Mother Shepherd
John
10: 1-10 (NRSV)
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold
by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice.
He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and
the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him
because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not
understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the
gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep
did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come
in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to
steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly.”
Mother’s day is a great day.
There can be a lot of joy on a day like today. This is a day that a lot of
people celebrate, in one way or another. This is a special day. And for a lot
of people, this is a day they look forward to. A day that warms their hearts.
But Mother’s Day can be a
hard day, too, especially at church. I recently had a conversation with a
clergy friend of mine who is leading her very first ever Mother’s Day worship
service as we speak. A few weeks ago, when we had this conversation, she was
trying to decide how she wanted to incorporate Mother’s Day into her service—how
much she would make her service about Mother’s Day. Whether she would act like
today’s any other day, or whether she would make the theme of the service all
about mothers, or somewhere in between.
You might ask, what’s the
big deal? Today’s Mother’s Day, so let’s embrace it. But, as time has gone on, we
ministers have had to realize that for every person who is celebrating today
with their mother, with the mother of their children, with their grandmother,
with their own children, grandchildren, step-children, or God-children, someone
else is mourning. Today we’re reminded of the mothers we lost, or never had.
We’re reminded of the hurtful, the neglectful, the abusive mothers. We’re
reminded of women who cannot celebrate their motherhood today—the women who
suffer from infertility, the women who lost their children, the women estranged
from their children. The women missing their babies.
This deep well of
simultaneous joy and grief is exactly the stuff that makes us beautifully
human. If nothing else, we can warmly celebrate that today. And whatever this
day means to you this year—whether you’re going out to lunch with your mother,
or with your children or grandchildren after church today, whether you’ve sent
or received flowers or cards, whether this is a happy day for you, whether this
is a day that brings you some grief, whether this is a day you avoid, or
whether this is just May 11th, just any other day of the
year—whatever this day is outside of the walls of this sanctuary, in here, in
God’s space, this day is something altogether different.
We have a rich tradition in
our churches of seeing how God is like a Father to us, and rightfully so. We
call our Creator God the Father. We read Gospel passages where Jesus calls our
Creator God his Father. We pray every week to our Father. We sing hymns like
“This Is My Father’s World”. Our tradition gives us a beautiful, comforting
image of a God that loves us like a Father loves his own children, and most of
the year, that image tends to rise a little bit higher than most others.
Mother’s Day gives us an
opportunity to see God in a different way. This Sunday we’re invited, and
encouraged, to consider the feminine side of our God. We’re invited to consider
the God who created us male and female, both in the divine image. We’re invited
to consider God the Mother.
God the Mother. We all came
from an earthly mother. We all came from a human mother. Some of us were
blessed with a mother who was loving, and selfless, and nurturing. Some of us
were blessed with a mother who was a wonderful part of our lives, and made us
who we are, for the best. Some of us weren’t. Some of us had painful
experiences with our mothers, some of us never knew our mothers. And many of
us, I think, had the experience of being raised, educated, strengthened,
nurtured, and inspired by at least one person who wasn’t our mother at all.
However you might describe
your own earthly mother, let’s understand that the God who mothers us is never
earthly, but divine. And, when we leave this place and venture out into the
secular world, whether or not we find Mother’s Day to be a day worthy of
celebration, let’s know that God has mothered us, and rejoice in that.
God the Mother. So who is
God the Mother? How is God like a mother? How does God mother us? For this, I
turn to our Scriptures.
God protects
us. And please understand
that when I say this, I don’t just mean that God doesn’t want us to get hurt,
or that God looks out for our best interests. Those things are obviously true,
but God does so much more than that. God has the downright ferocity of a mother
animal when it comes to protecting us. Have you ever watched a movie, or a
nature show, where somebody gets a little too close to a bear cub, and the mama
bear comes charging to the defense of her baby? That is the kind of God we
have. Our God is the God of the mama bear. That is how fiercely God will defend
us from anything that would take us away from God. Our mama-God watches out for
predators.
In this morning’s Gospel
passage from John, Jesus warns his disciples about the predators, about the
thieves and bandits, who dishonestly try to go after God’s beloved children—or,
as Jesus puts it, God’s sheep. Like a protective mother, Jesus gives us advice.
Like a protective mother, Jesus warns us about the dangers that face us in the
world. Like a mother who might tell her children not to open the door for
strangers, Jesus warns us about the things of this life that will hurt us, and
separate us from God. Jesus warns us about the skewed priorities, the bad
habits, the bad relationships, the lifestyle choices that tempt us away from
God our Mother.
But
God makes a home for us. There’s a strong theme throughout all
but one of our scripture readings this morning about shepherds and sheep. This
is the kind of mother God is to us—one who leads us home like a shepherd leads
the sheep. And when we stray from God, not only does God forgive us, but God
goes looking for us. With our Mother God, we always have a place to go. No
matter what, we always have a place where we belong. God gives us a family and
hospitality, and shows us how to give that to others.
And
God provides for us. If you ever need a reminder of this truth,
you need not look any further than this week’s Psalm. The Psalm we recited as
our call to worship. The Psalm that I’ll bet a lot of us could recite from
memory. For many, the most beloved of all one hundred fifty of our Psalms—Psalm
23.
Psalm 23 really shows us the
tender side of God. We hear about a God who nurtures, and even spoils us. We
hear about a God who frees us from the burden of wanting, because God always
knows what we need. We hear about a God who brings us peace, and serenity. We
hear about a God who gently leads us to where we need to go. We hear about a
God who keeps us calm, even during the hardest times. We hear about a God who
keeps us fed—physically, and spiritually. We hear about a God worthy of our
lifelong trust. A comforting God. A healing God.
And a sacrificing God. God would give up anything for us. Our
epistle lesson from First Peter reminds us that, in spite of how much more God
wants for us, and in spite of how much God gives us, sometimes we will still
suffer. Even though our God protects us, sometimes we will still get
hurt—sometimes, we’ll even get hurt because we’re children of God.
But even when we’re hurting,
Peter reminds us that we can handle it. We’ve been imbued with the strength of
our mothering God. And more than that, we’ve been redeemed and spared. God,
like a mother, would give up anything for us—even God’s own Son. We’ve been
saved because God, our mother, saved us. In the familiar words of John
3:16—“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that
whoever believes in him may not perish but have everlasting life.” And, as
Jesus reminds us in this morning’s Gospel passage, he came so that we may have
life, and have it abundantly. God, our mother, goes without so that we can have
everything.
But what we need to
understand about God more than anything, is that God is everything. There aren’t enough words out there to describe what
God is, or what God does for us. We can come up with as many images as our
minds can make to try to capture what God is, and still, we won’t do God
justice. God is too vast for our mortal understandings.
There is no wrong image for
our God—whatever you find sacred is right. And we’ll see God at work in the
world around us in many forms—God will be for us whatever we need God to be.
But just know, that no
matter how you imagine God, no matter what or who God is to you, no matter what
God means to your life right now, you are loved, like a mother loves her child.
And there’s no where we can wander off to that is too far away for the love of
our Mother, Father, Shepherd God to bring us back into the fold.
Happy Mother’s Day.
Amen.
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