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"MOTHERHOOD AND APPLE PIE - AND GOD"
GOSPEL SCRIPTURE TEXT: LUKE 8:19-21

A SERMON BY PASTOR DAVE RING
LOS ALAMOS FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
SUNDAY MORNING,
MAY 13, 2007 - MOTHER'S DAY

SCRIPTURE TEXT: 19Now Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd. 20Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you." 21He replied, "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice."

MESSAGE: Today marks the 94th official national observance of Mother's Day, the holiday having been established by Congress and then-President Woodrow Wilson in 1914. Their selection of the second Sunday in May was deliberately designed to coincide with a much older tradition of the Christian faith. Today, in the Church of Jesus Christ, is termed the "Festival of the Christian Home."

Nearly all of us enjoy an affirmation of the family when we come to church. Many churches, ours included, gear their activities around the family structure, with "bring the whole family" potluck lunches, Christian parenting Sunday School classes, annual family campouts, and a multitude of other programs and emphases that, directly or indirectly, say, "Families are important." Frankly, it's tough to be solo - single - in the church in contemporary America.

Personally, I'm 99% behind exalting the family in the Church of Jesus Christ. And I'm certainly not above employing a sermon illustration about an ever-praying, Bible reading mother whose faith leads her entire family to Christ - because I know that such examples are a sure-fire way of touching even the hardest human heart, single or married, old or young.

As I read the scriptures, I find a clear affirmation of family life throughout the Bible. The family is a basic, vital portion of God's master plan for good in human life. From God's giving of the first woman to the first man in Genesis, on to God's rainbow covenant with Noah and his family, through "Honor thy father and thy mother" in the commandments, on to God's promises to Abraham and his family and beyond, the Old Testament clearly and unquestionably exalts the family as one of God's highest creations.

Likewise in the New Testament there are similar affirmations of family and family-related matters. Jesus' model of obedience to His parents while a child, His teachings -- and those of Paul -- on the sanctity of marriage, Jesus' rebuke of the Pharisees for their failure to carry out lawful family obligations - all of these are solid evidence that Jesus affirmed and uplifted the basic value of the human family. Specifically on the subject of motherhood, His provision for the future care of His mother by the disciple John, accomplished despite the agony of his final hours in pain on the cross, is clear evidence of both our Lord's great love for His earthly mother and His high regard for motherhood in general.

However, and now I'm going to "let the other shoe drop," it is also equally clear, again throughout the Bible, that concern with the human family is not the highest, greatest, most all-encompassing pursuit of humankind, at least not as God created us. Motherhood and apple pie may be the two most universally acclaimed subjects in secular American culture, but they aren't in first place, not by a long shot, in the Holy Bible. It may surprise some of you to hear this, but concern for doing the will of God stands far and away above any other human concern. "Honor thy father and thy mother" is an important commandment, but it's only number five among the big ten. The first and greatest commandment, both in the Old Testament and in the teachings of Jesus, is to love God - and to serve Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

The way God intended human life to be, there shouldn't be a problem with loving and serving God - and loving our families. There should not be any basic conflict between honoring and obeying the will of God - and honoring and being loyal to our families. The family was instituted by God as the greatest resource for training and growth in Godliness upon all earth. The Scriptures tell us to "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." "These words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children," says the Lord. Motherhood, fatherhood - the human family is God's intended laboratory for Christian nurture. Nothing so closely approximates God's love for us as the love of a mother for her child, or the love of a husband for his wife. By loving example, family members are supposed to help one another see that love for, and obedience to, God should be uppermost - the very highest priority - for every family member.

In today's world, though, the institution of the family has become detached from its original moorings. Faced with challenges to its integrity from without and within, the contemporary American family has forgotten the basic reason for its existence. Paradoxically, to shore itself up, the present-day American home, even among many who call themselves Christians, has cut itself loose from God. The family - and its preservation - has become an end in itself.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard "family matters" used as an excuse for neglecting Godly obligations. "Sorry, preacher, but we don't go to church much anymore because Sunday is the only day our family can be together." "I can't help out with that mission project next week because our oldest daughter and her family will be visiting, and we want to spend every possible minute with them." I even know, in this church, of parents who routinely punish their teenage children by refusing to allow them to come to Methodist Youth Fellowship.

As a preacher of the Holy Word of God it's my duty to inform you, no matter how uncomfortable you may find it to hear, that the family has become an idol for many of you. It's a twisted, spoiled caricature of the good institution that God created and ordained. And whenever we humans twist God's purposes, whenever we engage in idolatry -- no matter how appealing, we pay a high price. The more we let our families usurp the proper place of God in our lives, the more family problems we have. The more desperately we try to preserve our marriages by shutting out all competing influences, including God, the higher the divorce rate skyrockets.

Families are very, very important to human life - that's true and right. But until we realize that our families are less important than God, neither our family lives nor any other aspect of our lives will function properly. When God is at the center of a human life, everything else revolves harmoniously about Him. When something else - no matter how wonderful - takes God's proper place, there's bound to be trouble.

With the foregoing as background, today's Scripture text becomes much easier to understand, and to accept as Godly truth. Jesus, busily occupied with teaching the Word of God, could not allow Himself to be diverted - not even by a visit from His family. The things of God rightly took precedence over even the concerns of His mother and brothers. That may not be the way you or I normally react, but that is the proper ordering of life's priorities, according to the Son of God.

Today we're celebrating the blessings of motherhood and of the human family. These are indeed great gifts. And they become even greater when viewed in perspective of their source - Almighty God, the first and greatest of all human concerns. Amen.

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