That text DOES sound just like Mom, doesn't it? Every
mother wants her children to get along, to love one another. No
doubt, there are times that she wonders if that will ever happen,
but you know nothing makes a mom happier.
Happy Mothers Day, ladies.
Have any of you been watching the "Survivor" shows? In
honor of this special day, someone has proposed a unique take-off
on the concept.(1)
- 6 men will be dropped on an island with 1 van and 4 kids
each, for 6 weeks.
- Each kid plays two sports and either takes music or dance
classes.
- There is no access to fast food.
- Each man must take care of their 4 kids, keep their assigned
house clean, correct all homework, complete science
projects, cook, do laundry, etc.
- The men only have access to television when the kids are
asleep and all chores are done, and none of the TV's have
remotes.
- The men must shave their legs and wear makeup daily, which
they must apply themselves either while driving or while
making four lunches.
- They must attend weekly PTA meetings, clean up after their
sick children at 3:00 AM, make an Indian hut model with six
toothpicks, a tortilla and one marker; and get a 4-year-old
to eat a serving of peas.
- The kids vote them off based on performance.
- The winner gets to go back to his old job.
As I say, Happy Mothers Day!
Too many times women are made to feel that they should
apologize for being mothers and housewives. Tony Campolo writes,
"When I was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania,
there were gatherings from time to time to which faculty members
brought their spouses. Inevitably, some woman lawyer or
sociologist would confront my wife with the question, 'And what
is it that you do, my dear?' My wife, who is one of the most
brilliantly articulate individuals I know, had a great response:
'I am socializing two homo sapiens in the dominant values of the
Judeo-Christian tradition in order that they might be instruments
for the transformation of the social order into the
teleologically prescribed utopia inherent in the eschaton.' When
she followed that with, 'And what is it that you do?' the other
person's response,'A lawyer,' just wasn't that overpowering."(2)
The first call for a Mothers Day in this country came in the
1870's as an effort to rally women to work for peace in the
world. Julia Ward Howe - writer, lecturer, social reformer (and
author of the "The Battle Hymn of the Republic") - initiated the
idea. After her experience tending the wounded in the War
Between the States, she started a crusade to institute such an
event. The last Mothers Day of that kind was June 1, 1912 where
the printed invitation noted that "this festival...is a time for
women and children to come together; to...speak, sing and pray
for 'those things that make for peace.'" Thirty years before, in
establishing the observance, she had cried out,
We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant
agencies, our husbands shall not come to us, reeking
with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons
shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have
been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and
patience. We women of one country will be too tender
of those of another country to allow our sons to be
trained to injure theirs."(3)
Of course, the Mother's Day we now observe on this second
Sunday in May has its origins with Anna Jarvis who had a very
different reason for honoring mothers. Never a mother herself,
Anna spent most of her adult life caring for her mother in
Grafton, West Virginia. Her concern was for mothers who needed
care and whose adult children were neglecting them. Out of this
interest, in 1905 Anna Jarvis started a campaign for an annual
religious celebration to honor mothers. In 1914 Congress passed
a resolution providing that the second Sunday in May be
designated as Mother's Day, and President Woodrow Wilson issued a
Mother's Day Proclamation.
Anna Jarvis envisioned Mother's Day as a time of
recommitment to honoring and caring for mothers, especially
mothers who were no longer able to care for themselves. But she
was dismayed to see the way the holiday was celebrated. She
lived to see Mother's Day become the victim of commercialism,
when honoring mothers was reduced to giving flowers, cards and
gifts. Anna Jarvis died in 1948, disappointed and disillusioned
that her work had been so trivialized.(4)
Mothers Day need not be trivialized. It can and should be
more than a "Hallmark Holiday." For that matter, I will insist
on the only-slightly heretical idea that it should not be
relegated to a celebration of those who have given birth. As the
news media regularly attest, the ability to breed does not
necessarily qualify someone to be a mother. On the other hand,
some of the finest mothering I have ever seen has come from
people - both male and female - who have never had children of
their own. They provided encouragement to the dejected,
fortitude to the faint-hearted, applause for accomplishment, and
whenever needed, a shoulder to cry on. You see, when we
Presbyterians baptize children, the congregation promises to help
the parents raise them:
Do you, as members of the church of Jesus Christ,
promise to guide and nurture these children by word and
deed, with love and prayer, encouraging them to know
and follow Christ and to be faithful members of his
church?
