GOING BEYOND JUST MOTHERS ON MOTHERING SUNDAY

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WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?

So today is Mothering Sunday. It’s actually NOT primarily about our mothers; or mother earth; BUT mother Church and Mary Jesus’ mother and our Mother...

Traditionally it was the time to visit the Mother Church of the diocese - the Cathedral. It was about the importance of our cathedral and the bishop and the way we related to the Church catholic in our particular diocese. We are reminded that it’s not just “you in your small corner and I in mine” - we are part of something which is world wide and history wide - the kingdom of God.

Later it became the day on which young boys and girls in service would have the one day off a year when they could visit their families, especially their mothers, picking flowers from the meadows as they went... But it’s really only since we’ve taken on the American idea of Mother’s Day that we’ve used it as a special day set aside for honouring our mums.

It’s also been called Refreshment Sunday or Rose Sunday, or Simnel Sunday, or Mid Lent Sunday - a time to relax the rigorous Lenten rules... (hence the cake)

I GIVE IN....

So going with the general theme of mothering, and bearing in mind the experience of Mary, the joys and sorrows that go alongside mothering, let’s think a bit about Mothering Sunday - BUT I want to contend that mothering is not a female-only attribute, nor is it limited to those women who have produced children...

“Bringing something to birth” - which is in one sense what mothering is about - is an experience we can all take part in and comprehend. Not everybody has the experience of being the one doing the child birth, but all of us can be present at the coming to birth of a new idea, or a new way of life, or a new phase in life, or a new project, or a new way of thinking...

EVANGELISTS AS MOTHERS

In one sense evangelists are mothers in that they help to bring to birth new life. Who were your evangelists? Who were the people who helped to bring the Christian faith to birth in you? Who helped to make Jesus real to you?

Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be “born again” - which incidentally is a description of ALL Christians, not some SAS-elite crack squad of keenies! If you talk about “born again Christians” you may as well talk about “canine dogs” or “feline cats” - “born again” is a description of what a Christian is. You can’t have a Christian who isn’t born again. Born again of water and the spirit - baptism and faith. Often people will use the phrase to distinguish between their own version of the faith and yours - usually to your detriment - but if so the phrase is being misused!

MUMS AND MIDWIVES: St BRIDGET

Now, briefly from Mothering to Midwifery... One of a number of heroic female saints of the Celtic church was St Bridget - born around 450 AD into a Druid family, she took religious vows and became a nun, eventually establishing an abbey at Kildare and becoming Abbess.

Kildare became a Double Foundation - with a community of monks and nuns. Kildare had formerly been a pagan shrine where a sacred fire was kept perpetually burning, and Bridget and her nuns, instead of stamping out the fire, kept it going but gave it a Christian interpretation. In Druid mythology the goddess Bridget was the goddess of fire... There’s a rich and fertile understanding of the theology of mission and evangelism in this model which is well worth exploring at a later stage, and I could go on all day about it!

The stories of St Bridget’s life are wild and wonderful - and a quiet wonderfully woven a mixture of fact and legend that the Celts had no problem in accepting. So Bridget turned the mayor of London into a horse because she was rude to him. (Ken Livingstone take note.)

And she was revered as Mary’s midwife. And when the story of the incarnation was told at Christmas time, alongside the ox and the ass and the manger, the shepherds and Magi, there was Bridget as midwife...

Logically the Celts knew she wasn’t ACTUALLY at the birth of Christ - she was nearly 500 years too late for that - but they observed in her life the way in which she brought Christ to birth in others...

People came to her, people observed her lifestyle, her monks and nuns evangelised the area around the Abbey (as was the Celtic way) and many people were drawn to Jesus through her and came to know Christ. There’s a line in the carol O Little Town of Bethlehem which says of Jesus “be born in us today” - this what Bridget facilitated. She was an Evangelist and a missionary.

And one who assists at a birth is of course a midwife. So the Christmas story story was merely amended to honour Bridget whose “mothering” helped to bring Christ to birth in people’s lives.

MIDWIFERY: NOT AN EASY CALLING

That mothering quality - which we see metaphorically in Bridget and literally in Mary - is not just all sweetness and light. In the gospel reading the old man Simeon warns Mary that her child Jesus will be responsible for the falling and rising of many - he’ll be opposed and a sword will pierce Mary’s soul on account of him.

Most parents will affirm that child rearing can have its ups as well as its downs; children can make their parents suffer in ways they never imagined, and sometimes without always realising it. For some people NOT having children is just as painful a process.

And bringing to birth an idea, a new life style, a change, an innovation - in our own lives or in those around us - can also be a painful experience. Why? because it involves leaving something behind. It may involve risk, it may involve “moving outside of the comfort zone”. It may involve as much ridicule from friends and family as it does respect.

CHRISTIANITY: NOT AN EASY CALLING

Being a Christian - following Christ - is a risky business. Mary was warned about that right at the start. Although she may not have known where it would lead - the alternative gospel choice for today was the other end of Jesus life story - we joined Mary his mother 30-odd years later as she stood at the foot of the cross with St John watching her son die in agony.

Few of us are asked to suffer and sacrifice as Mary was; but our Christian journey will be tough too. There will be difficult decisions to make. We will be unpopular. There may be things we are denied; there may be ways in which we are asked to spend our time which we might not necessarily choose.
Mary was famous for saying yes to God when God asked great things of her. This Mothering Sunday our challenge is about taking her example of faith and trust in God and particularly her role of bringing to birth the Christ child.

Let’s pledge ourselves - along with St Bridget and Mary Mother of God - to seek to bring Christ to birth in those around us by our words, our actions, our love and our prayers.

Fr Andrew Perry
Rector, St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea