Lent 4
Fourth Sunday of Lent Gal. 4-21
To day is the fourth Sunday of Lent and sometimes called Refreshment Sunday, a title probably suggested by the Gospel reading for today.
Which is about Jesus feeding a great multitude that came to see Him?
Today is also called Mothering Sunday, when we think about Jesus’ Mother, our Mothers, and Mother Church.
This not to be confused with Mothers Day, which is an American holiday in honour of mothers which is celebrated on the second Sunday of May.
Anna Jarvis of Philadelphia, whose mother had organized women's groups to promote friendship and health in the USA, originated Mother's Day; on May 12, 1907, when she held a memorial service at her late mother's church in West Virginia.
Within five years virtually every state in the USA was observing this day, and in 1914 President Woodrow Wilson made it a national holiday.
Although Jarvis had promoted the wearing of a white carnation as a tribute to one's mother, the custom developed of wearing a red or pink carnation to represent a living mother or a white carnation for a mother who was deceased.
Over time the day was expanded to include others, such as grandmothers and aunts, who played mothering roles in bring up children.
What had originally been primarily a day of honour became associated with the sending of cards and the giving of gifts, however, and, in protest against its commercialization, Jarvis spent the last years of her life trying to abolish the holiday she had brought into being.
Jesus’ Mother Mary was betrothed to a man called Joseph, who was called by God to be the Mother of His Son.
“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.”
And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
And behold, you will conceive and bear a Son, and you shall call his name Jesus.”
Mary answered God’s call and brought up His Son Jesus for Him.
Mary was with Jesus for His first miracle at the Wedding of Cana when the wine run out and Jesus turn Water in to Wine.
Mary was also with her Son Jesus, at His death, obeying Gods call to her, to the very end of her Son Jesus life.
“Standing by the Cross of Jesus were his Mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
We think of our own Mothers, who looked after us as we grew up and today we give thanks to them.
We also think of Mother Church.
During the sixteenth century, people use to return to their "Mother Church" for a service to be held on the fourth Sunday of Lent.
This was either a large local church, or more often the nearest Cathedral.
Anyone who did this was commonly said to have gone 'a-mothering' although whether this preceded the term Mothering Sunday is unclear.
In days gone by, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mothers and other family members.
It was often the only time that the whole family could gather together, as quite often they were prevented from doing so by conflicting working hours.
Rose Sunday was sometimes used as an alternate title for Mothering Sunday, and was witnessed by the purple robes of Lent being replaced in some churches by rose colored ones.
This title refers to the tradition of posies of flowers being collected and distributed at the service originally to all the mothers, but latterly to all the women in the congregation.
Another tradition associated with Mothering Sunday is the practice of 'church clipping' when the congregation would form a ring around the outside of their church building and by holding each others hands, embrace it.
Also from today the Sunday themes turn from sin to the need for repentance towards the gift of pardon through the sacrifice and death of Jesus.
The collect for today recognises the justice of punishment for wrong-doing and the evil that men bring upon themselves and ask that by God’s mercy and through His strengthening grace they may be set free.
As we sow, we reap, evil produces only evil, and we are caught up in a chain of evil consequences and cannot free ourselves.
Only God can do this, as he did in the person of His Son Jesus Christ.
The close knit argument of today Epistle from St Paul’s letter to the Galatians leads to the same conclusion, “we are sons of freedom under grace” and “are to plant our feet firmly within the freedom that Christ has won for us”
Paul illustrates the difference between the believers who live in Christ and those who trusted in the law, by a comparison taken from the story of Isaac and Ishmael.
St Paul in his Epistle is referring to part of the Abraham story (Genesis 16 – 21) Hager, the slave and Abraham’s mistress, along with her son Ishmael, was turned out by Abraham when Sarah his wife gave birth to Isaac, “in accordance with God’s promise”
This story declares Paul, contains a deeper spiritual meaning, and illustrates God’s two agreements or covenants, the old and the new.
The old agreement represented by Hagar the slave and Ishmael, set out in the books of the Jewish Law and kept in being in the Jerusalem of St Paul’s day.
This was all right while it was in force, but when God’s promise was fulfilled, represented by Isaac born to Sarah a free woman, a new agreement was set up and the old had to go.
This new agreement has come about through Jesus Christ, and his grace has brought freedom and a new relationship with God, that of sons rather than slaves.
St. Paul’s point is those who have accepted Christ are, “not sons of slavery under the Law, but sons of freedom under grace”
God’s grace, His free and inexhaustible bounty, is further emphasised in today’s Gospel, as St John tells us about the feeding of the multitude.
As by it St John wants to explain the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life
There is little doubt that the early Christians associated the feeding of the multitude with Holy Communion.
They knew as we know, that when week by week , Bread is Blessed, Broken and Distributed to the faithful by the Priest at Holy Communion.
There will always be more than enough of this Heavenly Food for all who come in penitence and faith to receive it.
It is from today’s Epistle that Mothering Sunday gets its name as it tells us that “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all” [Gal. 4:26].
“Jerusalem which is above” is the New Jerusalem which is presented to us in the twentieth chapter of the book of Revelation.
The old Jerusalem is the earthly city, the mother city of those who live under the Law of Moses.
The New Jerusalem is the spiritual city of which all Christians are children independent of the Law of Moses.
The heavenly Jerusalem is a free city, and it is the Mother of all who believe in Jesus Christ.