Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today marks the 112th anniversary of the first Mother’s Day. On May 8, 1908, Marva Jarvis’ mother passed away. Two days later, May 10, at her mother’s funeral, Marva gave each guest a white carnation - Carnations were her mother’s favorite flower – in memory of her mom. As the years progressed, so did the momentum of setting aside a day of honoring mothers. What began in Jarvis’ home town spread and grew until Woodrow Wilson declared it a national day of recognition in 1914. Since then, Mother’s Day has grown into a huge affair. Greeting card companies, telephone companies, jewelry stores and restaurants all mark this as their busiest day of the year as sons and daughters, husbands and fathers seek to honor their moms and the mothers of their children. Moms get everything from dollar-store chocolates and home-made cards to exquisite custom designed pieces. For one day, moms are the queens of the castle.
Motherhood is, quite literally, almost as old as time. When Adam was naming the animals of creation, no helper was found suitable for him. So, God put Adam to sleep and, using one of his ribs, God created Eve, literally making her to stand at Adam’s side. When Adam awoke from his surgical slumber and he saw the gift of God, he rejoiced and named her Eve. Names mean things, and Eve means “Mother of All Living Things.”
You, dear mothers, stand arm-in-arm among a long line of mothers. From Eve through the generations down to your mother, then to you, and – God willing – one day your own daughter or daughter-in-law as she becomes a mother, you are among those whom God has chosen and called to be mothers. Eve named her first son Cain. Cain means “gift;” Eve recognized her son as a gift of God and named him appropriately. No Elon Musk strange character choices here. Simply, my son: a gift.
Motherhood is, indeed, a gift – yes? Oh, the joy of motherhood! Those treasured moments of holding the newborn, hearing “momma,” watching the face light up when you are nearby, watching her grow into a young woman, a lifetime of firsts from first steps to first date. But, then there are the times when the gift turns upside down – not a curse, exactly, but the gift turns into the hurt, both physical and emotional, of motherhood, right? The discomfort of pregnancy followed by the intense agony of childbirth, sore body and sleepless nights, sometimes a less than helpful spouse, the delicate balance, or imbalance, of home and work, the first time a child says “I hate you,” when your child is hurt and bleeds, when you or the doctors and, it seems even Jesus just can’t fix that boo-boo.
And with each of those joys, with each of those sorrows, you stand in the tradition of the mother of all living things who watched as her gift murdered his brother Abel in a cold, jealous rage. Mmmm…the joy of motherhood, indeed.
“Let not your hearts be troubled.” Pastor Adrain Baccarese, whom I knew up in deep East Texas twenty years ago, would have said, “That’ll preach, boy.” Jesus words, spoken to His disciples 2000 years ago, a group of men He sent out into the world, those words speak to you mothers as well, today, on this Mother’s Day, 2020. Because if we are honest, we would have to say that mother’s hearts *are* troubled, and they are troubled mightily. Mothers say: My husband’s job is in danger… My son is heading off to college and I’m not ready to let him go… My house is a disaster with a quarantine’s worth of laundry piled on the couch… My mental health isn’t so great these days because of this thing going on around us… My kids need help with school, my boss wants even more work done, and I feel like I’m letting everyone down. My marriage isn’t what I dreamed it would be… My kids are at each other’s throats… I am not the mother I dreamed I would be and if my mom saw me, she would be ashamed. Mothers hearts are beating with frustration, fear, hurt, anger, shame, guilt, and other things I cannot begin to understand as a man.
To you, hear this word of the Lord: Let not your heart be troubled. Thanks a lot, Pastor. I know what Jesus says. I don’t know that he quite understands what we’re going through here, or what motherhood is like today.
If that’s you, pause for a moment. Take a breath and listen again to the word of the Lord: Let not your heart be troubled. Especially, I draw your attention to that word “heart.”
Jesus knows your heart, mother. He knows you better than you know yourself. He says let not your heart be troubled.
The troubles you have are external. They come outside of you. Sometimes, satan seeds them carefully so that they do take root in your heart. All the thinking in the world does not take away that grief, that anxiety, that frustration, that guilt, all that trouble that we have in our hearts. This is where we carry the cross – in our hearts. We talk about it here, we think about it here, but we carry it here, in the heart. And this is, I suspect, particularly true for mothers who carry not only their own troubles but that of their husbands and their kids – of all ages – as well.
