Sermon Tone Analysis

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Introduction
Today is the day that our nation has decided to honor one of the greatest positions that exists among all mankind—the mother.
So in honor of the occasion, allow me to make a corny dad joke: Mothers are so important that none of us would be here today without them... you get it?
Seriously though, mothers are incredible creatures.
For just a moment, think about all the things you love and appreciate about your mother from the time you were growing up.
Chances are (if you had a good mother), you likely remember her as being warm yet stern when she needed to be, compassionate, empathetic, affectionate, kind, comforting... she's the one you wanted to talk to, or cry on her shoulder when you were having a bad day.
Practically speaking, a mother is a nurse, chef, psychologist, police officer, air traffic control officer, soldier, sherpa, stylist, teacher, and diplomat all bound up into one package.
So, mothers definitely deserve a place of honor.
Yet, our popular culture tends to demean motherhood, even if it doesn't mean to (though I think often it definitely means to).
Allow me to illustrate.
There was once a third grade teacher who went around her classroom asking what each child wanted to be when they grew up.
Of course every little boy wanted to be a doctor, fireman, police officer, a famous athlete, or something of the like.
Strangely enough, the little girls answered with much the same answers as the little boys.
Except for one little girl.
With a huge grin on her face, she said, "I want to be a mommy, just like my mommy!
She's always at home with me, she loves me, we play games, she teaches me all sorts of things like how to cook, sew, clean..."
But the teacher put out her hand and stopped the little girl mid-sentence.
And then she uttered the words that I believe have inspired many of the problems we see in our culture today, and discouraged many a potentially amazing mother: "That's sweet, dear.
But don't you want to do something more with your life?"
I'm afraid that despite a special day being reserved for the position, being a mother (especially a "stay at home mom") is not seen as a legitimate aspiration.
Maybe "motherhood" is something a woman does for a little while in addition to her "career goals," but a woman whose desire is to simply be a mother is often politely (or impolitely) ridiculed, and thought to be lazy and unambitious.
You see, the irony of feminism is that it actually demeans the feminine!
The biological female can do things that no man could ever dream of doing—she's special as she is, for who she is!
If feminism is advocacy for a woman's rights, shouldn't it truly protect, prize, and praise what are seen as "feminine" ways?
But of course, it usually does exactly the opposite.
So with those things in mind, here's where we want to go this morning, and it all starts with one big question: Where did femininity come from?
More specifically, where did the characteristics we think of as being "feminine" come from?
When we read the Bible, and what it has to say about God, we are mainly given a very masculine picture of Him.
God is the Father.
He has a Son.
And even that Son is depicted at times as being a very masculine being—the lion of the tribe of Judah, the commander of the armies of the Lord, a man who worked with his hands, whose friends included manly men like fishermen.
That son is said to be the image of God the Father, so if someone has seen Jesus, they've seen the Father.
But for just a moment, let's direct our thinking this morning in Genesis, and the beginning of all things.
Look at Genesis 1:26-27:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
We've seen this before.
God made man in his image.
But what I want you to pay attention to here is this: God made mankind in his image.
Both man AND woman, as they are, were made in God's image.
Which brings us to the following thought: Women, mothers, are a reflection of who God is, too!
Where did femininity come from?
If you believe the Bible, God, of course!
And since woman is created in God's image, too, that means all the kindness, compassion, warmth, tenderness, patience, and comfort that we attribute to femininity are direct reflections of God! Thus, womanhood, even motherhood, is a divinely sacred thing!
Now let's be careful for a moment.
God is never explicitly said to be a woman.
God is always depicted as a man.
But even there we also need to be careful, because gender is a product of biology—and God is not a biological being!
He's a spirit ().
So we need to be careful in thinking of God as actually being either gender.
But for a few moments let's expand our thinking this morning (as CHRISTIANS) on this subject to three passages which I think help to illustrate this point.
Each of these passages describe some characteristic of God.
But what makes them interesting is that they do so in feminine terms.
1) God/Jesus as a Protective Mother
Look at with me.
After Jesus sternly rebukes the Pharisees, pronouncing his "woes" upon them, he turns his attention to a much broader group—Jerusalem.
Jesus wasn't happy about the impending doom of these people.
So far as I can tell, he wasn't saying these words through gritted teeth.
He starts with what sounds like a lament, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem."
He's heartbroken.
He's hurting.
Jesus wasn't happy about the impending doom of these people.
So far as I can tell, he wasn't saying these words through gritted teeth.
He starts with what sounds like a lament, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem."
He's heartbroken.
He's hurting.
All Jesus, all God wanted to do was to protect these people.
He gives a beautiful illustration here of a mother—a mother hen, but still a mother—who wants to protect her chicks.
She wants them to come under her wings, to keep them safe from the storms, or whatever threats are coming their way.
But she can't.
And it's not because she isn't able.
It's because they aren't willing to come under her wings!
How horrible!
That protective nature is part of motherhood, though, isn't it?
We see it in the natural world, even in animals besides chickens.
The wise man said it would be better to meet a she-bear (mother bear) robbed of her cubs than to meet a fool bent on doing something foolish ().
It doesn't take much to imagine how ferocious a mother bear could be if separated from her children.
The same is true of human mothers.
Want to see a gentle or meek woman get riled up?
Mess with her kids.
I can't remember where I heard this story from, but a man once told me of his gentle, meek wife and how her behavior surprised him on one occasion.
They were traveling out West as a family, along with their two daughters, and had stopped at a seedy looking gas station (or something to that effect) for a few moments.
It was one of those where the bathroom doors are outside and kept locked.
You have to go inside to ask for the key, which is attached to a plank of wood (if you can imagine THAT kind of place).
Now before I go any further, I need to mention that this man told me they traveled with a pistol in the car.
File that little bit of information away for just a second.
So there were two rough looking men who were standing near the bathroom doors.
The man tells of how as his daughters walked by the men both looked at the girls, then at each other, obviously with ill intent in mind.
The father started to say something to them... but before he could, he heard his wife say in a very commanding voice, "Don't."
He turned around to see her, arms draped across the hood of their SUV, pistol in hand, with it pointed at those two men.
Of course the two men scurried away like the cowards they were.
Like I said, mothers are very protective creatures!
And protection is what God wants to offer!
He wants to nurture, to draw you under his wings like a mother bird.
The question is, are you willing to come under his wings?
This passage isn't the only instance where God or Jesus are said to be like a mother bird...
2) God as an Instructive Mother
Look at with me.
These verses are part of a song spoken by Moses in the hearing of the Israelites.
The context here speaks of who God is, what he has done, and what he will do.
Moses says the following:
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