Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
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 in memory of her mom. Carnations were her mother’s
favorite flower. As the years progressed, so did the momentum of setting aside
a day of honoring mothers. What began in Jarvis’ hometown 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 – perhaps, 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.
Maybe you identify with the
blogging mother who wrote about the phrase, “Enjoy every moment.” It’s a
difficult phrase to agree with, she argues, because there are some things that
are pretty hard to enjoy. She said:
Nothing makes me
feel quite as overwhelmed as the words “enjoy every minute”.
Like do you mean
right now while my kid is spread eagle on the Target floor demanding a slushy?
Do you mean when I make dinner and half of the family is crying because it
looks weird?...
I can do it; it’s
worth it. But enjoying every minute is a different type of pressure.
In truth, there
are a whole lot of minutes I feel annoyed or tired. [1]
Whether the moments are joyful,
stressful, frustrating, or almost overwhelming, 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-something
years ago, would have said, “That’ll preach, boy.” Jesus words, spoken to His
disciples 2000 years ago, those words speak to you mothers as well, today, on
this Mother’s Day, 2022. 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 in four months and I’m not ready to
let him go… My house is a disaster since my kid came home from school with laundry
piled on the couch and an empty pantry… My mental health and well-being isn’t
so great these days… 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,
but 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, they feel internal, but that’s because 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 in church, we think about it
here in our heads, 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 – and perhaps even their own parents
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.”
I want every woman to understand this verse. It 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. Remember 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.
You know that awkward moment when
you are shopping, or walking down the sidewalk, or even walking through the
narthex and you would and another person would meet and that awkward dance would
begin: 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, to
stand in your way, to make you stop and look at Him. He wants to come at you –
heart, mind, body and soul – and then, joy of joys, 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.
You have probably learned this
verse as “Let not your hearts be troubled.” Hearts, plural. Now, that’s
interesting. In the original Greek text, your is plural (in Texas, we would say
“all y’all’s”) but heart is singular: Let not your (plural) 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, sisters: 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.
Finally, 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. Your conscience is clean, also washed clean
in Baptism. 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.
May His heart be yours and your
portion forever. Amen.
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