Mothering Sunday 2016

from Helen

May I speak in the Name of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN

Today marks the fourth Sunday of lent.  We are on the home stretch now ! Next week we will celebrate passion Sunday, then Palm Sunday and then of course Easter Sunday we are more than halfway through lent. Today also marks Mothering Sunday the day when we give thanks for mothers. 

In our readings today we have heard about love and care. From the love of the mother of Moses who protected him by hiding him in the bulrushes and then being paid to look after him, to Mary being told that her newborn son was to suffer. The readings have reminded us of the amazing things that love can both do and bring. 

In the Old Testament reading we heard of the love of a mother that she would risk being parted from her son in order to protect his life. Pharoah had been worried by the growth of the Levites thinking that they may rise up against him, and this is why he ordered all the new born Hebrew boys to be killed.
This is why the mother of Moses hid him. How amazing that Moses was looked after so well and by his own mother. It’s even more amazing that Pharoahwho had put his order into practice to kill Hebrew boys would end up being defeated by one in Moses as God worked through him.

God used the love and care of people to bring Moses to a place where God could use him to save even more people. 

In the gospel reading (Luke 2:33-35) we heard of the warning that was given to Mary and Joseph as they brought Jesus to the temple to be blessed. As Simeon blessed the family he noticed not only that Jesus was special but that Mary would suffer as a result of this.  

Mothering Sunday is a day that is so full of joy but it can also be a day that is full of pain too. Mary on the day that she took Jesus for His blessing would have been overjoyed to hear that her son was so special but she must have been concerned, perplexed when she heard of the pain that she could expect. 

Love and care is something that we can all understand but so is pain and heartache. In our epistle reading (2 Cor. 1:3-7) we were reminded that yes we can offer love but it is nothing compared to the love that God offers us.

In the reading we heard that God consoles and helps us in all our sufferings. And just in case we get too carried away with this we are reminded that God consoles us, so that we can help others. That is what today is about, it is about love it is about care and it is about sharing that love and care. It is about offering love and happiness to people who are suffering from heartache, who are in pain in any way, it is about bringing hope. 

The other week I was in Gowerton primary school. The deputy head was talking to the children about the difference a smile can make and he got the children to pass a smile on to each other in their rows so that by the end everyone was smiling, he said that smiling was infectious. I think that love and care is a bit like this too.

There is a little girl in Church who likes to act as a Mum to the other children. This little girl has watched her Mum and the love and care that she shows and the little girl does exactly the same to the other children that she knows. She is copying love, and to me this is an example of a chain reaction of love.

I was thinking about this when I thought of the epistle reading which says that we are consoled so that we can console others. Consolation is an incredible thing, it isn’t just a pat on the back, to truly console someone is to get alongside them, to be there for them, it is about showing true love and care. It can be easy to think that we are saying and doing the right thing but it is about more than this, it is about getting alongside a person.

I read once about someone who was very ill in hospital and was visited by a priest. The priest sat for ages holding hands with the person and then at the end asked if they knew all about Jesus. The patient in hospital said, ‘why did you have to ruin it. I thought you were here to be my friend. I do know about Jesus but right now I needed someone to just sit with me.’ 

Consolation is a true quality, it is about us putting ourselves where Jesus would be and offering more than just a kind word it is about going the extra mile. It is what Moses’ mother did, it is what Mary did, itis what people all across the world are doing. It is a chain reaction of love. 

May be ready to be part of the chain reaction of loveand care  . AMEN