The sermon text is printed below the sermon audio…

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s, Goldsboro NC; Sunday May 9 2021
The Reverend Alan Neale; “Mother O’ Mine”

In late May 1988, the Neale family (Alan, Wendy, three children and a dog) arrived in South Dakota – all present and correct to enable me to begin ministry in the US as Rector St. Paul’s, Brookings, SD.

The church and wider community kindly and generously welcomed this English family with its strange accents, phrases and practices.

But the church was not prepared for Lent 1989; in the March monthly newsletter I noted that Mother’s Day would be celebrated in March. Not only were they puzzled that I had chosen to bring this celebration forward by two months, but the puzzlement only deepened when I also described the day as “Mothering Sunday”.

After many telephone calls, this was all put right and Mother’s Day returned to its May celebration.

You see, traditionally, Mother’s Day was celebrated in the Anglican church in accord with the appointed readings for the day; a reading from Galatians that spoke of two mothers – Sarah and Hagar. And the focus was not only on individual mothers but also on Mother Church; the focus was on a vocation shared by all Christians (married or single, with or without children, male or female) to exercise “motherly care” for all people in a needy and often loveless world.

Pastorally I found this emphasis upon Mother Church, upon the ministry of “mothering” as a healing salve, a curative balm for those who found Mother’s Day emotionally painful, if not traumatic.

There are many for whom this day is not all joy and lightness. There is the pain of remembering a mother who died too soon, or of a mother who could not love; and there is the pain of remembering a longing for children that was never fulfilled.

This is not to put a damper on, to cast gloom on a day that for many is a day of celebration, gratitude and joy; it is simply to acknowledge the pain that is borne, the angst created for some on this day.

Today we stand with, we rejoice with those whose experience of motherhood is established in the love of God. This powerful energy of love observed between the Father and the Son; this powerful energy of love in which we abide and are established; this powerful energy of love that enables us to live productively, creatively, joyfully.

This authentic love, described by John in today’s Gospel (John 15), is there for us to receive, to experience, to share and so we become active partners as we reveal, expose to the world, “mothering love and tenderness” at its best.

But today’s Gospel speaks to me not only of Mother’s Day and Mothering Sunday, but also of my ministry as an ordained minister.

Over four decades ago, I was ordained in the great and impressive Exeter Cathedral; what remains alive and clear in my memory is the Scripture verse that I received from God for ordained ministry. And forty years on that verse has kept me strong, kept me hopeful, kept me “ready to serve”.

The verse? John 15:16 “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit… the kind of fruit that abides forever”. From the Message Translation “16 “You did not choose me, remember; I chose you, and put you in the world to bear fruit, fruit that won’t spoil. As fruit bearers, whatever you ask the Father in relation to me, he gives you. 17 “But remember the root command: Love one another.”

When assailed by doubt, when weary of service, when the spiritual tank is showing almost empty… then that verse has come with grace to give me confidence, to renew strength and to be filled anew with the Spirit’s power.

You did not choose me, but I chose you… we were loved, before ever we loved; we were elect, before ever we made our vote.

And I appointed you… or better, I nominated and empowered you. There is no task to which we are called but that the Lord has first equipped us to fulfil it.

And… I appointed you to go and bear fruit, of an eternal quality. There is so much that we can do that has unknown and unqualified eternal significance; words of grace and comfort, works of love and sacrifice.

Let me say again, “When assailed by doubt, when weary of service, when the spiritual tank is showing almost empty… then that verse has come with grace to give me confidence, to renew strength and to be filled anew with the Spirit’s power.”

Where are you right now on your spiritual journey? Upbeat and eager, or weary and distressed? Confident and empowered, or insecure, self-doubting and frail?

I conclude with a poem written by Rudyard Kipling in 1892, composed for his book “The Light that failed”…

If I were hanged on the highest hill,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
I know whose love would follow me still,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
If I were drowned in the deepest sea,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
I know whose tears would come down to me,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
If I were damned of body and soul,
I know whose prayers would make me whole,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
Such maternal love, whether expressed by individual or community, such love is facilitated by such a verse as John 15:16… You did not choose me, but I chose you; and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, the kind that lasts forever. AMEN.