Exaudi - John 15:26-16:4

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is from the Gospel lesson just read, the words of Jesus, “These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me.”

Today is the Hallmark created holy day we call Mother’s Day. Now I’ve been your pastor long enough that you probably know I am not too keen on bringing secular ideas and celebrations into church. We do not live according to the world but according to God. Yet it strikes me that this day where husbands and children the world over remember and honor their mothers, that it might be appropriate to reflect upon the crosses and challenges that Christian mothers face in our world today, because this fits in very well with our text and the crosses that Christians face in their vocations and callings here on earth.

What does it mean to be a Christian mother? Let’s keep it simple: it means you are a Christian who finds their life shaped by the cross of Jesus Christ, and it means that you have an earthly vocation and calling as a mother. There is a heavenly calling as a Baptized Christian, and an earthly calling as a mother.

It is quite clear from God’s Word that our Lord holds His gift of motherhood in very high regard. Honor your father and your mother, says the commandment. Honor, Luther reminds us, is a higher word than love, for it includes love. You cannot truly honor a person unless you also love them. So God calls upon us as human beings to honor our fathers and mothers, not because they are always perfect and kind and upright, but because they are a gift from God. Luther said in the Large Catechism:

Now this is important as we consider Mother’s Day and everything that entails. For us as Christians, we honor mothers because they are a gift from God, and because God uses them for His good purpose and glory to bring about His work of giving life and sustaining it here on earth. The family, the basic building block of society, could not exist without mothers. I’m not simply talking about giving birth, although that should be enough. No, I mean the very work that mothers do in the home. Each home is different, but in the Scriptures the vocation of motherhood means that you are in many ways the heart and soul of the family. Keeping the house together, feeding, clothing, making sure everyone gets where they need to get when they get there, all of these things and much, much more go into what it means to be a mother in our day and age.

But in our world, mothers often wear more than one hat. A mother may work outside the home as well as inside it. A mother may volunteer or work at church or in other areas. All of these things compete with each other for dominance, and it is sometimes very hard for a mother today to keep clear in her head what it actually means to be a mother. How do I juggle all these things? How do I make sense of them so that everything gets done that needs doing? It is hard, in the best of circumstances.

But this is true for all mothers, not simply Christian mothers. The vocation of motherhood is pretty much the same whether you are a Christian or an unbeliever. So what, then, does it mean to be a Christian mother? If most of these things you do and who you are as a mother is not peculiarly Christian, then what does it really mean to be a Christian mother?

Well, some will tell you that you must insert the Bible into everything you do. Put Christian clothes and eat Christian food (whatever that is,), only teach your children Christian songs and make sure that you say the name Jesus at least 27 times each day. Go to your local family Christian bookstore and you will finds whole shelves dedicated to the pop Christian view of the world. This is not what the Scriptures teach about motherhood.

We can rather look to the Lord’s Prayer to understand how we receive gifts here on earth. Listen to Luther’s explanation to the Fourth Petition:

God’s Word teaches you to receive everything you have and everything you are with thanksgiving. In other words, these very earthly gifts and mundane things you do as a mother are the things that God uses to bring about His work of taking care of the world. When you change a diaper, God changes a diaper. When you cook food for your family after a hard day at work, God cooks food for your family. When you take care of your tired and crabby husband, God takes care of your tired and crabby husband. And when you teach your children God’s Word, when you sing hymns to them and show them how to pray by praying and how to confess your sins by confessing, that God is teaching them all of these things through you.

So what does it mean to be a Christian mother? Being a Christian mother doesn’t necessarily mean you do these things better or that you walk around with a halo, even though you may hear that today... No, it means you look at what you do differently. You look at your life through the lens of the Gospel.

Now it should be about this time that the rest of the congregation is thinking: yeah, but what about me? What does all of this have to do with me? Some of you today are mothers, others aren’t. Some are fathers, and others sons and daughters. But what this view of motherhood teaches you is how to look at your life as well. When you take care of your wife, husbands, God is taking care of your wife. When you honor your parents, children, God honors your parents. That is how God works.

Now where is the cross in all of this, and what does this have to do with Jesus promise of the Holy Spirit and the persecution we all face as Christians? It has much to do with it in every way. As a Christian mother, you will be mocked and ridiculed by what you consider important. As a Christian, when you live your life in the world, when you are who you are as a child of God, the world will reject that. Faith? Who cares. Love? No one gets anywhere on love. Honor? Trust? Forget it. That is what the world says. In fact, it will be so bad at times that the unbelievers will believe that they are giving glory to God when they hurt and persecute you. Ouch.

This, though, is a great blessing for the Christian, mothers, fathers, sons & daughters and all of us. For when we live in the world as God’s children, when we receive His blessings in forgiveness week after week in the Divine Service, the world will hate us for it. They can’t help it. They just don’t understand what makes us tick. In fact, they can’t. But you do. You have the Spirit of Truth given to you in your Baptism. God promises in our text that He will send the Helper for you to lead you into all truth. God promises that He will teach you everything you need to know, because this Helper, whom we call the Holy Spirit, will teach you about Jesus. That is the blessing God gives to you, o mothers in Christ. He promises to give you everything you need here on earth.

Maybe it doesn’t seem like it? Maybe it seems like your life is hard and you can hardly see your way out of the tunnel? Don’t be afraid. Jesus has gone down the tunnel before you, and is ascended and seated at the right hand of God. He will guard and keep your footsteps so that you will not stumble in the path. He gives you His very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, and that means that no matter how hard the journey, no matter how difficult the trial, eternal life in Jesus Christ is at the end of the road. Believe it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.

^{^[1]}Tappert, T. G. (2000, c1959). The book of concord : The confessions of the evangelical Lutheran church (The Large Catechism: 1, 108). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.

TITLE: “…so that you do not stumble”