Mom's and Penecost!!

Yesterday was a strange mixture of Mother's Day and Pentecost in worship. I thought in many ways they fit each other. I mean Mom's in many ways model God's love for us. If that were not so then why would the scriptures talk about God being like a mother hen watching over her chicks, and God being El Shaddi, the hebrew image for a nursing mother.

Let me share a sister in Christ's blog that I think says what I was feeling during both worship services yesterday as we celebrated Moms and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

T
oday there was this odd mixture of Mother's Day and Pentecost at church. The Children's Sermon was mostly Mother's Day-ish, with a Holy Spirit kind of twist at the end. The sermon was more Pentecost-ish, with a mother kind of twist at the beginning. The children were handing out flowers to moms as they left the sanctuary. The colors in the sanctuary were red. And every mom I met in the hallway said, "Happy Mother's Day!"... and I kept thinking, would they be offended if I replied, "Happy Pentecost!"?

Because the truth is that I couldn't do what I do as a mom if it weren't for a constant refilling of the Holy Spirit in my being. Mothers are expected to act a lot like God (I sort of got this from the children's sermon) - we are suppose to be always caring, always available, always putting others in front of ourselves, dying daily for the sake of our family, and doing so with a smile on our face, beaming with love that radiates into the whole house, filling it with warmth. Who can do that all the time? I NEED things like a fresh experience of Pentecost to enable me to do what I do at home. I would far rather find that at church than a pat on the back if I had to choose.

Sadly, I don't think many moms notice this, and the pat on the back sure feels good when the back is sore from a long year of constant and often overlooked service. Mother's Day IS important. But I think we do a disservice to mothers when we fail to give them what they need most - a fresh inpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Rev. Richard
PEACE!!