To begin our discourse on TIMING I have permission to share Pastor Debbie's Mothers Day Sermon...
Though the American holiday of Mother’s Day is only about 100 years old, various cultures have set aside time to pay homage to mothers for millennia. For Christians, this celebration involves honoring motherhood through the lens of God’s revelation at the heart of our faith. Our scriptural stories disclose the inclusion of mothers in God’s divine purposes from creation to new creation.
God’s original plan is that humans would fill the earth and steward it (Gen. 1:28). That project is unsustainable without mothers who give birth to the humans who will cultivate God’s good creation. Even after the first created woman (and man) tarnished the goodness, beauty, and simplicity of that plan with disobedience, God never gave up on humanity or the plan. God’s plan is still in place, no matter how much we humans twist it to our own ends.
It is after their sin and the beginning of pain, division, and even death that Adam sees evidence of God’s grace in his partner—who is fittingly named Eve (3:20). In Hebrew the name Eve and living are closely related. Death will not have the final word, and the hope of God’s plan will continue through her because she will bring forth life. Eve proclaims God’s grace in the birth of her children (4:1, 25).[1]
Early on, the divine plan for a good creation focuses on one family—and a scandalously imperfect one at that. Abraham and Sarah are admittedly the focus of the drama, but for a while Hagar steals the show.
Not only was she born outside of the chosen family, but she is their slave. As such, she has no rights over her body but is made to play one role of motherhood that Sarah could not. Her story is painful, infuriating, and complex, but she belongs in the hall of faithful mothers. In fact, Hagar’s story is played out again and again today as women are used, abused, and then either blamed or ignored to find their own way with the results.
When Hagar and her son are cast out, God sends an angelic messenger directly to her. And as Adam recognized and proclaimed the hopeful truth about Eve by naming her, Hagar recognizes and names the hopeful truth of God’s identity—by declaring God to be El Roi, the God who sees (Gen. 16:13). God hears her cry and saves her and her son from death so that he too might multiply and fill the earth. In this act, God sees and cares for a despised Egyptian slave mother.[2]
Later we have Jochebed, an Israelite slave in Egypt, who finds herself pregnant in an era of genocide. However, instead of throwing her newborn infant into the Nile to drown, she hides him for three months. Then putting him in a homemade basket, she sets him among the reeds to be discovered by the Pharoah’s daughter. Her sacrifice of giving up her son so he might live, allowed Moses to be raised in such a way that he had the skills and faith to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised land.
The last story I will mention comes at a pivotal moment in the biblical story, the fervent prayers of one woman who opened the pathway leading to the king of Israel. The book of 1 Samuel tells the story of Hannah, a woman, unable to conceive, who expresses her longing to be a mother to God with great cries and tears, year after year. While she prays at the temple, she is so earnest in her distress that the priest Eli thinks she is drunk.
When God grants her request and she has a son, Samuel, she cares for her son until he is weaned. She then delivers him to the temple so that he might serve God. In thanks she gave up her young son, an incredible sacrifice for a woman who just wanted to be a mother! The boy listens to the voice of the Lord, responding to the mid-night call, “Here I am Lord,” and he grows to be the very prophet who anoints the famous shepherd-turned-king-of-Israel, David. Because of the sacrifice of Hannah, Israel’s history was changed forever. Perhaps it should be called herstory.
These three women made great sacrifices for their children, and we have much to learn from them about ultimate love.
However, giving physical life is not all that sets a mother apart. Mothers are nurturers, they tend to take care of and teach all the children that come through their lives. We might say that there are many women who do this, despite not giving physical life. They are like the shepherd in our Gospel when Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.”
Children know the voice of their mother, and when that mother represents love and nurturing, they follow. When I was a teacher, and everyone was on the playground when I called my class, they knew my voice and, usually, would come line up. Not the other students, they knew the voices of their own teachers. I have always believed that the greatest compliment I could receive was when a child called me, Mom. This meant that that child trusted me to care for him, or her.
I imagine most of us have a woman in our lives who have nurtured and cared for us, despite not birthing us. They gave meaning to our lives in other ways. The first person I always think of is Mrs. Young, my fifth-grade teacher. She not only was observant enough to know I needed glasses, but saw something in me and gave me my first teaching assignment, tutoring younger students in math. I have always been thankful for her mentoring, which continued through my junior high years. I also attribute my calling to education to her.
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