SPECIAL DAYS: Mother's Day

May 11, 2003 - Lesson: 1 John 3.1-3

Sermon Title: Mothers Are Children Too

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. They did it again!!!!!

The headline reads: Mommies Dearest? In time for Mother's Day, a look at history's worst moms.

The original title is: Your mom is not on this list, thank goodness (1)

Eric Adler Knight Ridder Newspapers

Consider yourself lucky. Sunday is Mother's Day. And let's hope you love, love, looooove your mother.

You'll get her the card.

You'll get her the gift.

You'll tell her, as if you were a walking Hallmark card, that you're who you are because she's who she is. And you know, at the creamy center of your Russell Stover's chocolate heart, that you could have had it waaaay worse.

If you don't think that's true, just look at the news. Look back at history. Look at Cinderella's plight.

Or just ask assistant U.S. attorney and former Jackson County prosecutor Kate Mahoney about bad mothers. "Some," she said, "do their worst."

Which is why - just in case you're not feeling overly generous these days toward dear ol' mom, or have yet to buy the requisite card - we offer you this:

A list of factual and fictional moms who, you might thank your lucky stars, were not yours. After all, imagine what it would be like to be born the son or daughter of, say...

Medea: This mom from Greek mythology really needed a good therapist. To punish her husband for taking a new wife, she killed her own children. Gee, Mom, thanks.

Herod's wife, Herodias: Talk about lousy motherly guidance. After her first husband died, this mom married his half-brother, Herod Antipas. John the Baptist denounced the marriage. Angered, Herodias had her sexy daughter, Solome, dance for her new husband, who was so pleased he told Solome she could have anything she wanted - up to half his kingdom. Herodias told Solome to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Next time, Mom, do your own dancing.

Snow White's stepmom: Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's a real jealous witch? The evil queen, that's who! Snow White's the prettiest in the kingdom, so the witch demanded her killed. Man, if ever there was a case for Botox.

Agrippina the Younger: Like mother, like son. This mother of Roman Emperor Nero was married three times. Until, that is, she poisoned both her second and third husbands. The death of No. 3 made Nero emperor. When Mom objected to Nero's second marriage, Nero ordered his mother killed. Everybody sing: "I want a girl, just like the girl, who married dear ol' dad. ..."

Virtually any poor mom in the Middle Ages: In Western Europe and Russia from the year 1200 through the Renaissance, foundling homes burgeoned. Virtually every town had one. If you were a mom who couldn't care for a child, you could anonymously place him on a "turning cradle" that revolved through the opening in a wall, depositing the baby inside the institution.

"In Russia in the 18th century, they had the biggest foundling home in Europe," Indiana University professor of history David Ransel said. "In Moscow, one foundling home alone was taking in 16,000 to 17,000 babies a year."

Treatment: "They mostly died," Ransel said. "They had 85 percent mortality by age 5. Children were a perishable commodity."

Kate "Ma" Barker: FBI director J. Edgar Hoover called Ma Barker a "veritable beast of prey" and "one of the most vicious, dangerous and resourceful criminal brains" of the Depression. Others say Barker has been unfairly demonized and Hoover invented the story to explain away the death of Barker in a shootout with law enforcement. Whatever the truth, she did raise a roost of sons with whom she traveled as they murdered, stole and kidnapped their way across the Midwest. Sort of gives a new definition to "quality time."

Joan Crawford: OK, so some say the Hollywood starlet, who died in 1977, was never as mentally and physically abusive as her adopted daughter, Christina, portrayed her in the tell-all book "Mommie Dearest." Then again, those people didn't live with her.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. Helga received a Mother's Day card from son, Hans

The verse in the card reads: "May your special day be filled with sunshine and each hour unfold with joy."

Hans wrote: "I hope you have a great day. Thanks for everything, and especially for being the example that you are. I love you!" Hans

  1. Mother's are examples.

    1. Erma Bombeck was a wonderful person and an insightful one who wrote a story Why God made Mothers.

    2. The story illustrates very well this point.

By the time the Lord made mothers, he was into his sixth day of working overtime. An Angel appeared and said "Why are you spending so much time on this one"?

