SPECIAL DAYS: Mother's Day

May 14, 2000 - LESSON: Ephesians 5.22-24

SERMON TITLE: Mothers, Wives and Significant Others

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  1. This may appear to be a strange scripture reading for a Mother's Day.
    1. When Helga and I were visiting my brother and his wife last summer, I went with David to his church, The first Baptist Church of Duxbury.
      1. The pastor was preaching a series of sermons on the family.
      2. I asked him for the lessons and sermon titles that he was using.
      3. This is one of them
    2. It is appropriate for the use of this passage allows us to consider not only the role of Christian women, but also mothers and significant others.
    3. We realize that we are living in an era when life is similar, but different from the past.
  2. Original Message From "Denise N. Cockburn" <coka-cola@gurlmail.com>
    1. I always knew we were smarter then them!
    2. There were 11 people hanging onto a rope that came down from a helicopter.
    3. Ten were men and one was a woman.
    4. They all decided that one person should get off because if they didn't, the rope would break and everyone would die.
    5. No one could decide who should go, so finally the woman gave a really touching speech, saying how she would give up her life to save the others, because women were used to giving up things for their husbands and children, and giving in to men.
    6. All of the men started clapping.

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  1. Top Ten Things Men Understand about Women (see bulletin)
  2. Top 10 Reasons Why God Created Woman
    1. 10. God worried that Adam would frequently become lost in the garden because he would not ask for directions.
    2. 9. God knew that Adam would one day require someone to locate and hand him the TV remote.
    3. 8. God knew that Adam would never go out and get himself a new fig leaf when his seat wore out and would therefore need Eve to get one for him.
    4. 7. God knew that Adam would never be able to make a doctor's, dentist or haircut appointment for himself.
    5. 6. God knew that Adam would never be able to remember which night to put the garbage on the curb.
    6. 5. God knew that if the world was to be populated, men would never be able to handle the pain and discomfort of childbearing.
    7. 4. As Keeper of the Garden Adam would never remember where he left his tools.
    8. 3. Apparently, Adam needed someone to blame his troubles on when God caught him hiding in the garden.
    9. 2. As the Bible says, It is not good for man to be alone!
    10. And finally, the number ONE reason that God created Eve...1. When God finished the creation of Adam, He stepped back, scratched His head and said, "I can do better than that."
      1. Tongue in Cheek
      2. Some truth in this humorous piece from the Joyful Noiseletter and the Internet.

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  1. It is important to have a clear view not only of the role of Women, but also of mothers.
    1. M.E.M.0, Juicy quotes, by Martin E. Marty(1)
      1. Marvin Olasky, editor of the World, is quoted in the Nation.
      2. Olasky is also quoted in the Journal for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood:
        1. "God does not forbid women to be leaders in society...but when that occurs it's usually because of the abdication of men...there's a certain shame attached to it. I would vote for a woman for the presidency, in some situations, but again, there's a certain shame attached. Why don't you have a man who's able to step forward.... it's harder when there are women who are CEO's of companies and so forth. Still it comes down to the question of 'Do we trust God and do we believe that he has wisdom that we don't have?...
      3. In Martin Marty's M.E.M.O column he writes:
        1. "There it is-the kind of talk that held back women's suffrage and women's rights in general. That sees shame in the fact that women have been prime ministers or premiers or presidents in Israel, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other unenlightened non-Christian regimes."
    2. Olasky would probably approve of Paul's statement about the subjugation of women in Ephesians 5:22-24
      1. "Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands."
      2. There are denominations where women cannot be pastors
      3. There are denominations where women do not have the "right of vote."

