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Sentiment Isn't the Only Emotion on Mothers' Day

Mothers’ Day is coming up this Sunday. It’s a time to express love and appreciation to our mothers, which of course we should do often, not just on this particular day. Mothers’ Day evokes an outpouring of sentiment for our mothers, expressed through cards, flowers, a nice meal out, and a phone call if you and your mother are separated by distance. Traditionally, the church has planned the worship service around the Mothers’ Day theme, including the sermon.

Mother’s Day sermons seem to fall into three categories. The first category is in celebration of mothers. You know, mothers are awesome! Look at Mary. Look at the virtuous woman as described in Proverbs 31. The second category instructs mothers on how to be better mothers. "Be like Mary or Hannah (the mother of Samuel) or be like Daniel’s mother or Moses’ mother...now here is how to be awesome as a mother." The third category of sermon we sometimes hear on Mother's Day is one that has nothing to do with mothers. The pastor publicly honors the mothers—make that all the women in the congregation—and then preaches on whatever he would have preached on if it were not Mother's Day.

Whatever sermon I preach will fall into one of the aforementioned categories, and all of them have a downside. If I preach on the subject of celebrating motherhood, some women are bound to feel discouraged. Not every woman is a mother. And even though most of us guys and kids are ready to say our wives and mothers are Proverbs 31 women, there are plenty of women who feel like they don’t quite live up to that impossible standard. So they come away hearing a sermon celebrating motherhood feeling discouraged rather than encouraged. Then of course there is the dangerous practice of preaching a sermon to mothers on how to be better mothers, which is the downside of the second category of sermons. There are some things I feel qualified to instruct others on, but how to be a better mother is not one of them. So that leaves the third category—ignore the occasion of Mother’s Day altogether. Sure, I can avoid the pitfalls of the first two categories, but I run the severe risk of alienating just about every woman and probably more than a few men. And besides, we’re in middle of a series on the book of Romans which doesn’t seem to lend itself to a celebration of motherhood. So what message should I deliver from the pulpit this Sunday? I want to satisfy every obligation I feel. I want to say something that will be of encouragement to mothers and be relevant to all. And I want do this from the book of Romans.

Mothers’ Day is emotional. But sentiment is not the only emotion associated with Mothers’ Day. Guilt, condemnation and even mourning are also associated with this particular day. Some women don’t feel like they measure up to the Proverbs 31 woman, so they feel condemned. Some women are not able to have children, so Mothers’ Day for them is not a day of celebration. It’s a day of mourning. Other women never married, so Mothers’ Day makes them feel awkward.

So I’m preparing a message from the book of Romans that will speak to our joy as well as to our pain…to our sense of celebration as well as to our feelings of condemnation. For Mothers’ Day I plan to deliver a message that we all need—a message from Scripture that is both encouraging and relevant.