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.
In Romans chapter one we read - RO 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Surely the hearts that are leading this nation have been darkened - in relation to Motherhood when you consider 16,000 children lost annually to abortion - in relation to Families when you consider the liberal trend towards impurity and unholiness and in relation to enjoying God’s protection when you consider the secularisation of our nation at a National level as Paul says RO 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
I believe that when the leadership of this nation failed to respect God with Grace at the recent royal dinner it was a small step for Helen Clark but a huge step into the darkness for this nation.
He goes on to show the result of that is that God gives them over to all forms of disgusting habits. What the bible says is true. The elevation of people like Georgina Byars is a symbol of what has actually happened to this nation.
Surely then the Church needs to be a beacon of light to the world in a society like this and further we need to clean up our own act.
If we consider that we have a desire to see a society that is a suitable cocoon for Mothers and for families in general then we need to make some commitment to both create a personal environment where Motherhood can be a beacon of light and then also contribute to our society in such a way that we are agents of change in it.
In world wars one and two front lines like Flanders field - Gallipoli and Egypt were in fact defended because people then thought that God and country were worth protecting.
The Mothers and children of New Zealand were considered deserving to grow up in a society where God and His standards were able to be enjoyed here in freedom.
That is where our flag with the crosses on it and our national anthem God defend New Zealand came from.
But friends there is a new frontier now for Christians we need to be a beacon of Christ’s light to our nation if Families are to enjoy the blessing of God and a wholesome society.
Of course we are not only to be a beacon but like a lighthouse we need to be in touch with the source of light - God Himself.
Jesus said - "I am the light of the world." We can’t possibly shine christ’s light unless we personally are in touch with Jesus. That is why prayer - bible reading and regular worship are so incredibly important.
To many of us are trying to drill holes with rechargable drills that are in fact run down - we need constantly to be going to the source of our Power God himself.
Secondly there is a call.
The church always had a call to the vulnerable - the hurting and the lost. The church in the end often needs to play the part of Mother and Father to the lost and hurting. Jesus himself constantly reached out to the hurting and the lonely.
6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, preach this message: `The kingdom of heaven is near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
MT 9:12 On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."
God requires mercy not sacrifice - The Pharisees and teachers of the law had in this passage been criticising him for being with the wrong people trying to reach them with the love of God.
So much of what we do is sacrifice as opposed to mercy -
We might spend hours sacrificing our time for some "good deed" that doesn’t really need done.
I remember once helping someone - giving them stuff etc - because I felt obliged to - only to find later on that they didn’t need it - that was sacrifice but it wasn’t mercy.
The call of the Christian is to practice mercy and that involves touching real needs.
Often we drive to a Christian confgerence or meeting or whatever and pass countless lonely people - broken homes - and battered children - people who christ would have us touch with his love.
Last year in our own parish as we were seeking a vision for our ministry here I felt quite strongly that god was calling us to touch the hurting children here in our own towns and neighbourhoods.
But god calls us to reach out beyond our own culture as well.
There is an incredible story told of a man who reached out during the Rwanda crisis some years ago.
Doug Nichols
The other experience that makes the chapter rich for me right now is the connection that it has with Doug Nichols, the President of Action International Ministries. Doug is the man who wrote to Tom Steller last summer and suggested that our church get an airplane and take a couple hundred people to Rwanda to help bury the dead so that doctors and nurses could do what they were sent to do. He spoke at our Pastors’ Conference a week or so ago, and gave one of the most stirring messages I have heard in a long time. Action International specializes in reaching street children around the world.
To show you the kind of person he is he wrote me last week to thank me for the conference and put a PS at the bottom of his letter:
In the last ’one minute’ that it possibly took you to read this letter, 28 children died of malnutrition and diseases that could have been easily prevented. 1,667 die every hour, 40,000 children die daily! Please pray with ACTION for more missionaries to take the Gospel to these children.
Doug was found to have colon cancer in April of 1993. They gave him a 30% chance of living after his surgery and colostomy and radiation treatments. Last fall he got on a plane and went to Rwanda with our Dr. Mike Anderson and some others. His non-Christian oncologist said he would die in Rwanda. Doug said that would be OK because he is going to heaven. The oncologist called his surgeon to solicit help in not letting Doug go to Rwanda. The surgeon is a Christian and said, "It’s okay, Doug’s ready to die and go to heaven."
We got word here that Doug, was going -- with his cancer and his colostomy -- to Rwanda. I recall gathering in the prayer room with the staff and very specifically and being led to Isaiah 58:7-8, which we prayed for Doug:
Is [the fast I choose] not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery [i.e., your healing] will speedily spring forth.
We prayed very specifically that the feeding of the hungry and the housing of the homeless in Rwanda would not kill but heal Doug Nichols.
From Rwanda Doug called his Jewish oncologist and said he was not dead. And when he got back he had a battery of tests which resulted in the assessment NED: no evidence of disease. If he makes it to April -- the two year mark - - without recurrence of the cancer, doctors give him a good chance of living out his normal span of life. Doug is 53.
So you can see that Isaiah 58 has some very significant associations in my life. And I am praying that we will hear the message of this chapter for our church -- our Master Planning Vision for the next five years and beyond. There is something very close to Jesus’ heart in this chapter. You can hear it coming out in his words in Luke 4:18 ("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.’") A trusting relationship with Jesus is the way Isaiah 58 will be fulfilled in your life. The burden of this chapter pervades the ministry of Jesus -- and more and more I believe it should pervade our ministry as well.
I believe that there is a challenge here in our own parish - firstly to be actively reaching out with the real love of Christ to real needs in our society - and secondly to look beyond our own world to go and touch the most painful of needs with the love of Christ.
Such a call may seem to be far and beyond a sermon on Motherhood.
But when you consider the great personal promises and blessings that are directly connected with caring for the hurting and oppressed and when you consider how one life lived in a Godly way can make such an incredible difference you realise that creating a climate of Christ like compassion can in fact create the blessed environment that many need.
Add to that the beacon of light that our Mothers and our community can be as we abide in christ and you have an incredibly powerful climate for change here in our own Parish.
