Mothering Sunday

Mothering Sunday in United Kingdom, 22nd. March 2009

(Talk for Family Service in the Brecon Pesbyterian Church)

What do most people call this day? Mothers’ Day. But it’s not really Mothers’ Day, is it? Mothers’ Day is an American celebration which occurs on the second Sunday in May – it was started in 1914 by Anna Jarvis. What we have in Britain on this Sunday should really be called Mothering Sunday. This tradition goes back much further than Mothers’ Day. hundreds of years ago the fourth Sunday in Lent was called Refreshment Sunday. People used to fast for Lent, but half-way though they were allowed to have a little break. On this Sunday they could refresh themselves with a little bit of cake or something else they would not otherwise be allowed to have. (For the rest of Lent they would have no meat, no eggs, no rich foods at all – nothing but coarse bread and vegetables and pease pudding.)

Now it so happened that one of the readings for this Sunday in the Prayer Book referred to the Church as the Mother of us all.

“ But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.” (Galatians 4:26)

It became the custom on this Sunday for people to gather for worship in the “mother church” in their area – usually the nearest cathedral or large church. On this Sunday also, young apprentices and serving maids would come back home to visit their families. Often they were as young as ten or eleven and they had had to leave home to find work – they didn’t go to school. But they were allowed to visit Mum on Mothering Sunday. The girls would usually bring home with then a special cake, known as a Simnel cake, made with marzipan icing.

A Simnel Cake

The custom was called “going a-mothering” and the poet Robert Herrick wrote about it in 1648:

“I’ll to thee a Simnell bring, ‘gainst thou go’st a mothering. So that, when she blesseth thee, half that blessing thou’lt give to me.”

And so the tradition of Mothering Sunday grew up. And after the Americans invented Mothers’ Day it was decided to keep Mothering Sunday in this country as our equivalent to that.

 

Say “Thank you”

It’s a great Sunday, set aside to say “Thank you” to God for our mothers and for our fathers, and for all those who loved us and cared for us when we were young. Parents have a difficult task (although you younger ones might think it’s the children who have a hard time!) but parents had all the work of caring for us when we were babies as well as all the worry and care of bringing us through school years. And the worry and care doesn’t stop when we grow up and leave home. Mothers and fathers still care for us.

Yes, mothers deserve thanks for what they do, and so do fathers and grandparents, and step-parents and foster-parents and aunts and uncles. All who care for us when we are young. Today we give thanks for all these and we thank God for his love which inspires them.

 

 The dimensions of God’s love

We’ve just sung “How deep the Father’s love for us”. I wonder just how deep God’s love is. Is it possible to plumb the depths?

 

OBJECT (1) TAPE MEASURE

If you want to measure the depth, or the height, or the length, or breadth of something you can use a tape measure. But is there any tape that can measure the dimensions of God’s love? The Bible tells us that God’s love is higher than the the heavens (Psalm 108: 4).

So I don’t think we can measure it with a tape measure!

 

OBJECT (2) MEASURING CUP

Or, if you were making a cake, perhaps a simnel cake, you might measure out the ingredients using a measuring cup or a measuring jug. But the Bible says, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want … my cup runs over (Psalm 23)

So you can’t measure God’s love – it overflows the cup.

 

OBJECT (3) CLOCK

What about time then? How long does it last? I can measure the length of this service using the clock – don’t worry, we’re not going to go over the hour! Well, how long does God’s love last for?

“The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting”. (Psalm 103:17)

Wow – it goes on for ever! You can’t measure it. You can’t measure the dimensions of God’s love but you can wonder at them. And you can trust him As we sometimes sing:

So high you can’t get over it.

So low you can’t get under it,

So wide you can’t get round it.

Oh wonderful love!

 

Our God is so wonderful: we can trust him. We all need his help. Mothers need his help and children need his help. Young people and old all need his help. We all need God in our lives.

 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3: 16)

How can you measure a love like that? Paul prayed for the church in Ephesis that they would know how wide, how long, how high and how deep God’s love really is. “May you experience it, though it is so great you will never fully understand it”. (Ephesians 3:18-19)

[ Idea for second part of talk from http://www.sermons4kids.com ]