Mothering Sunday Resources

A Mothering Sunday Service 20011  A,   B,  C

Commentary

 

It has been difficult for the church to understand how a poor peasant girl like Mary could become the Mother of God. Later church traditions jettisoned the image of the ordinary poor peasant girl and made her into something much more special. The Egyptian goddess Isis and other important female goddesses had virgin births, so Christians went one better with Mary. She not only had the virgin birth of Jesus she was also born immaculate herself, without sin. For many Christians Mary has become, sinless and denied even a proper death she was instead assumed into heaven.
So what was the real Mary like ? Well we can find out much from the words of the Magnificat which was the song of Mary. This is the song she sang when she went to visit Elizabeth who would give birth to John the Baptist

Mary's Song of Praise

And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed,for the Mighty One has done great things for me,and holy is his name.His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,and lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things,and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel,in remembrance of his mercy,according to the promise he made to our ancestors,to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.

You may notice that the Magnificat is the most any woman gets to say in the whole of the New Testament. Women were not then and never were given equality in the church. Their voices were not heard, they had no power or authority. Mary recognises this prejudice when she says that her ‘soul magnifies the Lord, and her spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, 
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.

Mary knows that she is lowly and her reason for rejoicing is that God has acknowledged this lowly state and he has chosen to honour it. From Mary we understand that God deliberately chose to abide with the poor, the humble and the lowly. She talks about lowliness, that is about her real social position, she is poor, she is at the bottom of the pile. She had nothing apart from God. She was a poor girl in occupied territory who was part of a people who were heavily taxed by Rome, the local government and the Jewish religious system, she was one of the exploited. Mary does not want to magnify herself in any way, she knows how ordinary she is. It defeats the whole reasoning behind the Magnificat if we start pretending that Mary was somehow special in being sinless or different.  Mary was the wife of the carpenter, the poor working man’s wife who had nevertheless been chosen to become the perfect vessel for God’s grace and the one who would exercise so much influence over Jesus.

Mary is often portrayed in art as passive, but actually that is to do her a great disservice. Mary is not in the words of the carol Once in Royal David’s city a ‘mother mild’ The Magnificat shows her to be an angry woman with a mind to change things. This was the home into which Jesus was born and raised, with a woman who taught him that God was the great turner of tables. The scandal of the church is that for centuries the voice of women was silenced and in many churches still is! Women are judged not to allowed to have a voice, not to speak, not to lead, to have no power. Mary was not singing on behalf of the poor, she was the poor who needed liberation. Think of it as a battle cry, a call to arms. Mary is part of God’s rebellion and we too are called to be a part of those who work for a just and equal society. In the Magnificat we understand that God is not an observer of humanity, God has chosen sides and he is on the side of the weak. God chooses humble birth, God chooses homelessness, God chooses to be persecuted, God chooses to be a refugee.

I don’t want to offend anybody who has different views about Mary and I know that many Christians do believe her to be sinless, but I believe in an ordinary Mary, a full human being, a woman, or more accurately a girl and I think that this makes her even more to be admired and honoured. Her humble origins put her in touch with the poor and outcasts with whom Jesus spent his ministry. If Mary had lived today she would have been the sort of person who needed the food bank and her song challenges the need for people to be poor, she speaks of this not being God’s way, God want a reversal.

Many Christians value the practice of advocation of the saints in which they ask the saints to pray with them. The reasoning being that they are members of the Body of Christ which we call the Communion of the Saints. Everyone in Christ, whether living or dead, belongs to the Body of Christ and we can go to them to pray for us with God. Mary is not undermined as a saint by recognising her humility but surely rather enhanced. 
Hail Mary full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death  Amen.

Mary is subversive and her song calls for a radical agenda for social change. Mary's song is a statement of what she believes about God. Like the song of Hannah on which it is modelled, it celebrates the character of God as the great turner of tables. He is the God of the poor and the oppressed, under his hand the meek inherit the earth.