And the Lord answered and said, "Have you seen the spec sheet on her? She has to be completely washable, but not plastic, have 200 movable parts, all replaceable, run on black coffee and leftovers, have a lap that can hold three children at one time and that disappears when she stands up, have a kiss that can cure anything from a scraped knee to a broken heart, and have six pairs of hands."

The Angel was astounded at the requirements for this one. "Six pairs of hands! No Way!", said the Angel. The Lord replied, "Oh, it's not the hands that are the problem. It's the three pairs of eyes that mothers must have!""And that's just on the standard model?", the Angel asked.

The Lord nodded in agreement, "Yep, one pair of eyes are to see through the closed door as she asks her children what they are doing even though she already knows. Another pair in the back of her head, are to see what she needs to know even though no one thinks she can. And the third pair are here in the front of her head. They are for looking at an errant child and saying that she understands and loves him or her without even saying a single word."

The Angel tried to stop the Lord. "This is too much work for one day. Wait until tomorrow to finish.""But I can't!" The Lord protested, "I am so close to finishing this creation that is so close to my own heart. She already heals herself when she sick AND can feed a family of six on a pound of hamburger and can get a nine year old to stand in the shower.

The Angel moved closer and touched the woman, "But you have made her so soft, Lord.""She is soft," the Lord agreed, "but I have also made her tough. You have no idea what she can endure or accomplish.""Will she be able to think?", asked the Angel.

The Lord replied, "Not only will she be able to think, she will be able to reason, and negotiate."

The Angel then noticed something and reached out and touched the woman's cheek. "Oops, it looks like you have a leak with this model. I told you that you were trying to put too much into this one." "That's not a leak." The Lord objected. "That's a tear!" "What's the tear for?" the Angel asked. The Lord said, "The tear is her way of expressing her joy, her sorrow, her disappointment, her pain, her loneliness, her grief, and her pride."

The Angel was impressed. "You are a genius, Lord. You thought of everything; for mothers are truly amazing!"

  1. If you really want to know how amazing mother's are listen to this Mother's Day piece by Kate Reddy.

When Kate Reddy's friend Jill dies of cancer, she leaves her husband a sheaf of paper containing 20 pages of close-typed script. It bears the title Your Family: How It Works!

"Everything's in there," Jill's husband says to Kate, shaking his head in wonder. "She even tells me where to find the...Christmas decorations. You'd be amazed how much there is to remember, Kate."

But she isn't surprised at all. What mother would be?

Kate Reddy, the working mother at the heart of Allison Pearson's best-selling novel I Don't Know How She Does It (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002), puts together a list that is long, and always growing.

At the top, in capital letters, are two words: MUST REMEMBER.

It's a deluge of self-imposed demands: Write thank-you letters...Buy new ballet leotard for daughter Emily (blue, not pink)...Return call from sister...Ask cool friend what is gansta rap. No cool friends. Make cool friend .... Baby sitter Saturday/Wednesday, pay newspaper bill/read back issues of newspapers, call nanny temp agency...Trim son's nails...Dentist appointment...Return Snow White video to library...Be nicer, more patient person with daughter, so she doesn't grow up to be a needy psychopath.

Allison Pearson's relates that mothers around the world can certainly relate to her endless lists, compiled while walking through life in what she describes as a "lead suit of sleeplessness."

And on this Mother's Day in particular, we can all be thankful for the many ways that time-and-sleep-starved mothers everywhere keep numerous balls in the air while being pulled in a thousand different directions.

"I have to try to remember," Kate confesses. "Someone has to." Her husband isn't much help, because if she asks him to hold more than three things in his head at once, you can see smoke start to come out of his ears--the circuits all blow. Women are meant to be great at multitasking, says Kate. Most men are not.

