A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

MOther Dearest

1 John 4:7-12, Preached at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, May 10, 2009

A harried mother had three very active boys. One summer evening she was playing cops and robbers in the back yard after dinner. One of the boys "shot" his mother, yelled, "Bang! You're dead," and so dear mom slumped to the ground. When she didn't get up right away, a neighbor ran over to see if she had been hurt in the fall. When the neighbor bent over, the overworked mother opened one eye and said, "Shhh. Don't give me away. It's the only chance to rest I've had all day." A teacher asked a boy this question: "Suppose your mother baked a pie and there were seven of you, your parents and five children. What part of the pie would you get?" "A sixth," replied the boy. "I'm afraid you don't know your fractions," said the teacher. "Remember, there are seven of you." "Yes, teacher," said the boy, "but you don't know my mother. She would say she didn't want any pie."

The Psalmist's image of God as a mother comforting her child at her breast, and Jesus' image of God—as like a mother hen—comforting her chicks beneath her wings, address a deep need within us and reassure us of a love of God that overcomes every separation to connect us with one another and the source of life. The Boca Church is, architecturally, an “inverse parabolic helix.” It also looks like some kind of delta force space ship. Actually, it is in the form of a mother hen sitting on her brood … protecting, guarding, and keeping warm and safe. I hope we continue to nurture that spiritual strength among us.

But it’s not always easy being a Mom, or a step mom. Consider the case of one stay-at-home Mom. One evening she went to a PTA meeting and her husband and her oldest daughter got together and decided they would clean up the kitchen for her. So they did. They put up all the food, wiped all the counters, washed all the pots and put them away, put the dishes in the dishwasher and ran it. They swept and mopped the floors and then sat down, and overcome by their own nobility, they awaited her arrival. Two hours later she returned from the meeting, took off her coat, hung it up, walked through the kitchen into the den, grabbed the remote control, and began watching television. They followed her over to her chair and stood by her side. Finally she felt them looking over her shoulder and looked up at them and said, “What?” Her husband said, “The kitchen.” “The kitchen. What?” “The kitchen. We cleaned up the kitchen. Didn’t you notice? It’s sparkling clean. We cleaned it for you.” The woman replied, “Yes, I noticed. Thankless job, isn’t it?”

Mother’s day is the day in which we say “thank you” to mom, even if we had a hundred opportunities throughout the year to do so. You know today not all mom’s stay at home; some go to work and then come home to become supermoms. A man was boarding an airplane one day. As he came on board, he happened to notice that the head of the plane's cockpit flight crew was a woman. That was no problem. Still, it was a new experience for him. As he found his seat, he noticed three persons sitting immediately behind him. One was a young boy about six or seven years of age. Next to him was a man in his early thirties. And next to the man was a woman in her early sixties. The man could not help overhearing the conversation among these three persons as the plane made final plans for departure from the gate. It was not long before he realized that they were the woman pilot's family. The boy was her son. The man was her husband. And the older woman was her mother. Suddenly he realized why the family was on the plane. This was the first time the woman pilot had been the head of a flight crew! They were there to honor her promotion. The plane taxied down the runway and poised itself for takeoff. The engines began to roar, and the plane gained speed quickly. Within seconds they were airborne. As the plane began to ascend the bank to the south, the six-year-old boy began to applaud! "Way to go, mom. Way to go!"  This morning we are applauding our Moms. "Way to go, moms, way to go!" Truly, today's mom deserves all the support and applause she can get. 

Many times, we don’t know how we affect other people, with a word or a little gesture of caring. This is true of a mom’s innumerable acts of kindness and love toward her child or children. The famous American painter, Benjamin West always told the story of how he became a distinguished artist. One day, Benjamin was left at home to watch his baby sister. Unknown to his mother, he took out his paint oils and brushes--and painted a rather unique picture of his younger sister. He made a mess of the whole house. However, his mother returned home earlier than expected from her errands. She saw the awful mess and unique portrait of his younger sister. Benjamin said what she did next completely surprised him. She picked up his painting and said, "My, what a beautiful painting of your sister." She gave him a kiss on the cheek and walked away. With that kiss, West says, he became a painter. It was the kiss of encouragement. Mothers often see in their children what others cannot see and will not see. It is often the mother's love that supplies the encouragement when their children are blinded by self-doubt and rebellion.

