Mothering Sunday 2007
10:15 Holy Communion

Luke 2: 33-35

Imagine this…its 1925, in the heat of an October afternoon in the deep gorge of Wadi Qelt in the mountains behind Jericho, the monastery of Chozib hangs in the baking sun on the foot of the northern cliff, (the church windows were smashed and the woodwork burnt by the retreating Turks)… two shabby Greek lay monks are chanting their office on and on with its interminable, nasal, gabbled Kyrie elesions… Lord have mercy…..
A young student fresh from Oxford having his first taste of Greek monasticism, was oppressed with a strange desolation. Could this be a Reality? These 2 peasants, not particularly good monks, were devoted to a life which would be wholly meaningless and outrageous if God were not real, nor the Christian faith true…..
How had these monasteries come to be? What brought these men to life…. And what on earth has it got to do with us…. on Sunday 18th March 2007, Mothering Sunday… another place…another time and almost another world….

I wonder, do you feel part of the same church of Christ which contains within its tradition solitaries, hermits and ascetics?
For everyone there is a call into the desert, but few truly respond to that call. Some fail to hear it because their lives are cluttered with schemes, possession and ambitions which drown the call of the Spirit. Even those who hear the call may close their ears because they are afraid of facing God in the nakedness of solitude or because they suspect that God will challenge them with the demands of the divine love. Those who hear and feel an answering yearning deep within their own hearts may be tempted and deflected by the demands of family, being a parent, career or society which places before the believer the insistent duties of what seems to be the "real world". But there are some who hear the call clearly, who free themselves from worldly attachments and lesser loves to follow the call into the desert for a confrontation with the living God.
The desert may be a geographic location where the man or woman waits in solitude; it may be a state of mind which is open to new guidance and revelation; it will certainly be a desert of the heart which is the trysting -place where God meets with those who long for him
Throughout history, human beings have engaged in a quest for self-identity and self-knowledge, a search that has always followed a yearning and searching beyond and outside the self, constantly searching for God. For some motherhood is part of that identity, for others becoming a mother means a loss of identity…. For many people being a mother, and being "mothered" is not an easy experience; it requires a depth of love that ultimately will end in letting go of that child….

Being a mother is a lifelong experience that changes as the child grows…. The process of letting go, begins with birth, as the baby is born, released from the safety and security of the womb, into a world that's full of light, noise, activity and dangers….. from the first teetering steps of a toddler, when you hardly dare let go in case they fall and hurt themselves, to the first day at school, then the dreaded teenage years… going out alone …staying out later… the first holiday alone with friends….more than a few anxious moments… but one of the most important things a mother an do is to let go… and allow her child the freedom and space to grow and develop to find that self-identity rooted in God.

Mary the mother of Jesus was well aware of what it means to search for God. In the reading from Luke's Gospel, we heard part of the story about the early life of Jesus.

Mary, the mother of Jesus was a peasant girl in an oppressed country, probably only a teenager when she became the mother of Jesus, she was familiar with the ways of God and the history of her people. She was a model of wisdom and poise, a mother who nurtured, protected, taught and disciplined her son.

In Mary's story we hear she had a visit from an angel who told her was going to have a baby. She was troubled - she wasn't married but she pondered and prayed and even though she was told the impossible, she believed. She was given the humiliation of an illicit pregnancy, but she saw herself as a servant and God as holy, and she accepted his will. She was obedient… self-disciplined and clear about her purpose and identity; a woman who knew who she was.

Soon after Jesus was born, he was taken to the temple, the tradition was to present the new born infant to God. There they met Simeon, a devout man, who took the infant Jesus in his arms and said he had been living for that moment when he would see the saviour of the world, then he blessed the parents, and told them this child was special.

Luke 2:33-35
Jesus' father and mother were speechless with surprise at these words. [34] Simeon said to Mary,
This child marks both the failure and the recovery of many in Israel, he will be misunderstood and contradicted and he told her she would feel the pain
the pain of a sword-thrust through her
But the rejection will force honesty, as God reveals who they really are.
Mary had a depth of love that ultimately would end in letting go of her child Jesus, for she knew he belonged to God….

The child was extraordinary - Jesus was brilliant, inquisitive with an awareness of his own identity and a maturity beyond his years.

Mary would have told him stories about his birth and his childhood, and as she watched him grow, she pondered and treasured things in her heart. I think all mothers have these little gems that they treasure, a special moment, a child's achievement or a new phase in their development, the humorous things children say and do…

But when Jesus grew up, she let him live his own life, and rarely appears in the stories, we do know she was there in the background, she believed in his destiny and was concerned for his wellbeing.

Jesus resembled her in some profound ways. He obeyed God unflinchingly. He accepted both humiliation and honour; just as Mary endured shame of the illicit pregnancy for the joy of being his mother; he endured the cross for the joy that would follow.
The predicted sword did pierce Mary's heart; but she stood by Jesus, witnessing the injustice and agony of his death which enabled salvation and freedom for every person who turns to God through him….salvation for you and for me and every Christian ever since.