So the next time you hear newspapers criticising clergy or bishops for shouting out about social injustice. When Christians tell of the tragedy of the need in our society for food banks, about the lack of availability of affordable housing and the homeless crisis. Remember they are not doing anything unique, or different special, it all started withy Mary.   Charles Royden

Mothering Sunday

The two passages from the Gospels this morning are taken from the extreme ends of Jesus’ relationship with his mother, Mary. In the excerpt from Luke we meet Joseph and Mary in the temple celebrating the birth of the first born son, bringing him to be circumscribed according to the rites of their people. It should have been a joyful occasion and they have been greeted by Simeon prophesying Jesus’ greatness and heroic future life. Any parent would have been reeling from shock, even after the extraordinary events that had gone before. But it is Simeon’s prophesy about Mary’s suffering as a result of Jesus’ great calling on which we focus now. The first phrase stresses Jesus’ disruptive, transforming quality “this child is set for the rise and fall of many in Israel” and then says , almost incidentally that a sword would pierce Mary’s heart too. Note that the word chosen to describe the sword isn’t a genteel little dagger but rhomphaia meaning a huge battle weapon. This is a deadly weapon bringing death rather than injury and the selection of this word suggests Jesus’ death. The final phrase prophesying that Jesus will bring out the truth about people continues the theme that Jesus will be a catalyst for change, an force for change, a challenge for authority and bigotry down the ages.

The second part of the Gospel reading is taken from when Jesus, as a grown man in his thirties is about to die. We see Mary choosing to watch her son’s suffering, rather than leave him. We see that she waits with her women friends all the long hours when Jesus suffers on the Cross. Jesus displays equal loyalty to her, thinking of her plight as a widow and consigned her into the care of his disciple John. In the sermon today I shall be thinking about what that gesture implies for Jesus’ understanding of what family means, but here we shall notice Jesus’ love and compassion for his mother, and note their mutual loyalty and sense of responsibility for the happiness and well-being of the other. We take these feeling for granted and that is why we are so deeply shocked when the bond between parent and child is wrecked by cruelty, violence or deceit.

The reading from Paul’s letter to the church family at Colosse is an appeal for them to put aside differences over heresies and factions and to concentrate on the meaning of Christianity. “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another”. Paul saw that the little church was being pulled apart by disputes and begged them to be governed by compassion, patience, kindness, gentleness and humility. All these peacemaking, reconciling qualities are essential for family life in every form. Joan Crossley
 

Meditation

My nomination for Best Film wouldn’t be “Brokeback Mountain” although it was very moving, nor “The Constant Gardener” although we loved it.,. I would nominate a very unusual; movie, filmed in black and white, (with no violence, special effects nor graphic sex scenes) called “Goodnight and Good luck”. The film was written and directed by George Clooney and he takes a major role. But there is an even better reason to see this film, (if you can) because it is about moral choices and standing up publicly for what is right. The movie is set during the onslaught on freedom of thought and political affiliation made by Senator Joe McCarthy in early 1950s America. The movie charts the attempts of a television presenter Ed Morrow to protest against McCarthy as he pursued a witch hunt against anyone who had been a Communist or even were related in someway to Communists. Morrow and his team of chain-smoking, quietly dedicated reporters felt that it was their duty to show to America how the Constitution was being subverted by these trials. By standing up to the Senator, the newsmen were risking their jobs and livelihoods. When Morrow exposed McCarthy as a vindictive bully he too came under vicious attack. But the courage of Morrow and his team helped to turn the tide in a very dark era of American history. In a sense the historical setting doesn’t matter: it could be any period where freedom of thought, or action comes under threat, where the right to worship or believe is threatened. It poses a challenge for us Christians: are we mindful of Jesus’ example in challenging authority when necessary? Or have we become lazy, complacent or fearful of campaigning against injustice? Bullies are frightening and because they do not care how much they hurt, they enjoy too much power and influence. We must not take the easy path by agreeing with what we know to be wrong. Joan Crossley
 

Commentary

The Old Testament reading today isn’t just about Moses’ mother. It is about mothering- the qualities that make up maternal love. And from the story of Moses we can see that he wasn’t given just one mother but blessed with the love of three motherly women: his birth mother, his extraordinarily brave and resourceful sister and the warm-hearted Egyptian princess. These three women literally saved his life and put him on the path to becoming the saviour of his people. The story is a heart-warming one. Moses’s birth mother showed great courage and wisdom in allowing her son to be given away and put into danger in the shallows of the Nile. Moses’s sister, Miriam, was quick, alert, ready of wit and passionately concerned for her little brother’s survival. The character of the princess is interesting and it is sad that we know so little about her. Did she already have a husband and children? Was she childless? We do not know anything about her except that she felt compassion for the crying baby in the bulrushes and gave him a home and an education.

I feel very strongly that we should not assign special place to people that happen to have given birth! Many of the best mothers I know have never had children of their own, but they do have that special desire to nurture and protect which is the best kind of maternal feeling. The story of Moses and his three mothers reminds us on Mothering Sunday that the day is not just a celebration of mums (although we all had one)! The day is a chance to reflect on maternal feelings and how, at their very best, they can tell us about how God loves us.

Isaiah the prophet wrote
”As a mother comforts a child so will I comfort you, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 66.13)

This view of God as being tenderly aware of our needs is a good counter-balance to the portrait of God as angry and stern, as is, in some places, described by the prophets.

In the New Testament readings we are reminded that motherhood was not easy for Mary. She was young, inexperienced and unmarried. Her pregnancy was viewed with suspicion. Her baby was born far from home in difficult and dangerous surroundings. When she took her son to the temple, only days old, Simeon’s prophecy for his future was both ominous and exciting. Jesus’ childhood gave her cause for concern and in adulthood, it was clear that his life would become increasingly dangerous and he would be marginalised. Mary had to learn to put her own feelings to one side to support him in his mission. Finally, she suffered the worst thing that can happen to a mother, she had to watch her son die a tortured death.

 

Prayers for Mothering Sunday

Motherly God, in whose arms are held all who cry out to you. Teach me to open my heart, my home, even when I have little to give to make room for all your children and give them space to grow. Dear Life, Christian Aid, 1998

For mothers. Lord Jesus, you know well the blessing an earthly home can bring: Receive our thanks for all the love we have received in our homes, especially from those who have nurtured us from our earliest years. Hear our prayers for mothers everywhere, that they may never lose heart nor ever be taken for granted, but receive from their children the honour and love you showed to your mother, Mary, even as you were suffering on the Cross. Bless and keep them all, for your love's sake. Amen

For those in need Remember, O Lord, all those in need: people with no good food or proper clothes,
no home of their own, or no work to do; those who have neither family nor friends and no knowledge of the your love. Supply their needs. Bless those who try to help them and bring us all to trust in you. 
We ask this is Jesus' name. Amen.

For those who live alone God our Father, we ask you to bless all who live alone, those who have lost their partner in marriage, those who have never married, those whose families are grown up and away from home and those who have outlived other members of their families and many of their friends:
Be with them to assure them of your love and of their value to you every moment of their lives, and enable them to rejoice in the fellowship of your Church on earth and in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Forgiving God, we thank you for welcoming us, your wayward children, into your kingdom of peace and justice again and again. We are astounded with your patience and generosity in your dealings with recovering sinners like us. We seek your help in removing the spiritual roadblocks from our lives that keep us from moving closer to you, Lord, on the highway of life. Renew us and guide us, O God.

Life is full of celebrations and challenges. You are with us, O Lord our Companion, through it all. Our burdens seem looming and diverse: declining health, cancer, heart disease, A.I.D.S., mental illness, financial problems, family discord, and more. Yet our blessings also are many; anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, homecomings, life giving relationships, early spring blossoms, and the Enduring Love of Christ Jesus. You know our concerns Healing God, even before we speak them. You have felt our agony through Christ and we are encouraged to know that you walk with us through all of life’s trails and tribulations.

Loving God - we come before you today aware of how you call us to be like you - remembering that you made us in your own image - that you entrusted to us this world and all that is in it- that you gave to us brothers and sisters - mothers and fathers people to love and to enjoy and to work for and pray for. Help us dear God to remember our own sin before you and how you forgive it - help us to remember the Cross of Christ - and why he died upon it. And make us messengers of your reconciling love, ambassadors for your kingdom, people who show forth your grace, and celebrate with your joy. Amen.

