Mothering Sunday 22nd
March 2020
Three verses offering hope,
love and encouragement at this most unprecedented of times across the world.
I was engaged in a Gospel
Discussion recently and we were exploring the scene in the Garden of
Gethsemane. We noted the fully human Jesus’ shrinking from what lay before him
and pleading with his father, ”My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be
taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
And here in this passage
from John we have Jesus drinking this most vilest of all cups, filled to
overflowing with all the sin of the world.
Let us be careful not to
think of Jesus in simple dualistic terms, human and divine, something he was
able to switch between. For Jesus was the new Adam, the one who showed how to
live an authentic human life in full communion with God as Abba Father and in the
world created and sustained by God. Jesus, both fully human and fully divine in
perfect harmony.
And this picture at the foot
of the cross, where Mary’s soul is being pierced serves to remind us of the
most wonderful most mystical, most magnificent story that is the Gospel, the
Good News.
The Christian Faith is
earthed and real and bloody, not an abstract philosophical reasoning or even
rationale understanding.
It’s not a set of rules and
regulations, must do and must not do.
And at a time like this, it
is not even a gathering together, albeit we should gather if and when we are
able once more.
We will I am sure be finding
all sorts of creative ways to maintain contact, but we mustn’t allow that to
become the new norm.
Heeding the words from the
Letter to the Hebrews, 10.25 ‘Let us not give up meeting together, as some
are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more
as you see the Day approaching.’
There is the story told of a
Minister visiting one of his congregants whom he hadn’t seen in Church for
several weeks. The man said he had given up attending Church as he didn’t feel
any need. The Minister didn’t say anything but simply leant over to the fire
and pulled a coal and place on the hearth. They both watch as the coal
gradually cooled down. The Minister then placed it back in the fire were it
soon glowed red hot.
The Christian Gospel, the
Good News is so much more than a restored relationship with Father God. It is about a fully integrated restoration of
everything, above all about restored relationships with each other as people
made in God’s image and a restored relationship with the whole of the created
order.
It’s been said many times
and needs to be kept on being said, Christianity is not a religion but a
relationship.
And here at the foot of the cross Jesus looks upon his mother with love, care and concern. He commends to his beloved disciple the care of Mary. We can only conjecture, but this beloved disciple may have been quite a young man. Woman and younger people weren’t considered too much of a threat or likely to cause problems for the soldiers as they undertook this grizzly job of public execution.
‘Dear woman, here is your
son’, and to the disciple, ‘here is your mother.’
(By this we might assume Mary’s husband Joseph had died.)
In a moment of undergoing
the most appalling agony, the love, care, compassion and consideration of Jesus
is demonstrated as he sets up a new special relationship between his mother and
the beloved disciple.
Jesus own trial and
punishment were a mockery and a gross injustice.
However, there are those who
have been found guilty by due process of the law and find themselves
incarcerated in prison.
On this Mothering Sunday the
Prison Fellowship through the Angel Tree Project has enabled many of them to
send a card to their Mothers. For many
this is seeking to make amends and restore a broken or damaged relationship
with their mothers, especially young men. We should pray for them. www.prisonfellowship.org.uk
Restoring relationships
takes time and effort.
Jesus bled, suffered and
died that we might be reconciled to God – and to each other and to the created
order.
During this time of isolation
and lock down, keeping our relationships fresh and active will be challenging.
Thankfully we do have many
more means of communication.
This difficult time we are
passing through gives us a real opportunity to seek to emulate Jesus in his
care for his mother.
We may be undergoing a
personal trial and great difficulty but are we able to see beyond that in our
care for others.
And we will know of plenty
of ‘others’ who are particularly vulnerable at this time.
The same ‘others’ who were
vulnerable at the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry.
The weak, the sick, the
homeless or poorly housed, the aged and infirm, those in prison, those on zero
contracts, those who have lost jobs.
And are we able to emulate
the life of Jesus if we are in isolation, particularly his prayer life?
Not just sitting watching endless
hours of TV but by spending time in prayer, developing our relationship with
God. After all, this is what monks and nuns have been doing for centuries.
Agreed that to be a monk or
nun is a special calling, but maybe at a time like this they have something to
teach us. Thankfully much of their wisdom is available through books, podcast
or daily meditations.
It is obvious that our way
of life is going to be radically altered by the onset of Covid-19 for years to
come.
How will we as the People of
God emerge?
Well if we are careful and
prayerful, we might discover that our relationship with God has deepened as we
have taken the opportunity to spend time with Him while not being distracted by
so many other things. Then if we have endeavoured to add action arising from
our contemplation, we will discover many restored relationships with each other
and with our world.
My own dream for the future
arising out of this is a fresh appreciation of both the beauty and the
fragility of life. That the enormous financial costs involved could be more
than met by selling off stockpiles or armaments and weapons of destruction.
That we might heed Jesus’
words as he is arrested, ‘they that live by the sword shall die by the
sword.’
May we battle and fight not
against others but against virus such as Covid-19, against hunger and poverty,
against poor housing and shelter, against slavery and domestic violence,
against knife crime and so much more. All the things that kill, maim and
destroy.
‘The thief comes only to
steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to
the full.’ John
10.10
May we ‘beat our swords
into ploughshares and our spears into pruning hooks.’
And in all of this remembering
as Jesus said on one occasion…
“Who is my mother, and who
are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and
my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and
sister and mother.”
What is the will of God at
such a time as this?
Well, on this Mothering
Sunday we can take these words of Jesus spoken from the Cross, heed them, and then
seek to ‘mother one another’ and to love each other as Jesus loved his mother -
and each and everyone one of us - including you.
As you ponder that and your response listen to this beautiful song from Graham Kendrick...
As you ponder that and your response listen to this beautiful song from Graham Kendrick...
This 'talk' was given as part of a Worship Service on behalf of Rural Mission Solutions - www.ruralmissionsolutions.org.uk
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