This sermon was delivered to the congregation in Holy Trinity, in Ayr, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 26th March 2017: by Gordon McCulloch
(A Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries).
The readings today are, Ex 2.1-10 Psalm 127 Col 3.12-17 John 19.25b-27
Please join me in my prayer. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit let these words bring you, and all mothers’, honour this day. Amen.
Introduction:
Today’s sermon is a little bit different from normal because we are not only here to worship the Lord, we are here also here today to also honour our mothers, grandmothers, and all the other great mother(s). It is a day for greetings, and the expressions of love all around; but it is also a day for remembering because the telephone companies tell us that Mothers Day is one of the busiest days of the year; and we all know that the shops just love mother’s day; as they make a lot from our sentimentality.
But I am not going to talk about them, I am here to try and praise the true value of motherhood; a task I will barely do justice in this short sermon, because true motherhood as you know, is a lifetime task. It is a difficult task, as by the time a child reaches 18, it has been estimated that a mother has done an extra 18,000 hours of work, … child-generated work. …
One mother once said, "The joy of motherhood is what a woman experiences, … when all the children are finally in bed”; … but true motherhood is a calling, … it is a privilege, and if valued correctly, it is a pleasure.
But before I continue, I must make it clear that Mother’s Day is not for everyone. It can be a very difficult time for some. Many women would love to have become a mother, but for some reason they could not; … and some people do not have what we call the best mother in the world; … while others who did, may have lost them through death or circumstances. So we must give a thought to them, and be sensitive, … and especially to those mothers who lost children; and others who carry the guilt of wayward children, … so to them, mother’s day can be very difficult indeed; and so we sympathise.
Men don’t make good mothers
Now this sounds silly me saying this, but men, or fathers do not make good mothers, … and sometimes we try, but what I am getting at here, is that there are many things us men cannot do, where women simply excel, and motherhood is one.
And I will give you an example, a mother singing Brahms lullaby to a baby has the voice of an angel; a member in the celestial choir itself, whereas the father, just simply can’t, … yet this same voice of a mother can dwarf the sound of an amplifier, when she calls the children for supper, … or cheer them on at a game of football. I remember someone once saying, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you canny fool yer mither".
The physics teacher at our school gave the class a lesson on magnets. The next day he recapped on the lesson and asked, “My name begins with an “M,” has six letters, and I pick things up. What am I?” The kids answered, my “Mother.”
At school a few years ago, I used to be quite proud on saying to the pupils at the end of the period, “Get this place cleaned up, I am not your mother”; then one day, another teacher put his head around the door and said, “I bet your fathers are glad of that”. I don’t say that anymore. …
And mothers too are also well known for teaching their kids, but in their own imitable style: you may recognise some of their lessons: … I remember my granny, … my mother’s mothers teaching me about Contortionism by saying: … "Have you seen the dirt on the back of your neck!", … naw, … and my other Granny, my fathers mother she was good with compassion, when she said, "if you fall off that bike and break your neck, don’t come running to me." … My own mother even, one day at the breakfast table she gave me tips on safety and on harming or others, "now if you don’t stop waving that thing about, you will take somebody’s eye out, and I’m going, wae a bit of toast, a wee solder of toast, … and this gave her the chance to reply with her wisdom on osmosis where she said, “now will you shut you mouth and eat your breakfast”? Eh!
But my personal favourite was my wife giving a lesson to my son the other week on the science of genetics where she said despondently, "You are just like your father"! … But what I am getting at here is that mother do home in on the pastoral care on a child, in a way that men just simply can’t, and I think this quote by an unknown mother which sums that up perfectly.
“When my children remember their childhood, I want only for them to remember that their Mother gave it her all. … She worried too much, … she failed at times as she did not always get it right, … but she tried her hardest to teach them about kindness, love, compassion & honesty, … even if she had to learn it from her own mistakes. … She loved them enough to keep going, even when things seems hopeless, … even when life knocked her down. … I want them to remember me as the woman who always got back up and loved them to the end”.
Out of the 69 kings of France, only 3 were really loved by their subjects, … and these 3 were the only ones reared by their mothers and not by tutors or guardians. … And there is a great saying from the emperor Napoleon himself that says, "The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world," and I cannot over emphasise the wisdom in that one.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the man who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century once said, “Men are what their mothers make them”. … Think about it, that is some accountability to place on a mother; particularly as there is an old Spanish proverb which says, “an ounce of motherhood is worth a pound of clergy.”
Over the centuries mothers have given their children plenty of good advice, some of which we have just heard; but here are some examples of what some mothers may have said to their famous sons, Christopher Columbus for example, did his mother say, “I don't care what you've discovered, you could have written”, or did Michelangelo’s mum really say, … “why can’t you write on the walls like every other kid”, … and my personal favourite, Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light, did his mother really say, “will you turn that light out and get to sleep”. You see mothers again homing in on the welfare of their child.
Haw Mary
And there are some great portraits of motherhood in Scripture. Moses mother for instance when she put him the basket and sailed him down the Nile; … the more I think of that story, the more I see planning behind it, …“she knew where the basket would end up”, but she still took a chance, because she was thinking about her baby. … And later on, the step mother of Moses, the woman who found him, cared so much for him that she broke the law in order to teach him the Jewish faith of his people. She also took a big chance.
Proverbs 31 tells the story of the mother of King Lemuel, who gave advice to her son about godly living, and how to pick a good wife and mother; … and there have been many sermons made from that chapter for mother’s day. … And there is also one of the most powerful stories in the bible of a mother’s love; the story where a mother told King Solomon to give her child to another woman, rather than having him killed, or cut in half.
