May 13, Mother's Day, Rural Life Sunday

Lesson: 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:7b

Sermon Title: Believes all Things

(Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

INTRODUCTION:

There is an excellent ad in the May 2nd edition of the Home News for Nina's.

  1. Perhaps this is too formal.

  2. Maybe we men ought to understand Seminars Your Wife Wants You to Attend.

  1. If that is not enough I like the one that was in the May Good Tidings.

A Mom got a Mother's Day card from her teenage daughter with the note: "Dear Mom. Here are two aspirins. Happy Mother's Day.

(Top)  (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

INTRODUCTION

  1. Enough of the humor.

    1. Lets look at the text for today.

    2. (Love) believes all things, (1 Corinthians 13:7b, NRSVA).

    3. Believes all things.

MAIN BODY:

  1. Wendell James gave me a copy of When God Created Mothers (1)

    1. In honor of All Moms on Mother's Day - Words filled with wisdom By Erma Bombeck

When the good Lord was creating mothers, He was into His sixth day of "overtime" when the angel appeared and said, "You're doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."

And the Lord said, "Have you read the specs on this order? --

She has to be completely washable, but not plastic; Have 180 moveable parts . . . all replaceable; Run on black coffee and leftovers; Have a lap that disappears when she stands up; A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair; And six pairs of hands...

The angel shook her head slowly and said, "Six pairs of hands . . . no way."

"It's not the hands that are causing me problems," said the Lord. "It's the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have."

"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.

The Lord nodded.

One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, 'What are you kids doing in there?' when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn't but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say, 'I understand and I love you' without so much as uttering a word."

"Lord," said the angel, touching His sleeve gently, "Come to bed. Tomorrow . . ."

"I can't," said the Lord, "I'm so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick . . . can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger . . . and can get a nine year-old to stand under a shower."

The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. "It's too soft," she sighed.

"But tough!" said The Lord excitedly. "You cannot imagine what this mother can do or endure."

The angel asked, "Can it think?"

"Not only think, but it can reason and compromise," said The Creator.

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. "There's a leak," she pronounced. "I told You, You were trying to put too much into this model."

"It's not a leak," said the Lord, "It's a tear."

"What's it for?" asked the angel.

"It's for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness and pride," The Lord replied.

"You are a genius," said the angel.

The Lord looked somber.

"I didn't put it there," he said.

    1. Vern Schroeder, the Department Chaplain closed the article with a prayer.

        2. Lord, God our Creator, we give thanks for the many things that You provide for us, but Mother's are the one treasure you have blessed us with. We ask Your blessings on all the Mothers today. For those whose Mothers are with them, now is the time to tell them how much you love them. For those Mothers that have gone on before, instill in our memory the good times we spent together. Let us never forget them and what they stand for and what they sacrificed for us. We ask this in Your Holy Name--Amen.

      1. Let us bless and remember.

      2. Remembering is the foundation for this poem.

        1. I subscribe to an online service provided by Minnesota Public Radio, featuring Garrison Keillor reading The Writers Almanac.

        2. On Sunday May 6 he read a poem "The House on Broughton Street" by Mary Ann Larkin, from 'The Coil of the Skin.' (2)

The House on Broughton Street

Always it was a summer afternoon
I see my mother climbing the stairs
to the porch
My grandmother waiting
tiny but formidable
She'd been expecting her
the sisters smiling
brothers watching
My mother in her grey crepe
the white gloves she always wore
Her hair and eyes dark
among these fair, freckled people
My father shyly presenting her----
something of his own----
Shuffling, they made room for her
and she took her place among them
and between them
grew something new
Marie, they came to say,
This is Grant's Marie
She seldom spoke
but rested among them
a harbor she'd found

My father gave her a carnelian ring
surrounded by silver hearts
Before Grandma died
she gave my mother the diamond brooch
from Grandpa
My mother brought with her
fabrics that glistened
a touch of velvet
sometimes a feather
They noticed the light
in the rooms where she sat
And even thirty years later
after the lost jobs and the babies
after the mortgages and the wars
what they remembered most
was the way my mother
set aside her gloves

She was buried on Good Friday
There was a blizzard
After the funeral
the youngest uncle
read "Murder in the Cathedral" aloud

I have the carnelian ring now
the diamond brooch
I wear satin when I can
and I am attracted to old houses
where the light passes
across the porch to the windows, making
of the space between, a grace

(Top)  (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

  1. Moms and Grand-moms leave a legacy.

  1. This was tearfully mentioned by the grandchildren of Emma Abplanalp and time of her funeral.

  2. The legacy is one that highlights and emphasize the thought of today's reading.

    1. Love believes all things.

    2. Love is not gullible.

    3. Love is not open to the enticements of scam artists.

  3. Love believes the best, not the worst.

    1. Love believes without partiality.

    2. This thought is illustrated by The Apostle James.

        But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy, (James 3:17, NRSVA).