Jesus speaks to you: I have come for you – heart and mind, body and soul – all of you as a person, I came and care for you as a whole. His care comes to you, dear mothers, dear sisters in Christ. So also, He wants us to know God in all His Divine majesty.
There is a verse in 1 Timothy, chapter 2:15, where St. Paul wrote, “Women will be saved through childbearing.” This does not mean that you will see eternity only if you have a child. Rather, it points us to Jesus’ incarnate birth through the Virgin Mary. Our God is incarnational. Jesus becomes flesh to make His dwelling among us. And as God incarnate, Jesus knows your heart and your troubles. Even if you cannot explain it, even if you do not have the words to enflesh your troubles, He knows. Thomas – he wanted to know the “where” – where are you going? Jesus directs him to Himself: I am the way, the truth the life. Philip – he wants to know the who – I want to see the Father. Jesus directs him to Himself: Know me, you know the Father. Jesus calls you to Himself, He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, who has promised to prepare a place into eternity for you, dear mothers, where one day you will enjoy eternal rest and reward for your faithful labor and labors on earth in this vocation of motherhood.
Do you remember eight weeks ago, when you were shopping, or walking down the sidewalk, or strolling across the park and you would and another person would meet and that awkward dance would begin trying to go past each other, each one of you moving this way at the same time, then that way at the same time, until one or the other would laugh and say, “You go ahead.” Now, take that same picture, but this time, it’s Jesus. He wants to encounter you, he wants to come at you – heart, mind, body and soul – and He smiles at you. He doesn’t laugh at you, but instead speaks softly and gently, firmly and lovingly. He doesn’t push you aside but instead He holds you with His nail-pierced hands and says, “Let not your heart be troubled. I have stripped all of your motherly sins from you – the times you sinned against your children and your spouse and even yourself – they are removed as far as the east from the west. Your guilt, your shame is no more. Don’t let Satan tell you different. I am yours. You are mine. So, let not your heart be troubled, my sister.” He knows us better than we know ourselves.
If you have your Bible open, I want you to look at something. Look closely at verse 1. I’m going to guess your Bible has taken the modern approach of translating the sentence, “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Hearts, plural. Now, that’s interesting. There are lots of plurals all through these verses – plural nouns and pronouns and verbs. But in the original Greek text, your is plural but heart is singular: Let not your (or, as we say in Texas, “all y’all’s”) let not your heart (singular, not hearts) be troubled. English teachers would critique that sentence for failure of subject and verb agreement – plural subject, singular verb. Jesus does it on purpose. Here is why that is such an important note. Remember: He’s not a grammarian; He’s a Savior.
Jesus wants you to know that, in Him, we share a common heart. Each of us have our own heart, yes, and those hearts get twitterpated (great word, right?) over the things that happen to us – that is natural; it’s part of being a human being, under the cross, this side of heaven. But God’s people have a common heart among us. It is a common heart that we share together, a common heart, filled with the Holy Spirit, that reflects the incarnate One that comes to us and unites us as the body of Christ under His headship. That common heart that encourages, cares for, uplifts, and supports one another even as our hearts race from problems and troubles.
On this Mother’s Day, know this: we men and women, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, we all share the common heart. And, while the focus today is on mothers, I want this to be clear: all of you women who are not mothers, whether by your choice or by the mystery of God’s action or by the sinfulness of this fallen world, that common heart of Jesus beats in you. United by Christ, we walk alongside you, together, caring for you, loving you, supporting you so that you know that in Christ you are never alone, you are never known by a lack of motherly vocation. Our common heart sets the Lord Jesus Christ before us, 24/7, day in and day out. With that common heart we give thanks to God for you, as well on this day.
On this Mother’s Day, dear mothers, receive this gift of God: the promise that the heart of Jesus beats for you. He has taken all of your guilt, your shame, your worries, your fears from you. All of the mistakes you have made in the rearing of your sons and daughters, in loving your husband, and in how you see your own self, Jesus strips all of them from you. He has heard your cry, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,” and He does exactly that. His heart beats alongside yours. Psalm 73 says “Whom have I in heaven but you, and there is none that I desire in earth but you. My heart and my flesh might fail, but God is my heart and my portion forever.” So today or tomorrow morning or Tuesday evening and any other time when your heart is threatened to be overwhelmed, His heart beats all the stronger. When your heart is troubled, His heart beats in peace. When your heart beats with guilt and shame, His heart beats a baptismal blessing reminding you that there is now no condemnation for mothers who are in Christ Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment