Good morning! We may
as well start out by naming the elephant in the room: it’s Mother’s Day. Sure, it’s the Fourth Sunday
of Easter, but really, we all know, it’s Mother’s Day. You know?
I mean, what’s the resurrection of Christ compared to the awesomeness of moms,
right?
Mother’s Day is incredibly complicated. On the surface, it seems simple. Yay, moms.
Let’s have a day to celebrate them, and all the hard work they do, and
how much they love their kids! And there
is nothing inherently wrong about this.
But let’s dig a little deeper and underneath that, “yay, moms,” there’s
often a lot of other stuff. We all come
here today with our own baggage about moms and motherhood and Mother’s Day - We're
so incredibly grateful for our mothers, we're sad that they're no longer with
us, we have a terrible relationship with them for whatever reason, our own
children -- intentionally or unintentionally -- make it extremely difficult to be a mother, we desperately want to be
mothers and are stuck feeling angry or jealous towards those who already are,
we feel like we are bad mothers or "not real women" because we have
suffered miscarriages or couldn't conceive at all or we delivered by c-section
instead of naturally. Maybe you never
knew your biological mom, or she did a terrible job of caring for you as a
child, or maybe her brain is wracked by Alzheimer’s and you just don’t know how
to relate to her anymore. Maybe your
child has wandered off the beaten path and you wonder what you did wrong in
raising him, or whatever. Even for those
of us who have a generally good relationship with our still-living mothers, it
isn’t perfect, is it? No family is,
after all. Mother’s Day is about so
much, much more than just flowers and breakfast in bed. Yes?
So it’s good that Mother’s Day is not a liturgical
holiday. It is not marked in red on the
Church Calendar. It’s not a feast day
like Christmas or Easter or Pentecost – All Saints or Ascension or Holy Trinity
Sunday or even Reformation Day. We needn't - and shouldn't - let this holiday, and however we feel about it, define our Christian life. Because
the Church is not about mothers. It is
about Jesus. Even when the Church has
traditionally lifted up specific women like the Virgin Mary or her cousin,
Elizabeth, who were both prominent maternal figures, the point is not that they
were mothers, but that they pointed to Christ.
Mary’s Magnificat, in Luke 1, is not about “Yay, God made me a mother,”
but “yay, God has saved his people!”
Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary is not, “congrats on being pregnant – by the
way, how’d that happen?” It’s, “Come on
in, dear mother of my Lord! And look, the child in my own womb is leaping
for joy in the presence of the prenatal Christ!” Mothers are a good and wonderful thing – and they
are meant by God to love and serve and raise their children, and most of them
do a darn fine job of it. But
motherhood, and families in general, are not, and cannot be, the focal point of
church – ever. The focus of church is
always and only Christ.
Even our Bible texts for today call us to that. Let’s look at the story from Acts – the book
of Acts, more fully, the Acts of the Apostles, is basically Volume II of the
Gospel of Luke. It’s written by Luke,
and it picks up shortly after the first Easter, in the time of the very early
Church, as Jesus’ disciples and other believers in Christ began to get their
bearings and get organized in a world – and a religion – that had been forever
changed by the Resurrection. And in
today’s reading, we get a brief glimpse of what life was like for them.
“They devoted themselves to the apostles’
teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many
wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had
everything in common. They
sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet
together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together
with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the
people. And the Lord added to their
number daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:42-47)
Now, it’s important to recognize that these were normal
people we are talking about. They are
not living in some ancient hippie commune, or leading some sort of desert
monastic life where the cares of the world wouldn’t distract them from
religious practice. Those sorts of
lifestyles didn’t develop for at least another couple hundred years. These are people who had jobs to complete and
fields to till and laundry to do and meals to get on the table. Kids to get to bed even when it was light
outside way past bedtime and ill relatives to care for and the thousand other
things that come along with daily life. And
surely they lived their lives in all the ways that it was necessary to do so.
But they devoted
themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of
bread and to prayer. What do we devote ourselves to? Work? Sports? Money? Politics? Family? On this Mother’s Day, it is critical that we
remember that families – nuclear families, extended families, friends who are
basically family – are important things.
They are gifts from God to us, so that we can be cared for and loved,
nourished and nurtured, and experience companionship and a good – abundant,
Jesus might say – life. But they are not
God. They are not God.
Unfortunately, however, in our culture “family” can become
just as much of an idol as an Old Testament golden calf.
It is very easy for us to let “family” slide into first place when it
comes to our priorities. We say it, don’t
we, without even blinking an eye: “my life revolves around my family,” or “my
life revolves around my kids,”. And
often this happens without our even noticing.
But we wake up one morning and find that the faults of our mother are the
entire reason why we can’t seem to get our own life together, and we must
ponder this, and wallow in it endlessly.
Or that literally every waking moment of our day is devoted to our
children and grandchildren and their needs/wants/desires/or 1000
extracurricular, extra-expensive, extra-time-consuming activities. This is how our culture is, is it not? But this is a problem.
Because as Christians, we are not given license to “devote
ourselves” to anything other than Christ.
Parents, and grandparents: yes, this means that your children or
grandchildren are not the most
important people in your life. Jesus
is. Kids: your friends and family are not the most important people in
your life. Jesus is. Husbands and wives: your spouse is not the most important person in your life. Jesus is.
Those of you who have a family structure that doesn’t look like you wish it did:
because you lack …. Spouse, children, godly parents, whatever, that cannot be
what defines your life. Jesus is what
defines your life.
Jesus is the Good Shepherd.
Jesus is the Gate. Jesus is the
One by whom we go in and out and are led to food and water and a safe pasture
to graze. Jesus is the One who provides
us a fence to protect us from danger, who shields us from thieves and robbers
who come to kill and destroy. Jesus is
the only one who can lead us through the valley of the shadow of death, because
He has been there first, Himself. Jesus
is the one whom our life revolves around, because it is He who literally gives you
life, life abundant, and it is He in whom you have goodness and mercy because you
dwell in His house forever.
What a blessing that is!
What love! In a culture – and even,
too often, a Church – that idolizes “family” above all else, how wonderful it
is to know that Jesus the Good Shepherd who leads you beside still waters and
restores your soul, the Gate who protects you from evil and opens the doors of
Heaven, that same Jesus promises us life and goodness and mercy simply because
He loves you – regardless of what your earthly family does or does not look
like.
He leads you to waters that are more still and refreshing
than the most tightly tucked-in covers of a bedtime routine. His goodness and mercy are more than even the
most Pinterest-obsessed SuperMom could ever provide. He protects you from enemies far greater than
even abusive or neglectful parents. His
rod and staff comfort you more than a longed-for baby in a barren womb.
It is to Him and him alone that we look, for the fulfillment
of every need, not out of blind
obligation “or else”, but because He is our Shepherd. He calls you by name, and you know His
voice. He knows exactly where the green
pastures and still waters are – because He is
the green pastures and still waters.
It is safe to follow him, even through the Valley of the Shadow of
Death, because He alone knows the way out.
Mama sheep – and Daddy sheep – you could do nothing better for your children and
grandchildren, than to teach them this. And
in fact, all of us here in this congregation are sheep who are led by the Good
Shepherd. We care about, and find a good
deal of things in this world important, worthy, helpful, useful, lovely things to
support and take part in. But like the
early Church, we devote ourselves only
to the teaching of the apostles, to prayer and fellowship and breaking of the
bread. As St. Peter writes, yes, we had
all gone astray like distracted, dumb little sheep. But through the death and resurrection of
Jesus, regardless of any other fact about your life, you have been returned to
the Shepherd of your soul, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord –
forever.
My goodness, but your cup overflows!
Amen.
