Mother's Day 2012
By Charles Rush
May 13, 2012
Isaiah 42: 13, 14
[ Audio
(mp3, 4.9Mb) ]
veral months ago, I was returning to Newark from Atlanta, late at night… you know the drill –plane is full, nearly everyone is asleep. Our plane landed with quite a boom, causing all the passengers to jump, yelp, and groan at the same time.
We get to the
gate, everyone is filing off, the crew is thanking us,
along with the Pilot. It was late, everyone was quiet
and getting to where they needed to go. An elderly Grandmother from Atlanta was
in front of me. She stopped the pilot and said, "Sir, was that just a
rough landing or were we shot down?" Pilot, aged 42, got that 'Sorry
Mom' look on his face. Mother's still have that moral authority, do they not.
I loved that
photograph in Sports Illustrated a few years ago that featured Shaquille O'Neal
graduating from college. There is the big man, 7 feet and plus of him, and 300
lbs, famous, rich, leaning over as his Mom straightens his tie.
I was amused to
see an interview with Tim Duncan, probably the Most Valuable Player in the NBA
for 4-5 years, right after he won the NBA title the last time. You may know that he is a graduate of that
outstanding institution of higher education, Wake Forest University. One of the
guys from ESPN was asking him about all the young buck players now that go
straight from High School to the Pro's and the other new trend of more and more
College Juniors skipping their senior year to go straight to the Pro's. Tim
Duncan did not do that but stayed his senior year to graduate from college.
The reporter asked Tim Duncan why he stayed in
college for the full four years. He got this furrowed look on his face like
this was a trick question or something. He said, "Are you kidding me man?"
The reporter said, "No, why did you stay?" Tim said, "My
Mom." What other reason in the world could there be for doing anything
completely. Somehow, I find it deeply gratifying that in the world of sharks,
agents, scoundrels, thieves, and NBA owners, the voice of Tim's mom was louder,
clearer, and had the ability to trump money, vanity, and hype.
In our readings
this morning, we have the touching vision of God from the prophet Hosea, God is
like a concerned Mother who frets over the direction that our lives are headed,
but won't stop loving us any more than Mother's everywhere won't stop watching
and praying for their own children.
And then, this
touching hymn that Isaiah quotes in the middle of a poem. The hymn envisions
God in both Gender forms, the first is a soldiering
image of God the Protector. It says “The
Lord goes forth like a soldier, like a warrior he stirs up his fury; he cries
out, he shouts aloud, he show himself mighty against his foes.
[Then we have God speak] and when God speaks,
she speaks as a woman. “For a long time, I have held my peace, I have kept
still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will
gasp and pant” (Isa. 42:13-14).
Isaiah is
totally comfortable with the image of God as a mighty warrior and as a woman in
labor, and Isaiah puts them side by side. This passage reminds me of one of my
first rounds as a chaplain in the ER and we had a couple that didn't quite make
it to the hospital in time. I believe the baby was born in the car.
I met the Dad
and asked him how it went and he said ‘Great, it wasn't a difficult birth at
all.' ‘Wonderful, and we are not going to mention that
part about it not being difficult in front of our wife are we?'
“No we're not”
he said.
“Because we would like to stay married, wouldn't we?”
“And, we will”
he said
I wish all
teaching moments were so easy.
It is a
beautiful image of God that uses metaphors for God as masculine and feminine.
There is another place you can find them used like that. It is in the book of
Deuteronomy that records a speech that Moses made to the Israelites in Deut.
32:18. Moses says to the people, “you deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you
forgot the God who gave you birth.
The combination
reminds us that god is not limited to male or female images. And it also
suggests that God is a personal being, but not a human being. Today Lily
Katherine Garvey was presented for a blessing and mother and father stood together and promised
not to desert the god who fathered them or to forget the God who have us all
birth.