Marjorie Williams appreciates Kate Reddy's grasp of the mysteries of the two-income marriage. In a review in The Washington Post (October 2, 2002), she notes that it is always the mother who holds in her head the full delicate ecosystem of the family's life, no matter who brings in what salary. "They could give you good jobs and maternity leave," observes Reddy, "but until they programmed a man to notice you were out of toilet paper, the project was doomed."

Kate Reddy imagines herself being hauled before "The Court of Motherhood." That's a court that she dreams she must face when she is feeling particularly guilty about her multitasking life.

In one scene, the judge asks Kate about broccoli. Specifically, he grills Kate on whether she told her mother-in-law that her daughter Emily loved broccoli--even though she was, at that time, unsure of whether Emily liked it or not.

"Yes," admits Kate, "but I couldn't possibly tell my husband's mother that I didn't know whether my child liked broccoli."

"Why not?" asks the judge.

"It's the kind of thing mothers know."

"Speak up!" demands the judge.

"I said mothers know that kind of thing."

"And you don't?" asserts the judge.

Case closed. The Court of Motherhood has reached a verdict.

    1. There are all kinds of verdicts that are handed down on Mother's day.

      1. The sentimental verdict.

      2. The judgmental verdict.

      3. The apathetic verdict.

      4. The condemning verdict.

    2. These verdicts are so often the result of the attempts to find the root causes of our behavior without accepting responsibility for ourselves.

    3. "Mothers deserve better. But do they get it? Not on your life.

      1. "When a politician is accused of making motherhood statements, the inference is invariably pejorative.

      2. "The expression 'the mother of all wars' and, more recently, 'the mother of all bombs' is intended to be greeted with nothing less than shock and awe...

      3. "The worst possible in-law is a mother-in-law." (2)

A young lady came home from a date looking rather sad. She told her mother, "Arthur proposed to me an hour ago."

"Then why are you so sad?" her mother asked.

"Because he also told me he was an atheist. Mom, he doesn't even believe there's a hell."

Her mother replied, "Marry him anyway. Between the two of us, we'll show him how wrong he is."

  1. The most important family for all of us to consider is the far-reaching family of God.

    1. This is Your Family. Your True Family. But How Does It Work?

    2. According to John it works by love

    3. Love. Ah, sweet love, kind love, compassionate love.

      1. Sweet Love

        1. Agreeable -- Avoid any conflict

        2. Reasonable -- No too many demands

        3. Pleasing -- Willing to do what the other desires

      2. Kind Love

        1. Tender -- Doesn't hurt your feelings

        2. Considerate -- Accommodating

        3. Understanding -- Compromising

      3. Compassionate Love

        1. Lavish -- Freely giving of expansive gifts.

        2. Liberal -- Giving much, especially of one's emotions.

        3. Charitable -- Freely engaging in activities that the other wants and needs.

      4. This is pleasant and not messy.

      5. Parts designed to fit love to us, rather than we fitting ourselves to love.

    4. Love can be somewhat difficult.

In the 1997 April/May issue of The Congregationalist, editor Joe Polhemus quotes a statement made by Clint Eastwood after he had made the movie, the Bridges of Madison County."

He was happy to return to his traditional violent roles.

"But, man, this romantic stuff can really be tough. I couldn't wait to get back to shooting and killing."

    1. Love is tough

      1. It is not about shooting and killing.

      2. It is about understanding and relating

      3. Its about being children

      4. Its about being children of God.

    2. That is important not only for mothers, but also for all of us.

    3. How much different life could be if we were truly children of God.

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CONCLUSION

  1. Let's remember that Mother's are children too.

    1. Mother's are children of God.

    2. A 4-year-old boy was waiting with his mother in the doctor's office. They were discussing all kinds of great issues such as What am I doing here? and Where's the doctor? and Why isn't God married?-things like that.

    3. Finally, the little boy asked the ultimate question: Why doesn't God ever just get tired and stop?

    4. His mother thought a long time before she answered. Then she said, God is love, and love never gets tired.

  2. Happy Mother's Day!

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2. Ibid

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