This sermon was delivered on May 12, 2002 for Mother's Day.
Think for a minute about your mother or someone who has been like a mother to you. What qualities does that person have? Are they nurturing, loving, correcting? How about providing, sustaining, life-giving? Or maybe gentle, powerful, knowing? Is there someone else you know who shares these qualities? What about God? Hmmmm...when you think about it this way, God is a maternal figure. God loves us as a mother loves her children. God mothers Us!
- A mother knows her child and God Knows us. God knows everything about us—everything. Whether we like it or not, our mothers tend to know everything about us too. They sense hurt or pain in our voices, they know our heart, they know who we are at the most fundamental level. Remember as a child, knowing for sure you were going to get away with something? Who was the first person to know? Mom. It was inevitable. Soon, you learned that it was just easier to tell her everything than to try to hide anything. God knows us this way! We can’t hide anything from God, so why try? We should confess to God the same way we confessed to coloring on the bedroom walls or breaking a vase. Fess up! God knows anyway. God knows everything about us and loves us anyway.
- A mother sustains and provides. God Sustains and provides. When things get rough, you call your mama. When things get really rough, you call on God. I remember when I was in college, things would start piling up—papers, laundry, reading. When it got too much to handle the first thing I did was pick up the phone and call my mom. The second thing I did was pray. As I’ve grown older I’ve learned that these two actions were not separate. I was learning the maternal character of God! Like a mother hen, God gathers us under God’s wings and protects us. In the barnyard when rain begins falling, the mother hen will extend her wings and gather her chicks into the dry safety of her feathers. When the rains of life fall, God too gathers us under the feathers of God’s huge outstretched arms. As if this weren’t enough, God’s son Jesus Christ outstretched his own arms to protect us all from ourselves. Through this act, God truly gave us life. God gives us life and sustains us. God gives us life, and like a mother, God sustains us.
- A mother gives life or adopts us into their life. God does both! Many of you know that I am adopted. When I was a child, my parents used to tell me, “Everyone gets adopted once. God adopts us into God’s life. Some people are just lucky enough to get adopted twice” Adoption is one of the greatest expressions of love, for both mothers. Adopted children have 3 mothers looking out for them—their birth mother, their adopted mother, and God. Talk about lucky! Aside from formal adoption, we also get “adopted” by other mothers. Go ahead, think about it, who else was a mother to you when you were a kid. The lady across the street, your Sunday school teacher, your minister, your parent’s co-workers. There’s a common saying, “God couldn’t be everywhere at once, so God created grandmothers”. I think that mothers, grandmothers, and maternal figures embody God’s presence in our world. Through these people, God gives us life. We are all adopted into God’s presence.
- A mother corrects and disciplines her children and, of course, God corrects us, too. I know why we all have middle names. It isn’t to pay homage to past relatives; it isn’t because it sounds better. Nope, the reason we have middle names is simple: its an early warning system. Kind of like the “tones” they issue on tv or radio when a tornado is coming, when your mother uses your full name you KNOW you are in trouble. God knows us by name. God has our names inscribed on the palm of God’s hand. Have you ever heard God call your name? Think about it. I sincerely believe when you hear your mother call you by your full name—even in your head or in your dreams—God is calling you. God is calling you be an obedient child. God is calling you by name!
- Mothers search for their "lost" children just as God searches for "lost" sheep. There are mothers who lose their children to drugs, alcohol, gangs, or other problems. Yet, a mother NEVER gives up on her child. She’ll try almost anything to rescue her child from whatever or whomever has taken her child away. In one of my favorite parables, Jesus talks about the lost sheep. He says “which one of you having a hundred sheep and losing one does not live the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it”. Then, Jesus talks about a woman who loses a coin and searches until she finds it. The point of the parables is simple: There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over the sinner who repents. When we are lost, God searches us out and finds us. God finds us even when we don’t want to be found. God rejoices when we are found!
- There is nothing as powerful as a mother's love except the power of God's love. Today’s scripture from Hosea demonstrates that kind of maternal love. God’s love sustains us even when we don’t want anything to do with it. Perhaps the most harmful words to every escape a teenagers mouth are “I hate you”. In the country song, Un-conditional, Clay Davison talks about this very thing. The song starts with a boy coming in late, having an altercation with his dad and then storming out of the house saying “I hate you” The father replies: “OK. But you can’t stop my love for you. It will be here that’s a given as long as I am living on this earth, know one thing is true. You could turn away forget me. Curse my name but love will never let you know. Son always know, My love is unconditional”. I think that’s how a mother’s love works and I’m sure that’s how God’s love works too. No matter what we do, our mother will always love us. No matter what we do, God will always love us. Nothing is more powerful than that kind of love!
It might be a little strange to think about God in this way, but one way of looking at God is as our Great Mother. Today’s reading from Isaiah shows us how maternal our God can be. God will carry us on God’s arms and dandy us on God’s knee. God is our Mommy! I’d like to close today with the words from Mother God’s Lullaby written by Susan Siemers:
Here's Mother God; she's here to uphold you.
Sweet Mother God; whose arms will enfold you.
Your prayers lay your cares on her and they are shed.
The kiss of her caring lies soft on your head.
Sweet soothing strains of her soft lullaby
Are sung just for you, child, hush, don't you cry.
Her comfort surrounds you, protects without end;
She is your loving friend.
I'm Mother God and you come to me.
Mother and child feel tranquility.
We are together as we both desire,
melded in spirit that warms like a fire.
We rock in a boat named "Mother God Fair,"
Slow steady motion that shows you my care.
My comfort surrounds you, protects without end;
I am your loving friend.
I am your God, and you are my child,
Strong solid bond that's never defiled.
Making you part of my great family,
holding you, hoping you never will flee
From my holy refuge that holds all who care.
Love over-flowing for millions to share.
My comfort surrounds you, protects without end;
I am your loving friend.
Sweet comfort surrounds you, protects without end;
We love you, child. A-men.