LOVE ON MOTHERS DAY

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE ON MAY 14, 2006

John 14:21 "Those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and manifest myself to them."

Some of you will realize in this text that I changed the word 'He' to 'Those” - because I thought He in a sermon on Mothers Day seemed a bit odd.

Happy Mothers Day to all the mothers, and grandmothers, and adopted mothers, and aunts here today. Not all of us are mothers. But all of us have had a mother or still have one. And in some cases we are thinking about our departed mothers. May they know the joy and glory of the resurrection.

Mothers Day always falls in Eastertide. It seems appropriate in this season of rejoicing that we should give joy and thanks for our mothers. But it has its problems. The liturgy and its readings do not necessarily fit in with an observance of Mothers Day. For example look - at the first reading in Acts 8. The Ethiopian Eunuch is hardly an appropriate person to be thinking of on Mothers Day. Just as well it's not Father's Day!

But when we move to the Epistle we do find something appropriate. St. John in his first Epistle is talking of love. Not just sentimental and romantic love, or love in words, but as he says, loving in deeds and in truth. How true! Today is not just about words spoken, or written on a card, or a white carnation given. It is what is in our hearts. About showing our love 365 days of the year, not just on the second Sunday in May.

So St. John has a real message for us on this Mothers Day. But he goes further. He says our love for one another is a sign of our belief in Jesus and keeping his commandments. This brings to mind those words Our Lord said on Maundy Thursday: "A new commandment I give you”, he said to the apostles,”that you love one another as I have loved you." Thus our Lord gave us the commandment of love.

We can understand why St. John – having heard Jesus say those words on that most significant night - was keen to emphasize love as central to the life of the Christian. And what St. John said in his Epistle he expanded upon in the gospel (John 14).

Beginning with love, Jesus moves to his commandments, and then to the Holy Spirit. Here we see a three-fold unity: love leads to Jesus' commandments, which lead to an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I find the word 'counselor' an unfortunate word for the Holy Spirit, with its modern overtones of a social worker or therapist. God bless them all!

A better word is the older translation 'Advocate' - as in a court of law. The word 'Advocate' gives us a better understanding of the Spirit. He is one who pleads our cause. He defends us.

So what Jesus is saying is that our love for Jesus will be shown by the keeping of his commandments. And, as the Epistle says, they are not difficult: to believe in Him and to love one another. And if we do this we will receive the Holy Spirit, our Advocate.

Actually the word used to describe the Holy Spirit in the first English bible was 'Comforter', coming from Latin meaning 'to make strong'. I really like that word because it reminds us that the gift of the Holy Spirit is the gift of the Father and Jesus to strengthen us in our faith, and the daily living of our faith.

The word 'Comforter' is a good word for Mothers Day. Aren't our mothers the ones who give us comfort? As a child, when I hurt myself I would go straight to my mother for the bandage, and the loving words, and the arm around the shoulder. When my father reprimanded me, I went straight to my mother for some comfort. And it is not just when we do the wrong thing, it is in all the myriads of things when we need comforting that our mothers are the ones we go to. In the true sense of this word they give us strength.

The gospel passage is a very good parable for Mother's Day. For Jesus couples together love and obedience - love and the commandments. Aren't we obedient to mothers and always have been because of their unconditional love? When we think of mothers in the context of what Jesus teaches us we can only stand in awe of the mother of Jesus, Mary, who must have taught him these basis lessons when, as a boy, he went to her for comfort and strength.

Since love and obedience are associated with the coming of the Holy Spirit we need to remember that this passage from St. John 14 comes before John 20. In that chapter we read that on Easter Day in the evening the apostles were assembled in the upper room for fear, and Jesus appeared to them. He said "Peace be with you", and then he breathed on them and said "Receive the Holy Spirit."

We associate Jesus' words in John 14 with Pentecost and the outpouring of the Spirit on that great day 50 days after Easter. So St. John has an outpouring of the Spirit on Easter Day and there is the outpouring that we know so well 50 days later, on the Feast of Pentecost. On Easter Day the outpouring of the Spirit is for forgiveness of sins. Jesus said to the apostles: "Whose sins you forgive they are forgiven."

Thus we have 2 outpourings of the Holy Spirit: Easter Day for new life of the Resurrected Lord in forgiveness, and at Pentecost for the strengthening of the apostles for their mission and task in the world. This paradox means surely, that there is not one outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We know that form ourselves. Often we feel the power of the Holy Spirit when we pray, or when we are in a particular situation that requires some strength. Even in worship, don't we feel some power, some surge of the Spirit?

We know that the Holy Spirit is always being given out. It is repeated in the sacramental life of the Christian. At baptism we receive the Holy Spirit for the first time and this is both for the forgiveness of sins and also for receiving of the new life that the Risen Lord promised us.

Later, when we are old enough to understand, the sacrament of Confirmation is given to strengthen us as adult Christians - to reassure us of our life in Christ, and to commission us like the apostles were commissioned on the first Pentecost day. That is a time for experiencing the Comforter, the one who makes us strong.

What Jesus says today has wonderful lessons for as we think in the context of Mothers Day of his lessons of love. The fact that he will not leave us comfortless, but send to us the Holy Spirit.

Every time we come to the altar is a particular outpouring of the Holy Spirit. When you go through the Prayer Book you find a number of references to the Holy Spirit in the Eucharist and particularly the Eucharistic Prayer. The Spirit comes to us as we receive Holy Communion, because it is only through the Spirit that the bread and wine can be changed into the body and blood of Christ.

So now we come once again to know the power and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is only by the outpouring of the Spirit that we can keep Jesus' commandments of love, and so live in Him, and He in us.

And the Holy Spirit strengthens us daily in our love for Jesus and in our love for each other.