Mothering Sunday

Can a mother forget her child –

One she weaned from her breast?

Even if she ever could

I could not, however pressed.

How I have longed to draw you close –

Hidden safe ‘neath my wing

Always, you say, ‘I will not’

And turn from love I would bring.

With arms outstretched I show my love –

Still so many turn away.

Yet I show my faithfulness

Won’t you turn to me today?

Always I am watching, waiting –

Longing to pour out grace.

Waiting still to see you turn

To my welcoming embrace.

Some biblical mothers… Who are they and what do they teach us about mothering? 

1. Eve – the mother of Cain and Abel. What did she do? Easily led astray and we don’t know what she thought of what her sons got up to later on. She might have brought them up well but for one to turn on the other and say am I my brothers keeper and do him in was shocking. Eve though is the first mother in the world. We might think about mothers disappointed how their children turned out. 

 

2. Sarai – the mother of Isaac. What do we know about her? She was elderly and never dreamt she would have a child. She laughed when God sent messengers to tell her that. We might think about mothers who are surprised to be mothers at all. 

 

3. Hannah – the mother of Samuel. Hannah hurt deeply because she wanted to be a mother. In her pain she cried out to God.She promised if she had a child she would give him back to God. Please, my lord," she said, "as sure as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this boy, and since the Lord gave me what I asked Him for, I now give the boy to the Lord. For as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord." Then he bowed and worshipped the Lord there. We might think about mothers who make sacrifices for their children and let them go. 

 

4. Elizabeth – the mother of John the Baptist. God had been silent for 400 years between the Old Testament and the New. And then, without the pomp and circumstance that the Israelites were expecting and waiting for, God slips into the world and selects several unexpected people to play significant roles in his plan.Nestled in this dramatic time in history is Elizabeth, the aging wife of a priest. And Elizabeth is full of joy about being a mother. When Mary visits her she tells her the baby in her womb leapt for joy. So we might think about the joy of parenthood this morning and those preparing for a birth. 

 

5.  Herodias – the mother of Salome. She probably spoilt her daughter and maybe she wasn’t a very good mother. She got John the Baptist’s head for her on a plate. Maybe – and this is the hard bit of Mothering Sunday – maybe we need to remember those who struggle with this day because their relationship with their mother wasn’t good and healthy and today is very painful as they remember. 

What about some famous mothers?

1. Anne Boleyn – mother of Elizabeth I. Anne did not have much chance to be a mother, that opportunity was taken away from her, and, as a mother, I can only imagine the fears and worries that must have eaten away at her during those days imprisoned in the Tower – fears for Elizabeth’s safety and future, worries about her child growing up without a mother, concern that Elizabeth would be told that her mother had committed treason and adultery, grief that she would never see her little girl grow up into a woman…But what was Anne like during the two years and eight months that she was a mother? Maybe we need to remember those who have lost mothers too early. And those who worry about the future for their children.

 2. Mother Julian of Norwich – who was a mystic in a cell in Norwich and thought deeply about what God was like. In May 1373, at 30 and a she lay dying. A local priest arrived to give her the last rites and held a crucifix in front of her. In that moment, however, the woman—Julian of Norwich— experienced a series of visions, ranging from graphic details of Christ’s passion to an image of a humble hazelnut. When she miraculously recovered from her illness, this experience formed the basis for Julian’s Revelations of Divine Love, the first book in English which is known to have been authored by a woman. This book continues to be studied and to challenge theologians today. In particular, Julian is famous for her extended comparison of God to a mother:

'When [a child] is hurt or frightened it runs to its mother for help as fast as it can; and [God] wants us to do the same, like a humble child, saying, "My kind Mother, my gracious Mother, my dearest Mother, take pity on me"

3. Mother Theresa – who ministered to the poor in Calcutta. There are some lovely quotes from her: If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” “Peace begins with a smile.” “We fear the future because we are wasting today.” “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”“Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.” “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” “Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.” Maybe we think today about mothers who leave us an example who made a difference by just being who they were. 

4. The Mother Abbess or Rev Mother. I didn’t know until I listened to Scott Mills on Radio 2 on Thursday morning that Thursday was the 60thanniversary of the film Sound of Music. How it is we see it as if it were new every time we see it? I still find the bit hiding in the crypt from the Nazis scary! The Mother Abbess sees the novices in Salzburg through the process of becoming a nun, guiding and inspiring them as they weigh their decision. Firm and authoritative, but also warm and compassionate, Mother Abbess sends Maria to the von Trapp house, sensing that she would be a good fit in the role of governess. When Maria returns in a state to the convent and confesses that she has fallen in love with the Captain, the Mother Abbess assures her that love, marriage and motherhood can also be God’s will. She tells her to climb every mountain etc. Maybe we need to remember mothers who give wise counsel today. 

 

5. Queen Elizabeth II – nothing against Camilla but when I see the words The Queen written down I still think about the late Queen. She gave her whole life to service and was there even when her children encountered huge difficulties mostly with marriage. King Charles words about her when she passed on sum her up. “And to my darling Mama, as you begin your last great journey to join my dear late Papa, I want simply to say this: thank you. Thank you for your love and devotion to our family and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years. May 'flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest'. Maybe this morning we remember mothers in heaven. 