Innumerable acts of kindness, for which she never gets financially compensated. I guess what they say is true: the best things in life are free. One statistic tallies the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock. That doesn't even touch college tuition . . . But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into $8,896.66 a year, $741.38 a month or $171.08 a week. That's a mere $24.44 a day. Just over a dollar an hour. Still, you might think the best financial advice says don't have children if you want to be rich. It's just the opposite. There's no way to put a price tag on: "Feeling a new life move for the first time and seeing the bump of a knee rippling across your skin. Having someone cry, "˜It's a boy!' or shout, "˜It's a girl!' then hearing the baby wail and knowing all that matters is it's healthy. Counting all 10 fingers and toes for the first time. Cupping an entire head in the palm of your hand.

What do you get for your $160,140? Naming rights. First, middle and last. Giggles under the covers every night. More love than your heart can hold. Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs. Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds and warm cookies. A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly. A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sandcastles and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain. Someone to laugh yourself silly with no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day. For $160,140, you get to become childlike again. You get to finger paint, carve pumpkins, play hide-and-seek, catch lightning bugs and never stop believing in Santa Claus. You have an excuse to keep reading the adventures of Piglet and Pooh, watching Saturday morning cartoons, going to Disney movies and wishing on stars. You get to frame rainbows, hearts and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray-painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day.

There's no greater bang for your buck. You get a front row seat to history to witness the first step, first word, first bra, first date, first time behind the wheel. You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren. In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there with God. You have the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them for a week and love them without limits, so one day they will love without counting cost.

Children can baffle you and break your heart. But they bring you great joy as well. Maybe that's why God had children. Certainly we baffle God with our actions. And occasionally we break God's heart. Still, God loves us so much that the Lord sent Christ to give his life in our behalf. On this Mother's Day, it would be good if we remembered Mary the mother of Jesus. She was baffled by her son. On one occasion her heart was broken. But she loved him and stood by him to the end. Why? Because that is what life is all about. Love, which comes from the heart of God.

          There was an interesting story on CNN not long ago about a twenty-five year old man in San Francisco who was dying of aids. Because of how he had contracted aids, his father had completely disowned him. His mother was dead. So there was nobody. The man looked like he could not weigh over a hundred pounds and had the look of death on his face. The reporter asked him how he was able to stand all of the pain, not only of death, but the pain of family rejection. He gave an interesting answer. He said, “I stand it by closing my eyes and imagining that I will awaken in the arms of my mother. I know that she will never leave my side.” Love that knows no end.

          A minister was visiting a family who had just moved to Memphis from Baltimore, Maryland. The minister asked the man if he was originally from Baltimore and he said: No, family transferred around quite frequently and there is really no one place that I can say was home. Then he said something the minister would never forget. He said, “I suppose that wherever mother was that is where home was.” That is the deepest meaning of being a mom. Mom is home.

Actually, I think there may be one even deeper meaning, for children whose mother was and is the source of their faith. There is a scene in A Raisin in the Sun, when the mother is confronted by the daughter's growing disbelief. The daughter cynically declares that there is nothing to the idea of the living God, that God does not exist and that people can get along very well without God. Following this outburst, the mother, in the quiet beauty of her spiritual integrity, draws herself up and says in a deep, serious voice, "Now you say after me, in my mother's house there is still God." There is a pause, and then the girl, with a sudden realization of what her mother's faith has meant to them as a family, says slowly, "In my mother's house there is still God."

That is and will always be the power of a loving mom—to bring God’s life to her family’s. Thank God for mom.

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