Powerless…to help a child with an incurable illness

Being Powerful Sons and Daughters

Dr. Larry Thorson
May 11, 2008

Today Mother’s Day celebrates its 100th birthday since its founding in Grafton, West Virginia at the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church. It’s founder, Anna Jarvis, never married and never had children. She got the idea after her mother said it would be nice if someone created a memorial to mothers. Rather than all the candy and flowers, a white carnation was to be given to each mother. The second Sunday of May is designated “Mother’s Day” in 52 countries of the world. This is a big event.

This year we have Mother’s Day and Pentecost on the same day. Think about it. When we celebrate Mother’s Day we celebrate the woman who gave birth to us. When we celebrate Pentecost we celebrate God’s Holy Spirit who helped us to be born again. When we celebrate Mother’s Day we celebrate the woman who nurtured and raised us to adulthood. When we celebrate Pentecost we celebrate the one who nurtures us in the faith and teaches how to be a follower of God. So it makes perfect sense to celebrate the Holy Spirit and mothers on the same day. Where would we be without either one. Not alive, that’s for sure.

I like what Norman Bates of All About Families ministry says about mothers, "A mother has to be as insightful as a psychologist, tough as a Marine Corps DI, gentle as a nurse. She’s got to be a labor and management negotiator, a teacher, an electrician, a plumber and a carpenter. It requires a massive amount of patience, endless energy, and iron will, and the ever present reality that if she gets sick, she’s got to get well before the end of the day." Raising us is no easy task.

As a tribute to Mom’s everywhere and to the Holy Spirit I’ve chosen two Scriptures to focus our celebration today. The first is a prophesy, which is a prediction from God of what’s coming in the future. Let’s read Joel 2:28-32

28 "And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.

29 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke.

31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

32 And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the LORD has said, even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.

I like the part that says “Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.” When this prophesy was made it was radical with a capital “R”. I mean radical. It means African people speaking a primitive language could receive God’s spirit. It means Burmese people far from the Jewish world could receive God’s spirit. It means that women, whose culture taught them from birth that their only role in life was to tend to a man; their father, their husband or their son, would receive God’s Spirit. A mother can’t get elected President of the United States but she can lead God’s people. Did I mention this passage was radical?

The second passage I have chosen for our celebration today is Acts 1:4-8 which involves Jesus with his disciples just before he went back to heaven…

On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Ten days later on Pentecost this prophesy or prediction came true. Jesus wasn’t speaking to men only on this occasion. This is really significant for Mother’s Day because I believe God never intended a male dominated world but intended rather for a God dominated world. Genesis 1 says that God’s image is both male and female. With the coming of the Holy Spirit God was making a declaration that male and female, rich and poor, educated and uneducated were made in the image of God.

According to the passage we just read in Joel, when God’s spirit is poured out we will know because God’s sons AND daughters will prophesy. That means both women and men will listen to God and speak for God. That means the youth will hear the voice of God. That means older adults will hear wisdom in the words of the youth and will be willing to be guided by them. The elderly will have hope for the future. And Moses’ wish will come true, as he said in Numbers 11:29…”I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them”

So in other words look into the face of a mother and you see the image of God not the image of a man. Look into the face of a street person and you see the image of God not the image of poverty.

A few years back I heard a story of a man in India, from the “untouchable” class who had overheard the gospel, realized how well the message would be received by his oppressed people and went out sharing the good news. Three thousand “untouchable” people came to trust in Jesus for their salvation as a result.

That’s exciting. You’d be excited about that wouldn’t you? But church leaders struggled for four days over whether to baptize them or not since they were “untouchable”. You have to touch them if you’re going to baptize them. Fortunately God’s Spirit doesn’t have any untouchables and they were baptized.

Like a downpour of rain in a drought…the disciples would receive power—strength to change the world—not power to dominate others and make them convert, but courage to speak with passion and enthusiasm about the truth of the gospel, the good news about Jesus. They just had to wait and pray.

Wait and pray like Mary and Hannah and Jochebed. There was little else they could do but wait and pray, but through them the world was blessed with their powerful sons and daughters…Jesus, Samuel, Moses and Miriam.

Miriam, Moses sister who saved his life, was a leader of Israel who not only led God’s people in worship but was a prophetess. When the people had safely escaped from slavery, there was the temptation to say “We did it.” Or to say “Moses did it.” And God called Miriam to focus the peoples’ attention on God and give God the glory.

The world was also blessed by mothers whose names we don’t know, the mothers of the prophets Deborah, Huldah and Anna. Deborah was a full-time working mother…a judge…but also a prophetess…one who spoke for God to the people…and led them to military victory over the ancient equivalent of Osama bin Laden combined with Saddam Hussein.

Huldah was the prophetess that King Josiah went to so he could hear from God when he could have consulted Jeremiah or Zephaniah, but God chose to speak to him through Huldah.

Anna was a prophetess in her upper 80s who met the baby Jesus when he came to the temple, identified him as the Messiah and then went out, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to speak to all who were looking for redemption.

Those were limited, individual cases in which God empowered particular individuals for specific situations. Being filled with the Holy Spirit wasn’t widespread in those days. But they’re proof that even in the Old Testament God intended from creation to use women in ministry. When Jesus came, the last days began, and God’s spirit was poured out on all, so any of God’s servants, men or women, young or old, regardless of ethnicity or economic status, who wait and pray will receive the power to become God’s mouthpieces.

When I think of waiting and praying I can’t help but think of mothers. It takes nine uncomfortable months to give birth to a baby. What do you see the men waiting nine months for? We can’t even wait nine months for the start of the football season.

So today if you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and have the confidence that when you die you’ll spend eternity with God you can thank God’s Holy Spirit for giving you that new birth. That’s what Pentecost remembers. When we’re in our darkest moments, alone in the dark at night enveloped by our fears and anxieties, God’s Holy Spirit never lets go. When we have our greatest doubts and struggles to believe, God’s Holy Spirit never gives up. When we feel least capable to do the job God calls us to do God’s Holy Spirit never gives up believing in us and helping us get what we need to be successful.

How much like the Holy Spirit is a mother to us. Some of you may have had careless mothers, negative mothers, selfish mothers. But so many of us had the other kind; the kind that never quit believing in us. The kind who when we were flunking a grade took the teacher and principal to task until they gave her what we needed to pass (but then didn’t hestitate to take us to task to do the work she laid out before us).

I read a story recently about a family’s pet dog that died one morning, and they were discussing it later at the dinner table. Mother was quite sad and one of her sons said, "Don’t feel bad Mom, we can get a new dog tomorrow." The father then chimed in his support and concern by saying, "Yes honey, and you know yourself that Rover was old and sick and ready to pass over to doggie heaven." But the Mother was not satisfied. "You just don’t understand," she said. "To you he was just a dog, but I was the one that held him and fed him as a puppy. I took care of him everyday and cleaned up his messes. It was me that took him to the vet every time he got sick. That dog was part of my heart."

When a woman gives you their heart, treasure it, for it is beyond price. And when God gives you his spirit, treasure it even more because when you’re feeling sorry for yourself you can rest in the fact that in one lifetime you have had two blessings that are priceless. Amen.