Mother’s Day 2012, who’s come along today to be with Mum? I know that there’s a few who’ve gone to other churches today to be with their Mum or Grandmother. Lovely really those families are able to celebrate together at times like this but then again for some Mother’s day can be a trial. Not really a crash hot day at all for some because Mother has gone to be with Jesus and for others because relationships could be strained, maybe Mum is geographically distant and you’d like to be with her. Step Mum's and aunties who are in the role of a mother, there's people who take the role of foster mum and some people who probably don't even know they are seen in the role of mum by someone. For solo Dads I like to celebrate the work you do on this day also being Dad and trying hard to fill both roles, and for solo Mum’s I would like to acknowledge the role you have filling both roles also.
In the Moffatt house growing up we didn’t celebrate Mother’s Day because my dear old Mum believed it was “a commercial rip off” and it was “an American Thing”. Mum knew what she knew and we didn’t go there, there was no arguing with Mum over Mother’s Day. I did send her a card this year however, it would be the first for years Her card that was of a yellow digger and designed for small boys. I wrote in it, that I dig her. She even rang to thank me; I guess that because of the design it didn’t fit into commercial rip off concerns.
Personally I like the idea of celebrating family daily as we join together, at meal times as we connect around the house, watching the moving picture box in the corner and at other times we are together. Whoever does the Mum role and does it well deserves a jolly good day on a day like this and every day.
Jesus had a Mum also and we know her name was Mary. Jesus came from a reasonably big family and we know the names of his brothers, they are listed in Marks gospel chapter six, verse three as James, Joseph, Judas and Simon. And in this verse his sisters are also mentioned. So Jesus came from a family of at least seven kids, we don’t know the exact number of sisters he had but as sisters are mentioned there must be at least two.
I would pick that Mary was a very worthy Mother we know by different accounts she was present with Jesus her eldest at various times during his ministry and at the time of His death.
Artists have depicted Jesus as an infant with his Mum as a child with his Mum as a young Rabbi on the road with his Mum and at the time of his death and resurrection with Mary also.
Now Jesus says something about his family that for some could be a bit of a shocker. Let’s have a look at Mark 3:31- 35.
“31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”
33 “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.
34 Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.’”
Ah what? It looks here like Jesus is giving His family the brush off. But is he? Some even go as far as to say that what He is doing “seems to threaten the most important human institution”, The family! I don’t think he is!
What is that last verse about “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
For some who revere Mary as “The Mother of God” these words of Jesus might be a bit of a concern. I’m not going to knock what others believe. But try and give an understanding of where we sit with Jesus, as friends, as family when we do the will of God.
What is the will of God?
Well there are quite a number of statements in scripture that tell us what the will of God is; well initially we say to obey the commandments, then what?
These verses are about being in God’s will as believers;
1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 says “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit.”
Ceaseless prayer and thanksgiving in all situations is the will of God, cold happy, annoyed, car broken down, it’s about attitude, give thanks and continue talking with God. There’s a corny line someone came up with that says, “We should have an attitude of gratitude.”
Romans 12:2 says “And do not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
Walk in the ways of God allow your mind to be renewed, if it’s anything like mind that’s got to be better than the old mind. There’s that line that says “we should not have stinking thinking”
What about these verses about trust and obedience:
1 Thessalonians 4:2-4 tells us “For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honour.”
So don’t return to the ways of the flesh; control yourselves abstain from sexually immoral acts. There are some who leave their salvation teetering at the gates of Hell for a few fleeting moments of sexual pleasure.
1 Peter 2:13-16 says “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.” And Peter continues with
1 Peter 3:17 “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”
So Peter is saying be an example before others even if it is a costly example, even be willing to suffer for doing good, this is the example Jesus set us, and this example was followed by many even to death in the Christian Church through the years.
James says this also; “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27).
The thing is that to do God’s will is what Jesus desires believers to do, we have the same Heavenly Father that He has, He has given us His Holy Spirit, the third person of The Trinity to us to guide us in His ways, soas we respond and do His will we are Jesus family.
Think about these examples: I pinched these examples from Commissioner Brengle’s book “Love Slaves”.
The Emperor “Nero sat upon the throne of the world; he held the highest position in the reach of man; but a poor despised Jew in a dungeon in Rome, whose head Nero [ordered] cut off possessed the best gifts; and while Nero’s name rots, Paul’s name and works are a foundation upon which the righteous build for centuries and millenniums.” (p 84).
Or this;
“There are deacons, archdeacons, and venerable archdeacons, bishops and archbishops in England, some hundreds of years ago, who held high places of power, and to whom other men bowed low. But a poor, despised tinker [that’s a roving pot repairer] in the filthy Bedford jail had converted earnestly and received ‘the best gifts’; and while these church dignitaries are forgotten by the mass of men, the world knows and loves the saintly tinker, John Bunyan.”
The gifts that Brengle was talking about are the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I’m not going to go into great detail of what they are today. But where I want to go today is to talk about Jesus family and how he takes what the world sees as foolish things, and builds them up as wonderful things in his sight. This from 1st Corinthians 1:27 “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.”
So how is it we are able to be used by God, the answer is the same as the one Jesus gave to those he called to be his family. By doing God’s will!
Are you doing the will of God for your life or are you doing what the world would led you to do?
This Mother’s Day, well done to all the Mum’s here today, good Mum’s are an example to their children of committed living and an example to the rest of us, just as Jesus was an example to the Church. What then now for us, we are Jesus family when we do the will of the Father.
If you feel that you are outside God’s will, maybe it’s time to get back into it or maybe follow His will for the first time in your life then there’s a place of prayer here come, pray and give thanks that he has showed you the way to live as His family and in His will.
