“Fierce Love: Abundant Life”
John 10:1-18
May 11, 2014, First Presbyterian Church of Jesup
Mother’s day as many holidays in our household growing up meant breakfast in bed. My sister and I would conspire with our Dad to pick out some breakfast treat, perhaps pick some flowers from the garden, then put them all on a tray and carry them to my parents room. Nowadays, Mother’s day has taken on a different meaning for me as I have grown up and had so many dear friends become mothers themselves. I delight in the joy of my friends’ parenting, the milestones of walking, talking, and being called “Aunt Kafleen.”
At the same time, I have a number of friends and family, for whom desires of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood have brought many struggles, frustrations, and pain. Perhaps you have experienced similar struggles. If so, know that especially on this day of the celebration of mothers, your pain is known by God, upheld by our God who knows the birth pains of creation and the deep loss of the death of a child.
For some this day is a day that is a sharp reminder of being single. A day lifting up motherhood as if it is the absolute highest calling for everyone can be frustrating, possibly even belittling for those who long to be mothers and are not as well as for those who do not feel called to be a mother. If this is so for you, know that God has a call for each of us in every place of our lives, every family configuration, every life stage. God has a call for you.
For some this day stings as a reminder of strained or absent relationships with mothers or grandmothers. Know in this day and all days that you have been adopted into the family of God, and surrounded with God’s unfathomably deep love.
As a pastor, my task is to bring God’s Word to you all, to invite the Holy Spirit into my words so that they may be transformed into something that will draw you closer to God, challenge or strengthen you in your walk of faith. With that goal in mind I struggle with how to address Mother’s day, not wanting to hurt or alienate anyone in the varied ways this day can effect us all. Some preacher just avoid speaking about the day at all together, after all it’s not a day on the church calendar, but rather it’s a national holiday. I too was tempted to avoid it, until I came across the 1870 Mother’s Day Proclamation.
Did you know that Mother’s Day was originally started after the Civil War, as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who had lost their sons? I had no idea, but I was inspired by the place of vulnerability and strength from which this day arose. I will read to you the original Mother’s Day Proclamation from 1870 by Julia Ward Howe, who is also known as the author of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”:
“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says “Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.” Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God. In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.”[1]
What a change this is from how Mother’s day is celebrated today. While I am certainly not opposed to honoring our mothers with cards, flowers, brunches, and presents, I was amazed that the sweet feminine holiday we now celebrate today originally came from such activist and feminist roots.
What would it be like to reclaim this sort of unification and message of peace that this mother’s day originally symbolized? What if we were to honor our mothers through compassion for the weak and support for the disenfranchised?
The Psalmist writes in Psalm 68:5-6a: “Father of orphans and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. God gives the desolate a home to live in.” In fact, ten different times throughout the Bible there is a pleading appeal for the care of widows and orphans. God cares deeply for those who are marginalized.
Jesus offers his own image of what this sort of care for those in need can look like. 
In Matthew 23:27b Jesus’ care for us is described as a mother hen, saying, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.” I know a number of you have witnessed this sort of care firsthand, a hen with chicks beneath her, covering them with her warmth and any protection. Hens are not known for any notable amount of strength or intelligence, but in the face of trouble, they will protect their chicks with all they have, which is their wings, their warmth, their own lives.
In our passage we read today we hear another example of what God’s bold and vulnerable love looks like, a good shepherd laying down his life for his sheep. When I was working with a youth ministry while in seminary I had an experience where a boy of another group was cruel towards a girl from my group. I would not put up with this. I immediately snapped to attention, stopped him right there, alerted his counselors and my supervisor. 
This intense mothering reaction towards this girl from my group earned me the nickname “momma bear” among the youth with whom I was working. And though I am not a parent I get what it means when Jesus says “the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” It doesn’t even seem like a choice, but rather an inevitability, that love propels us towards protection, and if need be, sacrifice.
What would it be like to take up our role in bringing about God’s kingdom; to reflect the great and good shepherding passion of Christ?
A real and jarring image of those lost and in the grasp of wolves is the story of the over two hundred girls who were kidnapped in Nigeria. It is a heart-breaking story, made even more troubling in how the media for largely ignored it for over two weeks before it enter the public consciousness.
Knowing that our good shepherd cares about each and every one of us and knows by name does not mean that we’re off the hook for knowing and caring for one another. These girls are quite exceptional and it is important that we know their story, that we share in the international outcry to bring them back to their community, to their lives.
In a part of Nigeria where 72% of the population never attends elementary school, these girls were in high school, living in a boarding home so that they could pursue an education. They have goals and desires for a brighter future for themselves and for their country. [2]
I saw an interview this week with the family of a girl who was taken. Her mother pleaded, “Let them release these girls…. probably one of them was born a president or a doctor or a pastor or a lawyer who will be helpful to the country. Please let him release them.”[3]
I can’t even imagine the ache of this mother’s heart, the ache of this whole region. Imagine then, the ache of God’s heart at such a great many people around the world who are hurting, oppressed, and separated from loving community.
So what can we do, half a world away from this tragedy? We can take up the cries of the women of that original mother’s day proclamation. We can strive to reclaim peace in our world through seeking reconciliation in our personal relationships, action in our government, and prayer in our communities.
We can take seriously the worth of all people around the world, seeking to know their stories and bring injustice into the light. We can shed the docility with which we treat our mothers and women at large and seek to support them in empowering ways. We are called to bring peace to this world but not hide in docility. May God reveal your role in transforming this world into God’s kingdom. Amen.
[1] http://www.peace.ca/mothersdayproclamation.htm
[3] http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/07/world/africa/nigeria-abducted-girls/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
Presbydestrian 