Sermon Date: 2009/5/10

DATE: 2009/5/10
SCRIPTURE READING: John 19: 25-27
SERMON: Behold Thy Mother
講道題目: 看！你的母親
John 19:26-27 recorded one of the seven words of Jesus from the Cross. At the moment of his greatest agony, Jesus looked down and saw the sorrowful face of his mother. He was on the mission to bear the pain of the world. But he still could not look lightly on the responsibility of being a son to his mother. He knew he can not provide for his mother any more. The only thing he can do is to entrust his mom to the care of John his beloved disciple. He said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
Today is Mother’s Day. It is the day to remember the love of our mother. Taking Jesus example we should look at our mother with a grateful heart and look at our children with a sense of mission and service.
While the white carnation has been taken as the symbol of motherhood, the cross is also a mother’s emblem. The carnation may express her purity and beauty, but the cross speaks her unselfish love. If we look at motherhood from the standpoint of the cross we discover the nearest natural expression of its thought. The secret of the cross is Divine Love; the secret of mothers care and self-denial is Love. As mother is the center of the home, so Christ is the center of the Church.
Today’s text suggests two wonderful themes: The Cross from the standpoint of a mother, and, Motherhood from the standpoint of the cross. The mother of Jesus standing before the cross saw more than a tragedy, she saw what love would do. She beheld a reflection of her own mother-love. And Jesus looking down upon his own mother, heart-broken at his suffering, beheld more than a weeping woman. He saw an imperishable type of Divine love.
Let us look at two of the parallels of the Cross and Motherhood.
I. First parallel: “Mother” suggests personal righteousness. One of the sayings of the old Jewish rabbis was: “God could not be everywhere, and therefore he made mothers.” I think their thought was that God was omnipresent in mothers. Even where God is unknown, and theology little understood, the voice of the Creator is speaking through mother-love. The relation of motherhood antedates that of the atonement and asserted itself in the very midst of the catastrophe of the crucifixion. “Behold thy mother” were almost the last words of the Son of God. A boy knows motherhood before he has a thought of Deity. In the thought of childhood, next to the omniscient God, should be the almost omniscient mother. One is meant to lead up to the other. “A little lower than the angels” is a good starting point for a child’s conception of his mother’s personality. Every true mother wants her child to be good. Mothers see evils that fathers sometimes overlook. She has an instinct for moral dangers. Her influence for righteousness is stronger than all the laws, all the education, and all the preachers. Of course, there are the wicked mothers, like Jezebel of old. There are the unnatural mothers, who sell their children into sin, there are the harlots, the depraved, the drunken; but these are the perversions that shame the name of motherhood. The number of women without the true mother-instinct is small. Even sinful women have numberless influences for good. It is this innate sense of right and wrong that makes women most susceptible to the preaching of righteousness. There are more women like the godly Hannah who lent her son Samuel to the Lord from his birth. The Christian mother leads all other forces in power for personal righteousness. “All that I am or hope to be,” said Lincoln, “I owe to my angel mother.”
II. Second parallel: “Mother” suggests Christian service. The unselfish devotion of motherhood to children is the truest illustration of the Christian ideal of service. Women of to-day feminist advocates tell of what they would do in the great world. But no achievement is greater than the simple, inconspicuous ministries of motherhood. How bravely mothers have borne the heavy burdens laid upon them! How courageously they have met every deprivation and pain! They are the types of Christian ministers and martyrs. To think of mother is to recall her unselfish devotion, her limitless, unfaltering love through good and evil report, never wavering, but growing stronger and stronger with the years; and to remember that she asks nothing in return for herself; she asks of us and for us that we be good citizens of the society. If we fail she does not love us less, but more. Wonderful, constant, miraculous mother’s love! It is up to us whether we make the life of our mothers worth while. She lives in vain if after pouring out her love and life to make us achieve, we grovel in the mire of sloth and sin. Let us honor her, both by kindness toward her and by deeds done in her name.
Conclusion: Jesus wants John to behold his mother. In actual fact Mary is not John’s mother. Jesus also wants his mother to behold her son. In actual fact John is not her son. But under the cross, human relationship is readjusted. That’s why in Christ we love not only our mother but other’s mothers too. We love not only our own children but other’s children also. That’s why Jesus said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.” (Mark 3:34-35)

Amen
Synopsis
Hanging on the Cross the only thing Jesus can do is to entrust his mom to the care of John his beloved disciple. He said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” While the white carnation has been taken as the symbol of mother’s love, the cross is also a mother’s emblem.
I. First parallel: “Mother” suggests personal righteousness.
II. Second parallel: “Mother” suggests Christian service.
Conclusion: Jesus wants John to behold his mother. In actual fact Mary is not John’s mother. Jesus also wants his mother to behold her son. In actual fact John is not her son. But under the cross, human relationship is readjusted. That’s why in Christ we love not only our mother but other’s mothers too. We love not only our own children but other’s children also.
讲道大纲
在十字架上耶稣只有把他的母亲托付他亲爱的门徒约翰。他对母亲说："母亲，看你的儿子。"又对那门徒说："看你的母亲。" 白色的康乃謦可以代表母亲节，十字架也可以代表母亲。
甲． 因为母亲代表了人应怎样行公义。
乙． 因为母亲代表了基督徒应怎样服侍别人。
在十字架下，人的关系是重新调整了。所以在主里，老吾老，以及人之老；幼吾幼，以及人之幼。耶稣说："看哪，我的母亲，我的弟兄。凡遵行神旨意的人，就是我的弟兄姐妹和母亲了。"
Pastoral Prayer:
Father God, on this Mother’s Day Sunday we pray for the home and Christian family. O Lord, you set the solidarity in families, we lift before you the dear and sacred interests of our homes. Make our families radiant centers of joy and schools of character. Grant unto those who wed true love and loyalty; grant unto parents, for their children’s sake, the persuasiveness of good and faithful lives; grant unto youth the gladness that has no bitter fruit and integrity that need not be ashamed. We rejoice in memories of the dear and holy dead who live unto you in your house of many mansions; by their love, cherished in our hearts, may your love grow more real, and by their death may heaven become more homelike to our imagining. Make their remembered presence a hallowed shrine for our thought and their unfailing love a sacrament where we hold dear with you. O God, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, save us from betrayal of the great love wherewith our homefolk have loved us. For the nation’s sake, whose foundations are in the family, we pray for the homes of our people. From marriage vows lightly planned, carelessly plighted, and trivially broken, deliver us Lord. O Christ, you have called God Father and all men brethren, give us your spirit of goodwill and fidelity that we may build homes with the shadow of the Almighty for their covering defense; within their shelter may tranquility abide and joy abound; may Christian faith and fruitful character find there congenial soil; may the world’s vulgarity and selfishness cease at their peaceful door; and from them may the zeal of youth and the strength of maturity go forth to make at last the whole earth a home and all mankind one family.
We pray for the health and well beings of our parishioners. Lord keep us free from contracting disease especially during this time of swine flu epidemic widespread. We pray for people who are traveling and will be traveling. We thank you for Winson and Mary who are flying out of town this weekend to join with their children and enjoy the holidays. We thank you for Sun Jia Fu and Lin Li Ru who will be flying to California next week to live with their daughter and look after the grand children.
Almighty God, you have given us this good land as our heritage. Help us always to remember your generosity and constantly do your will. Bless our land with honest industry, sound learning, and an honorable way of life. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties and give those whom we have entrusted with the authority of government the spirit of wisdom, that there might be justice and peace in our land. When times are prosperous , let our hearts be thankful; in troubled times, do not let our trust in you fail.
Now teach us to pray like the way you taught your disciples…
Amen.