Mothering Sunday At Gaddesby

Introduction

Story: I came across a true story that happened during the Holocaust of the Second World War.

Solomon Rosenberg, his wife and their 2 sons were arrested, together with his mother and father for the crime of being Jews. They were placed in a Nazi concentration camp.

It was a labour camp, and the rules were simple.

"As long as you can do your work, you will be permitted to live.

When you become too weak to do your work, then you will be exterminated."

Rosenberg watched his mother and father being marched off to their deaths as they became too weak to work.

He knew that the next would be his youngest son, David - because David had always been a frail child.

Every evening, Rosenberg came back into the barracks after his hours of hard labour and searched the faces for his family.

When he found them they would huddle together, embrace one another and thank God for another day of life.

One day Rosenberg came back and didn’t see those familiar faces.

He finally found his oldest son, Joshua, in a corner, huddled, weeping and praying.

He said, "Josh, tell me it’s not true."

Joshua turned and said, "It is true, Dad. Today David was not strong enough to do his work. So they came for him."

"But where is your mother?" asked Mr. Rosenberg.

"Oh Dad," he said, "When they came for David, he was afraid and he cried.

So Mum said, `There is nothing to be afraid of, David,’ and she took his hand and went with him."

A mother’s love that was so strong that she would willingly sacrifice her life to comfort her child.

The story still takes my breath away and I have told it lots of times.

There is something very special about a mother’s bond with her son

And Mary, Jesus mother is no different.

There was Jesus’ very special birth heralded by the angel Gabriel. Every Mum thinks her little boy is special but Jesus was a bit more special than others.

Mary heard the prophecies of Simeon and Anna about her little boy - that we read in the Gospel reading today and I wonder what she thought

Being a mother isn’t easy

One mother has said , "The joy of motherhood is what a woman experiences when all the children are finally in bed."

Another mother talking to an old school friend said this

"I remember, before I was married I had 3 theories about raising children? Well, now I have 3 children and no theories."

Another mother who had three children was asked, "If you had it all to do over again, would you have children?" "Yes," she replied, "But not the same ones."

One mother wrote this poem – I must say I do like it:

"Some may climb Mt Everest,

in search of thrills galore,

But I scale peaks that rival it,

just past the laundry door:

Slopes of socks and underwear,

sheer cliffs of shirts and pants.

Oh, yes, I live in mortal fear

of a laundry avalanche"

Mums are interesting.

Not only do they seem to be - at times, `superhuman’ but they also speak the same language.

It’s not written in any book nor is it taught in any University but every mother seems to know the dialect. I am sure it’s not just in my house:

“Just wait until your dad gets home"

"Pick up your socks"

“If you’d put it in the wash - I could wash it”

"Where’s the change"

"That’s the last time I’m going to tell you."

“ When are you going to clean up your bedroom?”

“What do you think I am – your slave”

Mothers not only speak the same language

but they also share many of the same

qualities:

inquisitiveness,

tenderness,

sympathy,

compassion,

mother’s intuition.

There are few things are more powerful than the tears and prayers of a mother.

Few things are more tender than a mother’s hug or compassionate touch.

Story: Someone has pointed out that of the 69 kings of France, only three were really loved by their subjects and that these three were the only ones reared by their mothers, instead of by tutors of guardians.

And it just may be true - what Napoleon said,

"The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."

Today I want us to look at the characteristics of the mother that God choose to raise his Son.

From the little recorded about her in Scripture we do glean the following

1. Her humility

At Christmas we looked at the story of Jesus birth

And you may recall the time when the angel Gabriel came to her and told her

”Mary do not be afraid; you have won God’s favour. Listen you are going to conceive and