Sixth Sunday of Easter

Our Mother, the Church

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I depart from the appointed texts for today as it is mother’s day and we want to speak about one of the Mysteries that St. Paul lays forth in his letter to the Church in Ephesus as he speaks about Christ and his bride the Church. As Paul wraps up this discussion on the interaction between the Husband and Bride, he concludes with these words, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Eph 5:31-32)

This bit is important as we talk about how highly God values parents and uses them to show us what is happening in Church, and God uses this earthly relationship to teach us about who we are as Christians. Consider how dependent we were upon our parents for our sustenance and God chose them to serve in this good vocation that we might be here in this world. Consider for a moment that everyone here is born of woman, that our life began inside of our mother. God called her to provide for and nurture us before we ever heard her voice or she ever saw our face.

As we heard last week that God gives to us good and gracious gifts that come down from above, we find in mothers that God provides for us through others, and he has richly blessed us. Now as God has established this good and holy office, it should be no surprise that He also attaches to it a command should any child not appreciate the gift that God has given, that we are to honor our Father and our Mother that it may be well with you all the days of the earth. This commandment is to remind us to cherish the parents that God gave to us when we were so weak and frail that we could not provide for ourselves and who tended to us in our every hour of need.

So no matter how eccentric or strange your parents, mom or dad may be, you still owe them thanks for watching over you and caring for you. For as Luther puts it in the Large Catechism you would have otherwise died in your own filth. Parents know what that means. No matter who your mother is you owe her thanks no matter what you think of her for God called her to carry out this important office that you may have life.

For it is an important office as we see in Holy Scripture that God uses it even to teach us what it means that we are Christians. God has given to mothers a special role as He uses their good and godly work to teach us about the relationship that we have with the Church, and with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. This is why this task of being a mother is one that we wish to honor.

For we are the children of God, and as Jesus says we are born from above into the Kingdom of God through water and the Spirit, that is our baptism. So just as we were born into an earthly family, we were born into a spiritual family. Now if we were born, that means that this didn’t happen by our own power or ability for who gives birth to them self? That’s insane. So we are born into the Church of God, through the waters of Baptism, and placed inside a Church here on earth. A place where we are feed and nourished that we may grow stronger in the faith as we prepare for the day of Christ’s return.

Now our earthly Mother nourished us with milk, but we are nourished here by the teaching of the Word. In the letter to the Hebrews, it mentions what that milk is. It is learning that we do not rely on dead works, but of faith toward God for our salvation, it is the teachings on baptism, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment. Every Christian ought to know about these things, but this is only milk, not solid food. As children we don’t stop with milk we are to continue on to heartier meals.

It is in the church that we grow not only as part of the body of Christ but as part of a family so that we might learn together and grow strong together, rely on each other, and love each other. Just as we did when we helped out in maintaining the home as we did as children with our chores. This is why we did chores. Not because parents hate their children, but it shows that they have a part in the family and they belong to the family. They see a way that they can serve and help their family as their family has helped them, and by so doing love one another.

This is why it is important for us to help out around the church and take up various roles and responsibilities, the old stewardship of Time, talents, and Treasures, that as a family coming together we might care for and support each other.

One of the struggles we face in the current age is we don’t think of Church as our Mother, but it is vital in fact it was so important that the early Church Fathers had this to say,

Ante-Nicene Fathers 5: Fathers of the Third Century: Hippolytus, Cyprian, Novatian, Appendix Treatise I. On the Unity of the Church

He can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his mother

That statement may shock or surprise ya, because this is very different than how we think about the Church today, but why is this thought which has been echoed for 1800 years across the globe foreign to American minds? It is because family in our society doesn’t have the same importance. So we need to unpack it a little bit.

Why would rejection of the Church on earth be a rejection of God in heaven? Because a husband and wife are one. You can’t say you love one and hate the other. Consider for a moment a child that rejects everything their mother has to give them. That they don’t want to be around their mother, they spend as little time as they can with their mom, and when they have the chance to gather around the table with their brothers and sisters, their mother and father, that they don’t come. Are they honoring their mother?

If they do not honor their mother who gave birth to them, fed them, and cleaned them, then how can they honor the one who chose her to be his bride? You cannot reject one parent and still claim to love the other for they are one flesh. That is the important thing to remember about the church that God loved and washed and cleansed by water and the word, and in earthly families.

If you are a child of God, if you have been born of water and the Word, don’t reject this family that you have been brought into. For not only do you have a good Father, but you have a mother and brothers and sisters who care about you. The church is not limited to these walls here, you will find a home wherever the Gospel is purely preached and the Sacraments are rightly administered. So when she rings the bell, heed her call that you might join with the family of God to hear the Words of your Father, or about the Son who gave His life for us, then we will be be fed and nourished that we might grow stronger in the faith and closer as a family.

Now perhaps that doesn’t describe your earthly family, but it is the family you have here, a family that does care about you. She wants you to be healthy and strong, that you strengthened by the Word of God as it is purely preached, and the Sacraments rightly administered, that more people might be born into this family, and that those who are ready for solid food, the body and blood of Christ might receive it that they might be strengthened for the work they have to carry out as the children of God.

So my brothers and sisters in Christ, Honor your Father and mother and give thanks to God, for the wonderful gifts that He has blessed you with in this life, and also honor your Spiritual Mother the Church, heed her cry when the table is set, or when it is time to learn about who your Father is, for just as an earthly mother wants her children to lead long and healthy lives here on earth, the desire of your spiritual mother is that you live forever in paradise. In Jesus name. Amen.