“A BORROWED
WORLD” - A SERMON FOR MOTHERING SUNDAY
|
|
Readings: |
|
|
|
|
Today is Mothering Sunday
I
wonder, is it for you a time to celebrate, or a time to endure?
For some it is a specially joyful occasion to give
thanks for mothers
or for the joy of motherhood.
for others it is a difficult time –
recalling the loss of mothers or children, the failure to have children,
or perhaps a family in which mothers and children fail to communicate or share.
But whatever our
relationships with our biological parents,
and whether or not we have children (close or otherwise),
this is a time when we can all think about
our relationship with generations past
and future –
our thanks for what we have been given
by past generations
and our responsibility to those still
to come.
The
set lesson for Mothering Sunday tells of Jesus
telling John to take care of Jesus’ mother Mary,
and Mary to care for John.
There is no suggestion that they are biologically related –
but as part of the new Church they are family –
“Here is your son – here is your mother”
And
whether we are male or female, young or old,
straight or gay, in a relationship or single,
we are all approaching Passiontide,
and we are all bidden by Christ to gather
with Mary and John at the foot of the cross.
There Christ calls all who bear his name as Christians
to honour and care for those of the older generation in the faith -
“Here is your mother” –
and also to honour and cherish those who come after us –
“Here is your son”.
So
maybe Mothering Sunday isn’t just for mothers –
We
can all look around the Church and hear Christ saying to everyone of us
“Look – here, and here, and here….do you see
your father, your mother, your son,
your daughter?
Treat and honour and love them as such,
for we are all family here”
What is true of the family of the Church
is also true of the wider human family.
We are all a part of the human race, the human family.
It
was Jonathan Porritt who many years ago now said
“We do not inherit the earth from our
ancestors,
we borrow it from our children”
This
year’s Lent groups have been looking at environmental issues.
This week the groups are looking at transport –
Whatever
some scientists are saying this week
about levels of responsibility for global warming,
I still fear that our grandchildren’s grandchildren
will look back on our generation and say
“For the sake of your package holidays and the like,
you robbed us of our birthright”
But caring for the children of the human family,
for generations yet unborn,
is about more than saving the planet (important though that is).
BAE
Systems is Europe's biggest weapons manufacturer.
I
am told – and assured that this is not a joke -
that BAE have announced the production of
“environmentally friendly ammunition”
including missiles that contain fewer toxic chemicals such as lead.
BAE
have apparently stated that
lead in bullets can "pose a risk to people."
The
Ministry of Defence has apparently supported the company's initiative
and has proposed manufacturing
missile heads that make less noise
and
grenades that produce less smoke
in an effort to curtail noise and air pollution respectively.
Money
is also being spent to develop biodegradable bombs.
Our responsibility to our children’s
children
is to bequeath them a greener planet –
But it is much much
more than that -
it is to work for a new heaven and a new earth
where there shall be no more tears
and where love and peace rule in place of hatred and war.
This
week I was given a leaflet printed in 1849 entitled
“Simultaneous Recitation by the Children
of the
Tealby Wesleyan Sunday School at the Anniversary 1849”
It
takes the form of a sort of catechism –
doubtless with the Sunday School children
all reciting answers to the questions in unison.
Question: Who bids you go to the Sabbath School?
Answer: It
is my mother bids me go,
To learn to read my Bible,
and seek its holy truths to know,
Is better than being idle;
She tells me many, when grown up,
For want of education
Drink the intoxicating cup,
the ruin of our nation.
Question: Why
is intemperance the ruin of the nation?
The
children answer with the salutary tale of the child who takes to drink,
who will go from bad to worse until finally:
the gallows ends his wild career,
and brands his name with ruin,
and weeping mothers shed the tear
Over their son’s undoing
The poetry may leave a bit to be desired.
But the underlying message we can still understand.
We are called to raise each generation so as to help
them as best we can
avoid the pitfalls of self, greed, addiction and violence.
That may sometimes be a wonderfully creative and
fulfilling experience
as we see infants growing, blossoming , maturing,
fulfilling their God given human potential.
But at other times we love and care and seem to get
very little back.
I guess everyone who has cared for children or the next generation
knows at least something of the agony
of the Prodigal’s Father scanning the horizon day after day.
God Knows (God does know!) raising children can be hard.
Today’s lesson tells of the cross and the
crown of thorns.
It reminds us that the way of love
is often the way of suffering and sacrifice.
On Remembrance Sunday we often read the
words
"When you go home,
tell them of us, and say,
For their tomorrow we gave our today"
That speaks so eloquently of the sacrifice of one generation for the
next –
The original words of course refer to sacrifices made in the world wars –
But they can be applied much more widely -
to the sacrifices of individual parents for their children
and to all kinds of sacrifices
made by one generation for those
still to come.
On Thursday the Independent ran a front cover
with a picture of Morgan Tsvangirai with a full page headline
saying simply “There is no freedom
without sacrifice”
On mothers’ day, the question is
“Do we care for our children? –
- for our own
biological children if we have them,
- but also for the children being born
and yet to be born
- in this country, in
Zimbabwe, and indeed across the world?
Jesus from the cross says to Mary – behold your son.
And Jesus from the cross shows us
¨ our own biological families (if we
have them)
¨ those sitting around us in this
Church
¨ the children of this land
¨ the children of Zimbabwe and the
world
and says “Behold your son, your daughter”
May we
kneel at the foot of the cross
May we rejoice in Christ’s loving sacrifice for us,
May we offer back our love and commitment,
that through our sacrifice,
all God’s children may indeed inherit a green and loving world.
ORDER OF SERVICE
Mothering Sunday (4th Sunday in Lent)
10.30 a.m. Morning Worship led by Andrew
Sails
Hymn 16 “Praise to the Lord” (accompanied
by the Mint orchestra).
(During this hymn a crown of thorns and a robe will be placed at the cross,
reminding us of the mockery of the
soldiers before the crucifixion)
Prayer
All Age Ministry – Debra Myhill
Hymn 86 “Tell out my soul” (accompanied
by the Mint orchestra)
The
Peace
Leader: Let
us share the peace
Adults: The
peace of the Lord be with you
Children: And
also with you
Leader: Go in peace
[Young
people leave for their own sessions]
Readings Genesis
1:26-31 (p.4)
Jn 19: 1-3, 16-27 (p.1087)
Hymn
“Our Father God in
Heaven”
(Timothy
Dudley-Smith)
Sermon:
“A Borrowed World”
Hymn
333 “For the beauty of the earth”
Offertory
Prayers of Intercession
Leader: ……..Lord, be with us in our need, we pray
People (sing): Ubi
caritas, et amor.
Ubi caritas Deus ibi est.
[Translation:
Where there is charity and love, there is God
Lord’s Prayer
Hymn 566 “Now thank we all our God”
Blessing