Sermon for Mothering Sunday

Scripture is full of people who have taken a risk for God. In Exodus 1, we read of the Hebrew midwives who spared the lives of male Hebrew baby boys. We read of Hannah in Samuel and Esther in, well, the book of Esther. We read of Deborah, the judge, Mary Magdalene, who was the first to meet the resurrected Jesus. Lydia, the mother of Timothy. But in the 2 biblical passages (Exodus 2, Luke 2:33-35) I believe we have two of the most remarkable women in history. Both these women have helped shape the world as we know it. Both women were mothers to sons who would forever change the world.

Jochebed was the name of the woman who gave birth to Moses and then in a twist of fate became his nanny. Mary was the name of the young Jewish girl who took the risk of believing God and becoming the mother of the saviour of the world: Jesus. I don’t think I need to mention what impact both men had on history.

We know more about Mary than we do about Jochebed. History has been much kinder to mother of Jesus than to the mother of Moses but looking at both women we see two ladies who took amazing risks and whose courage saved the world. Imagine how history would be different should Moses’ mother not taken the risk of putting Moses into the basket or if Mary had not accepted the miracle growing in her. How hard was it for both women knowing they were looking after children that weren’t really their own in a number of ways. For Jochebed, while Moses was hers, she had to raise him as if he was an Egyptian Prince. Mary had a son, whom she conceived but I think she understood that in reality she was raising a son who wasn’t hers. But both loved them as only a mother could.

Traditionally, Christianity has always seen God as a male figure but in the last 30 or so years (with the rise of feminism) the concept of Mother God has gained a certain amount of credence in many circles. I’m not particularly keen on the idea of Mother God for a number of reasons, primarily because it has too much in common with the Mother Earth Religions of Paganism and New Age philosophies. But there is no doubt that God has feminine qualities. The Bible is full of feminine images for God. The term El-Shaddai is possibly derived from the Hebrew word from breast and is translated as the more common "mountain" hence God the Mountain. But the Scriptures talk of God as a mother, as a midwife, as a provider and the list goes on and on.

But before I confuse everyone and make everyone think I’m a crackpot loony I want everyone to understand that my understanding of the love of God is through my Mother. And so seeing God as having feminine qualities sits quite easily with me. My father died just before my fourth birthday. I have the odd memory of a man who was kind and gentle but other than the single photo I have of him and the stories from my mother and family I have no recollection of my biological father. I have had to work hard on the idea of God as Father. Books like “The Father heart of God” may as well be written in a foreign language because I do not have the reference points of a Father. It was my mother who raised me as a single mom and so I relate better to the female of usGod than I do the male.

And so my mother has something in common with both Mary and Jochebed. Church history tells us that Jesus’ earthly father Joseph died fairly early in the life of Jesus. We have Biblical record of Moses father but I have little doubt that he didn’t have a lot to do with Moses and so more than likely Moses didn’t know his father. All these women worked tirelessly against some extremely challenging circumstances. My mom raising two boys on her own, Mary looking after a rather substantial family on her own and Jochebed raising her own son as someone else’s.

My mother would say she was taking a risk moving away from her family to ensure that she could get a job to raise us. I think my mother would be mortified if she heard me put her in the same category as Mary and Jochebed, but I think I see in all these women people who have the characteristic of a God who is willing to risk everything for us. Most women would consider their love for their children as the most natural thing in the world but I think loving children is an extremely risky thing to do because there are no guarantees that they will love us back and so mothers show possibly the greatest characteristic of God: the ability to love so deeply it hurts and to love so freely they would die for their children because mothers like God are willing to risk it all for their children.

Amen