Readings:
Numbers 21: 4-9;
Ephesians 2 : 1-10;
John 3: 14 -21

Collect:
God of love,
passionate and strong,
tender and careful:
watch over us and hold us all the days of our life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Reflection 

I’ve had a lot of cause to think about ‘mothering’ recently. Many of you know that my elder son has not been in touch for the past 2 or more years, likewise I haven’t seen my small grandson, which has been the source of great pain for me. It was my lad’s 28^th birthday recently, and, like most days, I thought of him, and questioned my sense of failure as his mum. I’ve also been doing my best to support two teenagers at home who are feeling the negative effects of prolonged absence from school, as well as maintain a link with my elder daughter whom I haven’t seen for over a year thanks to the pandemic. Mothering, parenting, is complicated. At times it’s heart-breaking, it’s exhausting, it’s demanding in a way no job could ever be, it’s lonely, and it faces you with yourself in the wee small hours. 

Of course, it can also be the most wonderful thing; and I’m aware it’s a privilege denied to some whose own hearts are breaking because of an absence or a loss or an inability to conceive. I also know from experience that not everyone has received good enough, or even adequate, mothering or parenting.

Which is why this week I am focussing on the readings set for the 4^th Sunday of Lent, rather than the ones for Mothering Sunday. These readings start at Mount Sinai, in the Book of Numbers, written in maybe 500BC but telling a story of the 1400s BC; then we whizz forward to about 61 AD, to a letter written to the church in Ephesus by Paul, whilst in prison in Rome; before coming to rest about 30 years later, ironically in Ephesus itself, with the Gospel of John. A huge span of years and miles. And yet throughout these very different examples of writing – history, spiritual apologetics, tradition narrative, correspondence, mystic story-telling – throughout all of these I found three themes repeating themselves, three words that echoed in my mind and my heart:

Grace. Mercy. Love.

God is gracious and merciful towards the grumbling Israelites (Numbers)

God is ‘rich in mercy’ and shows the ‘immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us’(Ephesians)

And perhaps most famously of all ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son’ (John)

These disparate writings speak directly into the heart of all our human experience, all our losses and sorrows, our sense of failure, our longing, our errors and blunders and missteps. They speak into our midnight musings, our early morning anxiety, our lonely trudge when the sky seems grey and the future looks bleak. 

Grace. Mercy. Love.

Three little words offering balm to our empty arms, our ‘never was’, our ‘wish it could have been.’ Three huge promises to hold onto. A trio of causes for celebration, whatever our personal circumstances, whatever the complexity of our relationships and families. God will never cease to offer us grace, mercy and love. 

And of course, for those for whom Mothering Sunday is a day to acknowledge the often unseen, heroic love given by mothers, or mother figures, to us, then these three words sum up not only the best of all we receive from them, but also our prayer for these wonderful people. We have received grace, mercy and love in their selfless care for us, and we wish the same for them. 

So may grace, mercy and love surround you this week; may our mothering God gently heal your soul's wounds; and may blessings be upon those whom we celebrate today.

 Sharon Grenham-Thompson