Two Mothers and mother church

Preached 10 March 2024 @ Christ Church, Billericay

A Mother's Day reflection on how the church is like a mother.

Reading 1 Sam 1v20-28; Luke 2v33-35

Introduction

Today is Mothering Sunday, now perhaps better known as Mother's Day, to help us celebrate the day, and mothers, we have two readings about two very different mothers – Hannah in the 1 Samuel reading and Mary in the reading from Luke. We will be looking at each of these women and their story later. First, though, I will look a little at the history and intent of Mothering Sunday.

Lent 4

The fourth Sunday of Lent, the halfway point, is also known as Laetare Sunday, which means rejoice and provides some refreshment from the austere festival that is Lent. After the reformation, it came to be a time when Christians returned to their mother churches. That is the church where they were brought up, or possibly the local cathedral. Returning to the church where you were brought up, inevitably meant that you would visit and stay with your parents. People didn’t move around as much as they do now, and there weren’t so many places to stay. This tradition meant that domestic servants would be given the day off to visit their mothers. So, the day slowly turned into Mother's Day. In the mid-20th century, the American celebration of Mother's Day and the reduced attendance at church, further changed the emphasis towards mothers and away from the church.

Flowers

Today we will be distributing daffodils to all the ladies in, or connected to, the congregation. That’s been part of the Christ church tradition for a long time. The traditional flower that was picked by returning grown up children for their mothers was violets.

Bride of Christ

The church is known as the bride of Christ in many places in the New Testament, and we have already seen that the Church is known as a mother. This indicates that the feminine qualities of God are to be demonstrated in the church. The Hebrew word meaning love, and affection, "Ahava" is a feminine noun.

Compare Hannah and Mary

Now, let's have a look at our two mothers to see how they compare. I’ll start with Hannah.

Hannah – background

Hannah was desperate for a child. She lived in a polygamous relationship, and was the favourite wife. But she didn’t have a child, in a time when a childless woman was considered a failure, not even a real woman. The other wife constantly reminded Hannah of her failing to irritate her. One year, when the family made their annual pilgrimage to sacrifice to the Lord at Shiloh, Hannah was praying fervently for a son. Eli, the priest there, thought that she was drunk. In that prayer, she made a vow:

saying, “O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant, but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”

The Lord answered her prayer. Now she has to honour the vow. She named him Samuel, the name sounds like “God heard”. When the child is between two and three years old, they take him to Shiloh to worship the Lord, and leave him with Eli the priest.

Samuel given to Eli

Now Hannah has given up her son to be brought up by the priest, who accused he of drunkenness. I can’t begin to imagine how difficult that would have been for her.

She does not give him up and never see him again. Her love for him continues as best it can. Each year, when they travel to Shiloh, she takes new robes that she has made for him.

Hannah’s Prayer

At the start of the next chapter, we read Hannah’s prayer – her response to receiving the son she so badly craved, and leaving him with the priest. It is pure praise to God.

Mary

In some ways, Mary is at the opposite end of the spectrum to Hannah. When we meet Mary, she is betrothed to Joseph, she is very young, and although she may be thinking about having children, her main focus is on the wedding – which may have been up to a year away.

She has an encounter with an angel, and is told that the Holy Spirit will give her a baby. That whole experience sounds frightening enough, but Mary doesn’t seem that disturbed by any of it.

Instead, she sings a song of praise to God, which has a number of parallels to Hannah’s prayer.

Eighth Day

Now it is the eighth day, and they are in the temple to make a sacrifice for the safe delivery of the child. The law says that “Every firstborn male must be consecrated to the Lord” and that is what they are doing. They are interrupted by Simeon, who had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Christ. Simeon recognizes the baby Jesus as the fulfilment of that promise.

We read that the child’s father and mother marvelled at what was said about him. This is what Simeon said:

Luke 2 ^29-32 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

After blessing them, there is a sting in the tail from Simeon:

“This child is destined to cause the falling s and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

This must have concerned Mary and Joseph, but particularly Mary, as it was addressed to her. What will that mean for her life and her son’s life?

We know that Jesus the Christ died on the cross for our sins, but perhaps you don’t remember that Mary continued to look after Jesus as best she could.

Mary’s difficult time

In Matthew 12^46-50, she and her other sons try to talk to Jesus, only for him to deny his family and use the incident to teach the crowd about God. That must have hurt her.

She will be at the crucifixion too. You never stop being a parent, however old your children are. There, Jesus will make sure Mary is cared for after His death, so however apart they may be at this point, Jesus has done what he must do as the oldest son.

