Sunday
05/09/21 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “Moms and Love”
Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 98
New Testament Scripture: 1 John 5:1-6
Gospel Lesson: John 15:9-17
Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers,
grandmothers, and all women, as all women have or are still the mother of
someone, or something. Some women are mothers to animals, or to nieces and nephews,
to chia pets, to their children, etc. Today we honor all women and the fact
most women are mothers in some or in many capacities.
As I was thinking about and praying
about what to preach on on this Mother’s Day, and this the Sixth Sunday of the Season
of Easter, I looked at this morning’s scripture readings. Since our gospel
lesson for this morning, once again talks about love, I decided to call my
sermon title for this morning “Moms and Love”.
I am blessed to have a mother and a
stepmother, and to still have one living grandmother. I also have many adopted
mothers and grandmothers. My mother Susan is someone who in my own life has
shown me and continues to show me great love. This love was and is compassion,
caring, but at times corrective and stern. Love cares, teaches, and corrects.
In our gospel of John lesson for this
morning, it says once again:
“9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (Jn. 15:9-10, NRSV).
God is the source of all life, light, and of course love. God
is love. On this Mother’s Day, we are invited to show our mothers, our grandmothers,
and the important women in our lives the love that they have or continue to
show us.
Some of you might say, “But Pastor Paul, I didn’t really
have a good mother”. This could be the case for some of you, and if this is the
case, think of those women that you know or knew that loved you like a mother. This
morning let us think about and remember those women in our lives that have done
so much for us. Take some time today thanking and or remembering all those
mothers and motherly women that have been or are still in our lives today.
Jesus
continues in our gospel of John reading for this morning says:
“12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you” (Jn. 15:12-14, NRSV).
Jesus then commands his disciples to go forth doing, living,
and teaching, as he had taught them. Jesus then ends this gospel of John
reading saying:
“17 I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another” (Jn. 15:17, NRSV).
When
I listen to the words of Jesus for this morning, I think of his love for his
disciples and for us, and I think of his instructions for each of us to love
each other in the same way. When I think of people in my own life who have loved
me like Jesus, there are many such people, but certainly my mom is at the top of
the list. Maybe for some of you, your mother or other women in your life showed
you what the love of God through Jesus Christ looked like or looks like. Maybe
some of us came to know Jesus Christ through our mothers or through the women
in our lives.
As
I was thinking about and praying about this sermon, I thought about how in many
movies, television shows, or in real life, how when people are suffering
greatly, they cry out for their mothers. In fact, in the limited research I
have done, many men in particular will cry for there mother’s as they are dying.
This could be in the hospital, on the battlefield, or somewhere else (https://www.russellmoore.com/2019/05/08/why-do-dying-men-call-for-mama/).
This is not to say that some men might not cry for there fathers, but many men according
the to the limited research I have done cry out for their mothers. How many of
you when you are really sick or really scared, deep down, still want your
mother? If your answer to this is yes, then what does this show you about the
love of God through Jesus Christ?
Further,
if this is true for you, what does this also show you about the love of a
mother for her children, and the connection of children to their mother. As a
pastor, I have been in hospital rooms or in homes when a mother breathes her
last. I have seen the faces of the people in the room losing this person on
earth that they loved so much. In fact, one dear woman that I visited, who dying
in a hospital room, was worried about birthday gifts, remembering to do things
for the family, etc. She was not worried about her death, rather she was
worried about who was going to do the things for her family when she left this
earth. Dads matter to, but this is Mother’s Day. In fact, we will celebrate
Father’s Day next month on Sunday June 20th.
How
many of us grew up going to church on Sunday? For many of us, not all of us, if
we grew up going to church, it was likely because mom or grandma brought us or
made us go. Maybe it was dad or grandpa, but for many of us it was mom or
grandma. Mother’s play such a vital roll in our lives, whether they are our own
mother, or the women that have mothered us.
In
our scripture reading for this morning 1 John, it says once again:
“5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,” (1 Jn. 5:1-3, NRSV).
This scripture is of course comparing God the Father to Jesus,
and that we are to love God and obey his commandments. Yet, I can also see in
this scripture the love between a parent and a child. That we are to love the
parent, and the parent is to love us. We are to obey and listen to the parent, learn
from them, and be loved by them.
