Preached May 12, 2013, at Throop and Dunmore UMC's.
On
my Facebook page the week before Mothers’ Day, I asked this question:
Mothers Day is this
weekend, and I have found the day problematic the last few years. The
brokenness of this world gives the lie to what Mothers' Day traditionally highlights
in so many ways; friends who were unable to have children, friends who have
problematic or broken relationships with their own mothers or children,
children who have lost their mothers far too early, stepmothers, and the view
of motherhood and womanhood that the holiday projects onto so many women, an
image that just doesn't fit so many. In a Christian church, to go to scripture
for help also just doesn't help, the choices and actions of mothers there are
so complicated. As the poker dealer says, "no help there."
So, what is Mothers Day for you? As a child,
do you see it is a blessing or a duty? If you are a mother, do you expect a
certain kind of observance, and are you disappointed if it doesn't go as you
expect?
It
was a large and varied response. Some
women wrote about how wonderful it was to be able to celebrate their own
mothers, others were honest about the coercive nature of the day, still others
were truthful about their own difficulty with the day because of their not
having had children, or missing their own mothers.
By
doing this day today, even though all of the pain and capitalism, everything
that insists on its own way even when they deal relationship with a mothers
doesn’t exist, there is still something that is at its root, isn’t there?
There
is something within us that is being spoken to.
We
talk about caring, we talk about softness, we talk about nurture. There is something there. And I think this little passage from Luke is
what we’re talking about.
In
this part of Luke’s version of the story, Jesus knows what is coming. He tells the disciples that he must go to
Jerusalem, because the prophets can’t be killed outside it’s walls, which is a
little bit of foxhole humor, I think.
But then he says that all he’s ever wanted to do was to gather the
people of Jerusalem (and by extension, all of the people of God) together and
keep them warm and protect them, like a hen gathers her brood.
It’s
not a paternalistic image; it’s not swords and shields. It is maternalistic; it’s protection, and
warmth. It is nurture.
It
is not just mothers that can do this (and I’m not just writing that because I
am a single dad); as I preached at Throop last weekend, there was a fretful
baby, and the baby was being calmed by her father. Both genders have within them the ability to
be nurturing.
Being
caring, supportive, and loving, does not depend on ovaries. This is Jesus, a man, saying he would gather
the city as a hen gathers her chicks.
When
we celebrate Mothers’ (or Fathers’) day, maybe we should say instead “Happy
Nurturers’ and Protectors’ Day.” These
are the traditional gender roles for these days, we can all acknowledge, but I
know of a couple women who can strip a machine gun and clean it lickety-split. Who are tough enough to take with me if I go
down a dark alley. I know women who run
marathons, and who teach karate. I, the
male, the man, can do none of those things.
We
all have nurturers in our lives, we all have people who have shown interest in
our lives. They have not all been our
mothers. But we all know people who have
gathered us up under their wings.
People
who were able to do for us what Jesus wanted to do for Jerusalem.
No comments:
Post a Comment