Father in heaven, bless all mothers and those who look after us in our daily lives. Make us grateful for their goodness and thankful for their care. Help us to respond to them in loving obedience; following the example of Jesus, your Son, our Lord.  Amen.  Prayers for children

Hymns for Sunday

1. Praise to the Lord
2. Hosanna
3. O give thanks
4. Tell out my soul
5. Love divine
6. Now thank we all our God

 

Mothering Sunday Resources

If a child lives with criticism,
HE learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility,
HE learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule,
HE learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame,
HE learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance,
HE learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement,
HE learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise,
HE learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness,
HE learns justice.
If a child lives with security, HE learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval,
HE learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship,
HE learns to find love in the world.

May God inspire all parents and grandparents, teachers
and carers who nurture our children. May we all by our Christian conduct provide good examples which may lead them to follow Christ.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving for Mothering Sunday

We thank God for giving us others to share in our lives:
For parents, and the love which brought us to birth:
We praise you, O Lord;
and bring you thanks today.

For mothers who have cherished and nurtured us:
We praise you, O Lord;
and bring you thanks today.

For fathers who have loved and supported us,
We praise you, O Lord;
and bring you thanks today.

For brothers and sisters with whom we have shared our home:
We praise you, O Lord;
and bring you thanks today.

For children and their parents:
We praise you, O Lord;
and bring you thanks today.

For other relatives and friends, who have been with us
in our hopes and joys and times of sadness:
We praise you, O Lord;
and bring you thanks today.

For all who first spoke to us of Jesus, and have drawn us
into the family of our Father in heaven:
We praise you, O Lord;
and bring you thanks today.
Help us to live
as those who belong to one another,
and to you, our Father, now and always. Amen.

A Prayer of Thanksgiving

For the mothering of mothers
and the mothering of fathers
for the mothering of others:
 

Mother God,
we give you thanks
For those who act as midwife to our hopes,
for those who nurse us through our pain,
for those who nurture, strengthen and guide us:
 

Mother God,
we give you thanks
For those who gently push us from the nest,
for those who welcome us home,
for those who become our family,
for the motherhood of the Church:
 

Mother God,
we give you thanks
 

Mothering Sunday Blessing

May the Lord who brought us to birth by his Spirit,
strengthen us for the Christian life.

May the Lord who provides for all our needs
sustain us day by day.

May the Lord whose steadfast love is constant as a mother's care,
send us out to live and work for others.

And the blessing of God Almighty.
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be with you and remain with you always. Amen.

 

A Hymn for Mothering Sunday

Our Father God in heaven

Our Father God in heaven
    On whom our world depends,
To you let praise be given
    For families and friends;
For parents, sisters, brothers,
    A home where love belongs,
But on this day for mothers
    We bring our thankful songs.

 What wealth of God’s bestowing
    For all the world to share!
What strength of heart outgoing
    To children everywhere!
Our deepest joys and sorrows
    A mother’s path must trace,
And earth’s unknown tomorrows
    Are held in her embrace.

 How well we know the story
    That tells of Jesus’ birth,
The Lord of heaven’s glory
    become a child of earth;
A helpless infant sleeping,
    yet King of realms above,
who finds in Mary’s keeping
    the warmth of human love.

 Our Father God in heaven,
    To you we lift our prayer,
That every child be given
    Such tenderness and care,
Where life is all for others,
    Where love your love displays:
For God’s good gift of mothers
    Let earth unite in praise!

Mothering Sunday; the Virgin Mary
7 6 7 6 D
Suggested tunes: WOLVERCOTE or
CRUGER or ST. THEODULPH  Or SARA

Mothering Sunday

We have some remarkable women in our story today

1. The midwives Shiphrah, and Puah
2. The remarkable mother of Moses, who kept her child hidden for as long as she could until she brought herself to let him go in one last attempt to spare his life
3. Miriam the sister of Moses who follows her brother downstream
4. The amazing daughter of Pharoah who takes in a Hebrew child knowing what Pharoah has commanded their deaths

The Bible is full of amazing women, women who led God’s people in the Old and in the New Testament.

1. There were women like Mary and Martha who supported Jesus,

2. Women who had the courage to stand by Jesus at the foot of the cross as we read in the passage today from John’s Gospel

3. Women who shared in leadership in the early Church like Phoebe, Priscilla

On Mothering Sunday there are those who would wish to see women celebrated but only in roles which deny them the opportunities to express the full range of gifts which God gives to his people. Traditionally Mothering Sunday has exalted motherhood in a manner which places women in roles which confine their abilities, perhaps in the way in which they are expected to be about their chores like Martha, rather than learning at the feet of Jesus like Mary.