The prophet
Hosea uses one image for god, seeing God as a parent who teaches a child to
walk, a parent who picks it up and bends down to feed it. These are all the
tasks that a mother performed in ancient Hebrew society. God is agonizing over
the prodigal child, but rejects fierce anger in favor of warm and tender
compassion, like a mother waiting up and night in worry. “When Israel was a
child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them,
the more they went from me… Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took
them up in my arms, but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with
chords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift
infants to their cheeks. I bent down to feed them… My compassion grows warm and
tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no human, the Holy one in your midst, and I will not come in
wrath” (Hos. 11:1-4; 8-9).
Yet another
prophet, Jeremiah, speaks of the love that God has for us that comes from the
womb. “Is Israel my dear son? Is he the child I delight in? As often as I speak
against him, I still remember him. Therefore, my womb trembles for him. I will
surely have motherly compassion on him, says the Lord” (Jer.31:20)
These are not
verses our children have memorized but perhaps they should. Jesus knew them; in
John's gospel he uses this image of giving birth to describe the ordeal of the
disciples as they were being birthed into a new life. He said “You must be born
again”.
Jesus freely
identified with a mother animal image, likening himself to a mother hen who
gathers her chicks under her wings. (Here we mean chicks in the ancient
barnyard usage, not the Men's locker room understanding). He says “Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!
How often I have desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her
brood under her wings, but you were not willing”. Jesus uses an image of a
comforting mother to describe his deep love for a compromised city.
Finally, there
is the image of God in the Revelation of St. John at the end of the bible. John
pictures a new heaven and a new earth. He sees the compassion of God at work.
It is not an exclusively motherly image, but it is an image every one of us
associates with our mother. I read from Rev. 21:3-4. “And God will be with them
fully; god will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
I think that is
right. There is a strong sense in which our Mother's are the presence of divine
comfort for us. Or conversely, for the vast majority of us, when we experience
the presence of divine comfort, we remember our Mother's- vaguely, viscerally.
The psychologist
Robert Coles wrote about the children that first went through the experience of
integration in the Deep South in the early 60's. One woman, he interviewed,
said this.
Every day when
my daughter comes home from school, I can tell she is anxious and worried. Those adults yelling hateful things at her on her way to and from
school. She would never show it in front of those people but she was
afraid and nervous. So everyday when she got home from school, I would have her
put away her books and things. And then I would have her come over to me and
sit on the couch and I would just hold her there in my arms. After a bit she would
just start to cry. I would hold her and rock her and she would get through it.
And then it
would make me angry and worried. I don't know how I would have gotten through
it, except every evening I would go over to my Mother's house. We would share
the goings on of the day, how she was doing and what not. Then I would reach
over and put my hand on her arm. And she would put her hand over my hand. I
would just stand there for a moment and get through it.
At some point I
began to realize that my daughter was leaning on me, I was leaning on my
Mother, and she was leaning on Jesus. That's where we got the strength. My
mother was Jesus for me and I was Jesus for my daughter.
Jesus showed us
what to do and that it what we can do for each other on our best days. I don't
know anybody, how old, how independent and tough, that doesn't need a little
divine mothering. I don't know anybody, however young and naïve, that can't
pass on a little divine compassion to others.
I read about a
telephone service in Chicago called “Grandma, Please”. It is geared for
latch-key kids. “Grandma Please” provides a free number kids
can call if they are home alone and need someone to talk to. Senior citizens
volunteer their time to answer telephones and talk to kids who are lonely or
scared or who need a little adult company. The “Grandma Please” switchboard
gets about 800 calls per month. Many of the children want to share the news of
the day with someone. Some will call because they heard a noise outside or
something made them scared. Most call because they want to make contact with
another human figure, a supportive person like grandma. One volunteer reports
that her phone calls often end with the child saying, “I love you Grandma. What
is your name?”
Every child
deserves someone to talk to. Every child deserves to feel that they are
genuinely loved. Every child deserves to know that there is a bond that nothing
in this world can break. That is what Mother God's love for us is like.
The Rabbi's have
a saying that “God couldn't be present everywhere at once, so God made Mother's.
May you be blessed to show God's Motherly love to someone else. Amen.
