Exodus 2: 1-10 & John 19: 25b-27
Mothering Sunday has been abbreviated in our society to Mother’s Day.
Mother’s Day is a celebration of our mothers and all that owe them and all that we love about them.
This makes it difficult for people whose mothers have died or who are estranged from their mothers. How can they join in the celebrations?
And it makes it difficult for mothers who are estranged from their children, whose children have died or are far away. It makes it difficult for women who regret not being mothers. How are they to join the celebrations?
So it is worth noting that the stories of motherhood in our readings this morning are not so much about biological mothers as about mothering and mothering love.
The Pharaoh’s daughter becomes a mother to Moses. The disciple of Jesus accepts the mother of Jesus as his mother.
They are both stories of a mother’s love and a mother’s pain at being parted from her child. This is a pain that has always attended motherhood and does so today across the world in many tragic circumstances.
But as well as that, in painful and tragic circumstances, mothering love can enter in and heal our brokenness. And you don’t have to be a biological mother to be a channel for mothering love.
Something else that is very important about our two readings this morning.
You can tell the story about the liberation of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt without mentioning the mothering love in the life of Moses when he was an infant. But the Bible does mention it.
You can tell the story of Christ’s victory over sin and death on the cross without mentioning that Mary was there. But the Bible does mention it.
Mothering love is in attendance. The possibility of offering mothering love is always there in any situation. You don’t have to be a mother to offer it. Where can we offer it to the people we meet in our lives today? And where can we accept it when it is offered to us?