Sunday March 14th
2021
4th Sunday of Lent – Mothering Sunday
Introduction
Our service on Sunday, will include
several items contributed by members of the three congregations of Trinity,
Sandy and Beeston. Some of the items are
included in this worship at home sheet, some of them cannot be included for
copyright or other reasons and so in places other material has been substituted
or adaptation have been made. So whilst,
live worship on Sunday will follow this order of service, it will not be
exactly the same.
Call to Worship
God our Father,
your Son, Jesus Christ,
lived in a family at Nazareth.
As we meet together now,
help us to learn more about what it is to love our families and friends as you
love us. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
(From Roots –
Seasons and Celebrations)
Hymn – Mary Had a Baby – (Chosen by Sonia Butler – Beeston MC) -
Prayer of Praise
–
God of Eve and God of Mary,
God of love and mother-earth,
thank you for the ones who with us
shared their life and gave us birth.
As you came to earth in Jesus,
so you come to us today;
you are present in the caring
that prepares us for life’s way.
God of Eve and God of Mary,
Christ our brother, human Son,
Spirit, caring like a Mother,
take our love and make us one! Amen
(Singing the
Faith – Hymn 119 vv 1,2 &5 – Fred Kaan (1929-2009)
Poem – (from Sue Dutton, Trinity MC) –
Prayer of Confession
Heavenly Father, parent of us
all,
we know that we don’t always treat each other as you want us to.
Lord God, forgive us; and help us to be more loving.
There are times when we insist on getting our own way despite what others feel.
Lord God, forgive us; and help us to be more loving.
Sometimes we increase the tension when we ought to seek peace, or say things
which hurt one another.
Lord God, forgive us; and help us to be more loving.
God has loved us, sending his Son Jesus to show us the true meaning of
forgiveness.
Lord God, forgive us; and help us to be more loving. Amen.
(From Roots –
Seasons and Celebrations)
Hymn – H&P 393 – Jesus Hands were kind hands – (chosen by Trish Mapletoft – Trinity MC)
Prayer of
Thanksgiving –
We thank God for giving us others
to share in our lives:
for parents, and the love that
brought us to birth:
we praise you, O Lord, and bring you thanks today.
For mothers, who have cherished
and nurtured us:
we praise you, O Lord, and bring you thanks today.
For fathers, who have loved and
supported us,
we praise you, O Lord, and bring you thanks today.
For brothers and sisters, with
whom we have shared our home:
we praise you, O Lord, and bring you thanks today.
For children and their parents:
we praise you, O Lord, and bring you thanks today.
For other relatives and friends,
who have been with us in our hopes and joys and in times of sadness:
we praise you, O Lord, and bring you thanks today.
For all who first spoke to us of
Jesus, and have drawn us into the family of our Father in heaven:
we praise you, O Lord, and bring you thanks today.
Help us to live as those who
belong to one another, and to you, our Father, now and always. Amen.
(From Roots –
Seasons and Celebrations)
Lord’s Prayer
Hymn – MP 629 – Tell Me the Stories of Jesus – (Judith) -
Reading – Luke
7.11–17
11 Soon afterwards, Jesus went to a town called
Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12 As he approached the
town gate, a dead person was being carried out – the only son of his
mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with
her. 13 When
the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don’t cry.’
14 Then he went up and touched the bier they were
carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, ‘Young man, I say
to you, get up!’ 15 The
dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.
16 They were all filled with awe and praised God.
‘A great prophet has appeared among us,’ they said. ‘God has come to help his
people.’ 17 This
news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country.
Reflection (Dalwyn)
The story of Jesus raising the widow of
Nain’s son is only recorded in Luke’s Gospel.
We don’t have to dig to far to work out that Luke has a particular
interest in how women contributed to the life and ministry of Jesus. His is the gospel that begins with, what we can
almost certainly take to be Mary’s recollections of Jesus’s early years and
childhood.
Luke gives his first two chapters to Mary’s
reminiscences of her son’s formative years.
