May 9, 2021, 2021 Mother’s Day
Scripture 1 John 5:1-6
5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, 4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6 This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.
Parker was born in August in Michigan. By November, he was diagnosed with asthma. I gave him breathing treatments every four hours right along with his bottle- only way to make sure he was taking in the albuterol. That also meant bundling him up warmly before putting him into his car seat. Snow and winds off the lake posed a challenge. So in addition to his warm coat and hat I laid a diaper over his face to protect his little lungs from the cold. With two boys under three, I had my hands full. I was so relieved when we moved to NY and discovered that he no longer needed breathing treatments. But I always made sure he had on his warm coat – brick red and navy with the plaid flannel interior in the winter or the sky-blue fleece as the weather got warmer. Writing this, I was surprised how clearly those early motherhood memories came flooding back. In honor of Mother’s Day, I hope you are able to wrap yourself in memories of your little ones. Can you picture them in a particular sweater or coat? A favorite memory of yourself in the throes of motherhood? I hope this is also a warm memory and you can embrace the goliath task it is to be a mother. Jill Churchill wrote, “There’s no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one.” I pray you are basking in all the ways you were and are a good one!!!
John Wesley, the Anglican priest who went on to establish the Methodist Church, had this to say about his mother, “I learned more about Christianity from my mother than from all the theologians in England.” Even if we can’t say that, I am sure we have all learned so much from our mothers, especially how to love. How to hold a beloved in our heart and to care and nurture them. The parent child bond is so foundational in our understanding of love, that the writer mentions that bond, when looking at love. As you recall, last week we talked about love- love of God, love of self and love for others. “God is love. We love because God first loved us.” The author of 1 John continues this using family and mothering images- being born of God, parent loves a child, we love the children of God. How appropriate for Mother’s Day!
Several commentators noted how this love passage is a bit circular. In a way that is true. But it also feels like the circle of life- that something is born, to then grow and live and then to die. It is our faith that conquers the world, that conquers our fears, that conquers death. Thank you choir for your reminder of the victory we have over all of that in the resurrection of Jesus. Our faith, our belief, our trust that Jesus is the Christ is the way we are born of God. I love that. Scripture often asks If we are born of God or how do we have a second birth? But here it tells us what we need to do, to be born of God: believe Jesus is the Christ. Jesus is the anointed one, the Messiah, God’s chosen one, the Son of God. Believe that and you are born of God. This is a personal promise to you, but it is also an inclusive promise to everyone! Everyone who believes Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Everyone who loves the parent loves the child. Think about that. If you love the parent, if you love God, then you love the child, God’s Son.
This week walking down at Rio I ran into a couple I married, who are family friends. They have a six-month-old son. As soon as I greeted them, I asked if Everett was here- I was so anxious to meet him. When you love the parent, you love the child. Such fun seeing him wonder about me on our first meeting, all the while my heart was already full for this little fellow, because of my affection for his parents. Everyone who loves the parent loves the child. This holds true with God and His child. We love God and by extension we love God’s Son- Jesus the Christ.
Another cool thing happens here- We have all three parts of the Trinity; God, Son and Spirit. Even though we think in a trinitarian way, God-three-in-One, scripture does not have many examples of this. I love that it is Parent, Child and Truth which makes lots of sense to me. I also must laugh at the Kentucky Derby this week. When we were choosing our favorite horse to win the race, we did not do particularly well. Ralph Gonzales got it right, but there were eight of us who chose the third-place winner- Hot Rod Charlie. I thought it was pretty trinitarian, third place winner and all!!! I would much rather be good at the spiritual stuff than gambling!!!
Our Book study is reading the Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd. Ana, Jesus’ wife, had a miscarriage and is wondering if she would like another child. She says, “I must give myself to something. Why shouldn’t if be motherhood?” Ana who is a writer and has a largeness about her, has struggled with this role. Her wise aunt replies, “Ana, I don’t doubt you should give yourself to motherhood. I only question what it is you are to mother” (pg. 196). We can give birth to someone or something. Birthing someone makes us a mother. Birthing something also makes us a mother. As we reflect on mothers today, it seems fitting to include all the ways women mother a variety of things. We mother careers, we mother our relationships, we mother friendships with our nurturance and caring. Thank you to all women in your many forms of mothering!
John alludes to this as well. We love when we love God and obey his commandments. He is expanding the understanding of love the same way Ana expanded our understanding of motherhood. Obeying God’s commandments is loving God. One commentator expanded my understanding even further by likening the forces of obedience, kinship, belief and love as all woven together like a gravitational field (Feasting on the Word, B2, p.495). The parts of our lives that keep us grounded in who we are in God and Jesus Christ. He writes, “one in which belief, kinship with God and one another, love, obedience, the commandments of God, triumph over the world and ‘our faith’ are all elements encircling each other, held in orbit by a centering energy point, named… as Jesus Christ” (p. 491). Jesus is our centering point, the gravity of our world. The force of physical gravity locks our world in place, loving God and keeping the commandments does the same. John is sharing with us the new commandment of Jesus Christ which does not negate the Jewish commandments but completes them. Love issues in obedience. The assurance that the commands of God are not a burden acknowledges the advent of a new command in Christ. A new center of gravity.
One commentator writes, “Augustine suggests we think of the new commands as the completion of the old and not the consumption of the old commands. The old commands have not been consumed like bread but completed like a coat. Christ completes the command, and now we move forward clothed with Christ, obeying the commands of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. In Christ, God enables the obedience that God asks of us” (Feasting on the Word, B2, p. 492). Christ is the coat we wear as sure as I can see Parker in his sky-blue fleece. Being clothed and warmed by Christ empowers us to follow the commands and love our neighbors.
May we each mother our faith, tenderly putting on our coat, wearing the coat of Christ into the world. The coat of Christ woven with love and obedience. May we be warmed by Christ’s love, and nurtured in our obedience. Amen.
