5th Sunday of Easter C, Mother’s Day, Ascension Day, 2004 Texts: Acts 13:44-52; John 13:31-35 Shining the Light of Motherhood [Children’s Message] Question: What special day is it today? Mother’sDay! Why do we celebrate Mother’s Day, or what do you do for Mother’s Day? To thank Mom for everything she does for us. What are some things your mother does that you want to thank her for? One thing we want to do today in church is thank God who gave each of us our mothers. Now, besides mothers what else did God give us? God loved us so much that He gave us… His own Son, Jesus, who died on the cross for the wrong things we do and say. Now, what did Jesus tell us to do? In our Gospel reading He tells us: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34) Can you love each other? Sometimes it is hard to love someone, especially if he or she is mean to you. But remember that you can love even the meanest person, because someone very important loves you: Jesus! [Children are dismissed for Sunday school.] In yesterday’s National Post I read an article by Anne Kingston titled “Why Mom Can’t Win.” She tackles the dilemma of modern motherhood, writing, “Poor mother. If she stays home, she’s marginalized as ‘just a housewife.’ If she works, she’s accused of neglecting her children.” If we go to Amazon.com we’ll find nearly 18,000 titles dealing with the confused status of motherhood. One such title is “The Price of Motherhood: Why the Most Important Job in the World Is Still the Least Valued.” Another is titled, “The Mommy Myth: The Idealization of Motherhood and How It Has Undermined Women.” Our attempts to understand motherhood, its role and value will always fail, if we do not consider the purposes for which God created it. We can never adequately explain motherhood on the basis of satisfaction the mother experiences or of its benefits to society. Motherhood, at its core is a willing servant-hood that goes beyond the call of duty most people would consider in any other calling or job. It involves a selfless servant-hood that reflects God’s own loving servant-hood on our behalf: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) I believe that it is only in this light that we can begin to make sense of the contradictions we find in motherhood. Our civilization, however, struggles with giving motherhood its appropriate honour, because it has lost touch with the created order of things. It has lost touch with the Creator and His design for motherhood. As a result motherhood is trivialized, caricaturized, even demonized to the extent that our civilization’s very existence is threatened. Yet, motherhood is one of the greatest gifts God has given us. Through it we were given life, nurtured and raised over many years until we were equipped to live on our own. Motherhood bestows the greatest, albeit least recognized, legacy upon a civilization, and that is its health and survival. Consider, for example, the country of Holland, where more than half of
the people under the age of 25 are Muslims, born to Muslim immigrants. Or the fact that in Canada Muslim families, on average, have four times as many children than non-Muslim families. I don’t wish to pick on Muslims – God certainly loves them as much as he does any of us – but as it is evident with current trends, it will only be a matter of time before our Western civilization becomes extinct and is replaced by an Islamic civilization. It seems that in abandoning God’s design and order for life, our civilization is self-destructing. It has lost its bearings and all sense of reality. In our first reading the Apostle Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah: “I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Acts13: ; Isaiah 49:6) Isaiah originally spoke these words to a nation that had also lost its bearings as it had abandoned its faith in God. Instead of being a light to the nations around her, as God had purposed, Israel would cease to exist as a nation and her
people become exiles in a foreign land. Yet God is merciful. Miraculously, 52 years later, the people of Israel
were released from exile and allowed to return to their land. God gave them another chance to fulfill their destiny as a light to the Gentiles. For among them would be born the Son of God, the one who is the Light of the world and in whom all people would find salvation. However, as Paul preaches this message to the Jews at Pisidian Antioch in Asia Minor, many of them reject it. They prefer to have a
righteousness of their own than to submit to the righteousness that is in Christ. They have a false sense of superiority, that somehow, because of their ethnic or religious heritage they don’t need a Saviour from sin. So they miss out on being part of God’s wonderful plan for the whole world. For in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, God is bringing together into His family the people of all nations. No longer is there a distinction between Jew and Gentile. What matters now is the righteousness that comes from God. Through faith in Jesus God is creating for Himself a new nation. The Evangelist John sees this new reality in a vision: He sees a new heaven and a new earth—after the old heaven and earth have passed away. He sees the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. For now the dwelling of God is with us, and He will live with us (Revelation 21:1-3). The New Jerusalem, the bride John sees in his vision is the church, the body of Christ; it includes all of us who have put our trust in Jesus. God is going to make all things new! There will no longer be any tears. There will be no more dying, crying or pain. The world as we know it will disappear and God will make everything new! God is telling us that the future is going to be bright! Because we are already citizens of that new world, we are filled with joy, knowing that everything is going to be alright. The joy we have in God’s promises spills over into all areas of our lives. It spills over into our vocations and relationships with other people. Now we can do all things, even serve people with joy, because we know that we are not just serving others or even ourselves, but our heavenly Father who loves us. And the way we say “thank-you” to God is by loving and serving the people He loves—and that’s all people. In this way we are privileged to serve as God’s Holy People, chosen in Christ to be a light to those who live in darkness, bringing His salvation to the ends of the earth. Perhaps the best example we can find of people who serve others and let the light of God’s love shine through them are Christian mothers. These mothers not only look after every physical need of their children, but also care deeply that they grow up in the love and knowledge of their heavenly Father. From a Christian mother we can learn what it means to really love someone. However, in our own vocations, and this includes mothers, we have often failed to show God’s love to others as we ought. But Jesus, who laid down his life for us, always perseveres in His love for us. Today, He calls us once again to come to His Table and fellowship with Him. He calls us, not because we are perfect or because we have been exceptionally faithful as His agents of love. He calls us because He knows that we need His help to grow closer in our relationship with Him. He calls us to his Table so that we might receive His body and blood given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins and shortcomings. He invites us to His Table that we would receive the assurance of his never-ending love for us. He invites us to taste true love. He invites us to experience a love that revives our souls and renews us in faith, in hope
and in love, and makes us rejoice in being His light in the world. Amen.