Fear(Revere) Mom!

FEAR(Revere) MOM!—Leviticus 19:2-3

Attention:

Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in Grafton, WV, in 1908 as a day to honor one’s mother. Jarvis wanted to accomplish her mother’s dream of making a celebration for all mothers, although the idea didn’t take off until she enlisted the services of wealthy Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker(noted Dept. Store merchant, & humanitarian).

She kept promoting the holiday until President Woodrow Wilson made it an official national holiday in 1914 to be celebrated every second Sunday in May. He established the day as a time for “public expression of our love & reverence for the mothers of our country.”

By the 1920s the holiday had became highly commercialized that many, including its founder, considered it to have become so overwhelmingly dedicated to such, so as to destroy its purpose. She eventually ended up opposing the holiday she had helped to create. Jarvis had become soured by the commercialization of the holiday that she incorporated herself as the Mother’s Day International Association, trademarked the phrases "second Sunday in May" and "Mother’s Day" so cardmakers couldn’t use it without her permission. She and her sister Ellsinore spent their family inheritance campaigning against what the holiday had become. She was once arrested for disturbing the peace in this effort. Both died in poverty. Supposedly, Jarvis became embittered because too many people sent their mothers a printed greeting card, As she said,

“A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother—and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment.”—Anna Jarvis.

Anna Marie Jarvis died in 1948(b. 1864), regretting what had become of her holiday. She never married and had no children.

Need:

With or without a designated day called Mother’s Day, We can capture the spirit of the holiday only in the Spirit of Christ! as both Old & New Testaments encourage us to respect our mothers!

God expected every individual of Israel to possess a reverence for their mother & father.

Every one of God’s people is to possess a reverence for their mother & father.

What is the rationale/motivation behind revering one’s mother?

3 motivators for motherly reverence OR to ‘Fear’ Mom.

1—Reverence for your mother is found in...

Her GOD(:1-2)

Explanation: (:1-2)

:1-2—“And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, & say to them: ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”

Moses was called & ordained to be “as God” to Aaron & Aaron would be Moses’ “spokesman to the people”(Ex. 4:15-16). Moses would receive God’s revelation directly from God. Moses would then relate that truth to Aaron who would in turn relate it to the people. Eventually(probably by the time of this writing) Moses alone speaks rather than Aaron.

Moses is to instruct the gathering “of the children of Israel” regarding specificities from God.

They are first instructed to “be holy.” And they are further given a reason for such an expectation. It is because they are to declare/evangelize the existence of God thru every aspect of their existence as the children of God.

Their holiness is to directly reflect that of YaHoWeH their God. God’s holiness is to influence the lives of His people so that they are lived differently than those around them. Thus they are His witnesses by the very choices they make.

To be “holy” is to be separate or set apart from something or someone. Thus to some degree, God’s people are to be separate from the world in which they live.

Ex. 19:5-6—“‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice & keep My covenant, then you shall be a special[“peculiar”] treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. ‘And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests & a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.””

*LXX(Greek) translates “Special/peculiar” as periousiov 1) That which is one’s own, belonging to one’s possessions—1a) A people selected by God from the other nations for his own possession.

Titus 2:11-14—“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness & worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, & godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope & glorious appearing of our great God & Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed & purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”

We relate to our mothers in a very different way if they are Christians than if they are not. Their motives & means of rearing children is dependent upon her God. If your mother’s is the true God of the Bible, then you(as her child) will be blessed in receiving—at a minimum— mothering which is truly expressive of the reality of this world in which we live & is the most practical & relevant. Not weird philosophical mumbo-jumbo that denies the reality of the human condition.