Mother's Day

by Peter Lockhart

In some ways it is strange to have days like mothers day – a day that we remember and give thanks for the place of mothers in our lives. Why strange? Well one would think that if mothers constantly were given the respect and love as human beings we would not need a special day to remember what they have done for us. So maybe part of Mother’s Day is a kind of confession that we don’t always appreciate mothers as we should and maybe also a recognition that it is harder to thank some mothers than others.

This problem of how well we love one another is constantly before us as people and human communities have long invented days of celebration and thanksgiving to remember mothers, fathers, widows, war veterans and the list goes on. The church does this as well in its calendar in the rhythm of the liturgical year as we have celebrations at Christmas at Easter and Pentecost, along with the many other feasts days that we can have. All of these celebrations are about jogging our communal memory as we remember people and events in the history of our lives and of the church.

So, as we say Happy Mother’s Day to the mothers associated with our congregation today we remember that mothers everywhere are people with gifts and graces, as well as faults and foibles, and that as people loved by God mothers are to loved and valued and respected not simply this day but everyday of their lives.

On the Road to Emmaus

by Peter Lockhart

When the disciples are talking to the stranger on the Emmaus road one of the things which they say to him is that they had hoped in Jesus. What goes unsaid is that now they are hopeless.

“We had hoped”, but now our hope is gone.

This hopelessness is not simply the sense of grief which overwhelms them as they mourn for their friend but a more engulfing hopelessness. For them the promised Messiah was to restore the fortunes of Israel, he would bring an utter and complete change in their lives giving meaning and purpose.

For the disciples Jesus’ death undoes hope, shatters meaning and confuses purpose in life. It means a massive change in perception for them.

Changes in life and the world around us can always have a big impact and when the fundamental building blocks shift, as they did with the disciples, there can be a loss of hope.

For me this means the kind foundation and the building blocks a person constructs their life around are vital.

Today is mother’s day and whilst it is a day to give thanks for mothers it is also always a day filled with ambiguity. Yes, some of us have great memories of our mothers but the reality is that for many people the relationship was strained. For some of you your mother is no longer with you or maybe your children are no longer with you. Whatever your situation the relationship and bond between a mother and child is an important one whether it is a good one or bad one and it certainly contributes to formation of person’s life.

This is a big responsibility thrust on mothers but not them alone, fathers, teachers and other significant role models also contribute to the formation of children into functioning members of our society.

Children come with curiosity and desire for understanding that can be quite blunt and open. They want to how and why and who because they are looking for meaning and purpose and hope.

The question for us on this day is what kind of foundation and building blocks are we to use to give them that meaning and purpose and hope.

Mother's Day

by Peter Lockhart

Days like Mother's Day are unusual. Why? Because:

• In one sense they can serve to remind us of our failure to honour our mothers appropriately every other day of the year. They become a confession.
• In another sense they can bring up painful memories of childhood, of a difficult relationship, of loss, or even the inability to have children. The become a lament.
• In yet another sense they draw us into celebrating our own gift of life and the miracle of our birth. They become thanksgiving.

Mother's Day is not a liturgical celebration of the church, although it is becoming so more and more. As we celerbate Mother's Day this Sunday take the time to reflect on what it means to do so in terms of confession and lament as well as in celebration and thanksgiving.