Do you (or your pastor) preach on Motherhood (or a mother) & Fatherhood (or a father) on respective holidays?
The idea of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day does not originate in the Bible, although the idea of honoring parents does. Does your pastor (or you, if you happen to be a pastor) preach on those subjects when the particular holidays are at hand?
Poll Results
Do you (or your pastor) preach on Motherhood (or a mother) & Fatherhood (or a father) on respective holidays?
Yes, always or almost always Votes: 9
More for Mother’s Day than Father’s Day Votes: 2
More on Father’s Day than Mother’s Votes: 0
No regular pattern (although may mention the holiday in the sermon) Votes: 8
Never or rarely Votes: 10
Other Votes: 0
Planning Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Resurrection Sunday sermons can be the most challenging. I am usually in the middle of an expository series, and it can be hard to make a quick turn. Also, I want to, on the one hand, preach some familiar things, but I want to take people beyond and give them some new perspectives, not just rehash platitudes. It is challenging.
On the positive side, it is good to be proactive in obeying the command to honor mother and father. On the negative side, the culture (world) has set up the holiday.
What are your thoughts?
"The Midrash Detective"
Like you I am usually in the middle of an expository series, so I usually don’t try too hard to preach the holidays. That does not mean that I won’t ever, but it is fairly unusual for me to follow the holiday calendar in my preaching. If a preacher really wanted a challenge, he could preach messages for some of the lesser known holidays like http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/May/eatwhatyouwantday.htm instead of Mother’s Day or http://www.answers.com/topic/magna-carta-day-event instead of Father’s Day.
A missionary friend on FB posted about Mother’s Day—he has to preach—and he asked if people like sermons about MD or just regular sermons. there was a range of answers, and I mentioned that some women find MD very painful (they are infertile, single, etc). and two ladies posted that they no longer go to church on MD b/c of this.
So …. what to do? Nice to honor/encourage moms, but is it appropriate for the church to do that …
And it’s perhaps valid to imply that being a mom is not heroic, it’s just normal. I think maybe we do ourselves a disservice by inflating it. But … ?
I think Mother’s and Father’s day are appropriate for the church, and I think it is wrong for some to stay home because they have failed to accept God’s working in their lives. However, I was challenged during my pastorate to stop preaching national holidays like 4th of July.
Why is it that my voice always seems to be loudest when I am saying the dumbest things?
I know a lot of folks hurt on Mother’s Day. Some people had awful mothers (this is not a new invention), and others have lost children, are infertile, etc.
But this keeps going on. I remember some single women who stayed home when I preached on marriage. We have to embrace a team spirit, not just our own at-bats.
"The Midrash Detective"
I think it’s more than a team spirit, though I know you weren’t trying to completely flesh out the idea. We have to embrace what is biblical.
Why is it that my voice always seems to be loudest when I am saying the dumbest things?
If you’re in the appropriate country, then there’s always International Women’s Day in March. My Russian mother in law (now living in Metro Sacramento), double dips. She expects an IWD celebration and a Mother’s Day.
[Anne Sokol]A missionary friend on FB posted about Mother’s Day—he has to preach—and he asked if people like sermons about MD or just regular sermons. there was a range of answers, and I mentioned that some women find MD very painful (they are infertile, single, etc). and two ladies posted that they no longer go to church on MD b/c of this.
So …. what to do? Nice to honor/encourage moms, but is it appropriate for the church to do that …
And it’s perhaps valid to imply that being a mom is not heroic, it’s just normal. I think maybe we do ourselves a disservice by inflating it. But … ?
Hoping to shed more light than heat..
[Rob Fall]If you’re in the appropriate country, then there’s always International Women’s Day in March. My Russian mother in law (now living in Metro Sacramento), double dips. She expects an IWD celebration and a Mother’s Day.
Vitaliy usually buys me flowers or a gift for this day. It still weirds me out, in a nice way. I’ve never been in the States much over Mother’s Day either, though our church in Ukraine sometimes tries to do something evangelistic for that day.
I don’t know, maybe we should also have Singles’ Day …
Warning - unbridled personal opinion ahead.
I can’t think of a Mother’s or Father’s Day message I’ve heard that wasn’t molded from a pile of eisegesis and drenched in sentimentality. I’m officially NOT a fan of ‘holiday messages’.
I love being a mother, but after 44 years of annual Mother’s Day messages, I’d prefer sticking my head in a blender and hitting ‘frappe’. I don’t believe for a second that if someone isn’t recognized or given gifts on one particular day, then they aren’t loved and appreciated. This is a very unhealthy dynamic to encourage, and I’ve seen it spark envy (so-and-so bought their mother _____) and wreck relationships.
If there is a balance in one’s preaching, important topics will be covered as time goes on, and if a focus on a particular subject is needed, it’s not going to be properly addressed in one sermon on a Sunday morning at which there are usually a host of a visitors.
Among the aspects of “Mother’s Day” messages that make people uncomfortable (singlehood, infertility) is the “all mothers are wonderful” schtick. Many mothers were/are not wonderful. Then there’s the proposal that if your mother died or was a terrible mother, you can always ‘adopt’ an older Christian women as a ‘spiritual’ mother and mentor. However, older women with enough common sense and spiritual maturity willing to act as mentors are rare, almost unheard of in my experience. Anyone going to tackle that problem on a Sunday AM with a bunch of visiting grandmas in the room? ;)
I find the expectation of ‘special messages’ to observe holidays (that are not Scriptural holy days) annoying.
Now ask me how I really feel.
Mother’s Day, Father’s day, Children’s Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Valentine’s Day……….I’ve heard sermons on them all and it always bothered me that, while there was no Biblical and little historical support for such service, NOT having one could put a pastor’s job in jeopardy. The acceptable sermons that I can remember had little of Christ and the Gospel in them. And then there was the small church that evidently didn’t want to offend anyone so they gave a gift to everyone that had a mother.
"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan
In about 25 years of regular teaching/preaching, I have taught about a Biblical view of motherhood or about honoring our mothers on Mother’s Day only a few times. For what it’s worth, I have posted a couple of these teaching outlines as blog posts here:
For Mother’s Day: How Motherhood Reflects the Character and Love of God
For Mother’s Day: Honoring Your Mother
For the most part, however, I ignore such “holidays” in my weekly teaching.
Soli Deo Gloria Reformed Baptist Blog Immanuel Baptist Church
The key for IWD is all women are honored not just mothers. Having no children is the reason why why Anna and I celebrate it.
[Anne Sokol]Rob Fall wrote:
If you’re in the appropriate country, then there’s always International Women’s Day in March. My Russian mother in law (now living in Metro Sacramento), double dips. She expects an IWD celebration and a Mother’s Day.
Vitaliy usually buys me flowers or a gift for this day. It still weirds me out, in a nice way. I’ve never been in the States much over Mother’s Day either, though our church in Ukraine sometimes tries to do something evangelistic for that day.
I don’t know, maybe we should also have Singles’ Day …
Hoping to shed more light than heat..
Discussion