This sermon is based around Exodus 2. 1-10, Colossians 3. 12-17 and John 19. 25-27.
Today is Mothering Sunday, and you may be thinking that that’s the reason we are in pink. It’s not, we are halfway through Lent, this is the midpoint. And because being human we will be either miserable about our fasting or we will just be drudging through without thinking about it too much we have one day when the fast is relaxed a bit to give us a glimpse of what we are headed towards and to encourage us to enter the second half of lent with renewed focus. So for one day only we can relax our fasting a bit and we can enjoy ourselves a bit more, which is admittedly very handy being on the same day as Mothering Sunday. We all probably have very different experiences of motherhood; we all have one, some may be very good and some maybe not so good, some of us are mothers, we may have people in our lives who we think of as mothers to us and we may be that person for other people. The whole idea of motherhood is huge and complex and nowhere is this truer than in the Bible. Our Old Testament and Gospel readings today give us two different aspects of motherhood, the challenges and difficulties faced by two different women. The first is of a woman who gives birth while the Israelites are slaves in Egypt, the Pharaoh, for fear the the growing number of Israelites may pose a threat, has ordered that all boys born to the Israelites are to be killed, so she hides him for fear that he will be killed too. And then when he is too big to hide any longer she places him in a basket and leaves him to float away down the river with no idea what will happen to him, it’s a huge sacrifice. It’s hard to imagine the strength it must have taken for her to let him go, knowing that if she kept him he would be killed. Our Gospel reading today is about another mother and is particularly appropriate as the church celebrated the feast of the annunciation yesterday when the angel Gabriel came to Mary to ask her to be the mother of Jesus. Here we have the true cost of that yes, having been at times pushed aside by Him she now watches as He dies, as Simeon prophesied at Jesus’ dedication ‘a sword pierces her heart’. In a few days she will be one of the first to the tomb. And it is here as Jesus is hanging on the cross that we see His true heart. Racked with pain, knowing that His end is near and all that His death will mean, in those moments before the victory is won He pauses. Whilst many conquerors and leaders forget about the people around them as they push on towards the victory Jesus stops and makes His last testament, trusting the care of His mother to one of His closest friends. As the firstborn it was His duty to care for her into her old age and knowing that He cannot do that He ensures that someone else will. This is a God who cares immensely about people. We as a church are called to do the same, the church is sometimes talked of as a mother; needing the same characteristics as the best of mums in order to care for those in her care. That isn’t just for the Bishops, Priests, Deacons and lay ministers to do, that is the role of all of us. We heard in our reading from Colossians a list of characteristics for the Christian community to strive for, they resonate today particularly as we think about those in our lives who have been mothers to us and they are the characteristics we should strive to show as a church to those within and outside of our walls; compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiving, loving, willing to gently correct those who have strayed and grateful for all we have been given. Let us be a church that truly cares for people, not one that is too caught up in its grand plans and ideas. Not all of us will be mothers, I never will be one, but we all have the opportunity to be a small part of being mothers to people, be it as Godparents, Aunts and Uncles or simply as friends. And we should strive to display some of those qualities we see in Colossians to those around us who need it, to guide those who are in need of that care and that love. So this mothering Sunday as we give thanks for our mothers and grandmothers, let us also not forget to give thanks for all those who have at some point in our lives been a motherly figure to us, who have cared for us in the darkest of times and who have guided us to be the people who are here today. May God give us the opportunities to be that person to someone else, and may we as a Church develop into one that cares for the people of our communities as the best of mothers cares for her children.
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AuthorAn Anglican Curate in my 20's I was raised in an Anglican Church, went to a Youth Club run by an Evangelical Church, attended a Baptist Church while at Uni and was a member of a New Monastic Community after graduating. As such my faith has been influenced by these experiences and traditions into what I hope is a more rounded viewpoint. Archives
September 2022
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