Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

Proverbs 31:25-30; II Timothy 1:1-5 May 13, 2007

“The Power of A Mother’s Love”
Rev. Meagan M. Boozer

Putting a sermon together takes me from one Sunday, right after our worship gathering, to Friday morning. As soon as I get in the car to go home today, I will begin praying and thinking about the next sermon to be preached. I’d like to stop doing that, but I can’t. It comes with the “job.” Everything I listen to, watch, or read from one Sunday to the next is potential sermon material. It begins with the Scripture, and follows with the trust that God will bring everything else to me that is important to help us learn what he has for us that week.
Some weeks, there is so much that comes to me that I can’t even begin to fit it all into one message. On those weeks, once Friday morning rolls around, I can hardly type fast enough to keep up.
Some weeks, I am continually asking the question, “What am I to say?”
This was one of those weeks.

What am I to say, God,
about the power of a mother’s love?

You see, I really struggle with preaching about anything that could potentially bring people pain. I don’t mind making people uncomfortable. I don’t mind challenging people. I don’t mind those things. But I really don’t want to stand here and deliberately hurt someone. So, I have struggled about preaching a sermon about a mother’s love – because I know that some people here didn’t even get to have a mother to love, let alone have her love you back. Some of you lost your mother to death at a very early moment in your life, and some of you lost your mother to death recently enough that just talking about a mother’s love still can bring out a deep grief and pain. Some of you may have experienced the power of a mother in your life, but not necessarily the power of a mother’s love. Some of you have been hurt deeply by your mother.
So, all week I’m asking, “What am I to say, God, about the power of a mother’s love,” and not cause more pain where pain is already throbbing?
And God gently asks, “Can’t you just hold out the very best my Word has to offer here, and call the community of believers to pull together to make it so?” “Can’t you remind them that ‘all for one, and one for all’ is a biblical principle?” “Can’t you trust the hurt within your flock to me – the Good Shepherd?”
Yes, Lord. I can.
Let us pray:
O God of grace, we love you. We have come here today because we want to love you more. We want to hear your words of life and truth for us and for our families. We want to know that with you, hope abounds! We know we need you. We want to trust you more. We open our ears, our hearts, and our minds to you, right now – by your grace, in Jesus’ name – Amen.
The world of the Bible was a man’s world in many ways. There are not that many accounts given about women. However, when you’re looking, you can find both good models and not so good models of godly women in the Scriptures. When you think about Eve do you think warm fuzzy thoughts - or do you feel a little upset at what she and Adam ruined for us?
Remember Sarah who laughed in God’s face when she was told she would give birth to a son in her old age - and when she was confronted about laughing, she lied! Great example she was, huh?
There’s Lot’s wife. Things didn’t turn out for her too well, did they?
How about Job’s wife? She was quite the godly woman to her suffering husband. “Curse God and die!” she told him. Big help that was!
But what about Hannah, who cried out for God to give her a son, and she was blessed with the child Samuel. She dedicated this boy to the Lord, and he became a great spiritual leader in Israel.
Of course there is Mary, the mother of Jesus, who said those words we shall hold in our hearts – both men and women – “Let it be to me according to Thy Word.”
Now, listen for two more women from
II Timothy 1:1-5,
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you. (New Revised Standard Version)
Eunice and Lois. Their names sound pretty normal, don’t they? Like our names. Nothing terribly fancy. And we learn in this passage, and specifically in only one verse (v. 5) that they were women who passed on a sincere faith to Timothy. Not just faith. Sincere faith.
Sincere means to be honest and unaffected in a way that shows what is said is really meant.
When someone is sincere, the heart and the head are irrevocably connected. A sincere person does not say one thing and mean another. A sincere person is not artificial. With a sincere person, you can be assured that what you see is authentic all the way to the core.
Eunice and Lois had a sincere faith. It wasn’t just a surface faith, a social faith, a suitable faith. It was sincere, and because it was sincere, it was passed on to their son and grandson, Timothy.
In the book of Acts, chapter 16, we first learn of this family. Let me read the first couple of verses: Paul went on also to Derbe and to Lystra, where there was a disciple named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer; but his father was a Greek.
Eunice was a Jew who believed in Jesus as the promised Messiah. Timothy’s father was neither a Jew nor a Christian. Otherwise the Word would have said so. All we learn about Timothy’s father was that he was Greek in nationality.
May these words be of encouragement to those mothers who find themselves in a situation where they are trying to bring up their children as Christians, but do it alone. There are far too many homes like this – homes where a Christian mother is trying to bring up her child/ren without the support of a Christian husband. Perhaps he is not present in the home, or he is just not interested. This is a very difficult task, but what we learn about Eunice and Timothy is that it is not impossible. Eunice, together with her mom, Lois, raised Timothy to be a disciple of Jesus. Timothy grew up with two women of sincere faith. He saw it, he heard it, he breathed it. It became his own.
Have you heard the statement from parents: “I don’t want to force my “religion” on my children. I think it’s only fair to allow them to make their own decision when they are old enough.”
When I first started dating John, I would go out to his house on Sunday afternoons for Sunday dinner. We never had such a thing at my house, but at John’s house, this meal was a biggie. Any time one of the kids had a new girlfriend or boyfriend, Sunday dinner was the family interview. Well, one of the dishes that John’s dad prepared regularly for this meal was broccoli with bleu cheese sauce. The family loved it. I remember looking at it that first Sunday and thinking, “yuck.” We never put any sauces over vegetables at my house, especially not anything that had lumpy, crumbly, sour-smelling bleu cheese on it.
Bleu cheese is sort of an acquired taste. John’s mom and dad could have said, “Oh, let’s just keep the broccoli with bleu cheese sauce for ourselves until the kids are old enough to decide if they want to try it.” But they didn’t do this. They made this wonderful dish for the whole family, and so built into them a taste and appreciation for it. They enjoyed it, and they built into their children an enjoyment for it.
