I Love My Mother BUT .......
You know "We
only have One Mother in this World, and we might only have today. So don't wait for the tomorrow's to share God’s
love with your Mom.
On this very special
day, I’d like to start us off with a chuckle.
A young boy was wandering around the sanctuary of a large down town church one Sunday morning and stopped to examine a large bronze plaque that was hung on the wall. "What are all those names up there?" He asked one of the ushers. "Those are the names of people who died in the service." he replied. “Oh my, said the boy, “was it during the 9:30 or the 11 o'clock service?"
May 10 2015 Readings: Acts 10: 44-48, Psalm 98, 1 John 5: 1-6, John 15: 9-17
Today is a special day, of course its Mothers day. So I'm a going to pick on Mothers for my illustration today. I have a statement I would like you to reflect upon for a moment or two and then, my hope is that we may have a brave soul or two in our midst today that might share with us. Here it goes!!!!!
Could you please finish this statement for me, I love my Mother, BUT!! …… any takers????
Cross cultural researchers have use this question to explore the nature of the differences between a person brought up in an Eastern tradition and a person who have been reared in a Western tradition. They have found major differences in their respective perceptions of life, in their use of language, and in their relationships with one another.
Here is the question again: “I love my mother, but . . . .” how did you answer it?
Yes even today, on Mother’s Day, I bet every one of us can immediately come up with a “but”. Do any of these buts sound familiar?
I love my mother, but . . . .mom can drive me crazy at times because she like everything to be perfect she’s a bit of perfectionist. I must say.!” Or, I love my mother, but . . . .she is always fussing over me, sometimes I feel her love smothers me..” or, I love my mother but…. I don’t always like what she says or what she does.
The researchers found that in the West what comes after “I love my mother, but . . .” was usually a negative remark. It is not a fault folks, it is part of our culture, the way we have been taught to respond or think. In the West our love is tempered by our knowledge of our human weakness and frailties. Over the centuries Western religions for the most part have nurtured us in what we call an Atonement Theology. To atone for something means, you’ve committed wrongs and therefore you have to pay the price you have to make amends. In the Bible Atonement Theology is associated with man's sin in other words we are told we are sinful, we must repent or else, therefore we must make amends for our sins. This has helped to cultivate in our society this contrast expression of a positive countered with a negative way of responding and thinking. Researchers have found that when they posed the same question of somebody from the Eastern or Asian tradition the answer is typically quite different. I love my mother, but . . . is finished with comments like this: I love my mother, but . . .I will never be able to show her truly how much I appreciate her love.” I love my mother, but . . .I can never repay what she has done for me.” I love my mother, but . . . she has done so much for me all my life I can never thank her enough.” Generally speaking, the Eastern answer does not think of “but” as a negative expression, but is a positive one. The Eastern answer does not use “but” as a counter to the first expression, instead, the “but” adds more feeling and flavor to the love. We in the West have been cultured to think in negatives and positives. We try not to disturb the status quo if at all possible. If we have to begin with a negative comment we try and counter the negative with a positive, or visa versa. In the eastern traditions they tell it like it is. It is either this way or that. Researchers also discovered that the Eastern languages such as the Hebrew are able to give more depth to their comments. Our Western way of using the English langue is shallow and sometime without depth, it often doesn't go far enough to give our responses a richness.
Yes even today, on Mother’s Day, I bet every one of us can immediately come up with a “but”. Do any of these buts sound familiar?
I love my mother, but . . . .mom can drive me crazy at times because she like everything to be perfect she’s a bit of perfectionist. I must say.!” Or, I love my mother, but . . . .she is always fussing over me, sometimes I feel her love smothers me..” or, I love my mother but…. I don’t always like what she says or what she does.
