Go Ask Your Mother

Go Ask Your Mother

Luke 19:41-42

Matthew 23:37


As a boy, I was always getting into something. I know, you're shocked.  I would often go to my dad and run things by him or ask for permission to go somewhere or try something.  He was great at that.  He had good advice.  And usually, that advice was... "Go ask your mother."

I see the dads and moms out there nodding their heads.  And I've known many a mom to send a kid to dad for a no or a reason or backup.  It was that REASON that dad was sending me to mom for.  Mom knew the schedule, my friends (who was most likely to get me in trouble)... she knew what was best for me and my sister... and she loved me and my sister enough to tell us no, set boundaries, to make rules, and to teach us right and wrong.  And probably, most importantly, as it is for most of you moms and dads, teachers, and mentors... she longed to instill a love for each other.  Yes, she wanted me and my sister to love and to love her. But she wanted us to love each other.

It's abundantly clear when we read the end of Matthew what God wants from us.  Jesus tells us the only difference between the sheep and the goats on judgment day is who fed, and clothed, and housed, and visited, and loved the least of these.  That's it!  Did we love one another as he loved us?  Jesus came from the Father to show us HOW to be brothers and sisters.  God loves us as a father.  God loves us a mother.

If you doubt for a moment that relationship, that depth of love, you needn't look far in scripture to find it.  I had the opportunity a couple of years ago to visit the Holy Land.  And standing on the hill where it is believed that Jesus looked down on Jerusalem before Holy Week, I read the familiar words in a little chapel built there in the shape of a tear drop.  That passage says that Jesus wept over the city and their treatment of prophets and failures to make peace with one another.  He said he longed to gather them as a mother hen gathers her brood.  A mosaic of that hen and brood adorn the table in that little chapel.  God loves us like that.

When Job flees his God-given call to shepherd Nineveh back to the fold, and then finally gives in begrudgingly, he tells God he shirked this task because he knew our God is "compassionate."  A word that in the Hebrew is a compound word for WOMB LOVE.  God loves us as a mother who carries a child in the WOMB and cares for her and raises her.  God loves us like THAT.

And God wants us to love each other... LIKE THAT.

On this Mother's Day, perhaps we can reflect on the God who is to us as our fathers and our MOTHERS are to us, how we have been loved.  For many of us, our mothers and fathers have similar, but different expectations and hopes and dreams for us.  We make them proud in different ways.  Maybe as a child, you made dad proud doing well at sports and scouts and being a good little entrepreneur.  Maybe mom was most proud when you made friends and sent thank you cards and showed care for your elders.  Have I been a good big brother?  Have I taken care of and cultivated my relationship there?  Does she know I love her?  We age and these measures change.  Is dad proud of our career and job and financial independence?  Is mom proud of the family we've found and the family we've stayed in touch with?  Have you called your sister?  Have you written to her? 

And as I think about my God, my creator, sustainer, and redeemer, do I measure myself by the pride of a father or mother or both?  I find myself thinking about my call and career, my reputation and my home, and decisions.  It is then I have to challenge myself and think about that advice of my father years ago... Go ask your mother.  And if God loves us our mothers do, then have I made God proud?

Have I loved my brothers and sisters?  Have I Been a good brother?  Do my brothers and sisters KNOW I love them?  Have I seen them?  Have I been there for them?  Would they see me as their brother?  Go ask your mother.

I found this clip to be powerful.  Are your brothers or sisters invisible to you?  The world, at its best will challenge you... that homeless person you pass COULD BE YOUR BROTHER OR SISTER.  Jesus says, "that homeless person... IS... YOUR BROTHER OR SISTER."

My challenge to you today, for this week:  SEE everyone.  See your coworker, your client, your problem customer, your deliveryman, your mail woman, your cashier, the obnoxious driver in traffic, that homeless person next to you on the street, that person you haven't met next to you in church today... SEE them... Open your eyes and SEE them as your brother, as your sister.  Love them, hug them, find a way to show it.  Because God loves us LIKE THAT.  Start here today in this place.  Do - not - leave this place not having met a brother or sister you didn't know before you walked in here today.  If you don't do it here, you won't out there.  Linger after this service.  Don't let me catching you headed for the door.  Head for a person before you leave.  And when you do leave... go find your brothers and sisters.  And next week, when you have stories to share with me.  Ask me how you did.  And I'll tell you... go ask _____.  Amen.

Special thanks to Mindy, my pastor friend who first posted this on FB & to my congregation who responded to this video and sermon tremendously with love to really make the effort this week to see new people in their midst.