Mother's Day

Wesley United Methodist Church Fourth Sunday of Easter Mother's Day May 14, 2000 Year B John 10:11-18 You may have noticed that thre overriding theme of all of our passages for today, is the good shepherd. They tell it what it means to be a good shepherd. Christ is our shepherd. Yet not just any shepherd, hired off of the streets. But a good shepherd because he not only watches over us, he cares for us as if we belong to him. First I want to talk about what it meand to be a good shepherd, and then I want to ask you what it means to say that the lord is my shepherd. a shepherd leads and loves his sheep. In leading, shepherds don;t follow the sheep, it is the other way around. Christ, knows that he is the sovereign god, he is lord of all. Christ knows that we are all broken people, thus he knows our needs. In psalm 23 , we can see that we are given not only physical needs such as green pastures. In other words we have a beautiful place to roam around and live our life, and we have an abundance of things to eat. But we are also given spiritual nurturing, He restores our woul and leads us along right pathways. in the bible , a shepherd is a metaphor for a king, In psalm 23, david is the sheperd king, in teh new testament we can see that Chrsit is the shepherd king. Christ is clear how to create his kingdom on earth. he doesn ask us , as his sheep if we would like to feed the hungry, house the homeless, clothe the m=naked, visit the sick, he directs us to do these things and he provides an example for us to follow. Christ is the lord, he leads us The second quality of a good shepherd, is the love that he has for each of us personally. Psalm 23 says that God will always walk with us no matter what we are going through, even if it is the valley of the shadow of death. and that god will honor us in the presence of our enemies. He prepares a table for me in the presence of mine enemies. Christ is the godo shepherd who loves us because he freely chooses to care for us. John 10 explains that unlike a hired hand, who is paid to do a job, our lord willigly, sacificially and selflesssly wants to help. IT was John Calvin who said Christ declares the he is the good shepherd, who keeps his church safe and sound, first by himeself and next by his agents. When Calvin speaks of agents, he is probably talking about the disciples. But I think that there are others agents, who have been sent into the world to lead us and to love us, and I think that those agents are mothers. IT seems appropriate that the scriptures on mothers day, would all be about shepherds. IT may seem a little hard to think of outselves as sheep wandering around in green pastures, but we can all relate to being children, who are in need of somone to care for us. Someone to give us a sense of direction in a world that we do not understand. Someone who was always there for us, no matter what we might have done. and for all of us, that person has been a mother figure. Just yesterday, while walking home from church, I saw a man standing outside of his van. As I got closer to the van, I realized that he was changing a babies diaper. you could see from his actions that he was very careful and very loving. Even thought as cold as it was outside yesterday, I couldn't help but to think that he should have had the door of the van closed. But as I walked by, I couldn't help but to be amazed at the thought that none of us would be here today, if there had not been someone, who had cared for us just as lovingly. All of us have been bablies, who were completely dependent and trusting of someone to take total and complete care of us. And for all of us, that person has been a mother. Mothers day, can be a very emotional day, because all of us have different expereinces of what a mother is. Some have wonderful relationships with our mothers. some of us have not spoken to our mothers for years. Some of us have lost our mothers, some of us devote much of our lives caring for our mothers. For some, mothers day is a day to remember our mothers, for some of us mothers day our day to be remembered. For some mothers day can be a day of fulfillment of what we have blessed with, for others mothers day can be a day of loss of what we don't have. But I think that regardless of what our expereince with mothers day is, we all know what it means to have a mothers love. The man that I saw taking care of the babies needs, was definitly not a mother. Yet he was giving a mothers love to that child. I think that a mothers love is much larger than any one person can possible give. She has to have agents who are there to care for us in all aspects of our lives. I think that a mothers love is the love that God has shown for us in our lives. Christ not only loves us like a shepherd, but he loves us like a mother. We can all relate to the image of a mother leading us and loving us, so that we can become the best person that we are to be. Mothers day is the day for us to all think about how to respond to that love and leadership that we have received. In what ever form that we have received that love and leadership, in what ever way that we may feel about it, we wouldn't be here without it. Regardless of who wat where or when god loves us. She loves us no more and no less than he loves anybody else. She loves us to send her only son Jsus Christ to live, die, rise from teh dead, and to reign for each of us. Even those who dont know God, through Christ, Christ still shows them the love and care that only a mother figure can give. Our Lord does not want anyone left out of the wholeness, happiness, joy and eternal life in his kingdom. Our response to that love is the trust and to obey, just as sheep obey their shepherd, and just as babies trust their mothers. We can trust and obey Christ love for us. He leads and we follow. If we are sure that Jesus us the Lord of our lives, then that is not a hard thing to do. If we are sure that we are loved, then it is not hard to follow that love. Psalm 23 makes it clear where following that love will lead us. Love leads us through green pastures, beside still waters, love leads us to a table in the presence of our enemies, it lead us with goodness and mercy. It leads us to the house of the lord, where we will live for eternity. As long as we follow the love of CHrist, we will be lead to eternal salvation, a time and a place where we will always feel a mothers love, and our needs will all be taken care of. Christ loves us in a way that only a mother figure could love us. Christ cares for us and takes care of our needs. And Today Christ is asking you to respond to that love by trusting his love and obeying his voice. On this mother's day, how will you repsond to that love? Rememember that in your response, you are promised a love that will last a lifetime and beyond. Amen. iritual nurturing, He restores our woul and leads us along