Happy mothers' day, from me to ewe.

This last Sunday, it was Good Shepherd Sunday, as well as being mother's day. And mother's day is a thorny one, isn't it?

On the surface, it doesn't seem like it should be complicated, does it?  Just render thanks unto all the mothers, and tell them how great of a job they're doing.  But the thing about mothers is that, well, it ends up being a little bit exclusive.  You see, this was the first year that I was made aware of the policy
of having mothers stand up to be recognized.  And on the surface, again, this sounds like a great idea, to recognize and laud and honor mothers, as we ought to do.

But it runs into a snag.  And that snag is something that I hadn't considered, but I need to.  Thanks be to our DPS Amanda Knodel for pointing this out.  Her most excellent of all children's messages was one about knowing the voice of the shepherd, and likening that to knowing the voice of our mothers who call us home for dinner and out of trouble, and so on.

It's no coincidence that the voice of the conscience in my head is my mother's voice, though with an Irish accent, and when I think on moral issues, I do so with her voice in my head.  And on mother's day, I recognize my mother for all the hard work that she did in raising me, and in making me into the person that I am today.  For she is my shepherd, and I know her voice out of all the others, and I follow where she leads.  And here's the rub, and one that ends up being incredibly important.  As Amanda Knodel told us, the significance of our mothers on mothers' day, is that it's our mother.  Not someone else's mother, not another mother in a crowd out there, but rather a specific mother in a specific place and time, and one who should be acknowledged and thanked for the work that she has done by the people who have benefited from it.

Because the thing about being a mother is that it doesn't exist in a vacuum.  You can't be the concept of a mother, you can't just claim motherhood, there has to be a child, whether that child is still with us or not.  And the work that you do is on behalf of that child whom you are called to serve as part of your vocation.  That work you do is for that child, and the rest of the world will never quite know or appreciate the work that you did on behalf of that child or children.

This is part of what we get into with the notion of the great shepherd of the sheep.  We get into Jesus as the Good Shepherd, who calls his sheep who know his voice, and will not follow another.  And this is why Biblical literacy, prayer, conversation with God and with each other, ends up being so important, because everything revolves not just around how great God is, which he is, but about how great he is for you.

This 'for you' statement ends up being significant in the Lutheran faith, coming from the small catechism of Martin Luther which ends up being etched on our hearts.   If you didn't feel like reading it, allow me to sum it up for you -

How can bodily eating and drinking do such great things?

It is not the eating and drinking, indeed, that does them, but the words which stand here, namely 'given
and shed for you, for the remission of sins.' Which words are, beside the bodily eating and drinking, as the chief thing in the sacrament, and he that believes these words has what they say and express, namely the forgiveness of sins.



This whole thing is for you.  And this is why the discussion of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is such a big deal, because he's not just a good shepherd, he's your Good Shepherd.  He's not just God, he's your God.  His body and blood weren't just broken and shed, they were broken and shed for you.  It's not just that in his father's house there are many rooms, but that he goes to prepare a place for you.

Your mother is a big deal because she's your mother.  Nobody else will get that about her.  Nobody else was there when she chased monsters away or bandaged you up, or taught you how to cook or hit a ball or ride a bike or how to do math, or anything like that.  And your children are your own.  Nobody else will get or understand what it was like to hold them, to raise them, to hear them speak, or coo, or yawn, to watch them sleep, and know that you helped to make that life and to help it to grow.  You took that lump of flesh and formed it into a person, like God did with Adam, telling him and his wife to be fruitful and multiply.  

So what's important here?  That the mothers in the congregation stand up and be recognized by me?  Nah.  Unless it's my mother.  The important thing is that we celebrate that very special relationship between our mothers and ourselves, or our children and ourselves, even, and this is especially important in a church, if that union has been broken by death.  Because it's a church, and we know that the work that Jesus did for us is so that these incredibly powerful relationships will not be forever broken.  He came, says the reading for Sunday, that we may have life, and have it abundantly.  We rejoice that this work was done for us, letting us know that neither life nor death nor things past nor things to come can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

Happy mother's day, everyone.  Give your mummies a hug if you can, call them if you can't, and if
they have left this world, then give thanks to God for the time you had with them, and look forward earnestly for that time when you will see them again.

PJ.