Marked by Love
Moody First United Methodist Church
Moody-Leon United Methodist Church
Rev. Eddie Smart
John 13:31-35 (NIV)
When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. “My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
The scouts were in camp. In an inspection, the director found an umbrella neatly rolled inside the bedroll of a small scout. As an umbrella was not listed as a necessary item, the director asked the boy to explain.
“Sir,” answered the young man with a weary sigh, “did you ever have a mother?”
Today is Mother’s Day. It is that time that we have set aside to give thanks to God for our mothers. None of us would be here today if it were not for our mothers. Our experiences of “Mother” vary widely. For some the word mother may not bring warm feelings. For you we pray that the church family or some special person in your life has filled that void. For many of us our mothers have been special in many different ways.
I want to talk about the love of a mother. I want to talk about the love of a mother that is an example to us of the love our God has for us as demonstrated in an only son, Jesus Christ. I want to talk about the love of a mother that is an example of the love that Jesus has for you and for me. Jesus said to his disciples and to us, “Love one another as I have loved you.” I want to talk about that love that we are called to have for one another, not just mothers but all of us.
Mother Teresa once said, “Love is a fruit in season at all times and within reach of every hand.” Mother Teresa certainly has given us the example of love. She humbly served the poor in the gutters of Calcutta.
In 1979, Mother Teresa received the Noble Peace Prize. In her acceptance speech she said, “I choose the poverty of our poor people. But I am grateful to receive (the Nobel) in the name of the hungry, the naked, the homeless, of the crippled, of the blind, of the lepers, of all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared-for throughout society, people that have become a burden to the society and are shunned by everyone.”
It was in June of 1995, that the frail Mother Teresa spoke to thousands gathered inside and outside of St. Lawrence, Martyr Church in New Bedford, Mass. The newspaper reported on her message in this way:
Touching on her favorite themes of love, humility and the need for all to help the sick and dying, Mother Teresa of Calcutta brought her message of compassion to thousands here eager to hear it.
In his homily [that day], Bishop O’Malley paid tribute to Mother Teresa and her nuns and told how many of them have sacrificed their lives for the poor and desperately ill around the world.
“You are a signpost on the pathway to God. We love you, Mother Teresa,” the bishop said.
We are all called to be signposts on the pathway to God. For many our mothers were signposts on the pathway to God. We want to say, “I am not capable of doing that.” We want to say, “I cannot love the way Mother Teresa was able to love.” But…
Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Art Urban wrote:
“A mother’s love is like a circle, it has no beginning and no ending. It keeps going around and around ever expanding, touching everyone who comes in contact with it. Engulfing them like the morning’s mist, warming them like the noontime sun, and covering them like a blanket of evening stars. A mother’s love is like a circle, it has not beginning and no ending.”
Isn’t that the way it is with God’s love? God loved you so much that God sent an only son to die on a cross so that you might live for an eternity with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus loved you so much that in the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done.” Paul wrote that, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 (NRSV)
Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Barbara Newman sent me an e-mail the other day with a Mother’s day poem. It begins:
Before I was a Mom
I made and ate hot meals.
I had unstained clothing.
I had quiet conversations on the phone.
Before I was a Mom,
I slept as late as I wanted
And never worried about how late I got into bed.
I brushed my hair and my teeth everyday.
God calls mothers to love with an outward focus. So many of our Moms have thought of us before themselves. Many have sacrificed for you and me. It comes rather naturally for a mother to take care of the needs of her child as a number one priority. Meals may have turned cold and appearance compromised for the sake of the child.
Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
There were two warring tribes in the Andes, one that lived in the lowlands and the other high in the mountains. The mountain people invaded the lowlanders one day, and as part of their plundering of the people, they kidnapped a baby of one of the lowlander families and took the infant with them back up into the mountains.
The lowlanders didn’t know how to climb the mountain. They didn’t know any of the trails that the mountain people used, and they didn’t know where to find the mountain people or how to track them in the steep terrain.
Even so, they sent out their best party of fighting men to climb the mountain and bring the baby home.
The men tried first one method of climbing and then another. They tried one trail and then another. After several days of effort, however, they had climbed only a couple of hundred feet.
Feeling hopeless and helpless, the lowlander men decided that the cause was lost, and they prepared to return to their village below.
As they were packing their gear for the descent, they saw the baby’s mother walking toward them. They realized that she was coming down the mountain that they hadn’t figured out how to climb.
And then they saw that she had the baby strapped to her back. How could that be?
One man greeted her and said, “We couldn’t climb this mountain. How did you do this when we, the strongest and most able men in the village, couldn’t do it?”
She shrugged her shoulders and said, “It wasn’t your baby.”
Folks, you are God’s baby! You have been redeemed by your God. You are worth saving. You have been redeemed. The question is… have you accepted that redemption? If not there is no better time than today.
God not only climbed the impossible mountain to bring you and me home, God sent Jesus to be our guide.
Jesus said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”