The researchers found that in the West what comes after “I love my mother, but . . .” was usually a negative remark. It is not a fault folks, it is part of our culture, the way we have been taught to respond or think. In the West our love is tempered by our knowledge of our human weakness and frailties. Over the centuries Western religions for the most part have nurtured us in what we call an Atonement Theology. To atone for something means, you’ve committed wrongs and therefore you have to pay the price you have to make amends. In the Bible Atonement Theology is associated with man's sin in other words we are told we are sinful, we must repent or else, therefore we must make amends for our sins. This has helped to cultivate in our society this contrast expression of a positive countered with a negative way of responding and thinking. Researchers have found that when they posed the same question of somebody from the Eastern or Asian tradition the answer is typically quite different. I love my mother, but . . . is finished with comments like this: I love my mother, but . . .I will never be able to show her truly how much I appreciate her love.” I love my mother, but . . .I can never repay what she has done for me.” I love my mother, but . . . she has done so much for me all my life I can never thank her enough.” Generally speaking, the Eastern answer does not think of “but” as a negative expression, but is a positive one. The Eastern answer does not use “but” as a counter to the first expression, instead, the “but” adds more feeling and flavor to the love. We in the West have been cultured to think in negatives and positives. We try not to disturb the status quo if at all possible. If we have to begin with a negative comment we try and counter the negative with a positive, or visa versa. In the eastern traditions they tell it like it is. It is either this way or that. Researchers also discovered that the Eastern languages such as the Hebrew are able to give more depth to their comments. Our Western way of using the English langue is shallow and sometime without depth, it often doesn't go far enough to give our responses a richness.
You wouldn't just say my mother is kind, you would say my mother is a daughter of kindness, taking us deeper into the generations of her family from whence the mother came. Isn't that GREAT!!! Let us also not forget that no matter what part of the world our expressions of love come out of East or West, this too is only an expression of human love. We heard it in the reading this morning from 1 John. There is a deeper more expressive love too, that we can discover. So then let us look through the lens of this deeper love.
Although our human love, the love we show for and too one another is very important and can be the fertile ground in which Gods love grows and matures in our lives, it is not the love that Gods holds for us. Last week we talked extensively about the human love we share. Love as we understand it, human love that is, is usually thought of as a feeling, a high spiritual feeling, a feeling of great joy, overpowering, the best feeling you could ever attain. True love goes deeper folks. Gods love doesn’t start by falling in love with a feeling, it begins with a choice, you choose to love and then you follow it through with your actions. This kind of Love you see doesn’t end or stop when the going gets tough. This kind of love is never over come with emotions, it tells is like it is and it cannot live in the same house with anger or hatred, jealously, or self-centeredness. This love is so strong and powerful it is maintained under the worse possible circumstances, just as it was show to us in Christ, through His circumstances. He loved his friends no matter how they performed and yes he loved his enemies too, but not with human love, no not with conditions, which by the way makes love shallow and selfish. He loved as God loves without conditions. The world has twisted our human love to make us think that we can do anything we want to obtain that feeling. That it is perfectly exactable to sacrifice moral principals and take advantage of others in order to obtain such love. Our desires might be able to trick or convince us that we can justify this view of love, but our sprit knows that isn’t real love it’s just plain old selfishness in disguise and lasting love can’t be found there. Real love only comes to us via it true source, from the one who first loved us, and by following the commandment “LOVE ONE OTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU”
Our nourishment and our strength to love in all kinds of circumstances come to us as we feed and reflect on the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. The words in the books of the old and new testaments are living words. They keep changing as you grow in your understanding God’s love shown to us through the stories and acts of Jesus. The bible has wisdom, so you see you don’t read the bible the bible reads you as you study it. It meets you wherever you are on your personal journey. Isn’t that Great !!!! As you grow in love, your journey deepens as does your understanding of the word. The greatest example of Gods love for us can be found in Gospels, as we listen and learn from Jesus how to forgive and to love unconditionally. If we say we know God and we agree that God is love, yet do not put into action this new found love, we deceive ourselves and true love is not yet within us. But when we do, we come into alignment with the ways of God and others see it. Did you know, that you, may be the only bible someone will ever read. This deeper level of love brings to us true compassion, true joy, true freedom, and a willingness to forgive in all situation. God is the only true source of love, let us give thanks and praise to God. Let us pray. You
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