Luke 2:33-35

‘And a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

Happy Mothering Sunday. The day when, historically, servants would be released to travel home to see their mothers and to worship God at their mother church. Today we give thanks for our mothers, and all those who mother us – including the church – our family in God.

One of the challenges with a celebration like Mothering Sunday is the temptation to turn it into the celebration of a fairytale – the Hallmark version. We should, of course, absolutely celebrate and give thanks for those who give us life and who nurture us. But we also need to be realistic. For many people their Mother’s might have brought them into the world – but that doesn’t mean that they fit the picture of the fairytale. At times it can be the unexpected person who fills the role of mother. For Moses, in our first reading, it is without doubt his mother who risks so much to ensure his safety. Pharaoh had commanded all the Jewish boys to be killed soon after their birth. His mother didn’t want this fate to befall her son. She risks being found out as she hides his body in a papyrus basket in the reeds of the Nile. By twist of fate and with the quick thinking of his sister, Moses’ mother also ends up nursing him and caring for him in his early years. But Pharaoh’s daughter also plays an important motherly role – rescuing him – recognising he is a Hebrew child she doesn’t hand him over to the authorities, but instead takes him into her own home claiming him as her own child. Here we have a clear example of fostering and of adoption in scripture. It is a reminder that our relationships either with our mothers, or with others who care for and nurture us, are not always straightforward or simple. They rarely follow the average of a family with 2.5 children and a dog.  Friends work together – co-mothering their children. Others are solo, some adopted, some fostered, and we are all in need of a community in which to be nurtured and cared for. Take Jesus’ own experience – born of Mary, His Father in heaven, and adopted by Joseph.

Our Gospel reading this Mothering Sunday is taken from the narrative we read at Candlemas, when Jesus as a baby is brought to the temple to be offered to God. And Simeon and Anna recognise Jesus for who he is. Simeon first proclaims the nunc dimities – used daily at Evensong and Compline – praising God that he is freed to go in peace having seen Jesus – the salvation of the world. Then Simeon says these words we heard today to Mary: ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’ The reference to Jesus’ death on the cross, and to the pain and anguish that Mary must go through as his mother – is clear to see.

Fundamental to the nurturing of another person is the willingness to give of yourself for them, even to the point of sacrificing what you want or desire. Like any parent whose child dies, Mary looses part of herself when Jesus dies. But in that act Jesus also sacrifices himself for us. Elsewhere in the Gospels Jesus describes how he wishes he could, like a mother hen gathering her brood under her wings – gather the all God’s children. In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he speaks of how Jesus’ sufferings are abundant so that our consolation will also be abundant. Then Paul also reminds the Corinthians that they too, as they follow Christ, are called to enter into suffering for one another, much as Paul has for them.

In this way mothering – the self-sacrificing nurturing care one person gives to another – is set as an example for how we should live as members of the church. Not only caring for our flesh and blood, but also for those born into our Godly family by the spirit, known to us in the waters of baptism. Because we ourselves are Mother Church. As a community that seeks to care for and nurture one another – so that we may all flourish.

The question then is how do we grow as a community into the role of Mother Church. How do we become more caring and nurturing?  How do we make a space here which people come to and find themselves at home in the presence of God? There is something about being willing to be changed by one another, being open to learn and change with each other. There is something about exercising a loving disposition – even when we disagree or find it difficult to maintain. There is something about being willing to show up for each other when we are needed. And perhaps before any of that an ability to recognise the care that others take for us, to nurture us –  and to appreciate that love on a day like today.

The Reverend Robin Sims-Williams