SERMONS FROM THE HEIGHTS by Randy L. Hyde, D. Min. Senior Pastor Pulaski Heights Baptist Church Little Rock, AR 72205 www.phbclr.com rhyde@phbclr.com May 10, 2015 Mother s Day WHAT DOES IT TAKE? Proverbs 6:20-23; 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a I ve come to a new conviction. We should invite a mother to preach every year on the second Sunday in May, the day that Hallmark has designated as Mother s Day. Why? Well, it s pretty ludicrous, when you think about it, that I, a non-mother, should try to speak for those of you who might actually be one. The one invited to speak wouldn t have to be ordained clergy, just be experienced... and be able to convey with words what it is like to be a mother, to tell us what the real demands of motherhood are, what it means not only to bear children into this messy world of ours but to bring them up amidst all the dangers and difficulties, the perils and pitfalls presented by an ever-increasing unsafe world that is more than willing to take her place and entice her children to journey where she would never have them go. So maybe next year we can ask a mother to be standing in this place. But not today. Today, you re stuck with me. So I offer the question: what does it take to be a mother? And even though I am not one, I ll give the answer my best shot. Afterwards, if you are so inclined, you can tell me whether or not I ve come close to hitting the mark. But first, let s admit that there is a problem. You see, by the very nature of my being a preacher, I turn to the scriptures to give me insight into the ways of life
and the journey of faith. That is what I do, it is who I am. But I think what you will find in the Bible is that mothers don t exactly have a perfect track record. In fact, if you look at the mothers portrayed in scripture you will find a mixed bag at best, beginning with the very first mother, Eve. Let s also be honest about the Bible... it is not an instruction book, a how-to on anything, much less motherhood. A collection, basically of narratives, the Bible portrays those mothers who were vital in the unfolding story of the Hebrew people, and we can indeed learn a great deal from their examples. But to give us a book of instruction on child-rearing... no, it doesn t do that. For that you ll have to turn to Dr. Spock, and not everybody is inclined to do that because he s not exactly trusted in all quarters, if for no other reason than Dr. Spock was never a mother either. It could also be said that mothers get short shrift in the scriptures because the Bible was written in an era of male-domination, and therefore the stories are told from that perspective. But still, there are some rather significant examples of motherhood in the biblical narratives that should be able to shed some light for us on what it takes to be a mother. What do these stories tell us? For one thing, they say to us that mothers are not portrayed sentimentally. Or, as John Claypool puts it, Pollyana is not a Biblical figure. 1 All of us know, the Catholic church notwithstanding, that our world has never seen a perfect mother. Still, the stories of those who live in scripture can teach us a number of things. So let s talk about a few of the mothers in the Bible, shall we? We ll start with Rebekah. Rebekah is the poster child for the understanding that we are all products of our upbringing. There s simply no way to get around it. Our personalities, the way we think and behave, are formed by those who model such behavior for us, both for good and for... well, not so good. There are times when Janet will remind me that I m behaving like my mother, and trust me when I tell you she s not paying me a compliment. Rebekah, as most of you know, was the wife of Isaac, the son of Sarah and Abraham. She gave birth to twins, Esau and Jacob. And because Jacob was like her and Esau was more like his father, guess which one she favored? She made an absolute vocation of using Jacob to get her way, employing her deceptive abilities
to take from Esau, who was the elder of the two sons, his promised birthright. The biblical narrative is quite explicit in telling us the problems brought about by this favoritism, and the deception on Rebekah s part. A mother was called to school one day because her child was caught in several acts of theft and persistent lying. How could her child have done such a thing? In questioning him, she discovered the pattern of behavior that led him to do these things, and it all pointed right back to her. It began, harmlessly it seemed at the time, when she sent her son to the door to tell a salesman she was not home. It continued when she encouraged him to lie about his age in order to get movie tickets at a discounted price. On and on went the deception. The child was not honest because his mother had taught him the behavior. Yet another lesson, revealed in Rebekah s story, is that God can take that which is less than ideal like a conniving mother who favored one son over the other and create redemption from it. Yes, Jacob was a trickster, Jacob was less than honest, and Jacob made his share of enemies. But despite all that Jacob was renamed Israel and became the father of the twelve tribes of God s chosen people... not because of Rebekah s superior bloodlines, or even her cunning, but because of God s intentional grace. Buddy Shurden tells about the frontier Baptist preacher who was also a horse thief. He proved, says Shurden, that God can hit a straight lick with a crooked stick. Rebekah illustrates that as well, doesn t she? Are there any positive examples of mothers in the Bible? Of course! Just to name a few... There is Hannah who gave up her first-born son to the service of the Lord after God gave her her deepest desire, to have a child after a long period of barrenness. There is Jochabed, the mother of Moses, who not only saved her son from destruction, but began a series of events that eventually would lead to the freedom of her Hebrew people from the slavery of Egypt. 3
There is the unnamed mother brought before King Solomon, who was willing to give up her child rather than see it destroyed. There is Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, who gave great encouragement to her younger cousin Mary, the mother of Jesus, who herself showed great faith and courage at the foot of the cross. And of course Mary is a positive example for the institution of motherhood. But let s be honest: the relationship between Mary and her son Jesus and this was probably true when it came to his brothers and sisters as well was by no means perfect. Jesus and his mother had conflict, not just once, but again and again. There were stumbles along the way when she obviously did not understand the nature of his life and ministry. But that did not define their relationship. After all, she was there when she was needed the most, as her son died on a Roman cross. But ironically, the one person in scripture who provides us the basis for how a mother ought to behave is not a mother at all. It is the Apostle Paul. In order to understand Paul s contribution to our discussion of what it takes to be a mother, admittedly we do have to take him completely out of context. But I don t think he would mind. It certainly won t be the first time, nor the last that Paul s words are used for an intent that was not his own. Paul is writing that difficult church in Corinth and encouraging them to straighten up and fly right. Some of them have fallen in love with the idea of speaking in tongues, which may have been good for those who were able to do it, but not so helpful for those who could not. And those who could were lording it over those who couldn t. In his letter to the church, Paul is talking to those who have developed a spiritual smugness, telling them that when all is said and done, there is only one thing that matters most. And guess what? It is not the gift of speaking in tongues. It isn t the ability to prophesy or anything spiritual like that. It is the willingness to love... in all circumstances and through all difficulties. Love is the best and final word to describe how Jesus-followers ought to behave. Are you beginning to see how and why Paul s words are so appropriate for today, even if they are being taken out of context? 4
He says it like this, and as I quote Paul I d like for you to consider the face of the one you think of when the word mother comes to mind: Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. Does that describe your mother? Of course it doesn t! Especially the part about love never being irritable. Any of you know of a mother who doesn t get irritated at times? No mother is perfect. So what does it take to be a good, if not perfect, mother? It takes a love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and perhaps most important of all, endures all things. That kind of love never ends. Recently, I came across a letter written to a publication by a retired hospice chaplain named William Griffith. He tells of his visit one day with a woman who had advanced dementia. Maybe his comment caught my eye because this woman was so much like my mother in the last year or two of her life. In fact, if I didn t know any better, I d think he was talking about my mother. His patient could no longer carry on a conversation... not one that could be understood, anyway. On this particular visit, she seemed upset about something. Knowing she was a woman of faith, he told her that God understood her worries. When he said that, she immediately closed her eyes and began praying. She prayed with clarity of thought and expression, he says, naming her husband, her children and grandchildren and asking God to care for them. She then prayed for her pastor and his family. When she finished her prayer, he expected to be able to talk with her about it, to discuss the feelings that led her to remember her loved ones as she did. But after she said Amen she looked up, spoke to him, and in doing so never again said a word that he could understand. She had reverted back into the dark depths of her dementia. What does that say to you? It says to me that even in the blackest moments of this terrible disease, as experienced by this hospice patient, the love of which Paul speaks the love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things is able to reach down into the recesses of our mind and heart 5
and bring out the very Spirit of the One who brought such love into being. It says to me that in the push and shove of daily living, this is what life is about. It says to me that God not only invented love, but gave us mothers too if not physical birth mothers, those who are mothers to us so that we might have a sense here on earth of how that love will fully and eternally be conveyed when we stand before the Presence of the One who claims us as his own. What does it take to be a mother? It takes this kind of love. And if you have never known it, you can know it now, if for no other reason than this: God is not only our heavenly Father, but our heavenly Mother too. We said the scriptures do not offer a how-to on being a mother. But it does say something we have heard so many times it has lost much of its tremendous impact. The Bible tells us that God is love. Not just that God loves, but that God is love. It is God s very nature, it is the core of God s being, and because of that God cannot and will not, in any circumstances, go against that nature. And it is this God who invented motherhood, surely, as his human expression of affection toward those he loves so much. And for that, there is only one thing left for us to say... thanks be to God! Lord, we thank you for loving us and giving us mothers to embody humanly what that love is. May we reflect upon that, so that whoever we are, female or male, we can love as you love. Through Christ our Lord we pray, Amen. Notes 1 John Claypool, Mothers of the Bible, (unpublished sermon: May 11, 1980). 6