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Thought for the Week 14 March – Mothering Sunday
Mothering
Sunday today — a day upon which the church celebrates motherhood. Don’t get
it confused with Mother’s Day held on the same day in England!! It has been a
religious festival in Europe for a very long time — pre-Roman in fact. During
Roman times it was the festival of Cybele, the mother goddess, and held in
mid March. As Christianity took over it was inappropriate to celebrate Cybele
and was replaced in the Christian calendar as Laetare Sunday — the fourth
Sunday of Lent and dedicated to the mother of Jesus, Mary, and mother Church.
People who returned to their local church for a service were said to have
gone “a-mothering” Other names for Mothering Sunday are Simnel Sunday,
Refreshment Sunday and Rose Sunday. Simnel
Sunday comes from the tradition of baking Simnel cakes on this day which was
acknowledged as a day of lessening the Lenten vows when families got together
and the fellowship of family and church was celebrated Refreshment Sunday is
a lesser known name for the day. Rose
Sunday comes from the purple liturgical robes of lent being replaced for the
day by rose-coloured ones in some churches. Also the tradition of giving
posies on this day to all mothers originally, but now to all women in the
congregation. It was once called “the Sunday of the Five loaves” because
traditionally the gospel reading for today was the feeding of the five thousand.
. For example the BCP for today stipulates John 6 5-14., before the modern
lectionaries came into force. Another
tradition of the church associated with this day, but not so common today, is
the ceremony of “clipping the church” when the congregation forms a ring
around the church building holding hands to embrace it. So
Mothering Sunday is very much a liturgical, church-based celebration and
certainly not to be confused with Mother’s Day which is a commercial, non-church,
secular affair reinstated by one Anna Jarvis of West Virginia, USA. It’s a
tradition in the U.K. that dates back to the 16th century, has
become known as Hallmark Day because of its commercialisation which Anna
Jarvis loathes, and from which she has now distanced herself. Mother’s Day
celebrates Mothers and their role. Mothering Sunday celebrates Mary, the
mother of Christ, and the Church. The two have become very mixed up and a lot
of confusion exists around both, mainly because we, the English, seem to
celebrate the two on the same day now. Let’s
hold onto for the purposes of today’s talk to Laetare Sunday. Laetare means
Joyful and comes from the Introit of the Latin mass of the Roman Catholics
Laetare Jerusalem ---meaning “O be joyful Jerusalem.” The words are pinched from verse one of
Isaiah chapter 54, “Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst
into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labour; because more are the
children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband, Says the Lord.”
The barren woman was Jerusalem, representing the Israelites, and sing means
be joyful; this verse from Isaiah was repeated by Paul in his letter to the
Galatians at chapter 4. When Isaiah wrote it the reference was to the
enslaved Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that had fallen to the Babylonians, the
Jerusalem that experienced the dispersal of the Israelites. Now because of
what Paul wrote and because of John’s writings in Revelation there is the un-enslaved
Jerusalem, the free Jerusalem — Jerusalem the golden, in Hebrews it is
referred to as the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of God. It has become
synonymous with the place we call heaven. Revelation 21 tells us at verse
2 “I saw the Holy City, the New
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as his bride.” William
Blake saw it being built on “England’s green and pleasant land” — I don’t
think so. Effectively
the old Jerusalem was that of the Israelites and was synonymous with their
failure before God to bring all people into God’s world and their keeping him
for themselves — she was therefore considered barren. The New Jerusalem is
where all who put their trust in Jesus Christ will find themselves, be they
Jew or Gentile. As St. Bernard of Cluny puts it in De Contemptu Mundi “I know
not, ah, I know not, what joys await us there, what radiancy of glory, what
bliss beyond compare.” The New Jerusalem will not be barren but give birth to
all in Jesus Christ, the bride of Revelation will become the mother of us
all. In
the meantime, of course, we are here with two feet on the ground, and as such
as a community of Christians we look to Mother church to sustain us. But what
is Mother church, where do we find it? The expression Mother Church has many
connotations but in this context, in the context of Mothering Sunday when the
celebration is of the church is to my mind the Church Universal. It is not
any particular denomination, although Laetare Sunday may have started out
life as a Roman Catholic celebration, it now embraces all denominations of
Christians. Church
Universal does not relate to any particular building — that is not the
church. So if Church in this context doesn’t mean any particular denomination
