Mothering Sunday
One of the most difficult Sundays in the year to preach on is Mothering Sunday - so many people have heard so many sermons about mothers, the mother Church and Mary, the mother of Jesus, that it’s really difficult to find something original to say. Added to this we have the knowledge as well that whilst Mothering Sunday is a great day for many, there are some for whom it is a particularly sad or painful day.
So as I started to prepare this sermon, I looked up Mothering Sunday on the internet, and sadly I received no real inspiration there. I didn’t have time to look at all of the entries – there were thousands, but on the first few pages there were a lot of chocolate manufacturers, greeting card companies, hotels with special Mother’s Day menus, spas, florists, every opportunity possible to spend money spoiling your mum, and showing her how much you love her.
There were a few links to churches, not many, but they were there, and a few attempts to explain the origins of the celebration, which invariably led in to an attempt to sell something such as more chocolates or flowers.
I managed to discover that in days gone by it was considered important for people to return to their home or "mother" church once a year. So each year in the middle of Lent, everyone would visit their "mother" church, or the main church or Cathedral of the area. Inevitably the return to the "mother" church became an occasion for family reunions when children who were working away returned home.
And most historians seem to think that it was the return to the "Mother" church which led to the tradition of children, particularly those working as domestic servants, or as apprentices, being given the day off to visit their mother and family. As they walked along the country lanes, children would pick wild flowers to take to church or give to their mother as a small gift.
I did manage to find a few quotes about mothers and particularly liked some definitions from a Mother’s dictionary. One said that a sweater was a garment a child had to put on when the mother is feeling cold. Another that the definition of a grandparent is someone who thinks your children are wonderful even though they’re not sure you’re raising them correctly, or the definition of a show off, ‘a child who is more talented than yours.’
But none of this information helped too much until I tried to put it all together, and once again I was faced with a religious festival taken over by secularism. It’s a common feature of Christmas and Easter, and a danger for the Church in general as we face the challenge of how much we are guided by secular thoughts and visions.
But getting back to Mothering Sunday, the idea of the day was the opportunity to give thanks to God for our own mothers, and for the mother church, as well as for the life and faith of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
And these three things are very much connected – we hopefully celebrate but sometimes reflect with sadness on people’s relationships with their own mothers, but with the Church as a wider family and Mary as an example of motherhood, we are each called to display the qualities of a mother to each other, and to the communities around us. And Paul writes about some of these qualities as he writes in his letter to the Colossians (
These are the ideal qualities of a mother - they are of course the qualities displayed by Jesus himself, and they must be the qualities displayed by his Church.
We must be compassionate as we express concern for each other, for our families and our friends, but much wider than that we must take that compassion out into the communities that we serve. A compassionate Church will have a presence in the community and be seen as giving and caring. A compassionate Church will be involved in acts of kindness, and seek to work with humility, meekness and patience.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, understood her role as a mother was to be caring for her son at all times. She was there for him through his childhood, there through his ministry, and there for him as he was put on the cross. She shared his joys, she shared his worries, his sadness, and she shared his pain.
Throughout the world many mothers will do the same today, they will live for their children, doing so many things almost like clockwork which are often not even noticed. But this is the role and responsibility that we in the Church must also share, as we care for God’s people, all of his people whether part of his Church or not, as we seek support and strength from each other, as we share in each others joys and sadness.
The ‘family of the Church’ is not just a meaningless phrase. It is a duty and a responsibility as we share God’s love, and as we display those qualities of motherhood there will be times of hurt, times of pain, times when it’s hard to live and work with each other, and Paul understood this well.
He spoke of patience, of the need to bear with one another, and of forgiveness. Again these are qualities which reflect the quality of the ideal mother. And these are qualities which must be found in God’s Church today.
This week has seen the murder of a Vicar up in Aberdare, and as I watched some of the coverage of that incident on the news, I think it served to remind us of the need to be part of a community. The grief that was shown was not restricted to Church members, some of the outrage expressed has been from people who had little or nothing to do with the Church, but recognised the value of the Church – a family standing firm, a family bound together by love and concern, a family committed to making life for everyone a little bit better.
Communities, and people everywhere are, I believe, seeking out that presence in society today – they are seeking out a Church which is relevant, a Church which is doing things – they are seeking out a relationship with God who loves them, and we must demonstrate his love to them.
Let me finish by stating the obvious on this Mothering Sunday. We are all children of our own mothers, but we are also children of God. A loving God who loves each of us totally and unconditionally, not for what we do, but for who we are.
A God who knows and understands us, who knows our good experiences of family life, as well as the not so good ones, knows the joys as well as the pain, knows whether this is an easy day for us in relation to our own mums or not, in relation to our children, or lack of them, and in relation to our sense of belonging to a church community.
Let’s both thank him that he is our loving father, and that our identity is secure in being one of his children, and also allow him to minister to us his grace for today, whatever joys and pains are associated with it for us. AMEN
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