Mothering Sunday (With Ref To Covid)

In Disney’s film Frozen, the sisters have to grow up as orphans after their parents are killed at sea. Without the love, wisdom and guidance they would have provided, they struggle and everything nearly goes wrong. But through the love and care of friends and the bond the sisters have, they support each other in a difficult situation.

Maria in The Sound of Music, has reconciled herself to a life without bearing children, but after meeting the Von Trapp family, she finds that instead of being a governess, she becomes a mother and friend to the children who have lost their mother, and in time leads their father out of his emotional separation from them.

Whilst we know that only women can be mothers, we also know that mothering isn’t something which is just restricted to females.

Gru, the villain in Despicable me, adopts three orphaned girls, initially as part of a plot to defeat his nemesis, what he didn’t account for was that these three girls would treat him as anything other than what they need him to be. A caring parent, and through their persistence, Gru is profoundly changed, and he not only becomes a caring parent, but one who showers love upon the girls.

Perhaps for everyone sat here in church this morning, one or perhaps more of these characters has resonated with you and your situation.

As we come together to observe Mothering Sunday, we celebrate and give thanks to everyone female as well as male, who play, or have played a mothering role in our lives as well as in others.

As well as mothers, today we remember step, foster, grand and surrogate mothers and fathers as well as siblings, close friends and any others who for whatever reason have found themselves in a mothering role.

Whilst I have used examples through film, there are many examples of those who have used the gift of mothering throughout the bible, where both female and males have exhibited in their own ways these qualities. Mary is likely the most well-known to us, but consider the roles that people such as Moses, Noah, St Paul, Sarah, Hannah and many others played in the life of others, and the nurture, the mothering skills they used.

Today isn’t simply a day where we can give thanks for our mums, Mothering Sunday is much bigger than that. It is a day to thank everyone who has, or indeed is currently showing Mothering qualities to us.

Wherever you are in your life today, whether you are, or hope to be a mum, if you are unable to have children, or have no desire to be a mum. Whatever your relationship with your own mum is, or was, whether you’re a woman or a man, young or old, God may well be calling you, to the task of mothering others.

God has challenges for each one of us, and he will always give us the gifts we need to meet those challenges, through the Holy Spirit. It’s up to us, though, to accept those challenges, just as Mary did.

Through Mary’s obedience, Jesus was born to be the living way for us back to God, who is both father and mother to us all, and while Mary had to endure that terrible experience of seeing her son go through pain, and indeed know the pain of a grieving mother as he died on the cross, just as Simeon had prophesised.