![]() This sermon was preached a few years back. But as we are about to celebrate Mothering Sunday I thought this would be a good place to start. JERUSALEM which is above is free; which is the mother of us all. (Gal 4:26) Today is often called Mothering Sunday or even Refreshment Sunday in the Anglican Communion. It takes this name from the Epistle, where St. Paul says, Jerusalem which is above is free; which is the mother of us all' (Gal 4:26). This heavenly Jerusalem is our spiritual home. Here on earth she is the Church, nourished in the wilderness by God (Rev. 12:6). At the last day, she shall be made manifest as the bride of Christ, the holy city, the New Jerusalem, descending upon a renovated earth for the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 21:1, 19:7). This is the city of the living God (Heb. 12:22), where the saints love even themselves only for God's sake. There is, however, another earthly city (compare Gal. 4:25; Rev. 17:1-6). In this city, charity has been so perverted that not even true self-love remains, only the pride of life. The pride of life is a boastful assertion of one's own superiority and exaltation of one's deeds. It shows itself as a twisted desire for reputation and respect among men for one's own sake, and not for God's. It can be defined as an unwillingness to acknowledge God's proper authority over his creatures or as a substitution of one's own will for God's will. The mother of the world is found in her desire to imitate the proper love and nurturing that the mother of us all gives through love and submission to the will of God. The Mother of the world is bound in the clothes of the Bond woman as St. Paul tells us in our Epistle Lesson. “But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.” (Gal 4:23) St. Paul in our epistle is not telling us that the world itself is this Agar, but the Old Submission to the Rabbinical Laws that can never save us. St. Paul distinguishes between freedom and slavery in his letter to the Ephesians. The reason for his concern was the influence of the Judiazers which would come after Paul and attempt to replace the Freedom of the Gospel with the bondage to the Laws placed on the free conscience of his new converts. St. Paul revealed the Nature of the covenant God gave to Abraham as free and those children born of the promise as free, whose children we are. Born again in our baptism, birthed in the church, and refreshed by the Word and Sacraments in which she feeds us for strength to live new lives. But as St. Paul dealt with the problem of the nature of who God is and how we are to understand who we are in Him today there is much the same debate and even heresy in how we are to view God as our Father. In some churches today there is an attempt to make God more acceptable to modern society. One of these attempts reflects the feminist drive to create a more prominent role for women. Advocates have not hesitated to intrude into the holy sanctuary of Christianity. There, some of the more radical results of this movement have been the ordination of female priests (priestesses?) and, recently, the ordination of women as bishops. The results of such innovation has seen the rise of strange “neutral” ideas of who God is resulting in the ordination of homosexuals and the giving in marriage of same sex couples. Another innovation has been the rewriting of the Holy Scriptures in "inclusive language," that is, replacing masculine pronouns denoting God-such as "He" or "His"--with "non-sexist" terms. Proponents of these singular departures from the Christian tradition justify them by the fact that God is pure spirit, "neither male nor female," and therefore, they conclude, God can be considered not only as our Father but also as our Mother. These "reforms" are all consequences of the human desire to affirm femininity as well as masculinity in the church, and from a worldly standpoint they seem reasonable enough. But from the perspective of true Christian theology, they only reflect that dismal spiritual ignorance which has disfigured today's world. In the tradition of the Church the feminine element has been present from the beginning in its proper and God-given place. According to the ancient teaching God is indeed our Father, He who is the source of our life, but God is not our Mother. The Church is our mother. It is the Church which nurtures and feeds us, it is the Church which teaches us, it is the Church which shelters and protects us. In the words of St. Cyprian of Carthage: Of her womb we arc born, generation after generation. With her milk we are fed. Of her Spirit our souls draw their life-giving breath. Unfortunately, it is not only feminists and their sympathizers who overlook this important relationship. The wise Solomon tells us that "a foolish man despiseth his mother" (Prov. 15:20). Just so, many people seek Christ but abandon or ignore her who can lead them to Him, and in so doing they arc unable to reap God's promises. Hear again the words of St. Cyprian: He who has