In our reading today, she only has the dimmest glimpse of all these things that are to come. From here onwards, she will be a good mother for the young Jesus until he leaves to follow the ministry He was born for.

Two mothers

We’ve looked briefly at two mothers, on this Mother's Day. Each had a difficult time with their child, mainly due to the circumstances they found themselves in. As parents, we all have our own difficulties with our children, at various times. As children, I expect we were sometimes the cause of difficulties for our parents, particularly our mothers.

Mother’s qualities

The key quality that these two mothers have demonstrated is their worship of the Lord, and their focus on Him. It has clearly helped them through the difficulties they experienced. We would expect the Bible to focus in on that aspect of their personalities. I wondered what other personality traits make a good mother.

To be sure I got some thoughts other than my own, I asked an AI to write 3 haiku’s, this is what I got back:

(1) Gentle hands that hold,
Warm embrace that chases fear,
Love's unwavering light.

(2) Strength that knows no bound,
Guiding light through darkest times,
Roots that hold us true.

(3) Laughter fills the air,
Patience for each tear that falls,
Belief in what we'll be.

Nothing about worshipping God, which is not a surprise to me, as these Large Language Models and very biassed currently.

Spend a little time thinking about your own mother, or the person who filled that role in your life. Do they have all these qualities and more? – I hope so.

Mother church

Putting these ideas together, we can get a good idea of how we should behave as mother church. Particularly, how we should treat others who are younger and less secure in the faith than we are.

Not all mothers are good all the time. We heard of the sad case of a mother accused of murdering her child in the news this week.

Safeguarding

To help to be sure that we, as church, don’t ‘go bad’, we have procedures and training in place – we call it safeguarding. It is a framework of behaviours to keep us on the straight and narrow. In the Bible it is call “love” and it covers all the qualities we have mentioned and more. It would make an interesting Bible Study one day – perhaps if you have a quiet afternoon you could find references for all these qualities. I’m not going to do it now, because I’m coming to the end of the sermon.

Conclusion

We’ve looked at the role the church plays in the world and seen that it is considered to be the mother of the children of God. We’ve seen how our two mothers Hannah and Mary never gave up on looking after their children, even in the most difficult circumstances. That is what mothers do even to this day. That is also what the church is required to do, for all its children.

Amen.

 

References

TBA

 

Preached on-line here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13pyNn99D6A, starting at 25:00.

 

God cares like a mother (8am)

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay on 19 March 2023 at 08:00

Reading Exodus 2v1-10; Luke 2v33-35

Prayer

Father, may these spoken words be true to the written word and lead us all to the living Word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mothering Sunday

Today, as we have already heard, is mothering Sunday. A time when, traditionally, we return to our mother church, and so get to visit our mothers. In our Old Testament reading, we heard about the early days of Moses’ life. But the story concentrates on the desperate actions of his mother. Why would any mother give up her child?

Well, it depends on the circumstances. We have seen in our time that when there is a threat, a mother will do whatever it takes to keep her child safe.

Kindertransport

In 1938, the UK government allowed 10,000 unaccompanied children to enter the UK, to save them from almost certain death under the Nazis. It was known as the kindertransport. Each one of those children was sent here by their parents, who were willing to give up their children, in the hope that they would survive. While at the same time being fairly sure that they themselves wouldn’t.

Evacuations

A short time later, British children were being evacuated from major cities to save them from bombing raids. There are plenty of records from the children's point of view – some loved it, and some hated it. But there doesn’t seem to be much from the parent's point of view. I suspect the parents mainly hated it. Nevertheless, the children were prepared and sent to stay with unknown families, sometimes hundreds of miles away. Anything to keep them safe.

Slaves in Egypt

The Israelites were slaves in Egypt at the time, Moses was born. Despite this, their birth rate was significantly higher than that of the Egyptians, so they were in danger of becoming too numerous. If that happened, the Egyptians feared it would be too difficult to keep them under control and there would be a revolution. So, the pharaoh had taken a decision that all the young boys should be killed as soon as they were born.

Kill Order

As with all oppressive regimes, this order was given and the slaves were expected to carry it out themselves. The midwives were the chosen operatives – their orders: if the woman gives birth to a boy, kill him, if she gives birth to a girl, let her live. But they didn’t obey the order, because they love God more than they fear the Egyptians.

Moses Mother

Jochebed, Moses mother, (Numbers 26:59) already had at least two children when Moses was born. His brother Aaron, just a few years older, who had not been subject to this order, and his sister – Miriam – quite a lot older, who would help out with the saving of Moses.

