Mother's Day - 2011

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Since today is Mother's Day, I thought I would begin with a list someone has made which they have called "Murphy's Laws of Parenting." See if you can identify with any of these:
1. The later you stay up, the earlier your child will wake up the next morning.
2. The gooier the food, the more likely it is to end up on the carpet.
3. The longer it takes you to make a meal, the less your child will like it.
4. A sure way to get something done is to tell a child not to do it.
5. For a child to become clean, something else must become dirty.
6. Toys multiply to fill any space available.
7. Yours is always the only child who doesn't behave.
8. If the shoe fits . . . it's expensive.
9. Backing the car out of the driveway causes your child to have to go to the bathroom.
10. Do any of these strike home?
It isn't easy being a Mom. I chuckled when I read about a story by a Mom named Mary Jane Kurtz. Mary Jane says that when she was a young, single mom with four children, it was difficult to get them all ready for church on Sunday. One particular Sunday morning as the children started to complain and squabble, Mary Jane stomped from one room to the other, saying out loud why it was important they go to church as a family and have a good attitude. Suddenly, she noticed all four children huddled together and laughing.
"What's so funny?" Mary Jane asked. "Mom," they said, "every time you slam down your foot, smoke comes out. It must be the wrath of God!"

In reality, it was the powder Mary Jane had sprinkled in her shoes. But it worked. She says they made it to church on time that morning and practically every Sunday thereafter.

What we don't want to do on this Mother's Day, 2011 is take our Moms for granted. The best example I know of that is the Mother's Day card that reads like this: "Forget the housework, Mom. It's your day. Besides, you can always do double duty and catch up on Monday!"
All too often this is exactly what we do. We take for granted the huge amount of work that the women in our lives do every day. At least I know I do. As I’m sure you all know, Victoria has been away at work for more than a month now. Can you guess how often the clothes get washed? How often the floors get swept, let alone mopped? Whatever came to mind, it’s probably close. And I’m used to helping with the housework. When she’s here, we both do our part. Without her here? For my own sake, I’d better get it done before she gets home.
We’ve done exactly the same thing in the church. The Bible is full of examples of women leading God’s people. There are women who are prophets. There are women who contribute their own resources to the early house churches. There is a huge amount of evidence that most of the leaders of the early church were women. And Christianity was made the religion of the state and men took it over. Everything the women had done was swept under the rug (otherwise known as man-cleaning). The women of Christ were forgotten.
Only recently have we been rediscovering the role of women in the early church. Only recently have we been finding out that without women leading us in the church we cannot truly be God’s people. Without women, we are incomplete, or in Biblical terms, imperfect.

Of the women in the Bible, several are very important mothers. Can anyone think of a woman in the Bible who is a mother?
1. Eve (mother of humanity)
2. Mary (mother of Jesus)
3. Bathsheba (mother of ?)
4. Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist)
5. Others?
Well, today we honour these women. Today we honour all mothers, especially our own. Today we try to remember that we should do this every day, not just today.

Let us pray,
Loving God,
we thank you for the love of the mothers you have given us,
whose love is so precious that it can never be measured,
whose patience seems to have no end.
May we see your loving hand behind them and guiding them.
We pray for those mothers who fear they will run out of love
or time, or patience.
We ask you to bless them with your own special love.
We ask this in the name of Jesus, our brother.
Amen.