Not About Mothers

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Holy Spirit, hear us On this sacred day; Come to us with blessing, Come with us to stay. Come as once Thou camest To the faithful few Patiently awaiting Jesus’ promise true. Lighten Thou our darkness, Be Thyself our Light; Strengthen Thou our weakness, Spirit of all might. Grant Your presence Lord, unto us all. Amen.

Across much of North America, this Sunday is being celebrated as Mother’s Day. Hallmark has said people in the U.S. have sent out more than 150 million Mother’s Day cards. Statisticians tell us we have spent an average of $105 for Mother’s Day gifts. (Just so you know, Dad’s Day only merits $90.) On Mother’s Day the number of phone calls made will be up; restaurants will be packed; and florists will have increased their prices. Because we care what Mom thinks about us, car washes report the day before Mother’s Day is their busiest day of the year.

I remember years ago, I returned home after an evening meeting at church. Pam and I watched the 10:00 news and then she said she was going to bed. She stopped by the laundry room, pulled some clothes out of the dryer, folded them, and took everything upstairs. She came back to the entry landing, straightened out the children’s boots, and then, seeing their snowmobile suits were still wet from their playing in the snow, she came back down and threw them into the dryer to make them ready for tomorrow. She climbed back up the stairs, this time carrying popcorn bowls, a coffee cup, and an empty can of Diet Coke.

In the kitchen she went to the refrigerator and made some sandwiches for my lunch; she put food and water in the dog’s bowls; and then she remembered she’d better get something ready for dinner tomorrow. She went out to the freezer we had in the garage and took out a roast. Coming back in she remembered she had to pay for some Girl Scout cookies, so she wrote out a check to one of the neighborhood children. At the same time she signed a permission slip for Kurt to go on a field trip and set aside a few dollars for his snacks. She wrote a short note in three birthday cards, stamped them, and set them near her purse to be mailed. The garbage can was full so she tied up the bag and put a new one in.

Hearing her rummaging around, I called out to her from the family room, “I thought you were going to bed.” She yelled back, “I am.” As she went down the hallway to our bedroom, she stopped and looked in on each of the children. She set out their clothes for school, gathered together books and papers, put them into their school bags, made sure the children were covered, and said a silent prayer for all three. In our bedroom she put away the clothes she had carried up, she brushed her hair and flossed her teeth, washed her face, cleaned up the mess I had left in the sink, set the alarm clock, and checked on the child she heard get up and was walking down the hallway. No problem, just a bathroom break. She laid out her clothes, put dirty things in the hamper, and crawled into bed with a pencil and paper. She listed five things she simply had to do tomorrow and, while she was thinking about it, put three things on the grocery list. She turned out the light on the nightstand, began to say her prayers and then, because she heard the sink dripping, got up and gave the handle an extra twist. Back to bed, finish her prayers, and go to sleep. It was about then I decided to go to bed. I got up, went up the stairs, got undressed, and did.

Now, at this point I know some of you are muttering about how lazy and what a-good-for-nothing I am. Some of you are thinking, “That wasn’t fair. Marriage is supposed to be 50-50. All that work should have been evenly divided.” Some of you are ready to take pen in hand and send me a letter in which you give me a piece of your mind. You want to tell me what a jerk I am for having kept my wife as an unpaid servant and an unfreed slave. If you do, I probably won’t argue with anything you say – other than the part about marriage being 50-50. It isn’t. Never has been, never will be. A person in a marriage relationship who waits for his or her partner to do their 50% is going to get pretty bored with the waiting.

On this Mother’s Day, let me make this confession and save you the time of writing: if our house was ready for entertaining – and a pastor’s home usually has to be – it was because of my wife. If I had clean clothes, if the children appeared to be more than homeless waifs, it was because my wife made us that way. This Christian woman, like a great many Christian women, saw the millions of things which needed to be done, the millions of things which escape the myopic vision of their husbands, and having seen those things, took care of them.

Do you know such a woman, such a mother? You do, don’t you? They are the ones who vacuum the dog hair out from under the refrigerator; who care whether the last roll of toilet paper is being used and are willing to wash a shirt four times to make sure a grease spot doesn’t get set in. They are the ones who sleep through an earthquake and yet are instantly awakened by the semi-silent whimper of a sick child. They are the ones who can clearly see if their little ones are really hurt or just whining to get some attention. They know if a child’s cough is getting worse and if it is settling into chest, ears, or throat. These Christian mothers know when we don’t; they do what we can’t. Today, on Mother’s Day, I want to go on record and say, “My life is infinitely better because of who she is, what she has done.” I want you all to know I shall always be indebted to her for loving me when I was unlovable.

