Mother’s Day 2012
Colossians 1:28-29
Today is the day our culture honours the mothers in our midst.
It’s the one day of the year when restaurants are busiest,
old-fashioned cards, that you actually hold in your hand, are given,
and flowers and chocolates still make it to the top of the gift list.
Some households, with little ones, are busy Mother’s Day morning,
making Mom breakfast before she can get out of bed.
For Moms of grown children, who live out-of-town,
day-trips will be taken, or if the distance is too great,
phone calls will be made, or a virtual visit over skype.
For others, they only have memories of their mothers,
and it doesn’t matter how old you are,
you may be a grandmother yourself now,
nothing can compare with the memory of your mother.
So we honour the mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers,
who have invested in the lives of their families over the years.
And I want to suggest to you that the nurture you have provided
has shaped the destiny of those God has entrusted to your care.
There is a spiritual principle at play here: nurture creates future.
Present nurture in the little things of life creates a bigger future destiny.
And we can all be a part of that, you, me, mothers, fathers,
step-mothers, step-fathers, grandparents, great-grandparents,
aunts, uncles, teachers, coaches, scouting and guiding leaders,
church school and youth group leaders and the list goes on and on.
Christian men and women of every generation are called upon by God
to create a climate of support and growth for the next generation.
This is how the apostle Paul describes this spiritual principle
in our scripture text for today taken from Colossians 1:28-29.
We are called upon by God,
“to admonish and teach everyone with all wisdom,
so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.
To this end, I strenuously labour with all the energy
Christ so powerfully has placed within me.”
Paul tells us to teach with wisdom. Why?
So we can present everyone fully mature in Christ.
And how do we do that? To this end, I strenuously labour
with all the energy Christ so powerfully has placed within me.
In other words, to teach with wisdom,
and to train others up into maturity,
involves blood, sweat and tears.
It is going to require your full attention,
it will be physically and emotionally demanding,
it will require the very best you have to give and then some.
And some days, it will feel like it involves every ounce of energy you have,
and you will flop on your bed tired and exhausted, and it will be worth it all.
You see, if you want to gain life, then you have to give it away.
If you want to find life, then you have to lose yourself in others.
These words sound familiar? Jesus first shared them 2000 years ago.
They are holy paradoxes, seemingly contradictory, but eternally true.
So you need to ask yourself a very important question today,
“Are you willing to give yourself away?”
When a child comes to you and asks for help,
do you take the time to listen and to lend a hand?
Little children once came to Jesus.
The disciples tried to prevent them from bothering busy Jesus.
He said, “Let the little children come to me and do not stop them,
for such is the kingdom of heaven.”
When is the last time you embraced the kingdom of heaven?
I got to do it 5 times already this morning during the baptism service.
Don’t you want to be a “heaven-embracer”?
There’s no better feeling in the world. Here’s how you do it.
Be the person God created you to be for the sake of others.
Maybe you don’t have children of your own, doesn’t matter,
you have influence, you have gifts, you see possibilities and opportunities.
“But Rev. Craig, I’m no June or Ward Cleaver.”
Good, because if you’re not, God never intended you ever to be.
But maybe you have something even better to give.
Something only you can give.
What about the true story of a young woman
who led her country to military victory while she was still a teenager.
She was an illiterate peasant girl, with no children of her own,
but eventually became a national heroine and saint of the church.
She was burned at the stake on May 30, 1431 in France.
Her name? Joan of Arc and she was a woman of God.
Could she bake cookies like June Cleaver?
I don’t know, but God had other plans in store for her.
Something only she could give her God and her country,
that was desperately needed in that moment of history.
God has placed you in your sphere of influence for a reason.
There is something only you can give, so for God’s sake, give it.
What about one last true story of a young man,
born in the backwoods of his country,
never really interested in political power,
but started a movement that changed the world.
He dedicated himself to helping the poor, healing the sick,
imparting dignity to the downtrodden, speaking hope into desperate situations.
His wise words saved a woman from capital punishment by stoning,
he gave new hope to a despised little tax collector caught up in a tree,
and new life to his dear friend Lazarus four days in a tomb.
He was the “heaven-embracer” himself,
the author of the holy paradoxes about laying down your life for others.
Perhaps he knew there would come a time
when there was something only he could give.
And that’s exactly what he did.
He gave his all for you and me.
He laid down his life, so we might gain life in him.
Now Jesus calls you to do the same.
“Are you willing to give yourself away for the sake of others?”
The answer to that question holds eternal ramifications,
not only for you, but for those entrusted to your care.
Let’s make it our mission as a church to be “heaven-embracers.”
The present nurture we can offer in the little things of life for our little ones
creates a bigger future destiny for everyone as the church of Jesus Christ.
We are called upon by God, Colossians 1:28-29,
“to admonish and teach everyone with all wisdom,
so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.
To this end, let us strenuously labour with all the energy
Christ so powerfully has placed within us as his church.”
Let’s give it all away, for God’s sake,
for the sake of the little ones, for everyone’s sake,
and then see what happens,
see what God can do,
through you.