Mothers

Proverbs 31

Romans 16: 1-4 and 13

John 19: 25-27

Mothers

This Sunday, the second Sunday in May, has been officially designated as “Mother’s Day” since May 9, 1914. But in England as far back as the 1600’s there has been a tradition of a “Mothering Sunday.” Originally born out of the Catholic celebrations of Mary, the Mother of Christ, the English “Mothering Sunday” allowed poor women who worked and lived as servants in wealthy households a day off to return home and be with their own families.

There is no way I can ever give a Mother’s Day sermon, or any other sermon, from the perspective of a mother.

In an old Peanuts strip, Peppermint Patty and Violet are reflecting on being a grandmother. After Patty declares that she would like to be a grandmother, Violet agrees and says it would be nice because all they have to do is “sit and rock” (not quite the case, is it?) The girls then decide that the trouble with being a grandmother is that first you have to be a wife and then a mother…and Violet sighs, “I know it…it’s all those preliminaries that get me!”

Author, speaker and sports enthusiast Pat Williams, in his book A Lifetime of Success, gives one of the best examples I know of a mother’s love. He tells of attending a very special Atlanta Braves’ baseball home opener on April 8, 1974. It was a night game against the Dodgers and it was a complete sellout. Up at the plate: the immortal Henry Aaron. On the line: Babe Ruth’s record of 714 career home runs. Aaron had tied the record and tonight he was aiming to break it.

Understand that this was nearly 40 years ago. An African‑American player was about to topple the great Babe Ruth--and a lot of people in the country didn’t like it. Aaron got a lot of mail that year--more than 930,000 letters in all, far more than any other person in the country. Most were fan letters--but about 100,000 of them were hate letters, some containing death threats.

Williams says he was on the edge of his seat when Dodgers pitcher Al Downing hurled the ball toward the plate. Aaron swung and connected. The crack of his bat echoed through the stands. The ball was gone. Home run. Babe Ruth’s record was shattered. The ballpark went nuts.

“As Aaron rounded second base,” says Williams, “a couple of teenagers--both white--jumped over the retaining wall and ran onto the field, chasing Aaron. For a moment, no one knew what they had in mind, but then it became clear: they were celebrating and cheering Aaron on. As Aaron crossed the plate, the dugout emptied as the Braves streamed onto the field to surround him, cheering and whooping it up. But amid all those ballplayers around Aaron was a short, sixty-eight‑year‑old black woman. She latched onto Aaron and wouldn’t let go of him. Henry Aaron turned and said to her, ‘Mom! What are you doing here?’”

“‘Baby,’ said the mother of the new home‑run king, ‘if they’re gonna get you,’ (thinking of the death threats Aaron had received) ‘they’ve gotta get me first!’”

That is the kind of  love a good mother has for her child. “If they’re gonna get you, they’ve gotta get me first!”

Most of the 16th chapter of Paul's letter to the Romans doesn’t do much for me. Read it and I think you will find it boring nothing more than a long presentation of people’s names, most of whom I can’t pronounce.  Over the year, however, I have discovered that there is more to it than I had first imagined. For example, it is interesting to note that of the twenty-six people who Paul singles out for his personal greeting, six were women.

 Now that strikes me as being rather interesting, since Paul has frequently gotten a bum rap for being a male chauvinist. I think it also shows us the tremendous influence that women had in the early church. Women at the time of Jesus and Paul, and for many centuries before and after, were of low status, seldom owning property, and always supposed to be under the domination of men. Even today, even here in the United States, there are institutions and some churches that believe women should have limited roles. In the male oriented first century Palestine, it is telling that Paul could not describe the church without mentioning the significant role of women.

Verse 13 of Romans chapter 16 is particularly interesting and it is one that scholars have struggled with over the centuries. Paul writes: "Give my greetings to Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine." Now this statement could be taken two ways. It could mean that Paul had two distinct women in mind--the mother of Rufus and his own personal mother. Or, he could be saying: "I salute Rufus and his mother, who is like a mother to me."

If that is what he meant, and most Biblical scholars agree that that is indeed what he meant, then it raises some interesting speculation. When and where did Paul meet Rufus’ mother? Did she nurse him through some serious illness? Did she receive him into her home for an extended stay during his missionary journeys? How did this woman and Paul form such a close bond that he refers to her fondly as being like his mother?  Whatever she did it had to be very important, and more than a one-time thing. She was not his biological mother, but she certainly helped nurture him, and cared for him in a very special way.

Mark tells us that Simon of Cyrene, the man who carried Jesus cross, had two sons: Alexander and Rufus. Was this the same Rufus to whom Paul was speaking? If that is true, his mother would be Simon of Syrene’s wife. No one knows for sure who this remarkable woman was who served as a mother figure for the great Paul, but it could have been. Tradition holds that it was.

I cannot imagine the emotions that ran through Mary’s mind as she watched her son on the cross. She had every reason to hate, to wish for revenge. Yet, hanging there, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  I can only believe that his gentleness, his compassion, his willingness to forgive, were at least in part fostered by his mother’s love and values as she raised him.

True enough, there are some women in the Bible, such as Jezebel and the vindictive Herodias, who had John the Baptist beheaded, who tarnish the institution of motherhood. There are women today who abandon, abuse, and corrupt their children and who create a poor model, but I like to think that these are the exceptions. Most mothers do the right thing and deserve recognition and admiration. So this morning I would like to join Paul and salute all of the mothers who are with us. Mothers, please stand.

Amen