Fifth Sunday in Easter

Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers and those who provide a mother’s love.  What would we do without you in our world?  Your loving care emulates God’s love for us and for all of creation. You indeed are a blessing!
 
 
It is fitting that readings today focus on God’s unconditional love and care for us and how we are all called to love and serve one another.  Using Mother’s day as a lens, our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles has special meaning.  We hear the apostles addressing a critical concern in their community. The widows and their families were being neglected and their needs ignored.  In biblical times, widows were powerless and often had no official standing in that society.  The apostles understanding their needs, called for Stephen and six other men to be appointed to address the needs of these widows and their families.
 
This passage has much meaning for me as a deacon.  The calling of the seven is seen as the beginning of what we have today as the modern diaconate – a call to service.   The roots of the diaconate lay in addressing this specific concern for widows and their families who were being neglected and ignored by the faithful and society in general.  Thus, the call to the diaconate, is primarily a call to service, and a call to care for the poor and those who live at the margins of our society --those often ignored by others.  Deacons are also charged with service at the table of the Lord and preaching.  But the mission – the central focus of any ministries done by a deacon lie in this call to service. Preaching and serving at the table are ways of demonstrating and communicating the church’s care and concern for those who are powerless, neglected, or overlooked in our society.
 
 This week as I prayed about these readings and reflected on my call to the diaconate and to service, it became clear to me that my Mom was the one who first showed me the model of service.  Somehow, she raised eight of us – and I can tell you were we not easy on her!  And if that was not enough, we always had several exchange students and others living with us in our home.  But somehow my mom always provided for all of us!  She was always there whenever any of us, our neighbors or friends needed anything.  She never asked for anything in return for what she gave.  My mom although she wouldn’t have put it this way led a life dedicated to service and truly helped me understand the call to serve others.
 
 
 So it is so fitting that on this Mother’s day we talk about service and how so much of our society depends and is held together by mothers and women who provide much love and support to our families and others. Yet today, even on this Mother’s Day, we live in a society that still needs to address how widows, mothers, and women, in general, are treated.  Unfortunately, they are often undervalued, and their needs are many times neglected in our society.
  
In our outreach ministries and partnerships, which serve women and men,  we find that still after 2000 years, a disproportionate number of older women and young moms find themselves marginalized and in need.  We encounter this sad fact in our Social Outreach efforts at Penfield Hope, Bethany House, Mary’s Place, and others on a daily basis.
 
Today, as the pandemic continues to impact our lives, virtually all moms and dads are faced with trying to work, they do this while helping their children with distance learning, and at the same time staying isolated, and having few supports. We know that many moms are feeling overwhelmed. They might be working their jobs at home or putting themselves at risk by working as essential workers to support our community and allow them to keep paying their bills and maintaining their households.  Our society is so blessed to have these women!  These women are not only a cornerstone of the family they are cornerstones of society and help safeguard our world.
 
With the current focus of recognizing heroes among us, it is important to note that about 90% of all nurses are women.  Where would we be today without the huge sacrifices that they are making! I would dare to say that if you want to understand the model of service that Jesus was calling his disciples to, we should look at the many lives of the women who surround us today.  They by their lives demonstrate what the ministry of service is, by the service to their families,  our communities, and our world and especially in these difficult times.
 
 
We are all called to service, lay and ordained, women and men, to be thankful, to live lives with gratitude and to go forward – to be not afraid. John connects belief in Jesus with our Christian mission, saying, “Whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones.” Foundational to Christian faith is the requirement for believers to serve one another as an expression of their belief in God. Even in these difficult times, we are all called to serve and reach out to one another.
 
 
Can we hear the words of Jesus saying to us today: “Do not let your hearts be troubled?”<> Confident in God’s unconditional love and care for us, modeled so beautifully in the lives of the loving moms and women around us, <> can we entrust our troubled hearts to God?  Despite the circumstances, we may find ourselves in – our health, our financial status, our parenting challenges – can we be emboldened in our faith as we look to Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life?