sermon: Mother's Day

Luke 2:41

Mother’s Day

“Jesus had a Mother”

Perhaps you have heard this story from Erma Bombeck before: 

“When God Created Mothers":  When the Good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of "overtime" when the angel appeared and said. "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."   

And God said, "Have you read the specs on this order?" She has to be completely washable, but not plastic. Have 180 moveable parts...all replaceable. Run on black coffee and leftovers. Have a lap that disappears when she stands up. A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair. And six pairs of hands." 

The angel shook her head slowly and said. "Six pairs of hands.... no way." 
It's not the hands that are causing me problems," God remarked, "it's the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have." 

That's on the standard model?" asked the angel. God nodded. 
One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, 'What are you kids doing in there?'  when she already knows.   Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn't but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say. 'I understand and I love you' without so much as uttering a word." 

God," said the angel touching his sleeve gently, "Get some rest tomorrow...." 
I can't," said God, "I'm so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick...can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger...and can get a nine year old to stand under a shower." 

The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. "It's too soft," she sighed. 
But tough!" said God excitedly. "You can imagine what this mother can do or endure." 
Can it think?"   Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise," said the Creator. 

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek.   There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told You that You were trying to put too much into this model." 
It's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear."  

What's it for?" 
It's for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride." 
You are a genius, " said the angel. 
Somberly, God said, "I didn't put it there.” 
            Psalm 139 – For you created my inmost being, you knit me together in my mother’s womb, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Just take a minute to think about how we humans are made.  From our skin that covers us, to the bones that allow us to stand, to the muscles that let us move, to our heart, our lungs and our brain.  Breathe in, breathe in the air that travels to your lungs and connects to your blood and then travels throughout your body joining with the food that you have eaten as each and every cell in your body is fed, nurtured, given life.  We are fearfully and wonderfully made.  How we are knit together in our mother’s womb is a mystery, is a miracle, is God’s creative artistic work.  Most days I don’t even think about how my body works, I just take it for granted, get out of bed and get moving.  But on some days, when the muscles ache, or the head hurts, or the eyes just are not right, it stops me and I notice. 

            Our loving God is an artist, a designer, one that has created order out of chaos and has planned a beautiful world with an incredible design and we are blessed, truly blessed to be a part of that design.  And in that creation God created us male and female and gave us mothers and fathers.  On this day, we celebrate life, we celebrate the moms that carried us in their wombs where God fashioned and created us.  We celebrate the ways in which those moms provided life, nurture, guidance, and sacrifice to care for their children. 

Together, God joins with mothers in the act of creation.  And in Mary, God partners with creation to bring forth the gift of life, love, and mercy.  Jesus had a mother and her name was Mary.  Mary did not have six pair of hands or three sets of eyes, but she did have moveable parts, a lap that disappeared when she stood up, the ability to think, and eyes that shed tears.  She had to care for her family when she was not feeling well, she had to prepare meals, perhaps even stretching resources so that each received an equal share. 

We have very little information on Mary as she and Joseph raised Jesus, but we do have this one story of when Jesus was twelve and the went to Jerusalem for the Passover.  As they were returning home, it was a days journey that Mary realized Jesus was not with them.  The panic, the anxiety, the fear of losing a child in a crowd.  I have heard stories from church members who have lost children at the airport, at the mall, at the grocery store, and at recreation events.  As Mary and Joseph return to Jerusalem to search for their child, they spend three days in anguish.  These are real people with real feelings.  This is their child, not matter what they angels declared to them, no matter what God’s promise is for the future of this child.  This is their child and he is missing.  Even Mary was not except from the fears of this world.  I don’t think there is a mother that has walked this earth that has not had moments of heart-stopping fear, anxiety, or anguish. 

Jesus’ response to his mother seems rather fresh:  Why were you searching for me?  Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s House?  Why were you searching for me?  Surely Jesus could show his mother a little more compassion than that.  Was he so caught up in the teaching, in the learning, in spending time in conversation with the Rabbi’s that he lost all track of time?  Did four days go by and he didn’t realize he had not checked in with his parents?  Or is he being a typical teenager, setting his boundaries, starting the process of separating from mom and dad and beginning the process of growing into his own person?  He knows who he is, he is one called by God to serve this world and that is his focus, his priority, his true calling and his parents need to understand that they must share him with the world, that he is not truly theirs. 

Letting go of our children, letting them blossom into the people that they want to be is challenging, difficult, stressful.  Mary was not ready to let go of Jesus, and the story tells us that she and Joseph did not understand what he said to them.  As they gathered Jesus up and returned home to Nazareth, the story concludes with:  And Mary treasured all of these things in her heart.  Mothers know that there is no instruction manual in raising children, but as we hit the ups and downs, the joys and the sorrows, the unknowing and the anguish, we can hold and treasure the moments in our hearts. 

What part of this did Mary treasure?  Did she treasure that she had found him and he was safe?  Did she treasure his desire for Godly wisdom?  Or does she treasure that God has shared this gift with her, if only for the time that she is able to be with him?  Or perhaps the act of treasuring these things upon her heart is an act of prayer:  One commentator states:  “In her attentive pondering, Mary models a certain kind of Christian spirituality of presence…contemplation in the midst of chaos…Mary attends to God precisely within the confused, messiness of her life.”   Sometimes we just don’t understand things but we can ponder them and we can hold them upon our hearts and somewhere down the road, maybe in a year or ten years we gain clarity to the messiness.    

Mary is on this journey with God, just like we are.  And she and God are doing something wonderful together, even if she has no idea what it is at that particular moment in time.  Whether you are a mother or father, a sister or brother, a son or a daughter you are on a journey with God and God desires to do something wonderful within you, alongside you, in partnership with you.  We are all created to be participants and contributors to God’s artistry.  Mary embraced who she was in God’s plan; she responded to being the mother of Jesus by proclaiming:  Here I am.  Here we are, Here we are God, gathered as your people, seeking to lift our voices to you, praising you for we are fearfully and wonderfully made.