Since today is Mother’s Day, I thought I would begin with a list someone has made which they have called “Murphy’s Laws of Parenting.” See if you can identify with any of these:
1. The later you stay up, the earlier your child will wake up the next morning.
2. The longer it takes you to make a meal, the less your child will like it.
3. A sure way to get something done is to tell a child not to do it.
4. For a child to become clean, something else must become dirty.
5. Toys multiply to fill any space available.
6. Yours is always the only child who does not behave.
7. If the shoe fits . . . it’s expensive.
Do these sound familiar?
I am sure that mothers will remind children and their husbands how difficult it is to nurture a family. Some may say that it is a partnership between the wife and the husband. And that is true most of the time. But since today is Mother’s Day, let me focus our attention on the mother. And the passage that was read from St. Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome can help us.
I must candidly confess that when I was in the seminary the 16th chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans did not mean much for me. Even later in my work as a pastor, I cannot remember listening to pastors preach on the first verse of the 16th chapter of Romans. At a first reading, it strikes me as being boring nothing more than a long presentation of people’s names, most of whom it is difficult to pronounce. However, over the years I have greatly changed my attitude about this particular chapter and I have discovered that there is much more to it than I had first imagined. For example, it is interesting to note that of the twenty-six people who Paul singles out for his personal greeting, six were women. Now that strikes me as being rather interesting, since Paul has frequently gotten a bum rap for being a male chauvinist. I think it also shows us the tremendous influence that women had in the early church. In the male oriented first century Palestine, it is telling us that Paul could not describe the church without mentioning the significant role of women.
Verse 13 of chapter 16 is particularly interesting and it is one that scholars have struggled with over the centuries. Paul writes: “Give my greetings to Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.” It could mean either that Paul had two distinct women in mind–the mother of Rufus and his own personal mother. Or, he could be saying: “I salute Rufus and his mother, who is like a mother to me.” If that is what he meant, and most Biblical scholars agree that that is indeed what he meant, then it raises some interesting speculation. Did she nurse him through some serious illness? Did she receive him into her home for an extended stay during his missionary journeys? How did this woman and Paul form such a close bond that he refers to her fondly as being like his mother? No one knows for sure who this remarkable woman was who served as a mother figure for the great Paul. But it really makes no difference, because what he writes makes an excellent springboard for a Mother’s Day sermon.
We know that there are women today who abandon, abuse, and corrupt their children and who create a poor model, but I like to think that these are the exceptions. Most mothers do the right thing and deserve recognition. So this morning I would like to join Paul and salute all of the mothers who are with us. In many ways they exemplify to us God’s love. This morning let me share to you two ways how mothers show us what God’s love is.
First of all, mothers show us the love of God which is a giving love.
A mother took her six-year-old boy into a doctor’s crowded waiting room. As they waited their turn, he began to ask her all kinds of questions. In half an hour he managed to cover almost every subject known to humanity. To the wonder of all the others sitting in the room, his mother answered each question carefully and patiently. Inevitably, he got around to God. As the other people listened to his relentless “hows” and “whys,” it was plain to see by the expressions on their faces that they wondered: “How does she stand it?” But when she answered her son’s next question, she answered theirs too. “Why,” he asked, “doesn’t God ever get tired and just stop?” “Because,” she replied after a moment’s thought, “God is love; and love never gets tired.” (1)
That’s true. If it is you or I, we would get tired of giving, particularly when we get so little gratitude in return. It is God’s very nature to give. And a mother who gives and gives whether she gets gratitude or not from the child exemplifies of a God who never tires to give.
A pastor was visiting some of his parishioners. He took his young daughter with him. As they visited an elderly couple, the man gave her a handful of peanuts. Expecting her to show a spirit of gratitude, the father asked his daughter, “Honey, what are you supposed to say?” Sincerely, and with her eyes fixed upon the man, she asked, “Do you have more?” (2)
That sounds like many of us. We accept God’s gifts, never saying “thank you” but simply asking, “Do you have more?” Yet God keeps giving. That is the nature of God’s love.
Secondly, a mother exemplifies to us of God’s love that never quits. St. Paul said, “Nothing shall separate us from the love of God….” That is good news for us. God never quits loving. That’s also true of the love of a faithful parent. The good parent never quits loving “even when we don’t deserve it.
There was an interesting story on CNN not long ago about a twenty-five year old man in San Francisco who was dying of AIDS. His father had completely disowned him. (Now let me say this that not all fathers disown their child.) The mother of this dying patient was dead. So there was nobody. The man looked like he could not weigh over a hundred pounds and had the look of death on his face. The reporter asked him how he was able to stand all of the pain, not only of death, but the pain of family rejection. He gave an interesting answer. He said I stand it by closing my eyes and imagining that I will awaken in the arms of my mother. I know that she will never leave my side. There is a tenacity in the love of a mother that we must salute. And this is true of God’s love.
Thus, this morning it is time for us to salute the mothers. There is not a person sitting here that in one, five, ten, a thousand different ways has not been forever influenced by their mother. I firmly believe that you cannot understand who a person is and what motivates them until you understand their past. And you cannot understand a person’s past without understanding the source that co-created that person along with God.
In his book “An Open Road
A reporter once asked the great theologian Karl Barth: “Sir, you have written many huge volumes about God; tell me, how do you know it is all true?” The learned German, eyes laughing, is said to have answered, “My mother told me.”
So, hooray for our Mothers. They deserve it. But also, hooray for God. God is a loving parent. God’s nature is a very giving nature. And God’s love never quits.
References:
1) LIFE AT CLOSE QUARTERS: THOUGHTS ON NEW AND GROWING RELATIONSHIPS
2) Ray Bowman, First Baptist Church, Mantachie, MS
