A Mother's days

To St Anne's this morning for our Mothering Sunday family service, in the centenary year of the revival of Mothering Sunday in the Church of England.

Mothering Sunday is one of those days that tests the preacher. It comes round every year and there's probably not much to be said that hasn't already been said, especially given the relatively slender nature of biblical material on the subject (the same problem arises with Christmas).

There are three ways you can go with Mother's Day: (1) a talk on motherhood and family life; (2) a general gospel talk addressed to the whole family; or (3) a talk on one of the mothers of Scripture.

All three options are good. This year I chose option three with a talk on Mary, the mother of Jesus, entitled 'Mother's Days.'

The talk looked at four days in Mary's life, days that she would never forget: the day she saw the angel; the day her son was born; the day she stood at the foot of the cross; and the day she witnessed the ascension.

Earlier in the service I got people to complete the sentence 'what I love about my mum is...' There were some great answers including 'she gave birth to me.'

A number of other people said: 'she's always there for me' and that brings us back to Mary - she was there at those critical moments in Jesus life, and most poignantly of all at the cross, when most of the disciples had run away, his mother was there for him and he recognised that as he spoke to her and provided for her in his dying moments.

And the suffering she witnessed there was like a sword piercing her soul, just as Simeon had warned, days  after Mary's child had been born.

But Mary saw her son again walking the face of the earth - alive! Then she saw him ascend to heaven, and Luke tells us she was a member of the prayer meeting that took place immediately afterwards (Acts 1.14).

She was, in short, a Christian believer, a founder member of the early church. She was a believing mother and she is an encouragement and example to believing mothers everywhere.