May 14, 2006 — 9:58 PM
Preach it!
Acts 8:26-40
1 John 4:7-21
Happy Mother's Day.
Have you done something nice for you mother today - cooked her breakfast, given her lovely flowers, or for those who's mothers are no longer living, said a prayer of thanksgiving for her life. Our nation has chosen this day as one specially set aside to stop and give thanks for all that mothers do for us.
Most of the attention goes to biological and adoptive mothers. But I think we should expand that to include all women who have influenced our lives and helped us to become who we are today - be they a mentor, a close family friend, or a long-time member of our church community. Today is a great day to celebrate each of these women's gifts and to give thanks for their involvement in our lives.
When we lift up and celebrate motherhood, what exactly are we honoring? What characteristics do we want to acknowledge as special in the women who have helped nurture us?
Maybe for some the fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5:22 are what we celebrate. That verse tells us: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness." These are characteristics that we celebrate in any person, but for many these are characteristics of mothers.
Or maybe the the description of the good wife in Proverbs 31 lifts up the characteristics that we are celebrating today. It says:
10 A wife of noble character who can find? ? She is worth far more than rubies.
11 Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
12 She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.
13 She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.
14 She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.
15 She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.
16 She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
17 She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.
18 She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.
19 In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
20 She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.
21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
22 She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.
25 She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
26 She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
27 She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her, saying:
29 "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all."
30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
31 Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.
Quite a tall order.
What is it that you celebrate about your mother and the other women who have been influential in your life? What characteristics do you want to acknowledge and give thanks for in these women?
Love. Compassion. Encouragement. Empathy. These are words we think of when we think of what this day is meant to celebrate.
The New York Times ran an interesting article earlier this week in anticipation of our nation's celebration of Mother's Day. It was entitled: "One Thing They Aren't: Maternal." The article explores examples from animals in nature where the characteristics that we celebrate today are not exhibited.
"Oh, mothers! Dear noble, selfless, tender and ferocious defenders of progeny all across nature's phylogeny: How well you deserve our admiration as Mother's Day draws near, and how photogenically you grace the greeting cards that we thrifty offspring will send in lieu of a proper gift.
Here is a mother guinea hen, trailed by a dozen cotton-ball chicks. Here a mother panda and a baby panda share a stalk of bamboo, while over there, a great black eagle dam carries food to her waiting young. We love you, Mom, you're our port in the storm. You alone help clip Mother Nature's bloodstained claws.
But wait. That guinea hen is walking awfully fast. In fact, her brood cannot quite keep up with her, and by the end of the day, whoops, only two chicks still straggle behind. And the mama panda, did she not give birth to twins? So why did just one little panda emerge from her den? As for the African black eagle, her nest is less a Hallmark poem than an Edgar Allan Poe. The mother has gathered prey in abundance, and has hyrax carcasses to spare. Yet she feeds only one of her two eaglets, then stands by looking bored as the fattened bird repeatedly pecks its starving sibling to death.
What is wrong with these coldhearted mothers, to give life then carelessly toss it away? Are they freaks or diseased or unnatural? Cackling mad like Piper Laurie in "Carrie"?
In a word — ha. As much as we may like to believe that mother animals are designed to nurture and protect their young, to fight to the death, if need be, to keep their offspring alive, in fact, nature abounds with mothers that defy the standard maternal script in a raft of macabre ways. There are mothers that zestily eat their young and mothers that drink their young's blood. Mothers that pit one young against the other in a fight to the death and mothers that raise one set of their babies on the flesh of their siblings."
Yikes! Following that rather frightening opening, the article goes on to explain that survival of a species often depends on characteristics quite contrary to what we typically think of as the "maternal instinct." Many times a mother in nature allows an offspring to starve to death when it is apparent that it is the weaker one; or favors one offspring to the serious physical detriment of another; or ignores the offspring for all but a few minutes each day; and much, much more that we would label "bad parenting."
The article aims to prove that the characteristics that we value most in mothers are often not in evidence in nature. Are we being unrealistic in what we expect of mothers? Or is the human species that much different that the maternal instinct exists here where is it not as strong in other species?
While the former may be true - I think we do hold some pretty high expectations of
mothers - I believe the real difference lies in the fact that humankind was created in the image of God. We, unlike all other species God created, have been invited into a loving relationship with our creator. That makes our own relationships with others quite different.
When I think of my own mother, all of the wonderful characteristics that we named earlier apply. She is a great mother - a true blessing from God. One characteristic that sticks out strongly to me is her friendly welcome of all people. She is a true Midwesterner in this regard. She acknowledges and engages every person with whom she crosses paths.
I guess I always knew this about her, but it became much more apparent to me when she first visited me here in San Francisco. I live at the northern end of San Francisco in Pacific Heights. The custom there, as in much of the city, is to avoid making eye contact and to definitely avoid any and all conversation unless you know a person very well.
Well, when my mother visited she would have none of this! She is a friendly and outgoing person. To tell her to refrain from greeting another person on the sidewalk is like telling one to not breathe - it just is impossible!
