I realize all of us have an assortment of memories, some good, some bad, some joyful, and others sad.
But what is your best and most treasured memory of mom, or the person who most exemplified a mother figure for you?
And be wise about this, because if she is sitting next to you a good poke in the ribs might be ahead, depending on how fresh you are!
I certainly have lots of memories of my mom.
One of the craziest is her weaving baskets in the swimming pool. She was struggling to be bent over with the basket reeds in a bucket because her back was so painful, so she just took all of it in the pool and made the baskets standing up, semi weightless with the reeds floating all around her.
I remember her making 7up salad with a mound of cream cheese frosting on top. And she made the most tasty potato salad.
I remember her going back to work when I was in sixth grade. I was 12, Sue was 10, Nancy was just 3 or 4. It was a big deal, scary, and also changed the family finances dramatically, and positively.
I remember her walking us to the grocery store 8 blocks away, getting groceries, and then leaving them in the basket for my father to pick up on his way home from work because there was only one car.
And I remember her taking us on the city bus downtown in Buffalo to a specialist, because my sister Sue had amblyopia, what was commonly known as a lazy eye, so that she could get treatment.
And I remember the first time I found a picture of her in a two-piece bathing suit on the beach in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada, just over the Peace Bridge from where she grew up on the Westside of Buffalo.
She looked pretty amazing, a very disconcerting feeling, a reminder that my mom was not always a mom.
And I remember her profound lostness when my father died when he was just 57 years old.
For many of us, what we treasure most is how mom loved us, cared for us, even sacrificed for us, in spite of what were often crazy circumstances! She treated us with love and respect even when we were as my Grandmother used to call us, “little tartars”!
She saw herself as the person, especially when my dad was off at work all day, as the primary provider of a blessed childhood, and did all she could to teach us to respect her and each other. She gave it her all!
She, it seems to me, both believed and practiced what Jesus says right here in Matthew 7:7-12, “Treat others as you would want them to treat you.”
Of course, Jesus goes even a step further!
He doesn’t just suggest this as an optional activity to his disciples, followers, the Pharisees and the Scribes who are gathered around him during this teaching called the Sermon on the Mount.
No, he says, “This is what the Law and the Prophets are all about!”
Now this may seem to you to be all warm and fuzzy, just like mom! Or it might seem like a strategy for getting people to like you and work with you.
But that is not what Jesus is saying here. He is making clear that if you want to be a God person, then you are obligated to treat others as you would want them to treat you, as in “you shall”!
In the Presbyterian Church we have a book called the Book of Order that describes how Presbyterian Churches are to function, and every once in a while, it says, “you shall”. And our Stated Clerk of the Presbytery reminds us that the word “shall” mean “must”!
As in, “you shall treat others as you want them to treat you”! not optional, commanded.
Jesus elsewhere in response to a question about the law, reminds us that we are to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. And in the Lord’s prayer he reminds us to pray that God forgive our debts, sins and transgressions in the same way as we forgive those of others.
Being kind is not an option for the followers of Jesus! Being caring is not an option for Christians! Being forgiving is not an option for those who would take up a cross and follow him. We must!
And when we do, we fulfill the Law and the Prophets Jesus says!
We are giving of ourselves just as mom do everyday. And even more importantly, just as God does and did in the sending of his son on our behalf.
God gave boldly! Just like we are too! Just like mom’s do!
It is sacrificial. It is giving of the highest order. It is not for the faint-hearted. It is only something we can do scared. But when we do…wow!
Giving up your life for others is the greatest of sacrifices.
We’ve been reminded of it recently, not only in the Easter story, but in the story of some young people who rushed gunmen, at a synagogue in California and a school in Colorado, stopping attacks that could have destroyed many more lives.
That kind of bold giving, taking up a cross and following him, is exactly what we are called to do.
Would any of you give your hungry child a stone, if the child asked for some bread? Would you give your child a snake if the child asked for a fish?
Then be prepared to give in the same way God does.
And moms, thanks not only for housing us little aliens inside your amazing bodies for nine plus months, but thanks for giving us yourselves!
Amen.
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