Today is Mother’s Day, but this message doesn’t center upon our blessed and beloved mothers. This message is about our loving Lord and this day proclaims Jesus Christ who has made the lives of believers infinitely better because of who He is and what He has done. This message, delivered on Pentecost the birthday of the Church, is about the Triune God who sends His Holy Spirit to call people to Christ – the world’s Savior who loved us when we were unlovable. Truly, I have spent this much time speaking about mothers because the love and work of a Christian mother is just about the closest glimpse this sinful world can give into the love of our great and gracious God.

You know, when our three children were little, Pam and I always gave them this advice: “If you are ever in a crowd and get lost; if you can’t find either of us; this is what we want you to do: If you can’t find a policeman, we want you to look for a mother who is pushing her baby in a stroller. Go right up to her, introduce yourself, and ask her to help you. She’ll make sure you’re OK.” To be sure, a fair number of years have passed since we first gave those instructions to our little ones. During that time our children have grown up and this world has become a darker and more disturbing place. Even so, I think the advice we gave them remains solid: you can usually trust a mother to take care of you.

You and I both know, children can do far worse than trusting the love of a mother; but no one can do any better than to rely upon the Holy Spirit who leads sinful souls to the salvation which is found only in Jesus Christ. An earthly mother may love you, take care of you, try to watch over you and guide you, but she is limited by her years, by her nearness, by her wisdom, and all manner of physical restrictions. In contrast the Holy Spirit knows no earthly boundaries or borders. Wherever you go, He is there. In whatever situation you find yourself, He is willing to help. No matter the conflict which confronts you, by His power you can be kept safe, emerging from your battle as a conqueror through the Christ.

To call and keep God’s people, to give them hope of an ultimate victory, is the work of the Spirit of God. When the Lord created this world, He made it perfect and pure. Everything any person could want was there, and it was there in abundance. The fear, the frustration, the futility which we all encounter, which we endure, was nowhere to be found. It was into that glorious garden of grace that God placed our first ancestors. Their job description was a simple one: enjoy what you’ve got and appreciate the One who has given it to you. Oh, there was one other thing, God said: I don’t want you eating the fruit from this one tree. It was a simple thing God was asking. By His will and wish, and with the Holy Spirit’s assistance, things should have stayed perfect forever. They should have, but they didn’t. Adam and Eve decided their way was better than God’s way, and Satan was more to be trusted than the Holy Spirit. They ate from the forbidden tree and changed all which God had done.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin was brought into this world, and it brought death along as a companion. All around you, and within you, the ripples of that first sinful act of rebellion can still be seen. Does the news tell of wars, hatred, prejudice? Those are the ripples of sin. How about theft, murder, sexual scandals? Those are ripples, too. Look within your heart, what is there? Every generation claims the ability to heal the hurt and bring peace to the pain; but the truth is this: when the last person of a generation dies, the hurts and pains are left, sin’s ripples remain, and sin still stays. It is a hopeless situation. Let me change that. Without Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit-given faith in what the Savior has done, life is hopeless.

Today is Mother’s Day. My life has been filled with wonderful Christian mothers. Over the years I have observed a habit which is shared by the best of them. Whenever their children were hurting, whenever the little ones were afraid, whenever those offspring felt all alone and helpless, those mothers did the same thing. Can you guess what it was? Let me tell you. Those mothers got down on eye-level with their little ones. That’s right, they stooped down, bent down, knelt down, so that they could get close to their children. Now, I’m convinced, if it were in their power, these mothers would have gone one step further than kneeling. So great is the love of those Christian women they would have taken their children’s hurts and fears, their loneliness and helplessness, and made it their own. Of course, no mother, no matter how great her love may be, is able to do such a thing.

This Mother’s Day, this Lord’s Day, I want you to know what God has done for us. Looking at His lonely, lost children, God saw our sins, our sorrows, our shortcomings, our sadness, and sent His Son to earth to take our problems and pains and make them His own. In an act of grace greater than anything this world has ever seen or dared expect, the sinless Son of God left the holiness and happiness of heaven and came to earth and became one of us. If you had looked at Him as He lay in the animal’s feeding trough which served as His first crib, you would have seen only a baby, for a true baby He was. But the angels from heaven who were sent to announce His birth knew this little child was God’s Son who had come down to our level, to be one of us, to take our sins to Himself and Calvary’s cross.

