Sermon Text: Luke 24:44-53
Mothers' Day/Ascension Sunday, 8 May 05
Every Mothers' Day I think of the church and particularly my first church. Out in Barrow County, the ritual on Mothers' Day is to have a contest in the worship service. And it was always a "bear trap." Here's how the ritual went:
"Will the woman with the most children please stand up?" If Edna Wall was there, she had six children, but Edna didn't always come to church. Louise Bryant had five children (four of them valedictorians) and Louise was always at church or doing something good for somebody, but if Edna came to church that Sunday, Edna got the corsage and Louise didn't get recognized. So that was a sticky situation.
Then there was the corsage for the oldest mother there, but that was a problem too. Mary Hardegree was always there on the front row, and Mary was a sweet lady who didn't mind telling you her age. But Sadie Miles was also there and Sadie didn't want anybody to know how old she was. So I would say, "Do we have a mother here who is 95? 94? 93? Well, I would get down to 85 and Mary Hardegree would raise her hand, but when she did, Sadie Miles would always speak up, "I'm not going to say, but I'm older than Mary." So we'd call Mary's name every year but Sadie would get the corsage.
The last category was also a bear trap. "Will the youngest mother with the most children please stand up?" One of Edna's daughters, Julie, also had a lot of children, but it was a touchy thing because several of them had different last names and some of them had the family name (which raised a lot of eyebrows). Well, Julie never came to church except on Mothers' Day where she would get a corsage for youngest mother with the most children. For a lot of years I resented Julie happening to show up on Mothers day. And just now, I'm starting to understand. Somehow the church was the only place in town which would give Julie validation for her life, imperfect as it was.
So today, we're not recognizing individual women for their age or number of children, because we can't all be a part of the child-bearing sorority. You need to know that a lot of people don't come to church on Mothers' Day; it's just too painful. But what we are remembering today is that all of us had a mother. Some of them were like Louise Bryant or Mary Hardegree -- nurturing, always involved, always working for their own kids and the kids in the community. Most of the good moms we know are also making good experiences for other kids. A lot of us were mothered by women who were not our mothers -- we had church mothers, the mother of our best friend, the mothers in the neighborhood. A lot of elementary school teachers support kids who need love, stability and nurture. These surrogate mothers absolutely made the difference for some of us whose biological mothers were less ideal, less nurturing.
Dr. Gary McGiboney spoke to our men's group yesterday about the problems of today's youth. Gary is a deputy superintendent in the Dekalb County school system and one the areas he has is troubled kids. Gary told us that the time kids start having trouble is the time when adults stop being involved in their lives. When we quit eating together, quit talking together, quit doing things together, quit spending time together, kids get in trouble.
Every one of us, deep down inside, responds to structure, to expectations. We need somebody to care. We crave somebody to say, "You can do this! You can't do that!"
Now in this light look at today's scripture. Jesus is going away and he's giving instructions to the disciples. Notice there are 3 stages:
Stage 1 -- he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. He talked about the law, the prophets and the psalms (the Old Testament). The Old Testament, boiled down, is God loves us and God expects we will love God. And when we don't God is mad; but God also gets over it and forgives us.
Stage 2 -- Jesus says that the entire Old Testament is now fulfilled in Him! Everything God was doing in the books Jesus now does -- his life, his death and his resurrection is God's work: "Turn from your sickness, turn from your ignorance, turn from your hatred. Trade in your failures. In my life, death and resurrection you are forgiven."
Stage 3 -- Jesus now expects the disciples to carry this message -- repentance and forgiveness -- in his name.
Another word for "repentance" is "take a look at." The people who really love us care enough to say to us, "Take a look at yourself. Is this the kind of person you want to be? Is this what you have worked your whole life for? . . .Is this the marriage you always wanted? Or is there something better, truer? Repentance is not about feeling sorry or bad; repentance is seeing and choosing a better way, a happier way.
I saw Dr. Phil a couple of weeks ago. He had a married couple, a mother and a father. The father had taken up with a desperate housewife in the neighborhood. For the whole hour Dr. Phil talked to all 3 of them about the lives they were living, the immaturity of acting on impulse, and the destruction they were causing to their children. And then he offered them a saner, healthier, responsible life. It meant changing their behavior. It meant forgiving the past, but not repeating it.
Both of the women said, "Yes, I want to be the best for my children. I will change my ways for something better." Only the husband was unwilling to change. On national television he could not say, "I will change my direction." He had a psychologist ready to give him the help, he had the support of his wife who would take him back and he had the word of his old girlfriend that she would live her own life. But he could not make the turn.
Notice that the women, the mothers, could clearly see the need to make life stable and safe for their children. The women were able to repent, to see a new life. And they were able to forgive and move on.
Repentance is hard, hard work. It takes courage. Repentance is our work, the work God gives to us.
But then there's forgiveness. How do you let go of the past? How do you let go of the wrongs, the damage, the old memories? This is where Jesus steps in -- He takes it all. He took it with him to the cross. He is our forgiveness, the work of God. And then, He gives us a resurrection. A new life.
Back to the Archive