 

What is Mothering Sunday for? Not just to remember the mothers and nurturers in life but  Mothering Sunday is about place – about knowing where we are rooted, what gives us life, how we are related to others. It’s a place for starting from and returning to, in ancient tradition peoplereturned to the church where they were baptised, where they grew in faith. The church that ‘mothered them” spiritually. Today many of us are disconnected from our roots, from our mother place. Lacking roots we now have to find ways to make a place of safety and welcome for other people at a difficult time. The temptation is to pull up the drawbridge and just look after ourselves. 

How do we find consolation when fear and alarm, or struggle and suffering strike us? Many people would say through our parents, often through our mothers. For plenty of others that is not true. Parenting is not simple. The one who bore us may be one who fails us, even betrays us. Or the one who has died, who has left us. Isuspect St Anselm, a long-ago Archbishop of Canterbury, knew much about love from his mother. He likens God to a mother in his song, and speaks so tenderly

of that relationship of love that he can only have learned it at home.

 

Jesus, like a mother you gather your people to you;
you are gentle with us as a mother with her children.

Despair turns to hope through your sweet goodness;
through your gentleness we find comfort in fear.

Your warmth gives life to the dead,
your touch makes sinners righteous.

Lord Jesus, in your mercy heal us;
in your love and tenderness remake us.

In your compassion bring grace and forgiveness,
for the beauty of heaven may your love prepare us.

 

Jesus, he says, like a mother you gather your people to you; you are gentle with

us as a mother with her children.

All love has its source in the immeasurable, wonderful love of God. All

consolation comes from God, through being loved, and it comes to us abundantly, so that we can give it to others.

Let’s consider Mary…

The great St. Bernard of Clairvaux once wrote, De Maria, numquam satis (One can never say enough about Mary).  He was right.What do we know about Mary? 

Mary, a young, unmarried woman, carries a reality she did not create alone. Her body becomes a site of scandal, suspicion, and divine promise. Her vocation is not simply to bear a child but to bear witness to God’s new order breaking through the old. 

Liberation is woven into this vocation. Mary’s calling is the calling of all who long for justice—her Magnificat in Luke 1 sings of the proud scattered, the hungry filled, the lowly lifted up. It is a calling into a new reality, where God’s presence transforms powerlessness into agency, fear into courage, exclusion into belonging. Mary is a radical disciple. And her parenting isn’t easy. 

Imagine being laughed at or spoken about in whispers in Nazareth after it’s discovered you are pregnant, and you can’t really explain whose baby it is. 

Imagine that journey to a tyrannical census on a donkey then nowhere to stay and birth in a barn.

Imagine being a refugee and political exile because of your child.

Imagine being at his presentation and an elderly priest tells you a sword will pierce your heart, again because of your child.

Imagine putting up with your child being quite rude to you. You lose him when he’s twelve going to Jerusalem and he says when he’s discovered in the Temple, “ didn’t you know I’d be here?” Then later you go with him to a wedding where they run out of wine. You make a few helpful suggestions. He says “mother, shut up, my time has not yet come.”

Imagine seeing your son die on a cross. We will think about that soon as we get near Good Friday. We’ve thought about mothers dying caring for their children, here Jesus cares for his mother and entrusts him to the care of his closest friend. Think about mothers who have tragically lost children, not least in the earthquake in Myanmar this week. 

But hear this about Mary. When the church is born in Acts, Mary is still there. Luke describes the prayer-meeting of the first Christians. What strikes the reader at the outset is that Mary is named explicitly, as the twelve are. All others are lumped together in one of Luke’s summary statements, “the women and the brethren of Jesus.” As we are told in the following verse, the number of “the brethren,” including the apostles and Mary, “was in all about a hundred and twenty.” Among this group, the only one outside the apostles who is mentioned by name is Mary. Is there any significance to this?

 

It would indicate, first of all, the importance of the Mother of Jesus within the early Christian community. She stands out. She is, in a special way, worthy of respect, of praise. She has endured the dark night of Good Friday, she has faithfully persevered. 

 

Now the woman who “pondered” at the birth of her Divine Son is depicted once again as pondering, praying, at the birth of the Body of Her Son, the Church. Mary ever-faithful, Mary the early church called the ecclesia orang, the Church at prayer. Mary, the deep thinking, slightly scarred, obedient mother figure who can inspire us today how to be the Church. On Mothering Sunday, we remember her, as an inspiration to love lavishly as God has loved us.

Isaiah, centuries before Mary, wrote these words about GodCan a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! This is the kind of love that knows no end. It will go on and on and on and on!

May the Lord who brought us to birth by his Spirit,

strengthen us for the Christian life.

 

May the Lord who provides for all our needs

sustain us day by day.

 

May the Lord whose steadfast love is constant as a mother's care,

send us out to live and work for others.