Mother's Day 2009

A sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on May 10, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV.

Last week, as Fr. Mark was preaching about Psalm 23, I had a very pleasant memory flood back into my mind – that of my mother teaching me the 23rd Psalm at night before I went to sleep. This was a regular occurrence at our house between the ages of about 7-11 or so. She would come in and say nighttime prayers with me and teach me various passages of Scripture, say the Lord’s Prayer, etc. It was sort of an informal catechism I suppose.

Growing up, we were Methodists, so Mom also told me about Susannah Wesley - how she taught her children Latin and Greek as well as classical studies, how she influenced her sons John and Charles, and how she became known as the Mother of Methodism. I think I was supposed to put it together that Mom was following in the great Methodist tradition by trying to get me to learn a few psalms and prayers before bedtime. And I guess to some extent I did, because I still remember the things she taught me before bed – evidence for the powerful impact of a mother on her children.

At any rate, today is Mother’s Day, and we want to spend some time lauding Mothers as they so richly deserve. As you likely know, Mother’s Day and West Virginia have a rich history.
According to the Mother’s Day Central web site:

“Anna Reeves Jarvis held the first official celebration of mothers, in her home state of West Virginia in 1858. She instituted Mothers' Work Day to raise awareness about local sanitation issues. During the Civil War, she expanded the scope of Mothers' Work Day to include sanitary conditions on both sides of the battlefield…”

In 1905, Anna Reeves Jarvis passed away and her daughter, Anna Jarvis, took up her mother's torch. Anna swore on her mother's gravesite that she would realize her lifelong dream of creating a national day to honor mothers. In 1907, Anna launched her campaign by handing out white carnations to congregants at her mother's church, St. Andrew's Methodist Episcopal, in Grafton, West Virginia. In 1908, her mother's church acquiesced to Anna's request to hold a special Sunday service in honor of mothers - a tradition that spread the very next year to churches in 46 states. In 1909, Anna left her job and dedicated herself to a full-time letter-writing campaign, imploring politicians, clergymen and civic leaders to institute a national day for mothers.

In 1912 …West Virginia adopted an official Mother's Day; two years later, the U.S. Congress passed a Joint Resolution, signed by President Wilson, establishing a national Mother's Day emphasizing the role of women in their families …Ever since, Mother's Day has been celebrated by Americans on the second Sunday in May.” (Mother’s Day Central.com).

So, I would like to help us celebrate Motherhood on this second Sunday of May by referencing some mothers who point to three typical characteristics of the godly mother: their capacity to teach, their role as defenders of righteousness, and their power in intercession.

The first characteristic we have already mentioned. Mothers are, of course, natural teachers. From the moment of birth, mothers teach their children intimately through a thousand small interactions – from learning to suck at the first hour of birth, to learning one’s alphabet before going to school – as Susannah Wesley taught her children, mothers are constantly teaching. Their influence is both didactic and moral in that a mother’s godly influence can sometimes carry an entire family.

Cindy’s grandmother was such a woman - someone who was very devout and who would go up on the hill to ‘pray through’ when she had something pressing on her mind. As an example, during World War Two, one of her sons was missing in action. Marthie went up on the hill and prayed loud and long until she finally got the answer she was looking for. She came down off the hill convinced that her son was coming home. – And sure enough – he did come home, being the only soldier from his company to survive because he was taken prisoner of war. Understandably, such as woman shows a formidable profile to her offspring – and even to this day, her faith inspires her extended family. Marthie, through her personal devotion to God, taught her family that God was the source of her being and her provision. He was the one to go to first, and the One to whom the family owed allegiance for providing all good things. She taught her family well and she was a powerful intercessor.

Moses’s mother Jochebed (Ex. 6:20) illustrates an aspect of motherly character - the capacity for fearless political resistance – but it is important to say that this political action is always activated by concern for one’s immediate family. And so there is another characteristic of godly womanhood at play here – the deeply personal nature of morality. While men tend to be consumed with abstract principles, women, and especially mothers seem to know intuitively what is right or wrong – always in the context of the family life. Jochebed knew the decree of Pharaoh that all the male children were to be killed, but she disobeyed this command because her flesh and bone were at stake. Instead she managed to find a way for her son to be adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter – and then given back to her to nurse! Pretty shrewd.

I think we can also see this trait evidenced in the midwives of Moses’ era. They too flaunted the commandment. They did not fear Pharaoh, but I imagine that he was very annoyed by them and may have even feared them as a determined lot. Their political action was based on the immediacy of the personal connection with children, not on some abstract principle.

