This sermon for Mothering Sunday was preached in Truro cathedral on the 10th March 2024
Mothering Sunday, otherwise known as Refreshment Sunday, Laetare Sunday, or mid-Lent Sunday is such a lovely day. It was one of my own mother’s favourite services alongside harvest, and yet I need to acknowledge that it is also bittersweet. It can be a really difficult day for many, especially for those whose relationship with their mother is difficult, or who miss their mum terribly, for those who have lost a child, or who were never able to have one. This mixture of joy and sorrow, comfort and pain, are written within the very fabric of this cathedral. On the North side we see the Black Madonna, full of serenity, gentle happiness and offering comfort, a mother with a young child, yet on the South side we see that same mother, but at the end of her child’s life. In this statue, known as a pieta. Mary is cradling he body of her beloved son, with huge tears hanging upon her face like upturned nails. An image of utter heartbreak.
For me though, both of these images are held within the churches concept of mother-ING. My father insisted on calling today MotherING sunday searching the card shops for a card with the correct writing upon it. He would not call it mother’s day, and as a child I found that rather old fashioned. Now I understand better. The ING is actually the most important part of today. Mother ING. It is something that the mother’s within our congregation model for us, and we should quite rightly give thanks before God for our mothers and our children, but the concept of motherING, whilst including that, is actually much broader.
MotherING. The church, that is , you and me, we are called to mother-ING, whether we are men or women, young or old.
Now sometimes that word can have negative connotations, like bothering, or mythering or nagging. But the church doesn’t use it that way. This kind of mothering is something much more positive. In being Mother church to one another we are called to be a community of kindness where we care for one another, feed one another, look-out for one another, and keep one another safe. Making sure our safeguarding policies are correct and looking out for the young and the vunerable is also part of the mother-ing task of mother church. In each of todays readings we see something about how to be good at mother-ing.
Our first reading today was from the beginning of the book of Exodus. A tiny baby, Moses, is placed in the river. His mother has had to give him away in order to save his life. She is the mother who sacrifices that precious time with her son to keep him safe from the Egyptian soldiers. But there, hiding beside the river is someone else. It is Miriam Moses’s older sister, and she is watching over him, looking out to see what happens next, to report back to her mother that he is safe and well and has been found by someone who will care for him. It is Miriam who suggests to Pharaoh’s daughter that she get a Hebrew mother to nurse the baby she has found. The role Miriam plays here is really important, and yet, at this point, she is not even named, but she demonstrates maternal care and how to watch over a vulnerable child to make sure they stay safe. This is Mother-ING.
The second reading, from 2 Corinthians shows a different aspect of mothering. It speaks of the God who consoles us so that we might console other people. So that we might comfort them. The word consolation is made up of two other Latin words, CON which means with, and SOLUS, which means alone, the lonely one. So giving consolation is coming alongside the lonely one to be with them. Quite often we don’t have to actually say anything, just being there and sitting with someone can often be enough. Being there for someone else when they are in pain and listening to them and letting them express that pain. Maybe even holding a hand or offering a hug if that is the thing that is most needed. Consolation, this is an aspect of mothering too.
The gospel reading shows yet another aspect of mothering. Now many Christians regard the birthday of the church as being at Pentecost, when the church was filled with the Holy Spirit and the believers were empowered and sent out across the world to spread the good news of salvation from death. It is true that this was a very important beginning for the church. But there are some Christians who actually believe that the Church in a different sense, the church as a pastoral community was born in this moment we read just now, when a lonely mother who was about to lose her child, was taken in by a young man to be part of his family. This is the moment that marks the beginning of the community of kindness that would grow into the church , even if the disciples had to wait for their empowering to go out and spread that community further.
And so, on this mother-ING Sunday, let us give thanks for our own birth and our own birth mothers, and for the gift of life itself. Let us celebrate and give thanks for the mothers in our midst, those who nurture and care for the younger members of our congregation, but lets also take a little bit of time to give thanks for all those other who have been like mothers to us, whether they are male or female. Those who have watched over us to keep us safe like Miriam did with baby Moses, those who have come alongside us offering consolation when we needed a listening ear or a helping hand. And let us also give thanks for our church family, our community of faith in the Holy Sprit. That same Spirit Who holds us all together bound within the love of God. Let us pray that we truly will be a family where the lonely can find community, where the grieving can find comfort, where the lost can find a way forward in life, and where we too can learn how to be people who offer consolation and hope and community to others. Amen.
