Mothering Sunday Luke 2:33-35 Colossians 3:12-17

When I say, ‘Sorry seems to be the hardest word’, do you then immediately hear those words in your minds, set to music, as in a particular pop song, sung by a famous artist? Possibly… And it is quite sad that saying ‘sorry’ is sometimes the most difficult thing to do, even though it is often necessary for relationships that are struggling or broken to mend and flourish. Besides, we all need forgiveness, whether we realise it or not, for the mistakes we have made, for the way we have perhaps hurt somebody else, or not done the right things when we could. Is any of you perfect? Have any of you never done anything wrong? You would be a miracle; and I won’t believe you if you say ‘yes’ to those questions anyway… I know that I am not perfect, for sure; I’m a work in progress, as the Bible says, and thankfully so! For even if I myself or someone else would give up on me, God doesn’t give up on me, ever. That is very reassuring. The passage from Colossians 3 begins with confirming that, saying that in effect we have ‘died and our life is hidden with Christ in God, … we have clothed ourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator’. We are a new creation, but it is important to note that we are not the finished product; as our new self is being renewed day by day.

Paired with this passage from Colossians is today’s Gospel reading from Luke, where we find Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus in the Temple, when those very particular words are spoken over Jesus, and especially to his mother Mary: ‘This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed – and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’ A cryptic message, perhaps, at that moment, when Jesus is still an infant. Jesus is the child of the promise, and even if the full extent of the promise and what it contains is not grasped now, his death on a cross is probably not what Mary has in mind for her son. It is a prophecy that Mary may have pondered for a long time, and that she would have remembered most acutely at Jesus’ crucifixion: the moment when grief like a sword pierced her heart.

Mothering Sunday is a day when we are encouraged to go to our mother churches, where we were baptised and entered into the fellowship of God’s family. We also honour mothers and those women who have played a supporting role in our lives, nurturing us and helping us grow. For many it is not an easy day; perhaps there is still the pain of unwanted childlessness, or the grief over a lost child, a mother who isn’t there or a rift in the relationship. This pain may surface especially today, all the more so if there is no possibility for restoration. We cannot imagine what Mary thought, when she witnessed her son’s death: did she fully understand the meaning of it all? Jesus died for the things that humankind had done wrong; taking on our need to say the deepest ‘sorry’ to God for failing our purpose and for the mess we had created. But, thanks be to God: he did not stay dead: he rose again, giving us hope of eternal life through faith. I trust that Mary came to see that too; that she understood how the promise of a Saviour would work out God’s plan for restoring all that was lost. There is even more good news in this: when we know that our own sins have been forgiven, we are encouraged to forgive the sins of others too. This is what we pray in The Lord’s Prayer: ‘forgive us our sins, as / in the same way we forgive those who sin against us.’

One of the features of a mother is that they most often forgive their children. And God, who, ‘as a mother tenderly gathers her children, […] has embraced a people as [his] own. When they turned away and rebelled [his] love remained steadfast.’ (Eucharistic Prayer G). Whenever we say ‘sorry’ for what we have done wrong, our relationship is restored. So, whether we are able to speak with our mothers or not today, for whatever reason, may we still rejoice in our restored relationship with God himself, who made mothers and involved them in raising his family. Thanks be to God for the loving care that he has shown through his own motherhood. Amen.