“A Mother’s Joy” I Samuel 1:21-28
A Servant Church must have a Servant Theology. Servant theology is the knowledge of God as He who desires for you to address the needs of others and thereby fulfill your purpose in God’s plan.
A pure understanding of a mother’s joy is found in her awareness, thought it may never be expressed, of servant theological relationship with her child. This text helps us understand aspects of Servant Theology and reveals for us a Mother’s Joy.
I must caution you that in reading this text you will feel the pathos that affects modern day mothers. A mother’s relationship with a child’s father is found here. A mother’s relationship with the other woman is found here. The disappointment of a woman who seeks to be a mother is found here. The arrogance of a woman who uses her motherhood as a badge of courage is found here. The pathos that affects modern day mothers is found in this text.
But, the central idea of this text is a mother’s relationship with her child.
Therefore, I’m here to argue, to suggest, and to preach that a Mother receives her joy through her child who fulfills God’s plan and thereby she embodies three significant aspects of Servant Theology.
1. sacrificial servant
a. Biological – The mother shares her life substance with the child. Her DNA participates in the process with God in the formation of the child. What she eats the baby eats. What she feels the baby feels. The first level of sacrifice for the mother is biological.
Mary after finding that she will bear Jesus goes to Elizabeth to inform her, not knowing that Elizabeth is also expecting. Luke says in the first chapter that when Elizabeth hears the news “the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit says, ‘blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” Mary responses with, “My soul doth magnify the Lord.”
Earlier in the book of Jeremiah, God has a conversation with him and says, “before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee…”
A sacrificial servant relationship of a mother to a child is biological.
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b. psychological – the psychological connection between a mother and a child is not dependant upon a biological relationship. There are many mothers who where not biologically a mother, but displayed all of the maternal instinct towards a child because of their psychological connection to a child.
I can think of one mother who lived in the Coppin Heights community, I won’t mention her name, but she raised 26 foster children. Her connection to each one was psychological.
Let me stop right here and say that one of the greatest future challenges to the Black church is how she responds to the issue of woman who are in foster care between the ages of 13-21 who themselves are having children. The growing reality of this population within Upton should compel the church to act to create a model of therapeutic care for those teen aged mothers and their children. If we don’t a permanent underclass will be created right within this community by the inability of the Black church to address this looming issue.
Coming back to my point that a sacrificial servant relationship to a child is biological and psychological.
1 Kings tells the story of King Solomon who understood this psychological connection between a mother and a child. One day standing before was two women and one child. Each one claiming to be the mother of the child. After hearing their story, Solomon to resolve the claim asks for a sword to be brought to him. He says divide the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other. One of the women says to divide it; the other says give the child to the woman who wants to divide. King Solomon understanding the psychological connection between a mother and a child. Gives the child to its rightful mother who wants to see it live.
A sacrificial servant mother has not only a biological relationship with a child, but also has a psychological relationship. The third aspect of the sacrificial servant mother is that the relationship is also economical.
The children of the church should be saying praise the Lord on this aspect. Because mothers seem to have a never ending supply of money when their children need or want something. A mother will do without herself to insure that her child doesn’t go longing for something the child needs. I remember my grandmother had a sock she would keep in her bosom. That sock was the original ATM machine. Every time I saw her, it seems that she would reach into her bosom and put out that sock and give me some money.
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A sacrificial servant relationship with a child is biological, psychological and economical.
c. economical – The story of Moses being adopted by the daughter of Pharaoh began as an economical relationship. Why, when she discovers the Hebrew child, she offers to pay a Hebrew woman to care for the child. It just so happens that the woman she pays is Moses mother.
A sacrificial servant relationship with a child is biological, psychological, and economical.
Our text tells us the story of Elkanah the father and husband, Peninnah who has two sons, and Hannah who initially has no children. Peninnah would taut and tease Hannah. Elkanah would try to consol her, but she felt unfulfilled. Hannah prays continuously to God. And God hear answers her pray and she conceives a son – Samuel.
2. sacramental servant
d. gifts comes from God – (Every good and perfect gift comes from God) as a result of Hannah’s prayers to God
e. gifts must be confessed before God – (The fervent and effectual prayer avails much) as a result of pouring out her soul to God
f. gifts must be conveyed to God – as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the God
3. sanctificial servant
a. God has smiled on her – because of her trust
b. God has a plan for her – because of her hope
c. God is operating through her – because of her faith
A Mother’s Joy is sacrificial. It is biological, psychological, and economical.
A Mother’s Joy is sacramental. It understands that gifts come from God, that gifts must be confessed before God, and must be conveyed to God.
A Mother’s Joy is sanctificial. It knows that God has smiled on her, God has a plan for her, and God is operating through her.
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Proverbs says “she opens her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness, she looks well to the ways of her household, and eats not the bread of idleness, and her children arise up, and call her blessed.”
That’s a mother’s joy! – Let me close with these words by John Styles, Jr.
I have worshipped in churches and chapels;
I’ve prayed in the busy street;
I have sought my God and have found him
Where the waves of his ocean beat;
I have knelt in the silent forest
In the shade of some ancient tree;
But the dearest of all my altars
Was raised at my mother’s knee.
I have listened to God in his temple;
I’ve caught his voice in the crowd;
I have heard him speak when the breakers
Were booming long and loud;
Where the winds play soft in the treetops
My father has talked to me;
But I never have heard him clearer
Than I did at my mother’s knee.
The things in my life that are worthy
Were born in my mother’s breast
And breathed into mine by the magic
Of the love her life expressed.
The years that have brought me to manhood
Have taken her far from me;
But memory keeps me from straying
Too far from my mother’s knee.
God, make me the man of her vision
And purge me of selfishness!
God, keep me true to her standards
And help me to live to bless!
God, hallow the holy impress
Of the days that used to be
And keep me a pilgrim forever
To the shrine at my mother’s knee!
A Mother’s Joy that is sacrificial, sacramental and sanctifical is derived from the child whose life is yielded to God!