And we remember too the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus and in particular, the wedding in Cana where she ask him to do his first ever recorded miracle, John chapter 2 verse 3 in the Old King James Bible says, “And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine”. I think this is put much more succinctly in the New Authorised Maybole translation which simply says, “Haw Mary, will you get him to turn that waater inta wine”! … You see, you see, our great Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God respected and loved his mother, and that is our standard to follow.
And a mother can make such a significant spiritual impact on her children; Susannah Wesley, mother of 17 (seventeen), two of which were John and Charles Wesley, spent one hour each day praying for her children. In addition, she took each child aside for a full hour each week to discuss spiritual matters; so it is no wonder her children were used by God to bring blessing to all of England and the rest of the world.
And we all know how tough a mother can be. A few years ago I was getting cheek, real abuse for one of my fourth year pupils at school that I was forced to give him a punishment exercise. The big man that he was ran out into the corridor, “I’m no dae-ing it, I’ve goat a shredder at hame”. He was being real stroppy, but I had a plan, a cunning plan; his mother worked in our school, and after a quiet word with her, the exercise was done, and his attitude re-adjusted, … well for a while. … You will have guessed by now that there is no gospel message this morning, but we I hope you are enjoying this.
A wee poem about the hardships.
A mother is considered "old fashioned" to her teenagers; and just mum to the primaries; and simple "Mummy” to the little two and three year olds; but there is hardly a thrill in their lives that can compete by saying to the world, "That is my mother!"
A mother talking to an old University friend once said, "I remember the time before I was married; I had 3 theories about raising children? Well, now I have 3 children and … no theories."
I remember when my son Craig was a baby, coming home from a hard days work to find the smell of motherhood, dirty nappies, washing drying and Craig all clean and fresh lying asleep on the couch; and Christine saying, don’t start, I did not sign up for this either. ….
So here is a wee poem I found somewhere which is pertinent:
She fed me when I was hungry; she laundered all my clothes,
She helped me study history; and wiped my dirty nose.
She often wiped my fevered brow; she taught me to ride a bike,
She even taught me how, to eat the foods I did not like.
She wore old and faded clothes; so I could wear something new,
She set an example so that I would know; what to say and what to do.
She often worked from dawn to dark; to make our house a home, while singing like a lark; her eyes with loves light shone.
Now wrinkles grace her once smooth brow; her hair has turned to gray, …
And I begin to wonder; how I'll live without her, here oneday.
Grandmothers
And this brings me to another topic; one day, a little girl was sitting and watching her mother do the dishes, and suddenly she noticed that her mother had several strands of white hair sticking out her brunette head. The little girl asked, “Why are some of your hairs white, Mummy?" The mother replied smugly, "Well, every time you do something wrong, and make me cry or unhappy, one of my hairs turns white." The little girl thought for a moment and said, "So how come my Grandmothers hair is white”?
Grandmothers and Great Grandmothers are extra special too; (I better play safe here, I am on thin ice as it is), but Grand mothers can be summed up in an essay written by a primary school pupil entitled, “What is a Grandmother”? …You will like this one.
A grandmother is a lady who has no children of her own but she likes other peoples little girls and boys. A grandfather is a man grandmother. He goes for walks with the boys, and they talk about fishing and stuff like that. … Grandmothers don’t have to do anything, except, be there. They are old, so they shouldn’t play too hard, and they shouldn’t run.
When they take us for a walk, they slow down, and show us pretty things like leaves, and butterflies, and things, … and they never say, things like "Hurry up, we are going to be late!"
Usually grandmothers are fat, but not too fat to tie your shoes. They wear glasses and funny underwear, and they can take their teeth out. Grandmothers don’t have to be smart, but they can answer questions like, "Why isn’t God married?" and "How come dogs chase cats?"
Grandmothers don’t talk baby talk like other adults do when they read to us, they don’t skip parts of the story either; they don’t even complain about reading the same story over and over again. Everybody should try to have a grandmother, especially if you don’t have television, because they are the only grown-ups who .... have time for you. … Again, I do not know who wrote that one, but it is so fitting.
Where we were brought up.
Almost all of us have fond memories of our mothers and grandmothers; and we are all here today to remember them, and to the home where we were raised; … because if when we think of one, we think of the other. … Remember the sounds, and sights, and the smells of home, … remember before double glazing, … the warm coal fire at our front, and the cold at our backs, … and the drafts from the doors and windows, … even the frost on the inside of the windows. … Remember the smell of home baking, … and the taste from licking the spoon, … and the warm scones just out of the oven. … And do you remember the dinners that only your mother can make; … even if it was only beans on toast; … where only a mother could add that special something to a simple meal to make it extra special; a blessing of love.
I could go on for ages, as you know, but I would like to close by saying, may our Lord Bless you and keep you all, ... on this special day. Amen.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for Jesus; that he died on the cross instead of us. We thank you also for his mother, the Virgin Mary who raised him perfectly to do your will; … and then watch him die for us, on the cross.
Father, although we want to applaud all the mothers who take the task seriously, we bring before you the mothers, who do not. … We remember to the women who cannot have children, … and we pray for those who have lost loved ones. … We pray too who for all those who cannot enjoy Mothers day because of strife.
Father, be with each and every Mother today, and make their day a very special day to remember.
We ask in your Jesus name, Amen.
