The Whole of Mother's Day

Dear Friends,

When our kids were babies, Stephanie and I turned the observed differences of response to their parents into a little saying: “Dads are not so bad, but moms make us glad.”

This Sunday, of course, is Mother's Day, a day to celebrate all the moms and other women of influence who have made us glad over the years. As is our tradition, we will have a rose and and special prayers of blessing for all the women of the church.

Even God had a mother! (In Jesus Christ; over Christian history there is actually a long and sometimes violent debate called the theotokos controversy about whether or not you should say it that way; tldr: yes, you should). But for all the sweet moments Mary experienced as a mother (the baby nuzzled against her breast, the first steps, first words, Jesus’ first homemade carpentry project, the pride and wonder she must have felt at his teaching and miracles), there were also terribly hard moments (the names she must have been called as an unwed pregnant teenager, Jesus’ famous rejection when she misunderstood him, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”, and, overwhelmingly, watching his torturous death on the cross). Motherhood was not easy and simple for Mary (or even for Jesus). And it is not easy or simple today either.

And so, in addition to gladness, we shall bring the sad places with us on Sunday: the loss of mothers and grandmothers, the broken relationships, the hard words, the lost children. Church is for the whole of life, and so for the whole of Mother's Day, the glad and the sad — but always rooted in the joy of Christ our Lord, resurrected, the giver of all good gifts and the redeemer and restorer of all that is broken.

In Christ,
Fr. Andrew