SPECIAL DAYS: Mother's Day

May 9, 1999 - LESSON: Exodus 2:1-10, NRSV

SERMON TITLE: Growing Up

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  1. He was the youngest of three children.
    1. He was a general and a shepherd.
    2. He was a reluctant leader
      1. He is the example for those who choose to offer excuses to avoid responsibility.
        1. 11 But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"
        2. 13 But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?"
        3. 10 But Moses said to the LORD, "O my Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor even now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."
    3. He often acted impetuously
      1. He hit when he ought to have spoken.

(Hitting the rock instead of speaking to it.)

      1. He acted out of anger

(Breaking the two tables of stone.)

    1. He saw the goal for which he had worked and led a people, but he did not personally obtain it.
    2. He was murder and a savior.
    3. He was a Jew raised by Egyptians
    4. How that happened is a story in itself, Exodus 2:1-10 NRSV
      1. Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman.
      2. [2] The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months.
      3. [3] When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river.
      4. [4] His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him.
      5. [5] The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it.
      6. [6] When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him, "This must be one of the Hebrews' children," she said.
      7. [7] Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?"
      8. [8] Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Yes." So the girl went and called the child's mother.
      9. [9] Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages."
      10. So the woman took the child and nursed it.
      11. [10] When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and she took him as her son.
      12. She named him Moses, "because," she said, "I drew him out of the water."

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    5. In spite of his behavior, he was enshrined in the biblical hero's hall of fame, Hebrews 11:24-28 NRSV).
      1. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called a son of Pharaoh's daughter,
      2. [25] choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
      3. [26] He considered abuse suffered for the Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to the reward.
      4. [27] By faith he left Egypt, unafraid of the king's anger; for he persevered as though he saw him who is invisible.
      5. [28] By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.
    6. This means there is always hope for our children.
  1. You wonder if he ever remembered his mother.
    1. He was the one who taught others to honor your father and mother that one's days might be long upon the land.
    2. There may not have been a special day, every day was mother's day.
    3. She raised him only for the first six years of his life.
      1. She is mentioned only two times in the Bible.
      2. She was not you average mother, or was she?
    4. You ever wonder if she yelled like the mom in, Hey, Ma, Look! It's Mother's Day! by Stephanie Vollmer
      1. "Don't run with that thing. If you trip, you'll put an eye out."
      2. "If you keep making that face, it'll stick."
      3. "Don't run in the house."
      4. "You're gonna wear THAT?"
      5. "You just ate. You have to wait an hour before you get back in the pool.... Because you'll get a cramp, that's why."
      6. "Yes. We're almost there."
      7. "Don't chew with your mouth open."
      8. "Don't talk with your mouth full."
      9. "No. You can't have that [fill in the blank]. It'll spoil your dinner."
      10. "I don't care what [fill in the blank]'s mother says. You are not going."
      11. "Don't put that in your mouth. You don't know where it's been."
      12. "Because those vegetables are good for you ... and the children in [fill in the blank] are starving."
      13. "Just because everyone else is doing it doesn't mean you have to. If everyone else jumped off the [fill in the blank] bridge, would you?"

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  2. Mothers. They civilize us.
    1. We are born with a wild, natural will.
    2. We're inclined to sling the dog around by its tail, fry ants under magnifying glasses, salt slugs, and self-inspect the diaper.
    3. Shortly after our arrival, we insist on running pell-mell--stick in hand, lollipop in mouth--into the street, toward the open flame, and after those ratty goats at petting zoos.
    4. It's no wonder we think of our mothers as saints.
    5. Loving us as children when we were a "handful," hugging us when we were sad, and cautioning us against that tempting gum beneath restaurant table tops.
    6. Where would we be without them?
  3. The History of Mother's Day
    1. This year, we celebrate our moms on May 9th.
    2. Our yearly Mother's Day custom has its roots in ancient Greece.
    3. According to the Science Tip site, the Greeks gathered each spring for a festival celebrating Rhea, the wife of Cronus and the mother of the gods.
    4. Much later, during the 1600's in Renaissance England, the British celebrated Mothering Sunday to honor their mothers.
    5. But, it wasn't until the 19th century, in 1872, when Mother's Day made it across the pond to the United States.
      1. On May 8, 1914, Congress passed a resolution that made the second Sunday of May Mother's Day.
      2. President Woodrow Wilson later proclaimed Mother's Day a national holiday.
  4. Celebrate Mother's Day
    1. Honor all mothers
    2. They do the best they can.
    3. Look at the material they have work with.

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