This Sunday is Mothering Sunday; a time which evokes many different memories and emotions within people, and a day which itself can be interpreted in different ways.
Giving thanks for the mothers amongst us is perhaps what most people think of, and depending on your experience and time of life, this can provoke some very deep emotions. Who we are as people is very much shaped by our mothers, either by their presence or by their absence, and if you are a mother yourself, I imagine that the depth of feeling is even greater.
When we think about motherhood in terms of our faith, I guess that most of think about Mary, the mother of Jesus. In her we see both the love and the sacrifice that motherhood demands, from the time that Christ was born, up until that final moment at the cross.
Through most of Christian history we have been discouraged to think of God as feminine, and yet, we acknowledge that God is ultimately beyond gender or any of our other definitions. The idea of God as Mother is actually very old, going back to the very earliest understandings of the Divine presence in the Old Testament. This is particularly true of the Holy Spirit, sometimes known as “Ruach” in Hebrew, or “Mother Spirit”. This mothering aspect of God continues into the New Testament through the numerous times when we are described as “being born of the spirit” or “born in the spirit”. In a society which was ruled by men, it’s hardly surprising that descriptions of God as female began to get lost, and yet we can still see glimpses of it, especially in some passages by the Old Testament prophets, particularly Isaiah, who described God as “a mother who comforts her children” (Isaiah 66:12-13), amongst other references.
In our own society and culture, Mothering Sunday began as a recognition of the mothering role of the Church, when people would return to their “mother church” that is to say, the church you were baptised in. Perhaps this is an idea to return to today; how different would our outreach, teaching, and pastoral care look, if we considered ourselves to be part of a mothering, nurturing church? How would this change us as an institution?
God is ultimately beyond our understanding, but for many of us, relating to Mary as the mother of Christ, or to God as mother, has contributed to a more complete and holistic idea of God. For many women, some of whom have experienced the more toxic aspects of masculinity, relating to God as female has helped them to recognize the divine within themselves.
On Sunday at St. Mary’s, we’ll be singing various Hymns which celebrate Mary, the mother of Christ, as well as one which references the Mothering Spirit of God:
She sits like a bird, brooding on the waters,
Hovering on the chaos of the world’s first day;
She sighs and she sings, mothering creation, Waiting to give birth to all the Word will say.
(She sits like a bird brooding on the waters, John Bell)
Happy Mothering Sunday,
Revd Dean.