Love: A New Covenant - 11 Of 14 Series

May 10, 1998

John 13:31-35

There are many ways to look at Mother's Day. I see it as an opportunity to celebrate family love. It doesn't have to just be birth mothers that we honor. At least we can think again about how important our loved ones are to us.

Children often see things a little differently from what we might think. David Heller wrote a book called DEAR GOD: CHILDREN'S LETTERS TO GOD. He eavesdrops on some children's prayer-letters in which they talk about family. For example:

Dear God, Thank you for my parents, my sister Anita, and for my grandma and grandpa. They are real warm and special. I forgive you for my brother Phil. I guess you didn't finish working on him. Sean (age 12)

Dear God, My mom is acting weird because she is getting old. Can you take back a few gray hairs? That would help bring back the house to normal. Thanks for what you can do. Mike (age 9)

Dear God, You light up my life. So do mom and dad. I hope you like this. I am not sure what it means. Luv, Toni (age 7)

Dear God, My mom tells me a story about you every night. Last night she told me how you always remember your mother on her birthday. And you give her divine gifts. I think she was kidding me and herself. Love,Holden (age7)

In my early years we always had carnations on Mother's Day. We may not have had any money, but my mother saw to it that my sister Ruth and I had red carnations to show OUR mother was alive— and she and Dad wore white carnations in honor of their mothers who had died. It seemed somehow sacred and "official"— that was the way to observe Mother's day.

Mother's Day still is a good way to honor all that is best about mother love and family love. But it has to be much more than carnations and cards. Anna Jarvis, the West Virginia woman whose crusading got her state to adopt Mother's Day in 1910, and the whole nation to adopt by 1914 later became very bitter over the heavy commercialization of Mother's day. She told a reporter she was sorry she ever started Mother's day. In fact she was arrested for disturbing the peace at a War Mother's Rally when she protested the sale of carnations. "This is not what I intended," she was quoted as saying. "I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit."

Mother's Day is an opportunity to honor far more than just birth mothers. Anna Jarvis herself, the founder of Mother's Day, never was a birth mother. And one of the most beautiful real-life stories in our nation's history was about a boy who was born in Kentucky, moved early to southern Indiana where his mother died. When his father brought home a new bride the little boy was very upset, almost frantic. He didn't want to accept a step-mother. he was afraid he would forget his birth mother.

But the boy's step-mother was a kind Christian woman. She read to him every night. She nursed him when he was sick, and held him on her lap a lot. As time went by he came to realize he could love this new mother without losing his love for the mother who had died. He came to call his step mother his "Angel Mother." Later on Abraham Lincoln would say, as 16th President of the United States, "All that I am or ever hope to be I owe to my angel mother."

This day of celebration of family love falls on the 11th Sunday in our Ashes to Fire Pilgrimage with Jesus, and is the day when we hear His greatest commandment— what some call, "The Eleventh Commandment." "A new commandment I give you," Jesus said, "That you love one another."

In two brief sentences that commandment is spoken three times, just to make sure the disciples would hear and understand.

First Jesus said it: This is my command! Love one another!

Then Jesus told them HOW they should go about it: As I have loved you, so you are to love one another! Like Jesus! As He loved!

Finally Jesus told them that this was to be their identification badge: By THIS, He said— by THIS shall all know that you are MY disciples— if you have love one for another!

Wonderful are the steps we have been following— we began with believing, then confessing, then repenting. We went on with openness or vulnerability before God, with humility, and to complete surrender. We rejoiced in the resurrection, and went on to obedience, and to reaching out to others. last Sunday night we talked about wounded healers. but now we are at the heart of the whole scheme: WE ARE TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER AS JESUS HAS LOVED US!