The career of a mother is tinged by sadness. Her children are always going away from her. Mom gets 9 months to have her child all to herself, and after that it’s one major separation after the other; first birth, then being pulled away to go to school, then off they go to get married, and in some cases – notably Mary the mother of Jesus, her son goes off to be killed. It’s a trajectory of separation – and mothers suffer exquisitely from this constant experience of being separated from their children.

Along this same line, I’d like to mention that although this is a day of celebrating motherhood, this is also a day that is very, very difficult for many women who desire to be mothers, but have not been able to conceive, for those who have lost children due to miscarriage, and for those whose children have died before reaching the age of majority. This was brought home forcibly to me last week, when I sat with a woman who showed me an extensive scrapbook dedicated to her miscarried child.

The scrapbook detailed every step of this woman’s pregnancy, and included several poems describing her emotions along the way. In the book she chronicles her joy in becoming pregnant, her sense of anticipation and then her horror and devastation during the miscarriage and subsequent D&C she had to undergo. She wrote about her anguish and the challenge to her faith, her anger and her pain – but in the end she finds the grace to let go and give the child up to God. Reading through this scrapbook of remembrance was both a privilege and a prod to my own faith. It sensitized me anew to the pain associated with the loss of a child, and helped me realize that Mother’s Day is an occasion to remember and reach out to those who suffer because they have lost a child or yearn to have one.

Now in the Old Testament, Hannah is such a mother. She was, you’ll remember, a woman who had a hard time conceiving a child. Because she was one of two wives, her rival, Penninah tortured Hannah about being childless. Hanna was ashamed of this and decided to devote herself to prayer until she was able to conceive, making a vow to God that if she had a child, she would dedicate him to the Lord. This she did, becoming the mother of Samuel the prophet. Hannah shows us a character that is desperate for God to answer, tenacious in prayer, and steadfast in carrying out her vows to the Lord. In Jewish teaching she is often considered a paradigm of the godly woman.

Then too we think about Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, who was a godly woman, married to a godly man, and who again illustrates the pain of being childless. She and her husband are chosen to come the parents of John the Baptist because of their righteousness before God, and their tenacious faith, even in their advanced years. They are emblematic of faithfulness in the face of a barren condition and thus are teachers to Israel. When Elizabeth conceives, she says, in Luke 1:25: “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.” God comes to her as a representative of the Jewish nation. He sees her affliction and her groaning, and he comes to her to take away her reproach. Thus she teaches her nation how to look for Messiah.

Finally, we come to Mary, whom we have already mentioned briefly. Mary was, of course, an upright young woman. When Gabriel comes to her with the announcement of her impending pregnancy, he greets her by saying, “Greetings, (or “hail”) O favored one, the Lord is with you!” a foreshadowing of the child she would bear – Emmanuel – God with us.
I her response to Gabriel, Mary teaches us how to be Christians. “Be it done to me according to your will” she says. This is the response to God that ushers a person into the Kingdom, and it is the same response that keeps us on the path with God throughout our Christian lives. We will never go wrong if we say to God, “Be it done to me according to your will.”

Mary teaches us to be a defender of justice in her song of praise to God. She shows that she has a political consciousness when she says:

“He has shown strength with his arm;he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;he has brought down the mighty from their thronesand exalted those of humble estate;he has filled the hungry with good things,and the rich he has sent away empty.” (Luke 1:51-53)

By participating with God in the birth of Messiah, she becomes a defender of righteousness and an exponent for Justice.

Then too her intercessory capacity is illustrated in a very domestic way when she goes to Jesus at the wedding of Cana (John 2) and says to him, “They have no wine.” I love this simple statement because every son or husband knows immediately what was going on here. That simple statement was no mere observation, it was a demand! Jesus got it right away and he replies, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” He knew that his mother expected him to do something about it.

She was interceding for her friends in that very personal way that only mothers manifest – the request that is no request, but rather an expectation. Her terse instruction to the servants: “Do whatever he tells you.” is a wonderfully multi-layered. It is really spoken to Jesus with an implied threat: “You better do something…” It is a statement that conveys a knowledge of Jesus that goes beyond faith and becomes certainty. It’s as if she is saying, “Look, we both know you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Now do something!” Her ‘intercession’ for the newlyweds is based in her certainty about the true identity of Jesus.

And in that simple command, “Do whatever he tells you.” Mary teaches us a wonderfully simple way to follow Jesus. Just listen up and do whatever he tells you!
I hope that in these reflections you can see that our observance of Mother’s Day isn’t just a greeting card holiday, but a profound acknowledgement of a mother’s role in teaching us, in defending righteousness, and in interceding before our God.

I’d like for us to respond by taking our your insert containing the Magnificat. Let’s honor Mary, the mother of our faith, and all other mothers by saying together this powerful song:

Mary's Song of Praise: The Magnificat (Luke 1:47-55)

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”