Motherhood and Missions

May 9, 2010

Today is Mother’s day and my sermon was about missions. You can read all my notes and listen to it at the botto of this or you can click here to open iTunes to subscribe and download to your iPod. Click the title to read the notes.

We started with prayer and reading a few sentences about what motherhood is and what it takes to be a mom.

We stated that being a mother is definitely not for sissies and it is the toughest job anyone will ever love.

Every comment about motherhood that I received all had one thing in common, they all required a conscious choice.

Not a conscious choice to make a baby because we don’t have to be conscious for that (but it helps) but a conscious choice to raise a child and make sure they have everything they need to succeed even when we don’t know what the outcome will be.

To be a mom is not about age, relation, money, abilities, or the amount of presents under the tree, and sometimes I wonder if it is even about gender. Being a mother is about making sure that when the kids fall asleep they will know there is a family to wake up too no matter what tat family looks like.

Sometimes people do not make the choice to raise their children and that choice haunts that person their whole life. If that is you, there is forgiveness, Jesus does not care about your choices, Jesus love you regardless of your choices.

Sometimes a mom can’t be a physical mother and so through relatives, her job, her ministry or whatever she will make sure that other kids have everything they need. That is MOTHERHOOD!! She may not have her own kids but she is a mom to that she reaches and she can hold her head up high today!

Being a mother is to make a conscious decision to make sure others have everything they need even if they have to go without.

Which is really not all that different from missions.

Doing missions is not about building houses, writing checks, running a VBS, or handing out bed nets

Missions is about making sure other people have everything they need to succeed even if that means we go without.

So then, maybe doing missions is about building houses, running a VBs, or handing out bed nets in the name of Jesus so that those without have everything they need to succeed.

Philip Harrison says it best in his Parable “In or out” (Note: This is the unedited version. I edited it for church this morning)

‘The other day I had a dream. I dreamed I arrived at the gates of heaven, heavy-shut, pure oak, beveled and crafted, glinting sharp in the sunlight. St. Peter stood to greet me; the big man wore brown, smile set deep against his ruddy cheeks.

‘You’re here,’ he said.

‘I am,’ I said.

‘Great to see you – been expecting you,’ he smiled.

‘Come on in.’

He pushed gently against the huge door; it swung silently, creakless. I took a couple of steps forward until, at the threshold, one more step up and in, I realized I wasn’t alone. My friends had joined me, but they hovered behind, silently, looking on. None spoke. I realized only I could speak. I looked at them; some were Christians, some Hindus, some Buddhists, some Muslims, some Jews, some atheists. Some God knows what. I stopped, paused. A hesitant St. Peter looked at me, patiently, expectantly.

‘What about these guys?’ I asked him. ’My friends. Can they come?’

‘Well, Phil,’ he replied, soft still in the air, ‘you know the rules. I’m sorry, but that’s the way things are. Only the right ones.’

I looked at him. He seemed genuinely pained by his answer. I stood, considering. What should I do? I thought about my reference points, and thought about Jesus, the bastard, the outsider, the unacceptable the drunkard, the fool, the heretic, the criminal, and I knew exactly where I belonged.

‘I’ll just stay here then too,’ I said, taking my one foot out of heaven. And I’ll tell you, I’d swear I saw something like a grin break across St. Peter’s face, and a voice from inside whispered, ‘At last.’”

Motherhood and Missions then are the same, we give up heaven itself to make sure others can get everything they need, even heaven.

Sermon Audio