turned his back on the Church of Christ shall not come to the rewards of Christ.... You cannot have God for your Father if You have not the Church for your Mother. We might say to ourselves that St. Cyprian, writing in the third century, was addressing the problem of heretics and schismatics, and that his admonition doesn't concern us as Christians today. But we should stop to consider just what a proper relationship between mother and child involves. We cannot claim to have the Church as our mother simply by virtue of baptism, of being born again of her. A child naturally feels a great attachment to his mother. He shows his love in being obedient and respectful, in having a caring and teachable spirit. Is our relationship to the Church characterized by these and other traits proper to a child? Not only do we come to God through the Church, but it is also through the Church that God comes to us. All of the Mysteries-Baptism, Confirmation, the holy Eucharist, and all the rest--come to us within the Church. This is the place where God most readily and effectually works; this is where He has chosen by his divine will to manifest Himself to us. It is through the Church that we are fed the life-giving food; here it is where we receive our life from God. Some may ask: Why this emphasis on the Church? Isn't Christ alone, through His word, able to bring us to eternal salvation? Sure, but here one must realize the inseparable union that exists between Christ and His Church. (John l4:6) "as the Lord is the way, the truth and the life, so also is the Church, because the Church is as St Paul says to the Ephesians one and the same with the Lord, His body, of His flesh and of His bones (Eph. 5:30) .... Never represent the Church apart from the Lord Jesus Christ; from the Father and the Holy Spirit." The great Reformer John Calvin in his Institutes of Christian Religion Says, “But because it is now our intention to discuss the visible church, let us learn even from the simple title "mother" how useful, indeed how necessary, it is that we should know her. For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels. …Furthermore, away from her bosom one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation, …By these words God's fatherly favor and the especial witness of spiritual life are limited to his flock, so that it is always disastrous to leave the church.” John Calvin sounds much like St. Cyprian Our Gospel shows us the relationship between Christ and his Church. Christ asked Philip a rhetorical question, as He saw the great multitude coming, where shall we buy bread that these may eat. Jesus knew the answer to the question, but in order to prepare his disciples for there Apostleship, he placed the care of the multitude, which followed him for days, in their hands. Even after the miracle took place Christ feed no one, but distributed to the disciples and the disciples to the multitude. This was common in Christ earthly ministry. We see here Christ using the Church his duly called Apostles to feed the multitude. This act of feeding is still done every Lords Day. Christ calls us to feed with him at his table. He calls his duly ordained ministers to prepare the table and we ascend into heaven and feed with Christ there with tokens of His love for us, Bread and wine. We are as our collect says “mercifully…relieved” from the burden of sin and refreshed by the reminder of Christ’s Love for us in the weekly remembrance of the once for all sacrifice of Christ. Today is indeed a Refreshment Sunday, with its two views of grace, and a Sacrament provided for the supply of each, for by baptism we are made the children of God, and by the Eucharist the children of God are fed. This great miracle teaches that our Lord, and He alone, has power to satisfy human hearts. Our Lord can satisfy our human nature, and nothing else can--not the world, sin, pleasure, high position, learning, health, nor wealth. Our Lord alone is bread to us--bread solid, satisfying, sustaining, living, and life-giving. If we feed upon Him in all that He is and in all that He has done for us, in all His aspects and characters, we shall not want. …The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want… (Ps 24) See the bread multiplying in our Savior’s hands: He goes on breaking, breaking, breaking, so long as the least child remains unsatisfied. We shall find in Christ more than we ever expected to want, we that have wanted more than we ever expected to find. Let but Christ bless the meal, and the supply will never run short. On this mothering Sunday may we remember the mother who bore us on her breast and nurtures our Souls till our life’s end. May we see our freedom that is derived from God is only resident through the household of faith. May we see our Adoption as sons and daughters as a welcome invitation to the Lords Table where our hearts are refreshed and our Souls nourished. Amen+ This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
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