As some of you may have read in the weekly newsletter, Mother’s Day has a long history. I won’t recount all of it here, but when reading about its past traditions what stood out to me was one from the middle ages in Britain. They would celebrate what was called Mothering Sunday on the fourth Sunday of Lent. This wasn’t a Sunday where one honored or celebrated their own mothers, but rather instead where they honoured Mary, the mother of God. To celebrate Mary’s role as mother of Christ, all children who had moved away from their hometowns were required to return back to their place of birth and celebrate a special service in their home parish.
What strikes me most about this tradition is less the emphasis it puts on Mary or mothers, but more the way it highlights ‘home’. I mean one could have easily worshiped Mary at their local parish, but the importance of this celebration was the process of returning to one’s origins, back to the place where it all began. Although we don’t celebrate Mother’s Day like this anymore, I think for many of us, this day is still centered around the feelings of home. Even if you are not focusing on your mother for various reasons, it is a day of family celebration, Christian Family Sunday as it is now called, and family, no matter if they are biological or chosen, whether they live near us or far away, whether they are our current family or the one we grew up in, family always has that way of bringing us back home. Our families foster this powerful sense of deep connection within us, and I think our desire throughout history to celebrate and honour these connections of family or motherhood are rooted in what they really give us, the one thing all humans yearn for: belonging.
No matter who we are in this world, the one thing we all want to know or feel is that we belong somewhere. That feeling of belonging is really powerful. Governments know this when they create military ads with ‘You Belong Here’, or when companies like AirBnB have as their slogan ‘Belong Anywhere’. Belonging lets us know we are not alone, that a part of us is connected to something else, and that a part of our true selves is seen and acknowledged. Whenever I return to Clarenceville there is a part of me that is seen and claimed there, a part of my character that just can’t be conveyed or understood elsewhere. Clarenceville is the place I come from, it is home, and I feel that I will always belong there. Mothers, families, our homes, they ground and claim us as part of something bigger than ourselves.
But here’s the thing, these places of belonging are often exclusive. What usually makes us feel like we belong at home or with family is the similarities we share, whether that be our culture, our interests, or our identities. For example, I could be welcomed into a friends family, visit their home, hang out with their group, but I could never belong to them. Even outside of home and family, in organizations that we are a part of, our sense of belonging comes from what we share in common. If it’s the military then a sense of belonging is had in the sharing of a common goal or task, if it is an LGBTQ+ center then belonging is had in the experiences of identities that are alternative. There appears to be a few, if any type of groups in this world that can welcome all people across all cultures, geography, language, or identity and offer a sense of belonging to everyone equally, except perhaps, the church.
John’s gospel tells us Jesus comes from God to Earth, reveals knowledge about God to those who will listen, he teaches us that God is love and it is in love that we have our being and connection to all life; then Jesus dies for this love; then he resurrects and affirms love’s power over death and evil; and then Jesus ascends back to God, making his mission of love complete, and creating in this process a family.
And Jesus’ hope for this family is that all who are a part of it may see themselves and each other as one in it, this is his prayer not only for the disciples but for all of us who come to believe in every generation. As faithful Christians a part of the United Church of Canada, we take this this prayer very seriously, the words of it are on our crest ut omnes unum sint, that all may be one. The words were added to our crest because our church wanted to make sure we would remember that we are not just a united church, we are a uniting church, constantly welcoming new people into the family of Christ and making them one with us, letting them know they belong.
When you step back and think about it, this family that Jesus offered us all a chance to belong to, that he still offers anyone a chance to become a part of, is revolutionary, because all you need to believe in, in order to belong to it is the power of love. What this means is that you can have every sort of person who exists in this world, with all of our differences, different genders, cultures, races, political beliefs, careers, hobbies, talents, goals, ages, and everyone can belong together as one. In the body of Christ we are siblings. Look around this sanctuary, people who outside of it and in your day-to-day life may be so different than you, are here now as your brother, your sister, your sibling, We are asked to have love for one another for simply gathering around Jesus. There is no other group or organization in this world that can hold people together in this way. It is a belonging in community that transcends time, it is a grace and gift from God, and in the most trying, challenging, and painful experiences of our lives, it is a community that can protect and sanctify one another in this love.
God has revealed to us the mystery of love in this world through the life of Jesus. When we gather together every Sunday to participate in his life, we carry this love in our hearts as a family. We have knowledge of God through Jesus, and whoever participates in community that is centered around Jesus is made one with all others by knowing God.
During the bake sale last week I was saying to people passing by in the street that ‘come buy some goods, no body bakes like church ladies’, which of course was not reflective of the baked goods that came in, many different people can bake, but the church has this reputation. What is true though is that there is at least one thing that a church can offer that nothing else does, and that is the ability to create a family where all people can belong. When we live out that ministry in the world, we are going back to the place where it all began, and we find ourselves at home. So, on this last Sunday of Easter, let us give thanks to the risen Christ, in whose resurrected body we all have a place, in whose resurrected hope and love we are all connected, and in whose resurrected life we are all united and uniting. Amen.
-Cynthia Reynolds
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