Jesus was born into this world unwanted and unwelcomed by those He had come to save. Unwanted, unwelcomed, unappreciated, and unacknowledged. Those were the great themes of Jesus’ life. Shortly after He was born, the king of the country where Jesus’ family was living, became worried the newborn Christ-Child might prove to be competition, might someday take his throne. To prevent that possibility, the king ordered his soldiers to have Jesus killed; and since the ruler knew his soldiers wouldn’t have a mother’s eye which can distinguish one baby from another, he ordered them to kill all the children below a certain age. Unwanted, unwelcomed, unappreciated, and unacknowledged. Grown to a man, Jesus preached salvation to the people of His boyhood home of Nazareth. In response to the things He said that day, they tried to throw Him off a cliff. Unwanted, unwelcomed, unappreciated, and unacknowledged. The ancient pillars of the community, the proud and powerful Pharisees, found the friends Jesus kept, and the message of repentance and forgiveness He preached, to be objectionable. When their attempts to discredit and embarrass the Savior failed, they joined in the plots to have Him murdered. Unwanted, unwelcomed, unappreciated, and unacknowledged. When Jesus healed ten men who had had their lives ruined by leprosy, only one bothered to thank Him. When He fed thousands with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish, they ignored His call to salvation and tried to make Him their own special social security system. Unwanted, unwelcomed, unappreciated, and unacknowledged.

Finally, after three years of such ministry, Jesus went to the Garden of Gethsemane. Fully conscious of the suffering and martyrdom which lay before Him, He called upon His closest friends – eleven disciples – to pray with Him. They fell asleep. Which is why Jesus was alone when the weight of the world’s transgressions were laid upon Him. The complete inventory of everything we have ever thought wrong, said wrong, done wrong, was placed upon Him. Those sins of our manufacture were a devastating burden; it crushed Him to earth; He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. Three times Jesus prayed if it were in any way possible, for the upcoming cup of suffering and death to be taken from His hand. It wasn’t possible. If we were to be saved, the price for our sins had to be paid, and the payment price for our salvation was Jesus’ life, suffering, and death.

Unwanted, unwelcomed, unappreciated, and unacknowledged. Those words describe Jesus when a friend betrayed Him with a kiss. In the middle of the night, and quite illegally, He was tried by His own country’s Supreme Court. Those who should have made sure justice was done brought in witnesses to lie about Him. Rather than being treated with respect, He was insulted, beaten, and spit upon before the foregone verdict of death was finally pronounced. Another trial before a civil magistrate was held and Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator who served as judge, was bullied into allowing Christ’s crucifixion. And so it came to pass, Jesus who had come down to be one of us; who had taken our sins to Himself, was nailed to a cross. As Jesus died, those He had come to save stood before Him, smiling, smirking, sneering. Unwanted, unwelcomed, unappreciated, and unacknowledged. That is how Jesus had been born, it was how He died. It was how He died for you.

A long time ago I was told the story of a little girl who was sitting on her mother’s lap. They were playing a game. Mother asked, “Where is mama’s hair?” and the little girl would point and say, “Here is mama’s hair.” “Where is mama’s eyes?” “Here is mama’s eyes.” The game went on: where is mama’s lips, ears, hands, fingers, thumb, feet, legs. After each proper identification they laughed together. Then, after a while, mother and daughter switched roles. Now the little girl was asking the questions: “Where is mama’s nose?” she would ask and mama would point to her nose.

Having run over visible body parts, the little girl asked, “Where is mama’s heart?” That was a little more difficult. Mother said, “Honey, I don’t think I can show you my heart. That’s inside me. Tell you what, why don’t you look into my eyes and see if you can find it.” The little girl adjusted her position so she was on eye level with her mother. She got very close. Their noses almost touched. Mother held perfectly still as her little girl deliberately, deeply, steadily, stared into the eyes of her mother. The girl turned away and then looked a second time. Then, just to make certain of what she thought she was seeing, the little girl looked again. Finally, and having seen her reflection in her mother’s eyes, the little girl declared, “Mama, I can see into your heart. When I look into your eyes, I can see your heart and in your heart is a little girl and that little girl is me.”

Unwanted, unwelcomed, unappreciated, and unacknowledged. That was the story of Jesus’ life; it should not be His story now. Do you want to see into the heart of God? Let the Holy Spirit show you Jesus’ nail-pierced hands and feet. If you do, you will see Christ’s commitment, His sacrifice to save you. Do you want to see into the heart of God? Let the Holy Spirit show you the back of God’s Son which was ripped by a Roman whip. Look and you will see God’s great grace. Do you want to see into the heart of God? Let the Holy Spirit show you Jesus’ bloodied and battered face, His head which was crowned with thorns. Look, and you will see how much He cares for you. Do you want to see into the heart of God? Let the Holy Spirit lead you to gaze into Jesus’ open and empty tomb. Let Him show you how, because of what Christ has done, because the Christ has come down, taken your sins, and defeated death; you are forgiven, you are guaranteed heaven, you are loved. That is the Holy Spirit’s message of hope.