I have to admit that at first I was quite embarrassed by this propensity of hers. I figured that she just didn't understand the ways of the big city - we just don't interact that way. But I have come to appreciate her friendliness and disregard for social conventions as I have lived longer in the city. By reaching out to people with a warm smile and a friendly word, my mother is making the world just that little bit nicer, that little bit less hostile and alienating.
Do you greet people when you are walking down the street? Or do you prefer to keep to yourself and not bother anyone? I have to admit there are days when I'll greet those I encounter and other days where I would rather run in the other direction. But God, the creator of everyone and everything, wants us to reach out to all whom we meet to share God's love and peace.
That's what we see in our passage from Acts this morning. The Spirit of God moves Philip to go out and search for someone to greet and to share God's love with. God doesn't want Philip to stay inside, content in his knowledge of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. No, God moves Philip to go out and share that knowledge with others.
But this is a dramatic change in Philip. He was among the followers of Jesus who had locked themselves into the upper room following Jesus' crucifixion. They were afraid to show their faces, let alone say anything about Jesus' ministry as the Son of God. They feared for their own lives so they stayed together in that room waiting for things to blow over just a bit.
Now here Philip is, some months later. The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost has occurred. And Philip cannot keep himself from talking about Jesus - who he is and how his ministry made God's love real to everyone whom Jesus met. Philip is so full of joy that he jumps at the chance to go out and share the good news. There is no hesitation on Philip's part. Fear no longer grips him - he is freed by the power of the Spirit.
Philip has been changed by his interaction with the living Jesus. His experience of learning from Jesus and witnessing the miracles that Jesus performed for the multitudes that came to him altered his perspective on who God is and how God wants humankind to live. And so now, emboldened by the Spirit, when Philip hears the words from Isaiah that the Ethiopian man is reading, he immediately knows that the words are referring to Jesus and the death that he had to endure. Philip can't wait to explain this all to the Ethiopian man. He wants to give this man the opportunity to be changed as he has been changed.
And changed the man is. After hearing what Philip has to say, he wants to acknowledge the change within himself by being baptized. So he commands Philip to baptize him. They happen to come across a body of water and Philip baptizes the Ethiopian and then is immediately taken away. Philip's disappearance doesn't seem to phase the Ethiopian - I can tell you it would sure spook me - but rather, the man continues on his way rejoicing. He is so happy about what he has learned and how that has changed him that the disappearance of Philip doesn't bother him one bit.
So what is it that Philip says that affects the Ethiopian in such a way? All Acts tells us is that Philip "proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus." To learn more about what that good news is we need to turn to our reading from 1 John 4.
What is the good news? That God is love!
Were you expecting something more profound? Something more earthshaking? This is a concept that we have all heard from the first day we stepped a foot inside of a church. The noun "love" is the 25th most-used word in the New Testament. And the 26th? The verb "to love." And that is followed by the noun "loved ones." From this it is evident that love is central to the New Testament's message.
And the importance of love is evident in the Hebrew Scriptures as well. The disciples, like all Hebrew people, learned from their earliest days that their God is the God of steadfast love. They know that this God loves them so much that God wants justice for them - God's chosen people. They know that God loves them because God chose their ancestors, watched over them on their long trek away from Egypt, gave them a land to call their own, and made them into a great nation. But the disciples, like all Hebrew people, had never seen God. They had never interacted personally with God. That is until they meet Jesus.
As soon as they meet him, they know that there is something different about him. And through Jesus' teachings and the miracles he performs, they begin to understand what it is that makes him different. But it isn't until that first Easter morning and the days following it that they truly understand who Jesus really is - the Savior of the world.
Once they understand that, they realize that they have been in the presence of God whenever they have been with Jesus. They realize that Jesus has shown them in a very concrete way God's steadfast love that works for justice for all. They know that if they continue to be followers of Jesus, God's love will continue to abide with them.
This is the good news that Philip could not help but share with all whom he encountered. God's love, shown in Jesus Christ God's Son, had changed them. It changed how they interacted with one another. It changed their outlook on the world. They no longer had to be ruled by fear. God's love freed them; saved them.
And God's love can do the same for us still today. God wants to fill us to overflowing with God's love. God wants our lives to show that love to the world. God wants us to throw off the chains of fear that so easily encumber us. God wants us to jump up and run out to meet all who are seeking after God.
Are you ready for that? Are you ready to open yourself up to receive God's love fully into your heart, soul, and mind? Are you ready to be changed so that your life shines forth God's love to the world?
Our world sure could use it right now. Our world needs this message of hope - the message that we do not have to be ruled by fear; the message that God desires that all people treat one another with love and respect.
Be careful though. Once we experience the fullness of God's love shown in the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we may find ourselves acting like Philip - going from place to place full of joy and sharing the good news of God's love with those whom we meet.
So let us open ourselves to God's love and then let's go out and preach it! Preach it with our smiles. Preach it with a kind word. Preach it with a kind act. Preach it through giving a testimony to one who wonders what is different about us.
God's love is a powerful magnet. Each of us is called to let the power of that love work through us to draw others to God.
Amen.