It is the same way for Christianity. When children are brought up in an environment where their parents enjoy living the Christian life, when they are sincere about it, and give their children every opportunity to participate in what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, then the children will more likely follow the Lord when the time comes for them to become a believer. Becoming a Christian is not an automatic thing if you’re born into a Christian family – it is an acquired way of living and thinking that must begin with intentional care on the part of the those entrusted with the care of the child.
Eunice and Lois are only named once in the Bible. However, there is another indirect reference to them in II Timothy 3:14, 15, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.”
How did Timothy learn and become convinced of his position in Christ? Through his mother and his grandmother, Eunice and Lois. Through their sincere faith shown him from infancy!
Children instinctively learn how to feed themselves, how to walk, and how to talk. Learning how to feed ourselves with spiritual food, learning how to walk with the Lord, and how to talk with him are lessons taught. Today’s godly mothers are those who put these priorities before everything else, taking the long view, and trusting God for all the small stuff.
Does this mean mothers need to stay home with the children instead of working? I do believe, if possible, this is the ideal situation. There are no better people in the world to raise up a child in the way he/she should go then a mom and a dad of sincere faith. However, in those circumstances where this is financially impossible, can a sincere faith still be passed on with integrity from parent to child? Of course it can.
The woman in Proverbs 31 is a model for the working mom. Listen to these couple of verses (25-30): She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs with no fear of the future. When she speaks, her words are wise, and kindness is the rule when she gives instructions. She carefully watches all that goes on in her household and does not have to bear the consequences of laziness. Her children stand and bless her. Her husband praises her: “There are many virtuous and capable women in the world, but you surpass them all!” Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised. (New Living Translation)
It appears this woman was able to be at home while working, but she was definitely working. I wonder how many times she said, “just a minute,” to her children when she was working out a deal for the purchase of a field. I don’t even want to know how many times I said those words to my own children. Just a minute.
But have I lived out a sincere faith before my children, and now my grandchildren?
You betcha. That’s one thing I know I did and continue to do.
They have seen me laugh and cry with God. They have heard me pray, caused me to pray, and taught me to pray. They have challenged me to read the Word so I could know how to live and how to lead. They have challenged me to love their dad in such a way that they would love their spouses that way, too, if they would marry. When John and I didn’t feel like getting up on Sunday mornings, our children were the reasons we did get up so that they got to Sunday school every Sunday. And we went too, because we knew we needed all the help we could get to be faithful followers of Christ – and they needed our example of seeing that following Jesus is a lifelong learning process.
Not that I’ve done it all right. Not that I’ve done it all that well at times. But I have taught my children about forgiveness and honesty. I’ve taught them that doing life God’s way is the only way to do it. They can find lots of faults throughout the years, but I do not believe they can find fault with the sincerity of my faith in God and the sincere desire I have had to ground them in faith from their very first breath.
The only power of a mother’s love worth preaching about is the power within her to love God. “A woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” “Her children rise up and call her blessed.” When all else fails, this child knows he/she can rely on this one thing: Because mom loves God and knows God wants the best for her, and because she believes God loves me and wants the best for me, mom will be there for me, pointing me in God’s way with a sincere love and devotion unlike any other love this world has to offer.
To all the men here today: You have a job. It is your job as our brothers in Christ to help the women around you be the very best they can be for Jesus. You cannot be a mother. But you can support the women around you to help and encourage them, to build them up and let them know you are here to help them in their motherhood calling.
And if you are a woman who has never had a biological child, please remember this: There are so many children in the world, in your community, who are products of nothing but a few moments of sexual passion. There are children who do not have either a mother’s love or a father’s love. There are children who only know rejection, anger, and impatience. You can be, and must be, a mother to them, sincerely pointing them to Jesus as their Savior, their brother, and their friend. You can be, and you might be, the only godly mother a little child, or a new child in Christ, may ever know.
Mothers of school-age children – please don’t compromise. Please don’t let the pressures of today’s society, perhaps even the pressures in your own home, keep you from doing what Eunice and Lois did for Timothy. Please don’t buy into the belief that you must get your child into that soccer league or basketball league that plays on Sundays or their entire sporting career will be damaged or foiled. Where’s the sincere trust in a God who has a wonderful future in store for your child when you turn away from what God has called us to do together as a church family? Please don’t buy into the belief that your child must get a job, even if that job takes them away from Sunday school and worship because they need the money, they need the experience, they need . . . Where’s the sincere trust in a God who will provide for all our needs when we are faithful to Him?
John and his brother and sisters loved the broccoli with bleu cheese. It became a regular dish on Sundays. It was much anticipated. But, what if Papa would have stopped making it? They would have missed it for a while, but then, they would have gotten used to whatever was served in its place, hardly ever thinking about what they were missing.
We live in a post-Christian society. Do you know what that means? It means that Christian living and Christian thinking, are not the majority ways to live and think anymore. Maybe they never were. Maybe we never really had a Christian society with a Christian worldview. Maybe the faith of our founding fathers and mothers was not a sincere faith. Or maybe we must choose to take responsibility for the post-Christian label.
Post-Christian.