For all these reasons then, today we celebrate on this the
Sixth Sunday of the Season of Easter, Mother’s Day. As I said a few minutes ago,
I would challenge all of us today, to remember, or to reach out to your mother and
those women in your lives that have and maybe continue to mean so much to you.
In fact, I remember learning in seminary, and maybe it has changed, that one of
the fastest growing Sundays in America for church attendance is Mother’s Day.
You see when some people ask mom or grandma what they want for Mother’s Day,
some of them just say, “come to church with me”. Have you ever noticed that
sometimes on Mother’s Day, the children or grandchildren of the mother will
sometimes be with them in church, and that they often then take their mom or grandma
out to lunch after church?
To
know God is to know love, and for many of us, to know our moms, our grandmas,
and some of the women in our lives, is to know God’s love. This is why Mother’s
Day matters so much. Further, the sacrifices that some mothers, grandmothers,
and some of the women in our lives have made for us, is nothing short of remarkable.
We can never repay them, but we can love them and remember them.
So
just for some fun, and to further show the importance of mothers, grandmothers,
and the important of the women in our lives, I want to share with you some fun
facts about mothers. Here they are:
There are 2 billion mothers in the World (82.5 million in
the U.S.)
First-time Moms: Average age of new moms is 25, vs. 21
in 1970
Kids: Modern moms average 2 kids (1950s: 3.5 kids;
1700s: 7-10 kids)
4.3 babies are born each second
72% of moms with children over 1 year old work (about
the same as childless women), vs. 39% in 1976
55% of moms with a child under 1 year old work, vs. 31% in 1976
Moms with a full-time job spend 13 hours working at the
office or at home on family chores
Diaper
Changes for babies: 7,300 by baby's 2nd birthday
Diaper Changing Speed: Moms take 2 minutes, 5 seconds
(adds up to 3 40-hour work weeks each year!) , vs. 1 minute, 36 seconds for
dads
Giving Attention: Preschooler requires mom's attention
once every 4 minutes or 210 times / day
Taking Care: Preschooler moms spend 2.7 hrs / day on
primary childcare, vs. 1.2 hours for dads
Chores: Women average 2.2 hrs / day, vs. 1.3 hrs / day
for men
Laundry: 88% is done by moms, totaling 330 loads of
laundry & 5,300 articles of clothing each year
Least Favorite Chore: Vacuuming the stairs
Moms: Reading is the most common activity, followed by talking on the phone, meditating, watching TV, drinking coffee, eating and balancing the checkbook
Most Kids: Mrs. Vassilyev of Russia gave birth to 69
children between 1725 and 1765
Oldest Mom: Rosanna Dalla Corte gave birth to a baby
boy when she was 63 years old in Italy in 1994
Heaviest Newborn: Signora Carmelina Fedele gave birth to a 22 lb 8 oz boy in Italy in 1955
1st Mother's Day: May 10, 1908; Founded by Anna Jarvis;
made a national holiday in 1914 by President Wilson
Busiest Phone Day: 68% of people plan to call Mom on
Mother's Day, totaling 122.5 million phone calls
Card Giving: 50% of households give Mother's Day cards, totaling some 152 million cards
Most popular birth month: July
Most popular birthday: Tuesday
Most popular birthday: October 5
30 Pounds: Average weight gain during pregnancy
Baby Gender Gap: 105 boys born for every 100 girls
First Year Baby Costs: $7,000 of baby items before 1st
birthday
Cost of Raising a Child: Middle-income families spend
$242,070 to raise a kid to 18 (not incl. college!)
Most Popular Names of 21st Century
Baby Girls: Emily, Madison, Hannah
Baby Boys: Jacob, Michael, Joshua
Research suggests that moms who give birth later in life,
live longer
Having kids may make you smarter (http://www.happyworker.com/supermom/facts)
Once again in our gospel lesson for
this morning, Jesus tells us to love one another, as God the Father loves him,
and as Jesus loves us. Jesus tells us to keep his commandments and abide in his
love, so that Christ’s joy will be in us. In fact, Jesus says that our joy in
him will be make complete. Jesus then commands his disciples to live, love, teach,
heal, and care for all people, the way that he has cared for them. Jesus tells
us to love on another.
For
many of us, our mothers, grandmothers, and other women in our lives have loved
us the way that Jesus taught his disciples to love each other. Maybe, just maybe
then, this is why so many dying men cry out for their mothers. Happy Mother’s
Day and amen.
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