#blessed on Mother's Day

#blessed:  the image of the perfect mother, with the perfectly dressed and well-behaved children, in a perfectly organized and clean house.  I really struggle with it.  I can't believe it's real.  It seems to me to be less #blessed and more #lucky or #liar.

Lately, in the midst of raising a few young children, teaching other children, and preparing a message for Mother's Day Sunday, I've been considering the role of mothers and the role of shepherds, especially the Good Shepherd.  And how the miracle and mystery of the incarnation affects all of us.  And what #blessed might really mean.

The reading for the week was: John 10:22-30

At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one."

In this reading, we hear Jesus continuing the story of the Good Shepherd.  His followers keep asking him if he is the Messiah.   So he says again, “I have told you, and you do not believe.”

I can almost hear the frustration in Jesus’s voice.  It’s like he’s saying, “I just told you!  Are you listening to me?”  Are you listening to me?  That must be the most common phrase uttered by a mother of young children (maybe any children).  I swear, I say it a million times a day--to my students, to my children, and to my husband.

We have all heard about how difficult sheep can be--smelly, not so smart, stubborn.  Every year on the Good Shepherd sermon week, we hear about how sheep aren’t easy to deal with and being a shepherd is not very glamorous.  So, today, Jesus is speaking to his people as if they are sheep and he is caring for them.  They don’t understand, so he is explaining it one more time, a little louder and a little slower.  And he says to them, “What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father's hand. The Father and I are one."

Here is the beauty of this passage.  Jesus was given grace by the Father.  Through him, we receive that grace.  And how did Jesus come to be standing there proclaiming this grace?  He became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, came to life as a vulnerable baby, and was MOTHERED into this messy, real life, where he became the shepherd to the people of God.

Jesus was MOTHERED into being.  Babies don’t grow up on their own.  In order for a child to thrive, or even survive, another human being must act as a mother--must MOTHER the child.  And Jesus wasn’t mothered by the Mother of the Year, a woman of property, agency, and status, a woman who had proven her child-rearing ability by producing leaders and dignitaries.  He was born of an unwed, teenage mother, and raised in a blended family (Joseph was his step-father, after all).  

I like to think of the Virgin Mary as a young mother.  To imagine her, just as harried and just as tired as the rest of us with young children.  I bet that if Mary had a Facebook page, it wouldn’t be filled with well-dressed, perfectly posed pictures of the Holy Family at the dinner table, or on vacation at the beach, or on their way to temple.  I bet it would be full of real-life moments--the nitty-gritty of raising children.   

My other mom-friends continually text each our own versions of #blessed.  Whenever we are overcome with the messy, frustrating reality of life, we text each other.  Things like: The washing machine is broken.  Guess I don’t have to do laundry today.  #blessed  My child threw up all over me.  At least it didn’t get in my mouth.  #blessed.  None of my children bit anyone today.  #blessed.  I think Mary would be like us.  I mean, Jesus wasn’t a piece of cake to manage, I expect.  After all, when he was a teenager, he got sassy with the other teachers in the temple and refused to leave town with his parents.  It took them days to find him.  I bet the Blessed Virgin Mother wasn’t feeling quite to blessed at that moment.  Thought I lost my kid.  Turned out he was just hanging out at the Temple.  #blessed

All sarcasm aside, I am truly blessed by my children and the friends who are raising their children by my side.  As my wise mother friends often remind me with a wink and an understanding smile, “children are a blessing…”

We are blessed by the love of God and we bless each other when we share it.

The grace that God has given us in Jesus Christ was raised by a mother and is returned to man through our relationships with God and with each other.  We bring about the kingdom of God through our relationships.  We mother and shepherd each other through the messy, loud, frustration of life.

Today, we are all #blessed.