Easter IV, Cycle B

“On ‘Mother’s Days’—and Our Good Shepherd”

May 11, 2003

The Rev. Dr. David M. Wendel

Saint Luke’s Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Lessons:  Acts 4:5-12;  Psalm 23:  I John 3:16-24;  St. John 10:11-18

It’s always a challenge to preach on Mother’s Day.  On the one hand, in a liturgical church, you can simply avoid Mother’s Day altogether, sticking to whatever biblical text is assigned—and if anyone asks, you can say, “Hey, we’re a liturgical church—Mother’s Day isn’t a church festival!”  On the other hand, mothers and motherhood, and the challenge of raising Godly children, is important—it’s important to the Church, and as pastor and preacher I have the feeling that there should be something we can say—to mothers, and families, on Mother’s Day.  But there’s a tension there, as well.  Does one stand up and talk in pious platitudes about the virtue and honor of motherhood, as if all mothers are perfect and deserving of heaping helpings of praise and presents?  Or does one deal with reality.  Does one try to deal with the fact that Mother’s Day is something of a mixed bag—does one try to deal with the fact that while mothers try their darnedest to be good mothers, to be loving, nurturing, consistent, and effective mothers, there are those failures—there is that haunting feeling that we haven’t done all we could. 

  On Prairie Home Companion last week, a radio show on National Public Radio, they tried to acknowledge this, reality, as a mother spoke with her husband at the end of a day.  The husband, Jim, came into the kitchen to find his wife, Barb distraught.  She said, “Oh, Jim, I hate government studies.  I don’t know why they do them.  They only make people miserable.  “What government study is that, honey?”  asked Jim.  Barb replied, “I come home from work, exhausted, I open up the paper, and there’s an article that says any child who spends more than 30 hours a week in child care, away from its mother, turns into a psychopath.  Gee, thanks a lot.  As if I didn’t feel enough guilt already.  I tried to be a good mother.  I bought them educational toys.  I played them Mozart. I sang Kumbaya and I read Goodnight Moon until I about went nuts, and I decided, instead of going nuts, I’d get a joy and try to earn enough money to pay my babysitter, and I went to work, and now I find out I was condemning my kids to becoming aggressive monsters who will never get along with anybody, and wind up living alone barricaded in mobile homes with their Rottweilers.  And it says it’s all mom’s fault—it makes no difference if the dad takes care of the kids. It all comes down to mom.  It’s mom’s fault that the kids grow up to become vicious skinheads with poor social skills and a collection of automatic weapons.” 

     Motherhood, today, is a mixed bag—that’s reality.  And I guess, as a preacher on Mother’s Day, I’d always rather deal with reality.  But, given our reality, what good news can be offered today?  To mothers who know they’re not perfect—to children who struggle with their own mothers—to all of us who know that motherhood is a mixed bag—is there good news, today?

     There is—and the good news, for mothers, for children, for all of us, is that—Jesus, is our Good Shepherd!  Now, you might wonder what Jesus, the Good Shepherd, has to do with mothering, and with motherhood, and with both the joy and frustration, of being a mother.  Well, in a sense, it has little to do with it.  In a greater sense, it has everything to do with it…because to be a faithful Christian mother, in fact, to be a faithful Christian parent, it’s helpful—it’s essential to parent, fully aware that there is a Good Shepherd, and you’re not him!  It’s helpful and essential, as a parent, to remember there is a God, and you’re not Him!  And though that may seem, elementary;  though that may seem simplistic—it’s something we sometimes forget, as parents, and as children.  That though being a parent is an important God-given, God ordained responsibility—we are not everything to our children.  We don’t have to be everything to our children.  Thankfully, there is a God—and we’re not Him.  Our children have a Good Shepherd, and it’s not us!  And that’s important for us to remember, because it frees, us.  It frees parents to be the best moms and dads they can be, while remembering that in spite of our shortcomings and failings, our children will still be led and cared for, by the Good Shepherd.  It frees us, as children, because it assures us that in spite of what our parents have done, and failed to do, we have a Good Shepherd leading us, guiding us, correcting and reproving us.  So that, as parents, we don’t have to deal with the nagging fear, that because we worked, our child will end up barricaded in mobile homes with their Rottweilers, vicious skinheads with poor social skills and a collection of automatic weapons.  As children, we don’t have to blame our parents for not being perfect, for not being our saviors, for not keeping us from every harm, every stumble, every poor choice in life.  It frees us, because we, parents and children, can live our lives accepting our sinfulness, our broken-ness, and our humanity—not expecting ourselves, or our parents, to be God.  It frees us, because it proclaims to us, that through it all—through ups and downs, through good times and bad, we have a Good Shepherd—who will never run away, who will never desert us, never abuse us, or scatter us, or abandon us.  Indeed, we have a Good Shepherd who loves us so much, that He would lay down his life for us.  He loves us so much, that He did lay down His life for us—and take it up again, for us,  and for our salvation.  Our Good Shepherd gave His life, on the cross, for us, that we might be forgiven of our sins and faults and shortcomings—and He took up his life, again, so that through His resurrection, you and I, mothers, fathers, children, might receive, newness of life—new, restored, transformed lives, now, no matter what kind of parents we are, no matter what kind of parents we had.  The good news, for all of us today, is that we do not save our selves, nor do we save our children, nor should we look to our parents to save us.  But truly, as St. Peter proclaims, “there is salvation in no one else, other than by the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified, whom God raised from the dead.  There is salvation in no other name under heaven, by which we must be saved.” 

     As a parent, that is good news, because it frees me from all the fears and worries I bear about my failings as a parent.  As a parent, it frees me, because I know that through it all, it was not me, alone—but it is Jesus, the Good Shepherd, leading and guiding and shepherding my children.  As a child, it is good news because it frees me to love my parents for who they are—not for who I wish they were.  It frees me to worship God, as God, and to see my parents, as the frail, faulted, imperfect persons, we all are.  It is good news because it keeps us from looking to ourselves, to our parents, to our brothers, sisters, children, spouses, as the source of our salvation—turning us, again, and again—to Jesus Christ—the Good Shepherd—who alone, fulfills my wants, makes me lie down in green pastures, revives my soul, walks with me through the valley of the shadow of death.  It turns us, again and again, to Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, who spreads a table before me, anoints my head with oil—causes my cup to run over with goodness and mercy.  It is good news, that Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd, has assured, that I will dwell, not in the house of my parents, but in the house of the Lord, forever.  And it is that good news, to which we can all cling—mothers and fathers, children and youth, clinging, to Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd, who makes Mother’s Day, and Father’s Day, and all our days, happy and joyful, because of the forgiveness and new life, that we receive from Him, the Lord, our Shepherd.    

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.