nor any particular building what does it mean? It means the whole body of
believers, of all who have put their trust in Jesus Christ all that have
faith in him, irrespective of denomination, the bride of Christ. Again in
Revelation at chapter 21 we read these words, “One of the seven angels who
had the seven bowls full of the last seven plagues came and said to me ‘Come
I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.’” That is to say, the
Church. It
is in the body of believers, in the church, that we have our identity, it is
in the body of believers that our faith is built up, it is into the body of
believers that our baptism leads us. No, it’s not necessary to meet regularly
with other Christians in order to be one, but it is necessary for us to meet
regularly with other Christians to have all that fellowship incorporates,
bible study, prayer, praise and acceptance. Where we find others of like
mind. A Christian that doesn’t meet with others can be a bit like the burning
coal that falls from the fire. For a while it retains its glow but after a
while the glow dims and eventually, because it has fallen from the fire it loses
its glow, its heat and its effectiveness completely. So stay in the fire!! But
our reading from Luke today is really about the other object of celebration
today, Mary. Mary the mother of Jesus. Mary the much maligned, because a
whole book of misconceptions, of superstitions and traditions has arisen
around her. There are Christians who say she was without sin from the time of
her conception — the immaculate conception — there are Christians who say she
remained a virgin all her life, there are Christians who say she didn’t die
but was taken bodily or assumed, up to heaven. As a consequence of these
beliefs she has become venerated and used as a mediator between man and Jesus
amongst some Christians, amongst others she has assumed a role of
Co-Redemptrix, and a definite Marian cult has grown up. There is no
scriptural basis for any of this, not by way of prophesy in the Old
Testament, not in the New Testament. It is to my mind a long way from the
obedient, faithful Jewish girl who found herself through the Holy Spirit
pregnant with the child Jesus. She was
not married but betrothed to Joseph, who was going to separate from her when
he was told in a dream that her child was of the Holy Spirit and that he
should stand by her which he did, subsequently going through the Jewish
ceremony of marriage with her. The more we build misconceptions about her,
the more we build superstitions of her and the more we build tradition around
her, the more we deify her, the more it seems to me we get away from the real
Mary and we end up dehumanising Jesus. Let us not forget that Jesus was fully
human, that’s the Christian belief and if we get away from that fact then we
are in danger of giving up, saying he wasn’t really human and therefore we
cannot be like him. In
celebration of Mary, we can concentrate on what we learn about her and from
her in the scriptures. She was there at Jesus’ birth, obviously, and at his circumcision
and presentation. She worried as a concerned parent together with Joseph when
he went missing at the age of twelve. She was present at the first miracle of
turning water into wine and uttered those words “Do whatever he tells you”
after symbolically telling Jesus that they have run out of wine. A reference
perhaps to the Jews having run out of steam and that they should listen to
what Jesus has to say. She flits in and out of the Ministry of Jesus for the
next three years and then is to be found at the foot of the cross when with
his dying words Jesus asks John to look after his mother as his own. Perhaps
the most mystifying incident occurs at Mark 3 verse 31 when Jesus appears to
reject his mother. If you remember he was told that his mother and brothers
were asking for him to which he replied “Who are my mother and brothers?”
then looking at those seated around him he says “ Here are my mother and
brothers! Who ever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
Jesus was in fact living out his words found at Luke 18 where he says “I tell
you the truth no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or
children for the sake of the kingdom of God …………..” He was saying in effect
when he appeared to reject Mary that the old way of thinking, attachment to
family ties a strong tradition in Jewish life, was no longer important what was,
was being part of God’s kingdom, of God’s family. Nevertheless
it does it seems to me put Mary’s position in perspective. We
learn a lot from Mary. The whole story of the annunciation from the
announcement by the Angel Gabriel to the end of Mary’s song the magnificent
Magnificat is a story about God’s relationship with humanity treated
admirably by Elaine Storkey in her book “Mary’s Story, Mary’s Song.” We learn
from Mary of God’s faithfulness, we learn of her acceptance, trust, love,
faith and simplicity. We
have much to celebrate in and about Mary and mother Church today. Let us be
thankful that God’s faithfulness is found both in Mary and in the Church
universal. Mel
Fancy: Reader, Anglican Chaplaincy of Midi-Pyrénées & Aude To return to main Thought for the Week page, click X at top right to close this window. |