Mother’s Day Sermon Series

Jochebed and Miriam made a plan. The words came from each other. But the inspiration came from God.

How did they know what to do with Moses?

How do we know what to do with babies?

We just know.

We just know.

And who tells us? Where does that knowing come from? How does every creature on earth know what needs to be done?

We know, because God tells us.

We know, because we are born knowing.

That’s a miracle.

It’s incredible.

God gives parents, and especially mothers, a special duty. It exists above and beyond the responsibility for our fellow human beings. Before we are citizens, workers, members of this church, or of any church, we are parents.

We are parents first.

How do we know? The bible tells us.

1 Timothy 3:4. Paul writes a letter for Timothy laying out qualifications for church leadership. Of priests, he says “He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full[a] respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)”

We are parents first. God is the centre of our lives. The centre of everything we do. Our family is second, especially our responsibilities as parents. Our church is our extended family…in some cases, literally.

Some of us, like Jochebed, are birth parents. Some, like Pharoah’s daughter, have needed to step into the role. Many of us have done both.

Especially in healing communities.

My grandmother was in her eighties when she passed away. She raised ten children. Five we're born to her. Five, she raised because it was common for child protection agencies to remove light skin children from homes with black parents and place them with white families during segregation in Canada.

I say during segregation, but it was happening until at least the 1980’s openly and it continues even now.

My parents, and some of us here, grew up during a time like the time of Jochebed. A time when certain types of people were considered..less. They didn’t deserve to have children, or healthcare, or access to clean water, or employment. It’s strange how easily that type of thing is accepted. By everyone. Written into law.

My family survived. And we are here.

The law didn’t favour us.

Popular opinion didn’t favour us.

So it must have been our own parents and grandparents who fought for our lives.

Miracles are hard, hard work. If you ask for a miracle you have to be willing.

The bible says Miriam watched Pharoah’s daughter:

Exodus 2:4-7

4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?