It is not easy to sum up what she carried with her as she witnessed
Jesus’s earthly ministry and his death and resurrection. However, for me two lines stand out:
At Jesus’s presentation in the temple, after
Simeon had told Mary that Jesus would be a sign to many he warned her, “a sword
will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2.35)
and telling us how Mary responded to Simeon
and to the earlier visit of the Shepherds, Luke says that she “treasured up all
these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2.19)
Perhaps, then, we have a good description
of the way a loving mother experiences the trials and triumphs and highs and
lows of her children. When her child
struggles, she suffers as well. When her
child succeeds she experiences joy and pride in what has been achieved. This seems to be the environment in which
Jesus grew up.
So, it may be that this is why Jesus was
moved to act when he saw the agony of the widow of Nain. He stumbles across a scene of misery and
despair. With the death of her son, this
widow had lost her means of support. It
was a sad fact of ancient society, that if a widow had no family to support her
then she was vulnerable to poverty and neglect.
(The early Christian church’s care for widows and orphans was one of the
things that marked them out as a society of love.) The reading tells us that Jesus’s heart went
out her, in the New Living Translation it says “when the Lord saw her, his
heart overflowed with compassion.” (v13)
Jesus’s response to this situation was to
restore the son to life and give him back to his mother. His concern for this mother, and then, on the
cross, his provision for his own mother’s ongoing care (see John 19.25–27) was
not a sentimental or romantic view of motherhood. We know that he had clashes with his own
mother and at one point dismissed her attempt to rescue him from the danger of
provoking the crowds. He spoke words
that sound harsh on the lips of a son, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” (see Mark 3.31–35). He would have known the suffering of some because
their family was unable or unwilling to offer loving care and support.
The early church valued motherhood, but it also
offered a place of welcome and support for those who did not have the security
of a stable home. We have mentioned
already how care for widows and orphans was an important part of the early church’s
social action. For all sorts of reasons in
ancient society and in our modern society, people cannot always rely on the support
of their family. We know that sometimes
this is because of tragedy, in other cases it is because of abusive
relationships that make it impossible for a mother to care for her children or
for children to remain safely with their mother. The sad truth is that, in some cases, the
Church has been guilty of romanticising the idea of family to such a degree
that it has failed to see the reality of domestic abuse and how relationships
between parents and children can go catastrophically wrong.
On Mothering Sunday, we may also need to
acknowledge that sometimes the Church has responded badly to those who longed
to be mothers but who, for different reasons, never could – often on a day like
Mothering Sunday they may feel compelled to sit silently with the hurt and
agonies that often accompany these unfulfilled dreams.
It is important for us to have robust and
realistic views of the challenges that come with parenthood and whilst many of
us can give genuine thanks for the ways in which loving motherhood has cared
for us, shaped us and formed us we remember also those whose story is very different. We commit ourselves, as churches, to be
places where people can find refuge from the hurts of tragedy or abuse. We pledge to be better at listening to the
stories of those who struggle because they were unable to become parents, and
we pray for all who work alongside those whose domestic relationships have been
the cause of harm. Even when our
experiences of parenthood have been good, we remember it often meant that mum
(and/or dad) experienced both the joy of our successes and the pain of our
struggles and we give thanks for all those who walk alongside us in life’s
trials and triumphs, and today, especially, those we can call, “mum!”[1]
Hymn – StF 519 – Father, I place into your hands. -
[1] In
mentioning those situations where ‘mum’ is not necessarily a word associated with
positive life experiences, it is important that we all remember that there is
help available for anyone who needs to talk about things that have happened for
them. Our Church and safeguarding
officers, as well as me (Dalwyn) would be more than happy to talk with anyone
who needs support, to point you in the right direction and make sure you get
the help you need. Please do not
hesitate to get in touch or to ask for a copy of our safeguarding policies if
you would like further information on how the Methodist Church seeks to Create
Safer Space for all those who are part of our church family or who take part in
church activities.
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