Today is Mother’s Day, but this message doesn’t center upon blessed and beloved mothers. This message is about our loving Lord Jesus and this day proclaims God’s Son who has made the lives of believers infinitely better because of who He is and what He has done. This message, delivered on Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, is about the Triune God who sends His Holy Spirit to call people to Christ, the world’s one and only Savior. If you need to know more about this Savior, if the Spirit is leading you to faith, to look into God’s heart, let us help you. Please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.

LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for May 11, 2008
Title: Leaving All

ANNOUNCER: Now, Pastor Ken Klaus responds to questions from listeners. I’m Mark Eischer.

KLAUS: Well, Mark, it’s Mother’s Day – a secular holiday of sorts – and it’s also Pentecost, the birthday of the church. I suppose some people would like us to celebrate one thing, and other people want us to celebrate the other. Did we manage to find a question which covers both?

ANNOUNCER: Well, surprisingly, I think we might have a topic here that does just that. It deals with family, but it also speaks to the mission work of the church.

KLAUS: I’m really interested to hear a question that covers both. Please, continue.

ANNOUNCER: A listener writes, “When Jesus told His disciples to leave everything and follow Him, did they also abandon their families? Is following Jesus and spreading the Good News so important that everything else is secondary? And, is this also why many clergy do not marry?”

KLAUS: A lot of questions to answer in a very little bit of time. Let’s take the last one first: Is missionary work the reason why many clergy don’t marry? Actually, there are all kinds of reasons why some clergy don’t take on the responsibilities of marriage and family. Doing missionary work is one of those reasons. In truth, there are many clergy who remain celibate so they can do the Lord’s work. They don’t feel they can serve God the way they want without neglecting their families.

ANNOUNCER: Now we know that St. Peter was married because the Bible tells us Jesus healed his mother-in-law. Do we know anything about the marital status of the other apostles?

KLAUS: Scripture is silent regarding the marital status of individual apostles. We do know Paul wasn’t married; and we are told some, if not all, of the other apostles were.

ANNOUNCER: Where does it say that in the Bible?

KLAUS: In 1st Corinthians, Paul wrote, “Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?” According to this passage, Peter was married and so were some of the other apostles and leaders of the early church.

ANNOUNCER: There’s one other point in that passage I find kind of interesting.

KLAUS: What’s that?

ANNOUNCER: Well, it mentions “believing wives.” If the wives were also believers in Jesus as the Savior, apparently the apostles took them along on the missionary trips.

KLAUS: Yes, which in many ways, answers our listener’s question. You know, it shouldn’t be surprising to us. The Savior made sure His mother would be taken care of, even while He was dying on the cross to save us. We shouldn’t be surprised if He also encouraged His disciples to look after their families.

ANNOUNCER: Is there anything else Scripture says about this?

KLAUS: I think the story of Jesus and the Gerasene demoniac is appropriate here.

ANNOUNCER: Now that’s the occasion where Jesus cast demons out of a man and sent them into a herd of hogs, who then ran off a cliff and into the lake?

KLAUS: Right. That’s the one. When Jesus was leaving that area and was ready to get in His boat, the man who had been healed came to the Savior and asked if He could go with Him. Jesus said, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you.”

I think the Lord says that to a lot to people. Mothers, as well as fathers, can share Jesus with their spouses and children, with their co-workers and friends.

ANNOUNCER: So following Jesus doesn’t necessarily mean you need to pack up everything you own and head off to the other side of the world.

KLAUS: Yes, laypeople can do effective evangelism right where God has placed them. You know, when someone sees a pastor coming, he might think, “He’s a preacher, it’s his job to promote the church.” Unbelievers might not be so open to hear us, but they will listen to their family, to neighbors, coworkers, those who are close to them; as those neighbors reflect the love of Jesus in their words and everyday lives.

ANNOUNCER: I’ve often heard you say that the first sermon unbelievers hear is the one that’s preached to them by the people in the pews.

KLAUS: You were listening when I said that?

ANNOUNCER: I was, just as I hope this Mother’s Day, my wife Debbie and my mother Lois are listening…

KLAUS: As well as my wife Pam and my mother Jeanette. And also, Louise, the mother of our engineer Brian in the super-secret sound-proof booth over there. Indeed, we hope all who are mothers by birth and blood, or by heart and wish, are listening as we say, “A most blessed Mother’s Day to you.” And may God bless you as you witness to the Savior.

ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Klaus. And we thank our listener for that interesting topic. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.

Music selections for this program:

“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC