Mothers Day Sermon - 2022 #mothersday

Mother's Day Sermon

                                                 

Happy Mother’s Day to all the   mothers around the world for today is a special day   to honor our mothers - whether they are young,   old or even gone to heaven - like the mothers of many of the older people.

Friends we celebrate Mother’s Day today but do you all know the story of Mother’s Day. It is  a true story about a mother who loved her sons and the sons of all other mothers too and about her daughter who many years later helped convince the President of the United States of America to pass a law stating that today  the Second Sunday of May  would be known as Mother's Day.

Let me just explain it to you.   Way back over 150 years ago - there was a great war in The United States of America.  Many good men and indeed many good boys, teenagers who believed in a good God began to fight & were dying.

And as only a mother can understand, a mother by the name of Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis felt the pain that all mothers feel when they see their children suffering and dying. And so she organized a special day, A day for bringing comfort & peace for mothers who had sons fighting on both the opposing sides, a day of offering prayers for all these mothers & their children & A day of prophetic challenge for all these mothers to live as one family in peace.   And so it was done.   Later during the war, another woman named Julia Ward Howe   organized a Mothers' Day meeting in her home town of Boston.   And it was also a great success in bringing mothers together and reminding them to live in peace. 

And this kept on happening down there in the "U S of A", even after the war ended, until - in the year 1907 - Anna Jarvis, the daughter of the Mrs. Anna Reeves Jarvis suggested a national observance of a day   to honor all mothers each year. After her mother died, at a memorial service for her mother that was held on May 10, 1908, she gave a carnation,   her mother's favorite flower to each person who attended the service.   Well that idea caught on    & Finally, On May 9, 1914, by an act of Congress, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day making it a national event.  

Within the next few years, this idea of a day to honor mothers gained popularity & people all over the world started observing Mother’s Day with carnation flowers. White carnations are worn to honor mothers who have died and red ones to honor mothers who are here with us. And that is the story of mother's day started first by a woman who cared for all mothers and for all their children and wanted them to live in peace. 

So friends, although Moms are always near to our heart but it happens with all of us that with increasing job and family responsibilities, we fail to remind ourselves how important our mothers are for us. Well! It is never too late. This year also the special Mother's Day is here so why not celebrate this day by greeting our Mom, wishing her, thanking her and making her feel how special she is for us. Mother’s Day is a perfect time to express our love and care for our lovely mothers in our lives, and then they may be our birth mothers, our step-mothers, our mother-in-law’s, our grandmothers or our spiritual mothers. The first LOVE of our life is generally our Mother.  Mothers are the child bearers and usually the primary caregivers. And because they have contact with their children over a long growing period, they have an extraordinary tremendous impact on their children.  A mother is the Bible's most honored woman, and great stress is laid upon the influence of mothers. The word "mother” appears in the Bible almost 300 times.

So friends do you know that Motherhood is not about us, & neither it is of our children. But it’s all about God, and God’s work in the world. In motherhood which is the only one place where we mysteriously participate with God in his work to redeem the world, by teaching our children to hear and follow God.  By our speaking and living what we see in the scriptures, God’s word can again become incarnate before our children’s eyes, so that faith can take on flesh and become a part of this cray world.  The Lord wants women to be fruitful for the purpose of advancing and expanding the family of God. The point of motherhood is to bring forth and nurture children in the faith. Women who have no biological children can also participate in this calling. A woman does not have to be married, nor be a mother, to nurture those in need. I would encourage all women to pour out their lives in deeds of service to those in need, such as victims of abuse, orphans, widows, the elderly, the homeless, the hungry, and the afflicted, through thousands of God-honoring involvements.

Friends, There are many kinds of mothers in this world but Christian mothers are totally different.  Christian mothers are for the purpose of sending forward into a sinful world those who will become the salt of the earth and fill this world with Christian idealism. They are, the chief soul-molders, character-constructors, God’s recruiting agents for the eternal realms of heaven. They rule the world. They guide the destinies of homes; that is why God is relying on mothers to keep Christ in the world by keeping Him in their hearts and homes.” How? To know this Let’s see the best example from the scripture & that is of Mother Mary:

Mary:

As we celebrate our mothers this Sunday. It’s probably impossible to look at motherhood, through God’s plan, without looking at Mary the mother of Jesus.

Motherhood has always been a blessed and a dignified job, but Mary raised it to even greater stature when she became the Mother of God. As the mother who is “blessed among women” (Lk 1:42), Mary gives us the clearest and most inspiring picture of what the ideal(perfect) mother should look like, and every Christian mother would be wise to take her clues from the one who excelled at motherhood like none other.

Friends, The Messiah could have come to earth as a fully-grown man. God didn’t need to come through the womb of a woman, but yet He chose that path. This monumental choice makes it clear the importance God places on motherhood. Yes, Moms matter! Jesus shared with all of us the very human experience of being born and cared for by a mother.

Motherhood is not an extraordinary thing. No, on the contrary motherhood is very ordinary. But going back to the Gospel how did the ordinary compare to the extraordinary when it came to impacting the life of Jesus. He was born to an ordinary girl who lived an ordinary life. She was the only human being to be with Jesus throughout his entire life. She gave birth to him as her baby and watched him die as her Savior.   Friends, If we want to learn from Mary how God can use us, we must understand how God took an ordinary woman and used her in an extraordinary way.  To understand this lets go to …

Luke 1:26-38

26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; [e]blessed are you among women!” 29 But [f]when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I [g]do not know a man?” 35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.” 38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

So friends, Luke 1:26 onwards tells the story of how God sent an angel, Gabriel, to the virgin Mary. Mary was Just an ordinary young poor little Jewish girl, probably only about 12 or 13 years old when the angel Gabriel came to her in Nazareth. 

Now Nazareth was not a big renowned city like Jerusalem. But it was a very small unattractive not much known village having hot dusty summers & cold muddy winters.  There was not much to recommend of this village & it had a population of just 400 people.  Now Mary had recently become engaged to a carpenter named Joseph in this village & was looking forward to marriage. To such an ordinary girl & in such an unattractive village the angel Gabriel appeared to her and said

“Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”

When Mary saw him, she was fearful & troubled. This would be a totally normal response to such an encounter.   The angel told her not to be afraid and then continued to turn her world upside down.  She was just unaware of the fact that her whole life was going to change forever. He told her she was going to conceive a Son named Jesus. She could never have expected to hear the most incredible news — that she would have a child, and her son would be the Messiah.

When she heard that she was chosen among all women to give birth to the God of this planet,   the Messiah, she had to respond. She had a choice to make.  Now was she going to accept God’s plan for her or was she going to rebel against it. I’m very much sure that this was not the way Mary thought her life was going to go. So how did she respond then?

Although surprised that she would be the mother of the promised Messiah, Mary was not baffled by the pronouncement that there would be a Messiah.  On the contrary she very well knew of the Old Testament prophesies about the coming Messiah, His miracles, His deity, and His offer of salvation. 

This clearly shows that  she was familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures, she might be reading the scriptures daily, which made her respond in this manner,  isn’t that. But no, it‘s doubtful that she knew how to read or write, since literacy was extremely rare among women of that time. 

Reading was a specialized skill, necessary for men so that they could read the Torah, but not necessary for women, who developed more practical skills. 

Then how did she know scriptures, & that the Messiah was coming. Mary spoke Aramaic, a language with a strong poetic tradition. Hers was an oral society which valued the oral transmission of tradition, ideas, stories and news & hence stories, prayers and poems were learnt off by heart, rather than read. They did not even have their own copies of the Scriptures, like we do today. The young women would hear the reading of the Scriptures at their local synagogue & would hide these words in their hearts, which is how Mary knew that the Messiah was to come. Scripture stories were not just ‘religious’ to Mary. They were entertainment as well. People told the stories and acted  them out for pure enjoyment. This was the only way that they could kick off boredom & get entertained in their lives. Bible scholars talk about how all Jewish girls at that time dreamed of being the mother of the Messiah. It was promised that a savior, a redeemer was coming & She knew very well that some woman would bear this baby.  And so when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, & told her that it was she who would be the mother of the coming King of Israel, she didn’t seek proof from Gabriel. Her only question was,

“How can this be, since I do not know a man?” (Lk. 1:34).

Her question was not

“Whether I‘ll be pregnant?” but

"How I‘ll be pregnant?"

This clearly shows that she did not doubt God but just asked for an explanation that how this could be possible as she was just a virgin. This is an important distinction, as it highlights Mary’s trust and belief in God and His ability to miraculously follow through. This stands in contrast to Zachariah's response when Gabriel announced in  (Luke 1:5-18) that Zachariah's and Elizabeth would have a child. Zachariah's struggled to believe this news (verse 18). As a result, Zachariah's was made mute for the duration of  Elizabeth’s pregnancy “because he did not believe” Gabriel’s announcement (verses 19-20). Mary had pleased God with her trust and faith (Hebrews 11:1, 6).  Mary’s faith in God was vibrant and powerful. It served to shield her during this challenging events that poured unexpectedly into her life. Mary had the necessary faith to believe Gabriel’s announcement and act on it when he said that

 “Elizabeth, in her old age is now pregnant because nothing is impossible with God.”  (Luke 1:36).

Although she could not comprehend how she would conceive the Savior, she responded to God with great belief and obedience. This came naturally because of her upbringing.  As I mentioned earlier she was for sure taught to be loving, kind, attentive and obedient to God’s word & will. With such a firm foundation, Mary was so favorably disposed to God that when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and said, “You will bear a son,” with deep faith she trustingly replied,

“I am the Lord’s servant, may everything you have said about me come true.”

Mary’s response to this life-altering news reveals much about her character. Mary was clothed in humility and meekness.

Humility as simply defined in the dictionary is a modest or low view of one’s own importance.

But it is, in fact, an important core value of our faith. Although she saw herself enriched with greater graces than all other women, she never preferred herself to anyone. Instead she referred to herself as the lowly servant, the handmaid of the Lord. 

Apart from humility there’s one more important quality that Mary possessed which made her from ordinary to extraordinary and that was the quality of her trust and obedience in God. He very well knew that she would willingly serve God in one of the most important callings ever given to a human being. God knew that Mary was a woman of rare strength and obedience. Mary’s obedience is clearly unfolded by her words

“May it be done to me according to your word.” (verse 38). 

                                   

This obedience of Mary is the antidote for Eve’s disobedience. Recall in the story of Creation, specifically the part when the serpent, or the devil, tempted Eve by luring her to disobey God. The serpent told Eve that in so doing, she will be equal with God.  (Genesis 3:4-5) She forgot the advice of God not to eat the forbidden fruit. She lost her mind to the present pleasure. So original sin was born, born out of pride and disobedience of Eve. But Mary was just not selfish like Eve and she focused on the Will of God for her & declared

"I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said” (verse 38).

Mary’s soul magnified the Lord & rejoiced because Mary was to become the vessel that would bring the Savior to the world, because of whom salvation  could come to all mankind & that all would be saved.  Mary’s obedience became a blessing for humanity & reparation for the evil done by Eve.

Mary understood the magnitude of her decision to say yes when God chose her. But at the same time she was also taking a great risk because she knew that her  submission to God's plan would cost her & that this calling would demand great suffering as well. Just as there is pain in childbirth and motherhood, there would be much pain in the privilege of being the mother of the Messiah. Though she would one day be highly honored as the mother of the Savior but before that she would be disgraced as an unwed mother, Joseph would divorce her, or worse yet, he would even have her put to death by stoning.  Her beloved son would be rejected and would die a terrible death on the cross. Yet Mary did not doubt the angel’s message and willingly submitted herself to God's plan. She knew that the miracle in her womb would bring considerable risk to her but she was ready to face these difficulties with great courage. Friends such courage is deeply rooted in a relationship with God (Joshua 1:7, 9). It does not form overnight. Rather, it reflects a lifetime of building a relationship with God.

Conclusion:

Friends, Can we willingly accept God's plan? Can we even rejoice in God's plan, like Mary did, when we know that it will cost us dearly? 

Sometimes we may have a certain idea of how our lives are going to go. We think we will graduate, get married, start having kids or begin a career. We even have a time frame associated with all of these plans. We think we have the best plan for our lives, but life doesn’t always go the according to our plan. Sometimes God moves us in a direction we didn’t see coming. It is at these times that we need to know what our answer is going to be. Are we going to say yes to God or not.  

When God calls us as women, the reality is that answering the call involves personal sacrifice, misunderstanding, and even the ridicule of those who refuse to acknowledge our calling. We live in a culture much like Mary’s—a world that does not recognize our power, purpose, or potential, But God sees.  Let us honor Mary’s courageous choice, voice, and poise in suffering during this season. May she inspire all of us, to answer the call of God in our lives with the certainty that God listens and cares? 

         --------Glory Be To Almighty------

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Jesus And Samaritan Woman At The Well - John 4:4:26

 Jesus And Samaritan Woman At The Well 

Friends do you all know, which is the longest private conversation that Jesus had with anyone, yes this is the one taken from John's Gospel, Chapter 4:4-26 

4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a]) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” 

Jesus along with his disciples has left Judea and now he is going back to Galilee But he has to pass through Samaria. Now what is Samaria actually and why has he to pass through Samaria?

Samaria is the capital city of Northern Kingdom of Israel, that was conquered by Assyria in the 8th century B.C. The Assyrians brought many gentiles into Samaria, intermarried with them and began to worship their God, which lost their racial purity. They accepted only the first five books of the Bible, and their temple was on Mount Gerizim instead of on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. This caused a lot of tension and enmity between the Jews and Samaritans.   The Jews regarded the Samaritans as ignorant, cursed n outside of God’s favor, and they wouldn’t associate with Samaritans at all because they had abandoned Judaism & intermarried  idoltors.  Although   the shortest route from Jerusalem to Galilee was to travel through Samaria.  Majority Jewish people preferred travelling the longest route of 6 days as they wouldn’t walk on cursed ground & associate with cursed people. The Samaritans however were still very part of God’s plans and so he passes through Samaria. He comes to  a city in Samaria called Sychar at 6th hour i.e. at 12 noon and being tired of a 20 miles walk he  is exhausted and so he sits on the edge of Jacob’s well. We see His humanity here.  The stage is set for this amazing encounter that is about to happen. John 4:7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her,

“Give Me a drink.”

There comes a Samaritan woman to draw water but at 12 noon, When the sun is at its peak. Why at midday? Because she is a socially outcast Adulterous woman  who is thirsty by many means & more importantly, her life doesn’t reflect God’s presence at all & to such a woman  Jesus says ,

 “Give Me a drink.”

Now Jesus’s request to this woman for a drink is unusual for 2 reasons. Because during those days  for a Rabbi to speak in public with a woman was just the end of his reputation. And second reason is that this woman was a Samaritan(the traditional enemy of the Jews). But Jesus by speaking to her crosses the man made bot social/ religious barriers that were made by Religious Jewish leaders who regarded the Samaritans as ignorant  and outside of God’s favor. Jesus was against all such non biblical traditions. He wanted to give a new attitude to these people. And so he asks her for a drink.

One more thing to note here is that ... 

Jesus the architect of universe, who was with god in the beginning , through whom all things   were made, who  himself  was  a  source of water looks at this unworthy, outcast, immoral Samaritan woman and asks her,

“Give Me a drink.”

Does he really need her water? In fact is she worthy to give him anything?  Then what is it that he asking her to give? We will definitely come to this point but at the end.

“Give Me a drink.”

The woman is clearly is surprised by His request for water, and that’s natural because from his clothing, she understands that he is a Jew & the Jews would never ask for favor from the Samaritans. And so she replies him that

“How is it that you, being a Jew, ask me for a drink?”  

After the woman’s disrespectful comment, He doesn’t say anything about this conflict between Jews and Samaritans. He ignores that completely.  Because he wants to speak with her on a very important topic and that is the gift of God.  He says her that “you really don’t know that God has a gift for you & here I stand before u to give u that gift, only thing u have to do is to Ask. If you ask me , I m ready to give you that living water.

 What is living water?

 Living water is a Jewish synonym for flowing water. But here Jesus gives the term “living Water” a much deeper meaning.  Living water is a new spiritual/eternal  life which comes from the holy spirit. But the woman isn’t on Jesus’ wavelength as yet...she’s still having an earthly conversation that misses Jesus’ point. She assumes He’s just talking about the ordinary moving water. And so  John 4:11 She says to Him, 

"Sir, You have nothing to draw with and this well is deep; so from where then are you going to get this  living water?

Jesus points to the water in her well and says that.

1.      Physical water only provides temporary satisfaction

2.      No matter how often u drinks of this water, sooner or later u will be thirsty again and u will have to come to this well daily to draw water.

3.      In other words he is trying to make her n us understand that we often run after the worldly pleasures like Money, Power, Fame, Drink, Sex to fulfill our deep desires.

4.      But in fact the more we run after these worldly pleasures, the more we get trapped in it & none of these is going to satisfy us.

 But when we come to him by faith and receive him as our savior, he deposits within us this Living Water. He further adds that when the spirit of God comes n resides in a person, it brings an entirely new dimension into heart, mind n life of that person and, it not only satisfies & quenches his innermost desire but it overflows through him and touches other people’s lives.           

That’s what is  the most beautiful thing  of being a Christian.  

Once more, the woman misses his point and she asks him to give her his “Living water” so that she won’t get thirsty again & will never have to come to this well.

1.      This woman is asking for Jesus to solve her earthly problem, not realizing Jesus is the solution to an eternal problem

2.      This woman is in the darkness, and she won’t enter into Jesus’ spiritual conversation because it would require stepping into the Light.

3.      And coming into that Light will expose her evil deeds

4.      This isn’t a conscious process, she needs to repent.

5.      And so in kindness, Jesus takes the first step to provoke repentance.

He says her “Go, call your husband”, in saying so his purpose is to awaken her consciousness of her sin. So by raising the question of a husband, Jesus opens the door on her evil deeds. She replies she has no husband on which Jesus says, “yes you are right for you had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband;  & this you have said honestly.”

She is shocked now by Jesus’s knowledge of her past  and she realizes  that this man is definitely a prophet because he can’t know this unless  God  is telling him. Her conscious is pained, her soul is pierced.  She realizes now that she should repent by worshiping  god  & make her life right but she is unable to decide as to which temple shall she go to offer a sacrifice for her sins & obtain forgiveness. Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem.

Jesus replies her that true worship doesn’t demand a place, alter, candle, incense or sacrificial offering. But It’s all about honoring, serving, obeying & loving God from the heart n in full truth.  Since she just cannot understand the spiritual things which Jesus is telling she replies him that she believes in the coming Messiah who would reveal all things to her? What does Jesus do now as she is waiting for the Messiah to come? What would happen in Old Testament with such woman do you all know ? To know this lets see Numbers 5:16-18 

 Do you know that In Old Testament, if a woman was accused of committing adultery, she was brought to the Tabernacle & she would stand before the high priest? He would then take some holy water, kneel down, pick some dust from the tabernacle floor & sprinkle it in holy water. He would then force her to drink this bitter cup of curse. And as she drank of this cup of curse, if she was guilty of adultery she would become infertile/barren unable to produce child in her life but if she was innocent, she would escape from it.

Well that was the old covenant….

We see the same picture here, this adulterous woman is at Jacob’s well. Jesus is the high priest.  He    would have taken the water, made it bitter & forced the curse to her mouth. But here we see that he doesn’t curse her but when he is saying her in Verse 7

 “Give Me a drink.” 

He is actually asking her to give him her shame, sin, curse, punishment & bitter life so that in exchange he would give her a new eternal life.   She now recognizes him as the Messiah & accepts him; he gives her the gift of Living Water. She immediately leaves her water jar and heads toward the village to give witness to this great revelation. And Because of her testimony, many Samaritans believed in Jesus.

Conclusion :

Friends Jesus is telling us today that we are a mess too. Not like her, exactly, but like her in many ways.  He is telling all of us to pour all our sins upon him so that in exchange he would give us a new life which will not only flow through us but will also touch the lives of the people we meet. This is unmerited, undeserved & unearned favor which we cannot get from anybody else but from Jesus.

And this is what makes Christianity so different.   

                      --------Glory To Almighty-------------

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