Mother's Day (May 9, 2010)
By Rev. Bert A. Thompson

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed, alleluia!

See the Christ candle by the Baptismal font? It was first lit on Easter vigil, when Christ arose. We are still celebrating those 40 days after Easter, while the risen Christ was still on earth. Thursday, Ascension Day, this candle will be extinguished in remembrance of Christ’s ascension back to heaven. After Ascension, we light this candle again at funerals, because when a Christian dies, that body will rise again, just as Christ did, and at baptisms, because in Baptism, the risen Christ unites us with Himself and gives us a share in His resurrection. We thank God for that first birth from our mothers so we can praise the Holy Trinity for our second birth in the waters of our baptism.

Speaking of that first birth, you know this day is Mother’s Day. Mother’s Day in America was started by Anna Jarvis in 1908. President Wilson made it a national holiday in 1914. However, you might not know that Anna Jarvis spent the rest of her life and all her fortune trying to stop those who used Mother’s Day to make a profit, filing lawsuit after lawsuit against govern-ments and businesses who used Mother’s Day for financial gain. She even was arrested, but all her efforts to bring Mother’s Day back to her original intent failed.

That’s sad, but there is a sadder account with a miraculous and joyous ending. We start in the Garden of Eden with Eve, our first mother. Eve sets a bad example for mothers. She begins the downward spiral that brings us disease, destruction and death. She falls for Satan’s lies. But she is not alone. Her husband is with her. He knows God’s Word. He knows Satan is lying. Yet, he says nothing. He does nothing to defend his bride. As head of his household, he bears the greater guilt and the fall into sin is called Adam’s sin. Now, this thing called sin affects us all.

We feel the effects of our sins and we suffer the effects of everyone else’s sins. Even the good we try to do can cause hurt: for example Mother’s Day can be a day of sadness for women who do not have children, for mothers whose children have gone astray and for mothers who have lost their children. We also cannot forget all the men who are affected. In Christian love, we remember all who feel sadness on this day.

We live in a broken world. But Christ, the second Adam, comes to undo what Adam did. Christ comes to us, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a woman, the virgin Mary. Through His mother, Christ receives our flesh and blood and becomes one of us, while still remaining 100% God, Son of His Father in heaven.

When the angel Gabriel tells Mary she will be the mother of God, she rejoices! She recites God’s Word. She says, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” – what a wonderful saying for all mothers of all time. “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” Mary’s words should be on all Mother’s Day cards.

Can we thank a gift? Of course not. Instead we thank the one who gives the gift. We thank the giver. Anna Jarvis set aside Sunday to thank God, the Giver, for His gift of mothers. Sadly, the world praises the gift but will not praise the Giver.

However, as Christians, we love to thank our God and Father – the Giver of all good things for His greatest Gift: His Son. Through our mother and our father we receive our Old Adam, our sinful nature from our first parents Adam and Eve, but through Christ we receive the New Adam, created in righteousness and holiness. Sunday after Sunday, we kneel and confess to God and to each other that we are “by nature sinful and unclean.” Sunday after Sunday Christ gives us His forgiveness and a new life.

Thank Christ for faithful fathers and faithful mothers who themselves have been reborn in the waters of their baptism, who now bring their children to the same waters. Thank Christ for faithful mothers who day after day teach their children about Christ their Savior and for faithful fathers who bring their families to God’s house each week to receive Christ’s gifts of the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.

Thank Christ for faithful families who gather at this Table, the grownups who receive the Body and Blood of Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and their children who receive that forgiveness first given them at their Baptism.
Jesus Christ wants us to ask Him for these gifts. Jesus says in our Gospel lesson: “Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.”

What does Jesus mean when He says, “Whatever you ask…”? know a child who misinterpreted Jesus’ words. He knew God would not give foolish gifts, but he thought God the Father would give every sensible gift. So, he prayed and prayed but God did not give him what he prayed for. He began to distrust God’s Word because he misunderstood what Jesus said. What does Jesus mean when He says, “…whatever you ask…” ?

Jesus did not come to give us what we think we need. Church leaders in Jesus’ day wanted a king. People in Jesus’ day wanted free food and free health care. We all want all kinds of things but we easily forget the everlasting heavenly gifts. Thankfully, Jesus knows what we need, even when we don’t.

Above all we need forgiveness. If we do not have food, water or air we will die. But if we do not have forgiveness, we will be separated forever from the God of life. That is why Jesus came. That is why Jesus was born of the virgin Mary, born into our skin, to be tempted just like we are, to suffer just like we do and to die our death. Jesus demands our perfection. He knows we are not perfect so He is perfect in our place. Then He gives us His perfection. Our sins demand proper punishment. Jesus knows this. So, in His great love for us, Jesus gets punished for what we do wrong. Jesus knows what we really need.
When we pray in Jesus’ Name, we are asking God the Father to do for us what is best and we know He will. That is why Jesus tells us to pray “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Jesus knows our life here will not always be easy. Jesus says, “In the world, you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Tribulation means trouble and suffering. We follow Christ through trouble and suffering but in the end, Christ gives us His everlasting victory. To Christ alone be all praise and honor and glory and thanksgiving.

Anna Jarvis wanted Mother’s Day celebrated on Sunday because she wanted God to be thanked. In our day, the focus needs to remain on our heavenly Father and His gift to us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus has come to take us to that everlasting, that heavenly place described in our second reading this morning. We are that faithful woman, the heavenly Jerusalem. We are the Bride of Christ. We are the Church, the assembly of all believers. The Church is the mother that endures forever and all her true children are faithful.

We are born into the church through the waters of Baptism to join the family of God that lasts forever. Earthly marriage was created by God to be a symbol of this heavenly reality. The husband is to love his wife like Christ loves the Church and the wife is treat her husband as the Church is to treat Christ. Even the best mothers and fathers fail at this. But Christ continues to forgive our sins through Baptism, Absolution and through His precious Body and Blood. Christ then gives us the power to follow Him as we walk in His forgiveness. Amen.