. But we are called to the same job, to give God room so that we may be changed, so that the eternal Word will live in us and speak and act in love to others”
The good news that we can think of Jesus’s mother as being our mother – because death is no longer the final barrier – is also good news for all who have come here today to remember earthly mothers who are no longer with us. Death has been defeated, so in that new family the church, your mothers in heaven are not separated but united with you through the love of Jesus.
But do you notice something about Jesus and Mary his mother? The roles reverse!
“Even though Jesus is dying he begins to mother her. She becomes the child. He calls her ‘Dear Woman’ and then proceeds to place her into the arms of his very best friend. He provides a shelter for her…….In the same way today he wants to mother us. He notices us, even in our worst moments of pain, sadness, anxiety, shame and humiliation, he is there for us. When we have our crosses to bear, he is there for us, just like Mary was for him.
It was Jesus who described himself as a ‘mother’ – a mother hen who longed to gather her ‘brood’ under her wings, and give them her peace, if only they would let her.
There are SO many lessons that Jesus teaches us from the cross itself. He shows us the way, by his own example, how we ought to forget our own selves, our pain, our miseries and complaints, and give love like that of a mother to others.”
So today, as we give thanks for our human mothers and all they did for us, let us remember the motherly love of Mary and Jesus to us, and be inspired to show that motherly love to others.
PRAYERS
Gracious God, on this special day we thank you for mothers, our own mothers and mothers everywhere.
Lord of Love, hear our prayer
We thank you for all they do, or once did, all they give, or once gave, all they mean and will always mean.
Lord of Love, hear our prayer
Grant to all entrusted with the responsibility of motherhood your wisdom, your guidance and your support.
Lord of Love, hear our prayer
Loving God, we thank you that you love us as a mother loves a child, passionately, fiercely, devotedly, wholeheartedly and that, like a mother, you watch over us every moment of every day, seeking our welfare, concerned about our progress, equipping us for the journey of life.
Lord of Love, hear our prayer
Loving God, you are always there when we need you, ready to comfort, encourage and reassure, slow to punish and swift to bless.
Lord of Love, hear our prayer
Loving God, grant us your blessing upon all mothers and al families this day, upon the family of humankind the world over, upon the family of your Church, here and everywhere.
Lord of Love, hear our prayer
Loving God, grant your special care and support to all those deprived of a mothers love and to all those who have not yet come to know your love for themselves.
Merciful Father
Accept these prayers for the sake your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
And so we bind our prayers together in the words that Jesus taught his disciples
Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,
For ever and ever.
Amen
Revd Kevin. Associate Priest at St.Wilfrid and St.Thomas