Of course this is true across the world where women are denied access to the same educational opportunities as men. In our own country it was not until the 1920’s that women at Oxford were even entitled to claim the degrees which they had earned. 

I was watching a very good film this week called The Glorias — Julianne Moore plays the part of  Gloria Steinem a feminist activist in America who campaigned for women’s rights

1. It looks at how she worked as a journalist and she was a better writer than her male counterparts who told her to make the coffee.

2. How she worked undercover as a bunny girl to show the sexual exploitation

3. How she challenged structures which oppressed women and denied them their rights

4. Women were not admitted to Harvard Law school until the 1950’s

Mothering Sunday is an opportunity to remember the rights which women are still denied. The way in which so many societies are set up to still discriminate against women.

Patriarchal society is damaging to women, but of course it is also damaging towards men. Men are deprived of the balance which is so important for a proper functioning society. God created men and women and he created them with the  gifts needed for things to work. Equal opportunities for women is fundamental to the proper functioning of our life and benefits all, including men.

The biggest killer of men under 50 is themselves.

In more gender-equal societies men are

1. Half as likely to be depressed

2. Less likely to commit suicide

Iceland is a case in point, because Icelandic men have the highest life expectancy in Europe. Its not just eating herring Iceland, Iceland has a smaller economic and social gender gap than any other country.

Men need women in order to live life in all its fullness as God intended.

Mothering Sunday is a day to rejoice in all of the gifts of all women and to recognise these gifts in women in God’s church who show us what God is like.

Sadly it is the case that the church across the world still denies women the opportunity to use the gifts which God has given them and sees maleness as the qualification to lead. To be female is to be required to minister in different ways to men, typically ways with less authority, commensurate with the patriarchal society.

Theologically this goes back to Eve, the eponymous representative of all the reasons why women are not made by God to have access top roles reserved for men.

And so of course we think of God as a man and as we do so we feel more comfortable with many of the doctrines which men have produced to explain everything from the fall of humankind to salvation itself. In so doing we deny God in all of her fullness.

It was in the 14th century that Julian of Norwich said

“As truly as God is our Father, so truly is God our Mother”

It is for this that Julian is best known in feminist circles, and justly so. However in many other ways Julian of Norwich is a woman for our times and worth reminding ourselves about in this pandemic in which we have complained about being in lockdown.

We know very little about Julian - that may not even have been her name.

At an unknown point in her life, she became an anchoress attached to the Church of St Julian in Norwich, and she may have been identified by the name of the church rather than her own.

What we do know is that on May 8th in the year 1373, when she was thirty years old and suffering from what was expected to be a terminal illness, she experienced a series of sixteen visions, which revealed aspects of the love of God, and particularly the suffering of Christ on the cross.

Following her recovery, she spent the next twenty years of her life writing down the things she had seen and pondering their meaning. These writings became the first book written by a woman in English, The Revelations of Divine Love.

She clearly became known for her wisdom, and for giving what we might now call spiritual direction to people who came to the church to seek her advice. She died around the year 1417.

Julian is particularly poignant for us because she lived, literally, in lockdown. Anchorites were walled into their cell next to the church they served; from the day of their vows, they would never leave the single small room in which they lived. For some, perhaps for us in this pandemic that may seem to be the worst of all possible lockdowns. But because of her experience of God’s love, Julian was able to see things differently.

Even in her solitude she found in God hope, and perhaps her most famous words were

“And all shall be well”, “all manner of things shall be well”:

These too are words for our times

“And all shall be well”, “all manner of things shall be well”:

In the last decades the Church of England has tried to repent of the past and ministry has thankfully changed, but if only we had been more open to the gifts of women in the church.  Who knows what we have denied ourselves.

Even today the majority of the Christian Church is still not open to the gifts of women and so we are impoverished as a worldwide church. God’s people are reduced in their vision and experience of God. How many ministers of the Christian faith Priscillas and Lydias and Phoebes have we lost by our prejudice.

On this mothering Sunday may we see it as an opportunity to give gifts of flowers and chocolates, but also an opportunity to consider how much better the world might be, the church might be, if women were able to show us more of God.