We do.(5)
Suddenly, we have this intriguing juxtaposition of a
Mother's Day observance with a lectionary text that has Jesus
sounding like a Mom who wants her kids to get along. More than
get along, actually. "A new command I give you: Love one
another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."
A NEW command? There IS something different here from all
the other instructions we have from the Old and New Testaments
concerning our obligation to love our neighbor. Two things
different, actually: 1) this command is directed especially TO
those and FOR those within Christ's circle of friends (the
church), and 2) there is now a specific standard against which to
measure whether or not we are doing what we have been told: the
standard of the Lord's own love for his own.
Why the special concern about church people loving other
church people? Probably because we can be so close, like a
family. Anyone who has ever raised children knows that brothers
and sisters can get into some terrible fights, and that they
occasionally do things to one another that they would never
consider doing to someone outside the family group. The words of
the old song are surely true: "You always hurt the one you love,
The one you shouldn't hurt at all." It is no different in the
church. Some of the meanest battles ever fought have been waged
beneath steeples.
A teenager came home from choir practice early one evening.
His Dad asked, "What brings you back so soon?"
"We had to call off choir practice this week," the youngster
replied. "The organist and the choir director got into a
terrible argument about how to sing, 'Let there be Peace on
Earth,' so we quit for tonight." A new command...that you love
one another. Hmmm.
One thing to note - the Lord's command is not that we LIKE
one another. That certainly would be nice, but to like or not to
like is rooted in our emotions, and emotions do not respond to
commands. The love of which Jesus speaks is NOT an emotion. It
is a way of acting toward one another that says, "No matter what,
I want GOOD for you, and I will do whatever I can to insure that
you get it." Christian love is not something the Lord wants us
to FEEL for one another but rather something he wants us to DO
for one another.
As to how this love should be measured, our standard comes
from the clause, "as I have loved you." That is a broad and
lofty standard indeed! The love that Jesus had for his disciples
began with a willingness to ignore the limits of society. He did
not content himself with a little group made up of only his "own
kind" - he reached out to ALL kinds, and especially to those whom
the rest of the world would shun. The love of Jesus enabled him
to take on tasks that would have been thought to be beneath him - servant work like washing dusty feet, for example. The love of
Jesus was able to encompass the hypocrisy of Peter, the self-serving ambition of James and John, the vicious self-righteousness of Paul. It was a love that knew no limit. He
loved them so much that he was willing to die for them. That
became our standard for obedience. "As I have loved you...so you
must love one another."
Of course, the heart of this unique commandment is not
simply the prevention of internecine strife. Christ's
instruction to love one another as he loved us is itself
motivated by another love...love for the world outside the
church. "By this [everyone] will know that you are my disciples,
if you love one another." The command to love is really a
command to witness with our lives, to be so winsome in our own
fellowship that those outside will want to come in. Indeed, love
for one another - DOING for one another - may be the most
effective evangelistic tool we have at our disposal.
Years ago Henry Drummond preached a sermon about love called
"The Greatest Thing in the World" in which he suggested that if
you put a piece of iron in the presence of an electrified body,
that piece of iron becomes electrified. It is changed into a
temporary magnet in the presence of a permanent magnet, and as
long as you leave the two together, they will share this
characteristic. It is no different with Christians and Christ -
when we are close to him, we reproduce some of his
characteristics which would be quite impossible if we merely
attempted to obey his command or imitate his example.
"Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love
one another." Sounds just like Mom, doesn't he?
Oh. Speaking of magnets, a Junior High School science
teacher was about to begin a unit on the subject, and to
introduce it, he offered his students a puzzle. It read, "My
name has six letters beginning with 'M' and I pick things up.
What am I?" Half the kids in the class wrote "MOTHER!"(6)
Happy Mothers Day.
Amen!
1. Quoted by David Salico on PresbyNet, "Jokes," #2005, 2/26/01
2. Anthony Campolo, The Power Delusion quoted by James S. Hewett, Illustrations
Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 380
3. From material created by Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament Education Fund.
4. To Celebrate: Reshaping Holidays & Rites of Passage, (Alternatives, P.O. Box 429,
Ellenwood, Georgia 30049), pp. 116-117
5. The Sacrament of Baptism, Book of Common Worship (Louisville: Westminster/John
Knox Press, 1993)
6. Pastor's Professional Research Service
click and send us mail