Exodus 20:12
SERMON – A word for Mothers’ Day
I saw somewhere, ‘A Job Description for Mothers’.
1. This is a permanent job.
2. The successful applicant must be prepared to work hard.
3. The workplace is often a challenging and chaotic environment.
4. Applicants must possess excellent communication and organizational skills
and be willing to work variable hours,
which will include evenings and weekends and frequent 24 hour shifts on call.
5. Extensive chauffeuring duties also required, but your travel expenses will not usually be reimbursed.
6. Some overnight travel will be required,
including trips to camping sites on rainy weekends,
and countless sports tournaments in faraway places.
7. Must be willing to be hated, at least temporarily, until someone needs £5.
8. Must be willing to bite tongue repeatedly.
9. Must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case, this time, the screams from the backyard are genuine, and not just someone crying wolf or playing.
10. Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets and stuck zips.
11. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars and coordinate production of multiple homework projects.
12. Must have ability to plan and organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental outlooks.
13. Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an embarrassment the next.
14. HEALTH AND SAFETY: Must be able to handle the assembly and product safety testing of hundreds of toys and battery operated devices.
15. ATTITUDE AND DEMEANOUR: Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst. Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end product.
16. Responsibilities also include floor maintenance, laundering and janitorial work throughout the place of employment.
17. PROMOTION PROSPECTS: None. Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that those in your charge can ultimately surpass you.
18. PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE: None required, because no other form of employment is totally relevant, but On-the-job in-service training is offered on a continually exhausting basis.
19. WAGES AND BONUSES: None; job satisfaction is what you hopefully receive.
20. OUTLAYS: You pay every bill for your child at least until turn 18 because of the assumption that college will help them become financially independent.
When you die, you give them whatever is left.
The strangest thing about this reverse-salary scheme is that you should enjoy it and wish you could only do more.
21. BENEFITS: While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition reimbursement, no paid holidays and no bonuses are offered; this job supplies limitless opportunities for free hugs for life if you play your cards right.
22. TENURE: For the rest of your life.
Obviously some ‘tongue in cheek’ is contained here, but I am sure many mothers here will relate to some, if not all of it
NOW – a story illustrating the importance of mothers.
A girl came home from playing with a friend, a little later than expected,
so her mother immediately said "Mary, why are you late?"
Mary said, "I was walking home with Julie, when Julie dropped her doll and it broke".
"O, I see", said her mother, "so you stopped to help Julie fix her doll?"
"No," said Mary "we couldn't fix the doll, so I stayed and helped Julie to cry!"
That's called compassion, and Mary probably got that from her mother.
ANOTHER STORY - I read somewhere that in South America
members of a highland tribe came down and attacked a village of the lowland people.
The highlanders smashed up the village and left taking plunder including a baby.
The men of the lowland village were not very fit
and were afraid of going up into the mountains,
so when the baby's mother begged them to help her,
they just shrugged and went away with their heads down.
The baby’s mother set off up a path into the mountains and disappeared.
She was gone 2 days and 2 nights
but when she came back she was carrying her baby with her.
The men said "How could you, a mere woman, climb all the way up there
and face those ruthless tribesmen?"
"It was my baby", she replied.
What she did for her child, most women would do for theirs,
and that is what Jesus Christ did for us.
Even though we were far from perfect, he died for us.
The word ‘mother’ appears 42 times in the NIV.
It would be good to look at them all, but because of the limitations of time,
we will only look at some of them.
The first one is Genesis 2:24
which tells us that no matter how much someone loves their mother,
and how much their mother loves them,
the time must come when they get married and move out.
This doesn’t mean that they never come back or that mothers – and fathers –
have nothing more to do with them,
only that the time comes when they have to stand on their own feet.
Mothers – and fathers – will still be there for them,
but just as Jesus left Mary – and Joseph if he was still alive,
and set up home in Capernaum,
so one day our children will fly the nest and become ‘independent’.
Many people, parents as well as children, seem to forget
that Exodus 20: 12 is not an option; it is a commandment of God,
and for those who break it, there is Leviticus 20:9 –
‘If anyone curses his mother, or father, he must be put to death’;
note – MUST BE; forgiveness, and giving them a 2nd chance was not an option.
Deuteronomy 21:18 and 27:16 both say that a SON who brings dishonour or disgrace on his mother – or father – is to be cursed publicly, why?
because it says in Proverbs 10 verse 1 says ‘ a foolish son brings grief to his mother’.
