This past week, on my Facebook page, I posted the following quote:
A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.
A FB friend replied:
This describes my mother perfectly. She raised 9 children and while my father recuperated from a helicopter crash (burned on 80% of his body but lived another 50 years) money was EXTREMELY tight. As the 7th child, I remember one day she started making lunch for her and I when she discovered we were out of bologna. She'd already put mustard on two slices so she scraped the last of the peanut butter out onto the non-mustered bread for me and put the two mustard slathered slices together and proclaimed that "mustard sandwiches were her favorite" (but that remains the only time I ever saw her eat one.). Thanks for that memory Tom. I have to call Mom now.
I celebrate with you, Mother’s Day!
Yes, I know.
Not every mother is able to love as she should.
Who knows what kind of pain she’s passing on?
My mother was a tough customer.
A woman of intelligence and a lively sense of humor.
But abusive of her two sons and her husband.
A lasting sorrow in my life.
Why she was the way she was neither my brother nor I have been able to figure out.
Donna and I have talked about it so many times - without answers for any of it.
I learned just how good a mother could be when I met Donna’s Mom … a kind and thoughtful woman … hard-working all of her life to raise to her family … and worked outside the home, as well.
She was a woman of great love, good humor and deep faith - she left behind a ton of good memories.
I further learned about mothers watching Donna … there are not enough words in my vocabulary to tell her story … but I’m ever-grateful, and her children are crazy about her … and that’s about as good as it gets.
Celebrations of mothers and motherhood are found all around the world and throughout history.
In America, Mother’s Day originated with the Jarvis family in Grafton, West Virginia.
Ann Jarvis, a Methodist Sunday School Teacher, conceived of the idea as a Mother’s Friendship Day, and established a committee in 1868 "to reunite families that had been divided during the Civil War" … she wanted to expand it into an annual memorial for mothers, but she died in 1905 before the celebration became popular.
It was her daughter, Anna Jarvis, who carried the banner after her mother’s death … ultimately leading to the establishment of a formal national day of recognition - in 1914..
In 1870, Julia Ward Howe, wrote “The Mother’s Day Proclamation (see the bulletin), a protest against war - the carnage of America’s Civil War just ended and the Franco-Prussian War underway.
Ms. Howe, a social activist, an abolitionist, authored one of the great American Hymns - anyone know?
That’s right … “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” … written after she and her husband visited Washington D.C. and met Abraham Lincoln at the White House, November, 1861.
Though the hymn is sometimes sung as a hymn of war, it’s a hymn of freedom for American slaves - God’s righteous purpose marching on, to liberate the oppressed, break the chains of slavery, set people free.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Mother’s Day originates in the heart of a woman - her prayers for justice and peace … prayers for healing and social righteousness … prayers for her children.
Mother’s Day is a powerful reminder to all us - as Jesus said so pointedly, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Mother’s Day is a reminder of things that count … the choices we make - the story we live.
Several weeks ago, I shared with you the familiar story of the challenged children running a footrace in a Special Olympics event … you all know the story …
The starter’s gun goes off and ten children begin to sprint toward the finish line, when suddenly, one of the runners stumbles and falls.
The other runners, turn and laugh at the fallen child, blame the child for her clumsiness, laugh at her sprawled on the ground, scold her for being stupid and lazy, telling her that she deserves to lose the race.
So the rest of runners continue the race, pushing and shoving one another, until only one crosses the finish line, to the wild cheers of the crowd.
The winner dances exultantly, pointing a finger at all the rest, calling them “losers” - because we all know there can only be one winner, and only those who push and shove to the finish line will win the day.
Is that how the story goes?
Is that the story we want to hear?
Of course not!
In the original story, the runners all stop, turn around, and pick up the fallen child, and together, arm-in-arm, they help each other reach the finish line, and all of them cross the finish line together.
As I told the first version, how the runners laugh at the fallen child, how did you feel?
Dear friends, what story are we living?
What race are we running?
What story did Jesus live?
What race did he run?
On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus stops to help the troubled woman at the well in Samaria.
On his way to Jerusalem, he stops beneath the Jericho tree in which Zacchaeus had climbed.
He stops along the road to Jerusalem to heal blind Bartimaeus.
Yes, he has a place to go.
A race to win.
But he always stops along the way to help.
Again and again, Jesus stops - to help, heal, bless, make life better - for King Herod? For Pilot? For the people of wealth and power? For the privileged and the comfortable?
To whom does Jesus pay special attention?
In the days of Jesus:
The deaf and blind were scolded, as if it were there own fault - when Jesus healed the blind man in the temple - folks argued whether the man or his parents were to blame for the blindness.
The poor were blamed for their poverty, too … they must have done something wrong to merit God’s displeasure. After all, if they were good, if they did it right, then God would bless them, too.
Which is why the disciples were surprised when Jesus said:
It will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded. [Matthew 19.23-25]
The disciples thought wealth was a sign of God’s favor.
Yet Jesus is clear in the parable of the Rich Fool - wealth is often the result of graft and greed … the lust for power, the willingness to run the race, and never turn to help anyone who has fallen.
Which story shall we live today?
Our nation is at a crossroads … like we were in the 1850s … trying to figure out what story to live.
Shall we be a nation of slave-holders or a nation wherein all free?
Are we nation bound together by a great vision of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Or shall we cease being a nation, with the States pitted against one another, everyone going their separate ways?
We salute Abraham Lincoln because he refused to let America tell a cheap story about itself … and there were some who wanted the cheap story so badly they were willing to fight a war over it.
Jesus tells us: You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
Jesus is LORD and Savior because he refuses to let God’s People tell a cheap story about themselves … and there were some who wanted the cheap story so badly, they were willing to tell lies about Jesus and crucify him.
We have a story to tell.
A story told by Jesus every time he stopped to help someone.
A story told by Ann and Anna Jarvis.
A story told by Julia Ward Howe.
A story told by Abraham Lincoln - we are a nation, bound together by a common vision of liberty and justice for all.
I pray that America will take a deep breath … to celebrate Mother’s Day by celebrating every day our core values, our family families - with a simple recognition - that we all owe to one another a debt of love, because we are all brothers and sisters in God’s great family - what we need to do for one another can only be done collectively - like the children in the race, arm-in-arm, we cross the finish line.
What story shall we live?
For us as Christians, no task more important but to remind our nation, our politicians, remind the wealthy and the powerful to whom much has been given, and to remind ourselves everyday - of our high callings.
The high callings of love and kindness.
The highest of all callings … to provide for the welfare of our children.
Black and Yellow, Red and White … every color of the rainbow, they are precious in his sight … Jesus loves the little children of the world.
And that’s why we celebrate Mother’s Day!
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
That’s the news from Calvary on the Boulevard.
Where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.
Happy Mother’s Day Calvary!
Happy Mother’s Day America.
Amen and Amen!
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