Mothers and Mates: Don’t Take Them for Granted

[Preached May 11, 2008; Based on Genesis 2: 18-25 and Acts 2: 1-4]

Dr. Tony Campolo is a well-known Christian speaker.  Over the last several years, he has spent much time traveling around the world on speaking tours.

Meanwhile, his wife, Peggy, has chosen to stay home and give herself to the "bringing up" of their two children, Bart and Lisa.  On those rare occasions when Peggy does travel with Tony, she finds herself talking with some of the most accomplished, impressive, influential, sophisticated people in the world.

After one such trip, she told Tony that sometimes as she visits with these powerful people, she finds herself feeling intimidated and sometimes even questioning her own self-worth.  Tony said to her:  "Well, honey, why don't you come up with something you could say when you meet people that will let them know that you strongly value what you do and you feel that it is dramatically, urgent, crucial and important.

Well, not long after that, they were at a party, when a woman said to Peggy in a rather condescending tone, "Well, my dear, what do you do?"  Tony heard his wife say:  "I am nurturing two Homo Sapiens into the dominant values of the Judaeo-Christian tradition in order that they might become instruments for the transformation of the social order into the kind of eschatological utopia God envisioned from the beginning of time." And the other woman said: "O, my, I'm just a lawyer."

Today is Mother’s Day, a day we honor and/or remember our mothers. There is no way to express adequate appreciation for their love, care and infinite sacrifices on our behalf. The role of mother is one of the highest possible roles.

• Many scholars conclude that you cannot really understand John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, unless you understand his mother, Susanna Wesley. She was so instrumental in his life that she affected the movement and its direction.

• Americans know that Abraham Lincoln led this nation through perhaps its time of greatest crisis; but who was it that made Abraham Lincoln the man that he was? He said it was his mother.

• One of my favorite Bible verses is 2 Timothy 1:5... I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. (2 Timothy 1: 5) Regardless of my shortcomings, I know that my faith first lived in my grandmother Cary and mother Lauretta.

Looking around this morning, I doubt any of our names is a household word across the nation or across time, yet we have been propelled into our lives by the influential care of our mothers. Mothers, and for that matter mates, are all too often taken for granted!

There is an interesting verse in Romans 16: 13. Paul writes: "Give my greetings to Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine." Now Rufus was clearly not Paul’s biological brother, so 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." Most Biblical scholars think this, but there is no clue as to when and where Paul met her.

• 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?

The specifics don’t matter; the significance is that women may have an influence on others who are not biologically related. I’ve known women in the church who had no children of their own, but are used greatly by the Lord in others’ lives – as Sunday School teachers or VBS workers – they couldn’t be closer if they were biologically related.

Sometimes, people misjudge our children and it affects their self-esteem:

A schoolmaster in France was discouraged with one of his students. He wrote in his roll book concerning this student: "He is the smallest... meekest... most unpromising boy in my class." Half a century later, an election was held to select the greatest Frenchman. By popular vote, that meekest, smallest, most unpromising boy was chosen. His name? Louis Pasteur, the founder of modern medicine. I’d imagine he had a strong home life.

The point is that women who are mates and mothers influence children and form the future of our nation in very significant ways. And yet, as great as mothers and mates are, they might need some help for their work!

So, here comes God to the rescue.  Today is also Pentecost Sunday. This day commemorates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the early Christians 50 days after Easter. Pentecost is the birthday of the Church. For Mother’s Day and Pentecost to coalesce is helpful for us to understand both better. (1^st time I can recall this)

The Bible teaches that just before Jesus ascended to heaven, he said, I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:49) Jesus made a promise to provide power for his followers to carry on! Face it: the disciples were in a transition and they weren’t sure what to do. Can you identify with this? In a very real way, our church faces such a time – along with the San Marcos and Seguin First UMC’s – and the Valverde and Purdy families & Katy Fitzhugh.

Linda Montgomery used to be a Christian Educator in this church, but transitioned away from us and in now Associate Pastor in Seguin.  Recently, she urged the Seguin church members to take the following steps during their transition. She suggested 5 action steps to successful waiting. We should not be passive. What should we do while we wait?

1. Pray – for individuals and churches. That’s really an active step? If you actively pray!
2. Say goodbye. Take the opportunity to express your feelings to those who will be moving. SPRC is working on this in a formal sense – Thursday, May 29^th from 4-6 in the Raimond Christian Center will be a farewell reception for the Purdys. Many of you have spoken to me about your feelings. People from the community have stopped by or stopped me in town. It is a blessing to hear how God has worked during these years.
3. Give thanks for the past.  A lot has happened in our six years together. I won’t list everything, but it’s a time to celebrate. Then, while you wait...
4. Dream about what can be, what will be.  God said through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 29:11: “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”  A future with hope—that is what God intends for this church under its new leadership. 
5. Finally, Pray some more.  Prayer is an active and future-changing step! So, pray for the Valverde family as they leave a church they love and move to a new place.  Pray that they say good bye well, even as we work at saying hello and making them feel welcome.  Pray that all the stress of moving will be as easy as possible. Pray that we will have hearts open to receive Eddie’s leadership—which will be different from my leadership.  Pray that we will not utter those words: “We’ve never done it that way before” or “We’ve always done it like this.”