Obviously God, who gave the commandments and whose Holy Spirit inspired all the teachings and prophecies, takes being a parent very seriously, which is why the commandment ‘Honour your mother, and father’ is repeated word for word,
in Deuteronomy 5, Matthew 15, Mark 7, Luke 18, and Ephesians 6.
Jesus seemed to give grief to his mother, Mary, on 3 occasions:
the first is recorded in Luke chapter 2
where, during a family visit to Jerusalem to observe the Passover,
Jesus, aged only 12, when he went off to the Temple
where he taught the adults who were there,
while Mary and Joseph travelled home.
When they discovered he was missing, they had to leave the rest of their party
and go back to Jerusalem to look for him.
He, a 12-year old boy, not a man according to Jewish Law
until he was Bar Mitzvahed at the age of 13, was only his own for 3 days.
Luke 2:48 records Mary as saying ‘Son, why have you treated us like this?
Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.’
This must be an understatement, Mary and Joseph must have been worried sick;
I am sure we would have been,
but Jesus was safe, and while his earthly father or stepfather was anxious,
His heavenly Father would have known where He was every minute,
and would have been pleased at what Jesus was saying and doing.
It is not difficult to sympathise with the mother of Zebedee’s sons, James and John;
because she was no more of a sinner than any other human being;
and was only doing what any decent mother would do, in Matthew 20 v.21,
when she wanted the very best for her kids.
Jesus seemed to give grief to his mother in Matthew 12.
Somewhere near to Capernaum and by the banks of Lake Galilee,
Jesus is healing the sick
and driving out evil spirits
and teaching about the Sabbath and predicting that He would die and be resurrected,
it says in verse 47 ‘Someone told him,
“Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you”
and Jesus replied in verse 48 “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?”
and in verses 49 and 50, ‘pointing to his disciples, he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, is my brother and sister and mother.”
We know what Jesus was getting at,
and from the very minute that Gabriel told Mary in Luke 2
that she would be the mother of the Son of the Most High God,
she knew that Jesus was special,
but imagine how Mary must have felt when she heard this.
I am sure Jesus would have explained this to her and given her a big hug afterwards,
because he would not have wanted to hurt His mother.
Jesus would also have given his mother grief when he was hanging on the cross,
because John 19 verse 25
records that Mary was one of the eye witnesses of his crucifixion,
and just as He demonstrated His obedience to his heavenly Father’s will
by going to the cross,
and demonstrated His love for us by taking physically
the punishment we deserve for our sins,
so Jesus also demonstrated His love for His mother
by commanding his disciple to take Mary into his own home and honour her, feed her, protect her and treat her, as his own mother.
Jesus obviously did not deliberately set out to cause his mother grief,
because to do so, would have been a sin.
He had a mission, a duty, to fulfil, and He was obedient to that,
even though Mary, a His human, birth mother, would find it hard to understand,
even bearing in mind the angel Gabriel’s words to her 33 years or so earlier.
As Jesus was obedient to His heavenly Father’s will, so Mary was obedient too,
as it shows in Luke 1 verse 38 where her words are recorded:
“I am the Lord’s servant” and “May it be to me as you (the angel) have said.”
She was prepared to experience pain for God.
The pain of child birth and the pain of witnessing her son’s death,
but at least she was one of the first to be blessed with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost when the New Testament church was born,
because in Acts 1verse 14 we see that Mary was one of the first Christians,
who joined together constantly to devote themselves to prayer.
It is right for Christians to venerate Mary
and regard her as a wonderful role model for all mothers, not only Christian mothers,
but nowhere in the Bible does it say we should worship her or pray to her,
or any other dead saint.
So today we thank God for our mothers, and if we still have them, show them that we appreciate them and love them,
and that we will look after them in their old age as they looked after us in our infancy,
and we thank God for all those mothers
who were instrumental in bringing men and women to faith
by telling their children Bible stories, singing hymns or choruses to them,
bringing them to Sunday School, and praying for them and with them.
We have all heard of Billy Graham and other evangelists
but how many millions of Christian mothers have preached and lived the Gospel
so that the message has been handed down through the generations?
I don’t want to over spiritualise the commandment in Exodus 20
because God wants us, orders us,
to honour, respect and obey our fathers and mothers,
and if more young people did,
and if more parents gave their children a good example,
there would be less crime and more happiness in society,
with less need for Social Workers and prisons,
but there is a spiritual message in that God is our Father
and the Church is often referred to as our mother.
In Revelation the worldwide Church is described as the Bride of Christ.
Today, and every day let us thank God our heavenly Father for His grace,
and honour and serve our spiritual mother, the church, this church, in every we can.
Amen.