Baby Noticeable

Moses is now 3 months old, and Jochebed and the family have, so far, succeeded in keeping him hidden, but that’s now becoming impossible. Something has to be done. So a plan is made. I’d love to know how much of it was discussed by the family. I like to imagine them around the dinning table discussing what they will do. If it was their plan, it is certainly high risk. If it wasn’t, what were they expecting to happen?

Crocodiles

So, his mother gets a basket, and makes it waterproof, puts him in it, and puts it in the reeds at the edge of the river. In those days, it is believed that there were crocodiles along much of the river, covering a much greater area than they do today. There’s the first risk – the baby is eaten by a crocodile. There’s not much that the watching Miriam could have done about that. Crocodiles are not known for being easily shooed away.

Pharaoh’s daughter

Pharaoh’s daughter came down to the river to bath, probably not to wash herself, but most likely some sort of religious cleansing ceremony. We must assume that this was a regular occurrence and Jochebed knew roughly when she would arrive. There is still the risk that she might not notice the basket, or might not take any interest in it.

Her attendants stay on the bank, perhaps keeping an eye out for crocodiles, and to ensure she remains safe and undisturbed by the Israelite slaves.

At least one of the attendants (all probably slaves, but probably not Israelites) gets wet retrieving the basket, Pharaoh’s daughter is immediately smitten with the child. Even though she knows he is a slave baby, she decides to keep him.

Back with his Mother

Then Miriam plays her part, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”. He is not yet weaned, and there was no baby formula milk in those days, so someone had to be found who could feed the baby, and the obvious choice is his mother.

But there is still the risk that Pharaoh’s daughter could have decided to take him to the palace and find a wet nurse there.

Now, as a bonus, Jochebed is being paid for a few months to look after her own son, and he is protected from the Egyptian order to kill the baby boys, because he belongs to Pharaoh’s daughter.

Happy Ending?

This is not the happy ending that Jochebed might have hoped for, because as we see from the last verse of the reading, the boy is adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter when he is old enough and so is lost to his mother, but at least she knows he is still alive.

Alternative View

There’s an alternative view to this narrative, and that is that all that happened was the result of some sort of emergency and it was the only thing could do in the short time she had before the baby was discovered.

Where is God?

Either way, you may have noticed that God is not mentioned in this passage. Unlike in our NT reading, there is no prophet delivering the bad news, or a warning, or even a plan for the baby’s rescue. There is no evidence of a direct word from God to Jochebed, which surely would have been recorded if it had happened. So where is God? Is He just an observer, watching and waiting?

What God is doing

That’s not the God I know. The God I know, has his eye on the baby, and is looking after him. We know that Moses will be instrumental in freeing his people from the oppression they are experiencing in Egypt. He will be the man that future generations look back to, and the model for how to be a good Israelite. God will have been there, working to ensure that the right things happen at the right time. Making sure that Pharaoh’s daughter goes to bathe just as the baby is put in the water. Making sure that she notices the basket and is curious enough to look inside. Making sure that the baby is crying at just the right time. Maybe making sure that the local crocodiles are well-fed and sleepy.

How God works

When we look back on things, that is how we see God working in our own time. We rarely get a message from a prophet or a vision of angels as Mary had, but somehow the things God wants to happen, just seem to work out. He shows his love for us in many ways, sometimes that is by providing us with a loving mother like Jochebed, or someone who takes the place of a mother, like pharaoh's daughter.

Mother God

We see in this story that God can be mother for us just as well as he can father for us. (Why not? He created both mothers and fathers). We see His provision of motherly care for Moses, not only by his birth mother but also by pharaoh's daughter, who became his adoptive mother.

Moses didn’t forget

We are not told any more about Moses’ upbringing, but we know that he knew he was a Hebrew (an Israelite), so he is aware of his heritage. At the right time, God will introduce Himself to Moses and the work of redemption will begin.

“but God …”

The Egyptians wanted to reduce the numbers of the Israelites, and make them easier to manage, but God had other ideas, other plans for his people and especially for this family. Out of their number, from the tribe of Levi – the priestly tribe – God chose new leaders in a way that showed His supremacy over the Egyptians. So much so, that He even made them pay for the baby’s care for a few months.

That’s the God that I know!

Amen.

 The sermon was recorded for the video service, my recording is on Youtube: https://youtu.be/XDFcPrr7MfI

References

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/exodus-2-1-10-rev-randy-barker-sermon-on-moses-birth-190823

http://www.stlukemoulsham.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/St_Lukes_Church_Sermon_2020-03-22.pdf

https://minorprophetssermons.wordpress.com/2014/04/23/exodus-21-10/

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2011/mar/12/children-evacuation-london-second-world-war

https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-evacuated-children-of-the-second-world-war

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindertransport