Sermon Tone Analysis

[ME] Orientation

This is the 102nd anniversary of Mother’s Day.

The first Mother's Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on 10 May 1908.

Like Memorial Day, Mother’s Day comes out of the national trauma of the Uncivil War.

Ann Jarvis was a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers' Work Days.

She organized women throughout the War Between the States to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors.

When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter, named Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women.

That first Mother’s Day was celebrated in the church where the Anna’s mother, Ann Jarvis, had taught Sunday School.

Originally the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, this building is now the International Mother's Day Shrine (a National Historic Landmark).

From there, the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states.

The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912.

In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother's Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.

According to IBISWorld, a publisher of business research, Americans will spend approximately $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on pampering gifts — like spa treatments — and another $68 million on greeting cards.

Mother's Day will generate about 7.8% of the US jewelry industry's annual revenue in 2008.

Americans are expected to spend close to $3.51 billion in 2008 on dining out for Mother's Day, with brunch and dinner being the most popular options.

Today we want to talk about one of the most important but otherwise overlooked mothers in the Bible, a woman named Jochebed.

But before we do, I want to address a few groups of people.

For some of us, Mother’s Day is not a joyous time, but a painful day.

You might have lost your mother, or you desperately want to be a mother, or your mother was less than ideal.

Not all of us are mothers, but Jochebed’s commitment to her children is a lesson for us in commitment to family and loved ones.

[WE] Identification

Nine years after the first official Mother's Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become.

Mother's Day continues today as one of the most commercial American holidays.

According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother's Day is one if not the most popular day of the year to dine in a restaurant.

According to IBISWorld, a publisher of business research, Americans will spend approximately $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on pampering gifts — like spa treatments — and another $800 million on greeting cards.

Mother's Day will generate about 7.8% of the US jewelry industry's annual revenue in 2008.

Americans are expected to spend close to $3.51 billion in 2008 on dining out for Mother's Day, with brunch and dinner being the most popular options.

No question that Mother’s Day is a special day…86% of Americans will celebrate Mother’s today.

BUT....

(a) for some, motherhood is unexpected, and not always a welcomed;

(b) for some, physical reasons motherhood isn't possible;

(c) for some, mothers weren't all that nice;

(d) for some, motherhood had brought many heartaches an difficulties.

(c) for some motherhood was a failure.

For Children:

(a) Some did not have loving mothers.

(b) Some did not know their mothers.

(c) Some lost their mothers because of some tragedy.

There can be a negatives side of motherhood.

Today we want to talk about one of the most important but otherwise overlooked mothers in the Bible, a woman named Jochebed.

But before we do, I want to address a few groups of people.

For some of us, Mother’s Day is not a joyous time, but a painful day.

You might have lost your mother, or you desperately want to be a mother, or your mother was less than ideal.

Not all of us are mothers, but Jochebed’s commitment to her children is a lesson for us in commitment to family and loved ones.

If I can take some liberties with poet Wilhelm Busch's words, I'd have to say.

My German is not very good, but he said: "To become a mother is not so difficult; on the other hand, being a mother is very much so!"

So, with all these negatives , why bother with Mothers' Day at all? I'll tell you why 覧 because for all its stumbling blocks, pitfalls and broken dreams, heartaches, failures, for all we talking about the beautiful plan, a natural part of God's creative order to bring love and caring to light.

Yes, because people are sinners and often fail.....Motherhood as God planned is a wonderful thing.

We should honor it and lift it up is a constant remember of the gift of love and caring.

All of us should work teach the highest ideas of motherhood by example and word to our children.

Let me ask you a question: Who is the greatest influence in your life?

Has a teacher or a professor been your greatest influence?

Perhaps you would say that a friend or maybe your spouse has influenced you the most.

A poll asked that question to more than 4,000 adults.

People were allowed to give any of those responses.

The results were revealing.

According to the poll, the person with the greatest influence was a person's mother.

42% of men and 53% of woman said that mother was the most influential person in their life.

(USA Today, 6-15-90.)

On this Mother's Day we pause to honor mothers and to reflect on the important contribution they have made to our lives.

We may even try to imagine what our lives would have been like without them.

ILLUS: The story is told of a teacher who gave her class of second graders a lesson on the magnet and what it does.

The next day in a written test, she included this question: "My full name has six letters.

The first one is M. I pick up things.

What am I?" When the test papers were turned in, the teacher was astonished to find that almost 50 percent of the students answered the question with the word Mother.

They all got it right!

Argum: The cartoon character Dennis the Menace told his friend Joey, "I don't know what I'll do when my mom gets too old to tie my shoes."

(North American Syndication, 4-9-91.)

Illust:    Another humorous is told of a the mother of three notoriously unruly youngsters was asked whether or not she'd have children if she had it to do over again.

"Yes," she replied.

The with a smile she added....."Certainly I would, but not the same ones."

Today we want to talk about one of the most important but otherwise overlooked mothers in the Bible, a woman named Jochebed.

But before we do, I want to address a few groups of people.

For some of us, Mother’s Day is not a joyous time, but a painful day.

You might have lost your mother, or you desperately want to be a mother, or your mother was less than ideal.

Not all of us are mothers, but Jochebed’s commitment to her children is a lesson for us in commitment to family and loved ones.

[GOD] Illumination

By the end of the Genesis story, God’s promise to Abraham that he would have many descendents has been partially fulfilled.

Jacob’s children have now become a large, flourishing group in Egypt.

But “an new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph” [].

This ominous note signifies the start of a chan of events that will lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into their own promised land - the home that God has also promised to Abraham.

As the biblical story resumes in Exodus four hundred years after Abraham, we are still in Egypt.

Joseph and his brothers have died, but their descendents have multiplied until they are substantal part of Egypt’s population.

God’s promise to Abrham concerning a great number of descendents has been partially fulfilled.

But what of God’s other promises - to provide a relationship with himself and to give his people a land of their own?

As the Exodus narrative begins, it seems that these promises are a long way from being fulfilled.

A new Pharaoh has risen who does not know Joseph, fears the number of Israelites, subjecs them to brutal salve labor, and embarks on a vicious policy of killing all newborn male Israelites.

Though this oppression seems to be an obstacle to God’s fulfilling his promises, it paradoxiically becomes the impetus for the Israelites’ escape from Egypt.

When they cry out to God amid their suffering and oppression, “God [hears] their groaning and he [remembers] his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob.”

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That brings us to our story this morning of the birth of Moses, the deliver...

Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.

3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch.

She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank.

4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him.

5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river.

She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it.

6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying.

She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.”

So the girl went and called the child’s mother.

9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.”