For some people being a mother is an important part of their identity, for others being a mother means a loss of identity… but as the role of women has changed and women have combined careers and motherhood, maybe this is less the case now than it was 20-30 years ago.

We might think this is a current trend, but actually it was also true of women in the early church who practiced of asceticism, a word derived from the Greek "askesis" meaning discipline or training - a way to arrive at knowledge of both self and God.

In the first 300-400 years of Christianity there were many ascetics…people who migrated into the desert in search of God, the desert was a place of renewal and purification not only for Christians but for Jews. The desert was also a place of protection and refuge. There are many accounts of men who lived the ascetic life, but what is not so widely known is the number of women who also pursued this way of life, and a number of women were mothers, who had made the decision to pursue the ascetic way of life. They dedicated time each day to prayer, to the daily offices and study of scripture, they lived a simple lifestyle; mindful and intentional about everything they did from washing their clothes to cooking and cleaning utensils.
They cultivated solitude to intensify their inner journey the goal, union with God, facing their truest self with a deepened awareness of sin and woundedness. They reordered their priorities to support their inner journey practicing fasting and abstinence to help them become more attentive and alert to the movement of Gods spirit. Growth in self awareness enabled them to become more deeply united with God.

Self-awareness calls us to face our hurt and anger. I'd like to introduce you to some women who did just that…. Women from the 4th century whose lives reflect … current issues for women, marriage, divorce, widowhood, being a single parent, loss of a child, poverty, debt, the difficult choices woman have to make, but who succeeded in responding to God's call…

Gorgonia of Nazianzus the Elder lived a life devoted to prayer and study of scripture, after her children were raised she was ordained a deacon and opened her home to the poor.

Athanasia of Constantinople was a married woman of independent wealth. She wanted to join a monastic community but her husband wouldn't give his consent. So she went to live on one of her farms and sought an appropriate way to separate from her extravagant and bad tempered, unbalanced husband. She found he had spent all his fortune and stole some of her cash…that was sufficient grounds for divorce, she won her freedom and used her wealth to enlarge the monastery and build a church for the community.

Dionysia a 4th c noble woman was widowed after many years of marriage and left with a young son. As her brother was the bishops advisor she presented her son to be raised in the bishops household, she was then ordained as a deaconess in the Cathedral of Melitene.

Paula the Elder was a wealthy aristocrat happily married with 5 children…she often visited a monastery for prayer and scripture study….she was kind and considerate especially towards the poor and powerless. Her husband died when she was 32 leaving her grief stricken. She loved her children deeply and they loved her but her heart was torn as she knew she had to leave Rome - she travelled to Alexandria in Egypt and then to the desert to visit ascetics, then to Bethlehem where she stayed in a simple hostel for 3 years whilst she built her first monastery. She did not draw attention to herself, she was down to earth and she was comfortable to be who she was.

Paula gave her wealth to the poor, desiring to be poor as Jesus was, but then she began to take out loans in order to continue her giving. When she died in 404 she left her daughter Eustochium with extensive debts… . Her daughter took over leadership of the monastic community, a quiet leader, who paid off her mother's debts and got the community in sound financial shape before her death in 419.
There's many more stories like these - all these people had one thing in common…they were "rooted in a stark realism of faith in God" they choose to simplify their lives to reach their God.
The desert may have been a dry and dusty landscape but it was a place full of life, the ascetics were ordinary people, like you and me; but doing extraordinary things because they had simplified their lives making space for the Holy Spirit to work.
I think for us, this presents a challenge for us to consider how we can simplify our lives to make more space for God… I would like to suggest that during this last 2 weeks of Lent, we use the time to review our lives, make a note of the superfluous baggage accumulated over the years. Then make a list of things you could/should get rid of and organisations or people who would be grateful for gifts of such items. Consider making the gifts …then DO IT! Carefully and prayerfully…. Clear out the clutter in mind and objects….

There are many facets to prayer… things that help and things that hinder…but at the heart of all prayer lies our faith, our relationship with God and our relationship with others; in a community, the pattern and rhythm of daily prayer, draws the community together, continually and consciously bringing before God work, relationships and everything else that's going. It seems easy to view religious communities as places that are out of touch with the real world but actually prayer enables a reaching out into the world.
There is a tremendous strength in the prayers of a community for nurturing, enabling growth, a reminder of mothering…
The Cathedral is the mother church in the diocese and the life and work of the Cathedral revolves around the daily office of Morning and Evening prayer, every day at 8am and 5.15pm the bell rings and the community gathers for prayer and not just here, but Christian communities throughout the world.

There is something very comforting and reassuring to know the community is continually praying, everything is embedded and enfolded in prayer.
Mothering Sunday is a day when tradtionally people returned to their "mother church" for a service people who did this were said to have gone 'a-mothering'.
So here we are a-Mothering celebrating the joy of life, we celebrate the identity of both men and women as children of God.