My prayer is that this church waits in joyful anticipation for all that God has in store.  Just as the church needs prayer, so do mothers and mates. What if Jesus had forgotten to send the Holy Spirit? You know, he just got busy?

In Saint Louis an unemployed cleaning woman noticed a few bees buzzing around the attic of her home. Since there were only a few, she made no effort to deal with them. Over the summer the bees continued to fly in and out the attic vent while the woman remained unconcerned, unaware of the growing city of bees that was taking up residence just above her ceiling.

The whole attic became a hive, and the ceiling of the second-floor bedroom finally caved in under the weight of hundreds of pounds of honey and thousands of angry bees. While the woman escaped serious injury, she was unable to repair the damage of her accumulated neglect.

That's a parable about our waiting until it is too late... and our ceiling comes crashing in. Neglect. What a powerful word. Please don’t neglect to express gratitude and honor to your mother and to your mate.

If Jesus had neglected to send the Holy Spirit, things would be a whole lot different around here. The Holy Spirit:

·         Convicts us regarding wrong – what we should not do.

·         Reminds us of Christ’s word – what we should do.

·         Comes alongside of us to empower us to be change agents... to comfort and counsel us

This sort of sounds like a mother to me.  Parents and the church are to pay attention and be willing to breathe in the Spirit and become inspired by the Spirit to act on behalf of God. We are not to merely inhale the Spirit, but we are to inhale! We are also to exhale and allow God’s Spirit to change our world.

The Holy Spirit warms us and melts our cold, cold hearts.  Recently I ran across a parable that makes the point:  Once upon a time there was a piece of iron, which was very strong and very hard.  Many attempts had been made to break it, but all had failed.

• The axe said: "I'll master it," but every blow only made the axe's edge more blunt, until it finally ceased to strike and gave up in frustration.
• The saw said; "Leave it to me," and it worked back and forth on the iron's surface until its jagged teeth were all worn and broken.  Then in despair, the saw quit trying and fell to the side.
• The hammer said: "I knew you two wouldn't succeed.  I'll show you how to do this!"  But at the first fierce blow, off flew its head and the piece of iron remained just as before, proud and hard and unchanged.
• "Shall I try?" asked the small soft flame.  "Forget it," everyone else said. "What can you do?  You're too small and you have no strength."  But the small soft flame curled around the piece of iron, embraced it, and never left it until it melted under its warm irresistible influence.

God's way is not the way of force but love.  God's way is not to break hearts but to melt them.  God uses the meekest, smallest, and most unpromising ones of us. Perhaps that is our calling - to melt hearts... under the irresistible warmth of God's gracious love. When we get sidetracked thinking of power and money and force, we miss our mission.

Does the church fulfill our mission? There is a character in John Updike's novel, A Month of Sundays, who reflects on his adolescent days and says that the church is no more effective than a billboard advertising Coca-Cola – a billboard does nothing to actually quench one’s thirst. Does the church not quench the spiritual thirst of those entering it? If we don’t, we should close our doors.

The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church tells us that our mission is to “convince the world of the reality of the Gospel or leave it unconvinced.” (Paragraph 109) We just can’t get around it! We are either faithful to this task or we lose our vitality. It is always a good step while transitioning from one time to another, one place to another, one pastor to another, to ask whether we are convincing others about the reality of the Gospel. Are lives changing?

Oscar Cervantes is a dramatic example of the Spirit's power to transform lives. As a child, he began to get into trouble. As he got older, he was jailed 17 times for brutal crimes. Prison psychiatrists said he was beyond help, but they were wrong! During a brief interval of freedom, Oscar met an elderly man who told him about Jesus. He placed his trust in the Lord and was changed into a kind, caring man. Shortly afterward he started a prison ministry.

Chaplain H. C. Warwick describes it this way: "The third Saturday night of each month is 'Oscar Night' at Soledad. Inmates come to hear Oscar and they sing gospel songs with fervor; they sit intently for over 2 hours; they come freely to the chapel altar.... What professionals had failed to do for Oscar in years of counseling, Christ's Spirit did in a moment of conversion."

"Jesus Christ is Lord." "Lord," in the vernacular, means "Boss." Is Jesus Christ really Boss around here? No one else can do the work God’s Spirit does in the family of God. No one else can do the work of a mother in the biological family.”

Considering all the challenges of the job, we should really make sure that our mothers and our mates are not taken for granted... and it would be a good idea to pay attention to the Holy Spirit, as well!