Mothering Sunday 2021

A year of separation

Last Mothering Sunday was the first Sunday that we weren’t able to meet to worship in church. We’ve had almost a year of disruption, restriction and being kept apart from families and many of those we love. For many of us, a second Mothering Sunday where we can’t celebrate with our Moms as we have always done hurts today. But of course, we know that this is nothing compared to what so many families have gone through where the Covid-19 virus has taken the life of a mom or someone else much loved.

Today we pray for one another as a church family, overlapping with all of our natural families; because even though many of us haven’t seen one another face to face for the last year, we are still part of that one great family, and we have faced this, and are still facing it, together.

So before I say any more, let’s spend a moment in silence to pray for one another; to pray for joy, hope and peace; to pray especially for those who for whatever reason can’t spend time with the people most important to them today.

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The fact that Mothering Sunday falls in Lent, but that for many of us it’s become a celebration of family life, has always made it a bit difficult for the church authorities who choose the Bible readings. Those given to us always show families in difficult circumstances - there’s pain held within the love of mothers and children there. Actually, most of the stories about families in the Bible have difficulty and pain within them - whether in the relationships within the family or in the circumstances they face together. One of the wonderful things about the Bible is that we’re not given an idealised picture of life, even the life of the great heroes of faith. Life, including family life, is messy and complicated in the Bible, just as it is in our experience. And maybe that can help us today.

Because one of the things we see again and again is that in the mess, the pain, the complexity - God is there and working, often behind the scenes. He isn’t mentioned in that first reading from Exodus, but there’s no doubt that he’s there, working through human ingenuity, love, empathy and courage. It’s a story from a desperate time when Hebrew families were in danger; and Moses’ mother, with the help of his big sister, had to find a way to keep him safe, even at the cost of separation from him as he grew up. And through all this family drama, God was preparing Moses for one of the greatest tasks of all time when he grew up.

One of the things for us to hold onto, whether it’s around our families or other bits of life at the moment, is that in God’s grace, none of this will be wasted. God will bring good even out of things that should never have happened. That doesn’t take away the wrongness of this all, but it gives us hope - whatever our families look like just at the moment. God will see us through this, and there will be things we can do afterwards that we could never have imagined if all this had never happened - especially if we learn from those three remarkable women; if we find among and between us the resourcefulness of Moses’ sister, the compassion of Pharoah’s daughter and the courage to let go that we see in Moses’ mom. In our natural families, our church family and the family of our community, which part of that shared care and mothering will we take on for others?

And even when we find it hard or impossible to find meaning and good outcome in our suffering, we have the promise that comes through those words from Paul that we are not alone. As I said earlier, Paul now reminds us that it’s as a family that we’ve come through this so far; and together we will get through whatever is still to come.

And on top of that, we know that through Jesus, God is with us in this. One of the great mysteries of the Incarnation, the truth that God became human in Jesus, is that he understands our experience from within; he has shared it with us, so that we can share the hope and consolation - comfort, strength, all those things - knowing that he has gone ahead of us and come out the other side.

So today, do all you can to strengthen the bonds of love within your family - and if you can’t spend time with your own mom or children remember that families and motherly love come in many different forms - so look for the person you can support, care for and encourage today. And if that’s all too much, then know that God understands and is with you.

As St Paul wrote, ‘Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation.’