      1. Here is a wonderful illustration of how a mother's love believes.

        2. Tillie Scrubbed On (3)

        [The following story unfolds as a reporter seeks to discover the story behind an advertisement offering a 55000 reward for the killers of a police officer. The reporter visits with the woman who placed the ad; her son is serving a 99-year sentence for the murder of the officer]

        "How did you raise the money?" McGuire asked.

        "I scrub floors," Tillie answered. "In office buildings downtown, at night. For 11 years. Ever since my boy Joe is gone."

        Tillie's husband worked in the stockyards, she said. He was often laid off, and she knew she could not depend on his pay envelope to purchase the truth that would set Joe free. So she took the only kind of job she could get. She worked eight hours a night, six nights a week, on her hands and knees, scrubbing floors in a Loop office building. Eleven years she had scrubbed-3500 weary nights. Acres of marble floor, oceans of soapy water, years of backache and heartache. Yet her courage had never wavered. It took a lot of scrubbing for Tillie to make enough to save $5000, but now she had the money.

        "Has anybody answered the ad?" McGuire asked.

        Tillie shook her head. She said she had tried before, with $3500, and no one had answered that ad, either. Justice, she was discovering, could be an expensive luxury.

        For ten and a half months McGuire and another Times reporter, Jack McPhaul, dug up hidden evidence, scoured the town and the nation for witnesses to this long forgotten crime. They had to overcome the slick maneuverings of shabby politicians who did not want the case revived.

        Meanwhile, Tillie scrubbed on. Every week she put her savings in the bank. And while she scrubbed, McGuire and McPhaul dug for facts and the Times printed them.

        Then the Times engaged a lawyer who marshaled all the facts dug out so arduously by the reporters. These facts were so convincing that the state pardon board made a top-to-bottom investigation, then recommended to the governor that Joe be immediately released.

        1. Tillie believed in the innocence of Joe.

        2. Even if Joe were guilt, Tillie would not have abandoned him.

      2. One of the reasons I am where I am is because my mother believed in me.

        1. My mother was messed up.

        2. It did not make any difference.

        3. I was very messed up

        4. It did not make any difference,

        5. She believed and ultimately convinced me that everything would work out in the end.

        6. It may have taken longer for me than some of my contemporaries, but it did work out in the end.

        7. It happened because mother had decided early on what was important,

(Top)  (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)

CONCLUSION

  1. To understand what is important listen to the words of Erma Bombeck who wrote IF I HAD MY LIFE T O LIVE OVER (written after she found out she was dying from cancer).

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren't there for the day.

I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the 'good' living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn't show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I'd have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, "Later. Now go get washed up for dinner." There would have been more "I love you's" More "I'm sorry's."

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute. ..look at it and really see it . . live it and never give it back. STOP SWEATING THE SMALL STUFF!!!

Don't worry about who doesn't like you, who has more, or who's doing what. Instead, let's cherish the relationships we have with those who do love us. Let's think about what God HAS blessed us with, and what we are doing each day to promote ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally. I hope you have a blessed day.

    1. Erma Bombeck did not abandon her family.

      1. The onset of cancer provided the opportunity to evaluate her life, her priorites.

      2. She realized that she was a great mom.

      3. She came to know that there were alternatives that might have been explored.

    2. This Mother's day we take time to explore alternatives.

      1. We take time to remember.

      2. We take time to honor.

      3. We take time to celebrate our legacy.

        3. Amen.

1. May 2004, Badger Legionnaire & American Legion Auxiliary, Submitted by Vern Schroeder, Department Chaplain.

2. "The House on Broughton Street" by Mary Ann Larkin, from 'The Coil of the Skin.' ©Washington Writers' Publishing House. Reprinted with permission.

3. From :Tillie Scrubbed ON," by William McDermot and Karl Detzer, in The Reader's Digest, December 1946. Copyright © 1946 by The Readers Digest, Inc. pages 81-84.

(Top)  (Back to Study Home Page)   (Back to Sermons for 2005-2006)
(Back to Sermons Home Page)   (Back to Shultz Home Page)