Mothers - Beacons And Our Call

Are you my Mother?

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden."); and in Matthew 25:35 ("I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.") and John 7:38 "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ’From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’"

ISA 58:10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your night will become like the noonday.

ISA 58:11 The LORD will guide you always;

he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land

and will strengthen your frame.

You will be like a well-watered garden,

like a spring whose waters never fail.

"Well done." Said the King to the young man . "You have single handedly saved the Kingdom from disaster.

You shall have the Princess’s hand in marriage."

The Princess and the young man were soon married and they lived Happily ever after.

Well not quite. ..............

You see David married into a controversial family his wife Michal was given to another man - His Father in law tried to kill him - He committed adultery - Michal despised him and they didn’t have any children.

Fairytale endings don’t always happen and Motherhood is never easy.

On planet earth currently there has never been a time in world history when Motherhood has been more difficult.

In the minute it has taken me to give the little fairytale introduction approximately:-

28 children died of malnutrition and diseases that could have been easily prevented. 1,667 die every hour, 40,000 children die daily!

During the course of this hour, statistically - two children will be killed in their Mothers wombs deliberately in New Zealand

In our world two great images of Mothers emerge.

One type is perhaps characatured by that recently deceased Mother - known affectionatly as The Queen Mother - she died at aged 102 recently and she in many ways has stood for the West of all that epitomises Motherhood to Westernised civilisation.

Hitler called her the most dangerous woman in Europe.

The reason for that, I guess is that she was an inspiration to her people and with undaunting courage faced the bombing and the ruins of London rather than escaping to the comparitive sfety of the countryside.

Tony Blair describer her as a symbol of Britain’s "decency and courage."

Perhaps these words best describe what Motherhood is at it’s best -

"Decency and courage."

It is that God given decency and courage shown by many Mothers in this nation that has built it into the comparitively safe and peaceful nation that it is.

It is the systematic destruction of decency and courage that is slowly but surely reducing our nation towards the other striking image of Motherhood that comes to mind.

The face of that Mother is the face of an asian, African or third World Mother somewhere - helpless in the face of war or famine with a vulnerable perhaps starving or wounded infant clinging to her side demonstrating the remnants of decency and courage in the face of impossible odds.

Both images of Motherhood in a suffering and broken world are I believe both a beacon and a call to the Christian Church and I do not think I am overstressing the matter to say the Church will rise or fall on it’s response to that beacon and call.

Let’s firstly consider the beacon -

There may be many things about the Queen Mother that we would find incredibly difficult but the qualities of courage and decency are things that we could well do to consider in relation to Motherhood.

For these great qualities of Motherhood to flourish in our nation we as Christians need to stand up in our own communities and our nation for Godly qualities. The Decency and courage we need to display are from the same spirit that christ himself displayed on earth.

For Mothers to have these qualities they need to be the prevailing mood of our church.

We need to do the unpopular thing of standing up for decency and righteousness here in our own nation.

There has never been an era in New Zealand like the last thirty years when all that is decent or wholesome has been challenged and thrown over for the distasteful and often disgusting. In such a climate of darkness the call of the christian is to shine brightly in contrast to what is happening around them.