“Oh, welcome to my post-Christian home.” “Bible?
Oh, I must have one here somewhere. Just a minute.”

Just a minute.

In just a minute, we might not have
another chance.
Man, I hope we can get that cross on top of this building quickly. I don’t want to live a post-Christian life. I don’t want you to live a post-Christian life. I don’t want your homes to become post-Christian homes. I’m so weary of hearing how people believe in God, but they have no taste for Jesus.
Women, the most important thing you can do in your life, is to develop your relationship with Jesus Christ so that your faith is sincere. Children can spot a phony from a mile away. Love the Father by loving the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. Pray. Study. Be consistent. Make it your top priority to get the children into Sunday school and worship every single Sunday – no compromises. Encourage each other. Older women, help the younger ones. Volunteer to help with Sunday school, with the nursery, with Vacation Bible School, with Children’s Church, with a children’s choir, with children’s events alongside Emma.
The power of my love for my children, which is so strong I would die for them – the strength of my love is only as powerful as its longevity. When I die, have I left them only memories of being on every sideline at every soccer game, in the audience at every concert? Have I left them only with memories of Sunday dinners shared, or have I left them the recipe for living eternally in the light of God’s love? The power of my love is only as powerful as its longevity. Artificial vs. Sincere. Earthly vs. Eternal.

I could have preached a sermon that made us all feel good about our mothers, about our own motherhood, and about the mothers around us. I could have. I could have told stories of how a mother’s love got her child through cancer treatments, or how a mother’s love sparked a national movement called Mother’s Against Drunk Driving. I could have told all sorts of wonderful stories, and we could have sat back and remembered all the funny times we shared with the moms around us. I could have told some pretty funny stories about my own mom and my own children. I really wanted to preach that kind of sermon today. We might all go out and feel a whole lot spunkier.
But, I asked God, “What am I to say about a mother’s love?” And this is what we got.
May this congregation be full of godly women and men who are willing to work together to bring forth the very best in the children God has given us to nurture in the Christian faith. Who’s to determine that this valley is a post-Christian community? It’s up to us to make Christianity ever-present by sincerely raising our children in the ways of the Lord.
Amen.

Upper Path Valley Presbyterian Church

5-13-07