Greetings everyone. Happy belated Mother’s Day! Thank you for reading.
If ever there was a day where the preacher better not drag on, it is on Mother’s Day. Having preached now into my thirteenth year, with the added benefit of 67 years of common sense experience, plus the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I realize that there is not much wisdom that I can pass on about Mothers. First, I’m a man, so anything I say will be cautiously accepted at best, or aggressively challenged at the worst. However, the Mother’s Day sermon that I would like to hear would be this: Jesus preaching a Mother’s Day sermon about his mother Mary.
That would be something I’d like to hear.
Anyway, this is a tough topic for preachers in general, and not because men are not ignorant about the details of motherhood, because we are.
But more difficult for me because my mother died just before my fifteenth birthday. She died of cancer, a terribly long death, that she persevered through, 4 long years of experimental treatments causing her great pain and suffering. She did not give up, because she wanted to see me and my sister grow up, as much as she could. She powered through the pain, and the fog of painkillers by her strength, and prayerfully by God.
I’m not sure if she died a Christian, but I can’t see her powering through her ordeal without the Lord. My memory tells me that someone told me that she had lasted the longest on chemo and radiation therapy in the United States at the time. This was in February, 1973.
However, despite my prodigal journey after her death, the Lord, as he does, pours out his prevenient grace on sinners. Sinning, which I was so good at, could only be matched by a corresponding overwhelming flow of God’s grace, miraculously completing God’s work in me. For I was a mess.
Despite all this, God gave me a couple backup moms. The first was my aunt Wanda, who prayed every morning, every day, and every evening, for me and my sister, doing so for decades. Even though she was battling her own health issues, terribly painful migraine headaches. She was a prayer warrior, just like the women here at Harmony, whose lineage goes back to 1906, and those at OH and 2G².
I can with assurance say that her prayers saved my soul, and thank God, the soul of my sister, Becky, who passed away a few years ago. Wanda was special, as all prayer warriors are. Vigilant with an attention to detail, and just the right mix of truthful honesty about what sin can do, added into a large dose of grace.
Does anyone know a woman here like that? I think we all do, we have a church full of women like this, and have had for years.
When my father remarried years after my mother’s death, my sister and I were blessed with a step-mother of faith. She too would pray for us, and with the prayers of these two women I was guided to the person who would love me to the Lord, which is my wife Kristi.
Kristi and I partied for two years. Kristi, like me, was on a prodigal journey that was not quite as bad as mine, but not by much.
Kristi then rededicated her life to God and we became pregnant with our firstborn, Noland. It was while she was in her final trimester that I too gave my heart to the Lord. It was because I was scared to death of fatherhood. I had run from serious responsibility my whole life. Things happen quickly with kids, moms handle the change, deal with everything, then the men are just herded along with the kids until they pick up on what they need to do. The mothers, for men like me, train us, in many ways. I am a highly trained father professional now. I think back on those years and it seemed as if time just flew by. I was so clueless.
Gretchen was born four years later, and to me our family was complete. But Kristi, the Christian mother of two, wanted a third baby. I was a typical man, looking to just get rid of the diapers. But Kristi had a plan.
One of the great blessings that we had, was raising each of our children in the Christian bookstore that we helped Kristi’s folks operate. None of our kids went to daycare, they grew up in playpens, either in the office or behind the cash register. I doubt we could do this today. It was a great environment, family and friends all helping with the kids. But remember, I said Kristi had a plan.
Noland was four or five, and Gretchen was in a stroller, and Kristi would go for walks around the store at lunch time. Unbeknownst to me she was saying this prayer: “Father, I know that Thad doesn’t want another child. But I know that he’ll continue to be a great father if you allow us to have another baby, accidentally.”
Now it’s time for some scripture, Luke 1:5-7,
“In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.”
Zechariah, one year, was given a great honor for priests. By lot he was chosen to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. He was in the temple with the incense, and all the people were praying and worshiping outside. Luke 1:11-15, explains what happens next.
“Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord.”
This is describing the birth of John the Baptist.
Thanks to Kristi’s prayer, a mother’s prayer from the heart, we had our own surprise in later years of birth. We were not as old as Zechariah and Elizabeth, but we were 45.
We sort of stumbled into the news. We were serving at a Christmas dinner event, when all of a sudden Kristi sneezed, and blew the button off of her dress pants. This is December, 2003. After a week of tests, with mixed results, her pregnancy was confirmed by the Lord. We were concerned, because pregnancies in your forties increase the health risk for the baby and the mother.
Then, as she was waking up one Saturday morning the Lord whispered to her, “I answered your prayer, Kristi, I answered your prayer. Kristi, I answered your prayer. For the first time, Kristi thought back to her lunchtime walks and her plan for a third child. God had indeed answered her prayer. Only it was a decade later than what she’d been asking.
But God knows what’s best, and because of the late arrival of Emma, Kristi, at her age, has never experienced an empty nest. Which is the secret blessing in all of this, because Kristi loves being a mommy.
And I know that this is the case for many of you. So, instead of preaching out of Proverbs about the gifts of a woman of noble character, I wanted to preach on the results in real life that are made by women of noble character that I know. This includes the women I’ve mentioned, but also, each of you that are reading this message today. Each of you have made a huge difference in the lives of those around you.
Fancy words mean little today, because being a mother is tough. The toughest job in the world is a single mother. Motherhood is difficult, especially in this modern world. It’s not easy, it’s dirty and gritty, scary and hard work. I don’t know how you can raise kids without the help of the Lord.
What tempted me as a sinner in the 70’s and 80’s can kill our children and young adults today. Being a mother is tough, and mothers today are required to be mama bears, because there are bad people after our young. There is stress and concern in motherhood, and when the kids are grown, the next generation of grandkids have their own specific challenges. The work continues generation to generation.
Whether you are reading today as a mother or grandmother, or someone who helped out as a mother, I want to say this: God bless you and thank you. There is no greater calling than to be a mother.
Happy Mothers Day.
Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God.