This week's readings can be found here John 3.14-21
Reflection Mothering Sunday 14th March
Did you know that Mothering Sunday is the 3rd most celebrated day after Christmas and Easter. If we are not mother’s ourselves, we still all have had mothers or had the care of the equivalent of a mother and can appreciate the special place they hold in our lives.
Someone said “It’s not easy being a mother. If it was fathers would do it.” Sometimes mothers are too hard on themselves. Dennis the Menace once said this, (which I am sure would made some mothers laugh and other mothers think well yes, I/she must be doing something wrong.) Dennis yelled from his time-out chair, “If you’re raising me right, how come I get into so much trouble?”
God knew that we wouldn’t be perfect parents, just look at the families in the old testament, boy didn’t they have their ups and downs. There is room as parents to make mistakes and children can and are allowed to make their own mistakes as well.
Here are two scenes that I am sure many of us have been on one side or the other. Mum asks her child, “Could you help with supper?” Afterwards she says, “Thanks, but you didn’t tidy after yourself!” or the father who says to his child, “Could you mow the lawn today?” Afterwards he says, “Thanks, but you didn’t clean the mower properly!” I know that they could be seen as stereotype pictures but I am sure you get the drift. Children need
encouragement and parents need to know that they are not perfect and their
children aren’t either.
During this year of lockdowns, many people haven’t been able to see their own parents, unless they lived locally. Looking after children 24/7 has been stressful and for a lot of mothers it has been them that has covered the bulk of the home schooling and fitting it around their own jobs.
Jesus, as he is dying on the cross, sees his mother and his young friend and disciple, John. He thinks ahead to after he has gone. He says to his mother, “Dear women, here is your son,” and to John he says “Here is your mother.” And from that time Mary lived with John, she became his adoptive mother and they presumably were able to comfort each other in their loss.
I know a number of people who were adopted or cared for by someone other then their birth parents. One of them said to me, “I didn’t think anyone could love me, I thought that I was a bad person, but you showed me that someone cared about me, loved me and that I was an OK sort of person.”
The number of people in prison whose childhood was not settled, because of abuse, homelessness, poverty, dysfunctional family life is enormous. But still they want to know that someone cares for them and that maybe they may be able to care for someone themselves, like John did for Mary.
We must all remember that we can only try our best. We won’t be perfect, God see us for who we are, he won’t blame us if we fall short. God sees us for who we could be, warts-and-all, and maybe that is how we should be to each other, to our parents, children, families, and friends, especially as we come out of lock down and are able to see more people. Let’s concentrate on looking for the good points and forgive and understand those things that are not quite how we expect it to be. Remember God loves us all.
Jane Woods
Christ Has No Body
Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)
Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks Compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good, Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, Yours are the eyes, you are his body. Christ has no body now but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world. Christ has no body now on earth but yours. To Pray for
We pray for the family of Sarah Everard, may they find peace and answers
For all our mothers and mother earth this Mothering Sunday and everyday
Also we pray for those in Equatorial Guinea following explosions at an ammunitions depot
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