Sermon Notes — May 11, 2025
1 John 5:1-5
May 11, 2025
Rev. Terry Carty
Love of the Parent
The British Council — a U.K. organization for cultural relations — conducted a 2004 survey among 40,000 non-English speakers in 102 countries to find the most beautiful word in English. The result was “mother,” beating out runners-up “passion” and “smile.” The word clearly evokes comfort in many cultures around the world, adding to its beauty.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4039185.stm
Each year, Mother’s Day brings me to a heightened sense of the power of parenthood. A few years ago, I saved the words of a Mother’s Day card:
“There is no greater gift in life than the love a mother gives.
It’s a wonderful example of the way that we should live.
It helps us trust in others, to be kind, and show concern,
For the love a mother gives helps us love others in return.”
There is a YouTube video from Yellowstone National Park where a mother bear is leading her cubs across a bridge filled with tourists. As the tourists take begin to press a little too close to take their pictures, the mother bear becomes very aggressive in protecting her cubs.
In just about a month and a half we will celebrate the birthday of our not-so-little grandson, Frank. His mother, my daughter-in-law, has called him her “little bear” because he looked like a teddy bear since birth. And, of course, she has thought of herself as a mama bear for both of her boys, Frank and Pearce … not because she looks like a mama bear, but because she is so protective and nurturing of them. I am reminded of the YouTube video mama bear who disciplines her little bears when they need it, but nobody had better threaten them or they will need to deal with her.
Six months after Frank was born, my daughter’s son, Carter, was born very early on Christmas morning. Unlike his cousins, he has never looked the least bit like a teddy bear. Oh, he is cute all right … but not teddy bearish. He climbed before he walked, and he walked in a run.
While not a mama bear, my daughter is equally loving, caring, and daring when it comes to her child. Like mothers of every generation, she is concerned for every sniffle and every bump. She worries about everything he eats or doesn’t eat. He is her first thought in the morning and her last thought at night.
And so it goes. Especially on Mother’s Day, we are reminded that parents love their children. “Motherly love” is not only a characteristic of birth mothers. It is found in fathers, step mothers & fathers, adoptive parents, grandparents, and in those we think of as “other” parents in our lives.
A line in today’s scripture reading from 1 John struck a note in my heart: “everyone who loves the parent loves the child of the parent.” This has reminded me that we came to know our grandsons Frank and Pearce before they were born through their mother who carried him. And we came to know our grandson Carter before he was born through his mother who carried him.
I have had opportunities to meet the adult children of several parents in our congregation. Usually, I already had an appreciation for the children when I met them because I had experienced the parents’ love for their child in earlier conversations. My mental image of the child is shaped by the protective love of the parent. Some of the conversations that I have with parents reveal difficult times and situations of the children, but their protective love almost always overshadows any blame the child might have. It makes me generous and appreciative of the child when I have the opportunity to meet him or her. Because I love the parent, I love the child.
It is this parental love that we consider to be God’s sustaining gift to the world. And we (Christians) are the instruments of that love that sustains the world. Jesus’ commandment that we should ‘love one another in the way that Christ has loved us’ is actually born into us and comes to fruition when we feel truly parental towards other persons.
As another greeting card poet said:
“There are people who are so kind and encouraging, who treat others in such a generous loving way that you truly know they have a mother’s heart.”
We find discipleship is sometimes difficult. The call to love like God loves … often proves beyond our comprehension. But we most often understand a mother’s love. A mother’s love may come from our experience of our birth mother, or our father, or someone who has been a mother to us. We have known the encouragement and generosity of someone who has loved us like a good parent.
That is the love of God. And it is in seeing that Godly love that we find it possible to love the unlovable. If we love God, we will experience others through the heart of God.
As we go through this Mother’s Day, consider the love we have received from our parents … which is the love of God. And take that love of ‘parent for child’ into your other relationships throughout the week.
Prayer after Sermon
Loving God, we know your love because we have mothers. We thank you for the mothers who carried us in their wombs, nourishing, protecting, and bringing us into the world. We thank you for the mothers who did not give birth to us, yet loved us just the same. With gratitude we remember their words of encouragement when we have felt unsure or afraid; we thank you for their kindness when the world has treated us unkindly; we thank you for their soft, comforting arms and the gentle way they kissed away our tears; we thank you that they protected us with the fierceness of a mother bear protecting her cubs; we thank you for the times when they corrected us rather than letting us continue down wrong paths. Help us to live so that their investment in us might not be in vain. We honor our mothers with lives of service to you in the name of the Risen Christ, for it is in his Name we pray. Amen.
Benediction
Now go into the world
Remember that God loves the world like a good mother loves her children.
May you love others the way God loves.
Go in peace to love and serve the Lord,
In the name of Christ. Amen.