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    1. This scripture is the one being used by the Southern Baptist Convention to create and pass a advisory that wives are to 'submit graciously' to their husbands.
      1. The husband is the head of the wife.
      2. Wives ought to be subject, in everything, to their husbands.
    2. When Ruth Graham, the wife of The Rev. Billy Graham, was "Asked by the Charlotte (NC) Observer reporter to comment on the Southern Baptists Convention's call for wives to 'submit graciously' to their husbands.
      1. Ruth Graham replied: 'There's a time to submit. And I think there's a time to outwit."
  1. Ephesians 5.22-24 must be understood within the circumstances in which it was written.
    1. The sociological formation of the family was very different than it is today.
      1. This is not a rationalization.
      2. There can be no doubt that the Paul had the patriarchal family order as the backdrop of his thinking.
      3. An orthodox male Jew, even to this day, thanks God that he is not a woman.
    2. There are other scriptures which mitigate this apparent absolute and used wisely create a relationship of mutual respect and empowerment.
      1. (Ephesians 5:21 NRSV) Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
      2. This comment in, The Interpreters's Bible is appropriate
      3. "Under the gospel of Christ mutual subjection is inseparable from true love. Love of another means accepting that other as a person, as a 'thou' and not an 'it.' A person is never a mere object. A person is one created in the image of God, with powers of self-determination, free to say 'Yes' and to say 'No.' A love union involves an 'I will' on both sides. A free 'Yes' is never produced by tyrannical power. I comes only by wooing and by grace. And wooing is again a form of submission. The 'I' has to commit a temporary suicide. Even listening--truly Christian listening--demands submission. A complete egoist cannot listen. A 'thou' has to become sufficiently important so that the ego of the listener is silenced on behalf of the other."(2)

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    1. This is why Linda Stover in, "Women in Christianity," writes(3)
      1. So you see, my understanding of the "traditional" role of women in the Bible is not quite as simple as most.
        1. I believe women must be submissive, yet militant.
        2. Humble, yet proud.
        3. Meek, yet aggressive.
      2. All of these apparent contradictions are found in the Bible.
        1. Read the stories of Deborah, Ruth, the virtuous woman in Proverbs, and Mary (Jesus' mother).
        2. You don't find them hiding in the shadows of the men.
        3. Instead you find them doing what God called them to do in spite of tradition and circumstances.
        4. Humble, submissive and meek before Him.
        5. Yet never shirking their duty.
        6. Proud of their calling.
        7. Aggressively carrying out His will.
        8. Not yielding to tradition that would hold them back.
  1. What we come to understand is that the family lives within the context of a Covenant.
    1. We are people of the covenant.
      1. We are united in striving to know the will of God as taught in the Holy Scriptures, and
      2. in our purpose to walk in the ways of the Lord, made known or to be made known to us.
    2. The traditional wedding vows highlight the content of Marriage and Family covenant.
      1. I, N., take you, N., to be my wedded husband/wife, to have an to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and accordingly I pledge you my faith.
      2. Each says these words to the other.
      3. Each owns the words and an I to a Thou
      4. Each accepts the mutual obligation that this relationship contains.

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    1. In Christ there is equality
      1. (Galatians 3:27-29 NRSV) As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.
      2. (Genesis 2:18 NRSV) Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner."
        1. A Helper, a partner.
        2. In the novel, The Fig Eater is the comment that in Romanian the word wife means: "my halfness."
    2. This Covenant relationship is not only between husband and wife, but also between parent and child.
      1. Matthew 18:6, NRSV
      2. "If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.
      3. Children are also heirs of the covenant.
      4. They are entitled to all the rights and privileges.
  1. Women and Mothers are models of life, love and relationships.
    1. Timothy Wilkins of Southside Baptist, Winston-Salem, NC in "Figures of Thought Which are Grand in Themselves" writes
      1. For the past 100 (now more than 100 years) years the majestic Statue of Liberty has towered above Bedlow Island near the entrance to New York harbor.
      2. "Liberty enlightening the world" is a symbol of freedom which we have enjoyed here in America.
      3. The famous sculptor, Bartholdi, gave 20 years of devoted effort to the work, personally superintending the raising of the subscription of 4 million dollars with which the French nation gave the statue to the United States.
      4. When the contribution lagged, Bartholdi pledged his own private fortune to defray the running expenses and practically impoverished himself over the work.
      5. At the beginning, when Bartholdi looked for a model whose form and features he could produce as "liberty," he received much contradictory counsel.
      6. One of the leading art authorities advised him that the status should depict "figures of thought which are grand in themselves."
      7. After examining outstanding heroes, Bartholdi chose as a model for the colossal masterpiece his own mother.
    2. Who among us does not recognize the awesome responsibility of a mother?
    3. This is why we celebrate a Mother's Day.
      1. Mother, Wife, Significant Other, is not a romanticized conclusion.
      2. It is the simple recognition of the inspiration, dedication, and sheer hard work of mother.

1. CHRISTIAN CENTURY, May 10, 2000, p. 551

2. Nolan B. Harmon, ed., The Interpreters's Bible (New York: Abingdon Press, X, 719

3. Copyright 2000 HOMILETICS, via the Internet

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