Community Church Sermons
Year A
May 8, 2011
All I Really Needed to Know
I Learned From My Mother
Genesis 1:26-28
Exodus 20:12, Proverbs 31:30-31
Rev. Dr. R.
Tim Meadows
They come in all shapes and sizes. They have all kinds of approaches to life. Some are serious, others are funny, all are determined to make sure their families receive what they need for successful living. Mothers are a gift from God. Most of you know that this is my first Mother’s Day without my mom, so it is new territory for me. I began to think reflectively about my mom, after receiving a note from one of you which said in part: “Moms are pretty rare…they only made one for each of us…and her loss is always difficult regardless of the circumstances. That note caused me to think about how rare indeed my mom was, how she had shaped me, how she had shaped our family, how she had made us better people.
If you have ever visited my office you know that I am a great fan of the writer and artist Robert Fulghum, whose career has included stints as a Unitarian minister and a bartender. (Not bad work, if you can get it.) One of Fulghum’s works that hangs in my office proclaims “All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten”. The print is nice and contains lots of sound wisdom, but in my case it simply is not true, in fact it cannot be true ---- you see the school system in which I grew up did not even offer kindergarten until I was well along into elementary school, so the truth in my case is; “All I Really Needed To Know I Learned From My Mother”. I expect many of you could echo this same sentiment, and share many of the same things that I am about to share, but what follows are the values of goodness that I learned from my mom:
Mom believed that the value of a person was in their existence, not their place in life. From my earliest days I recall my mom saying “No one on Earth is better than you, and you are not better than them, either”. From this I learned my earliest lessons of respect, admiration, and equal treatment. I learned that all people are people of worth --- no matter what!
Mom believed that if you are going to make something you need whatever is essential to do so. She did not say it quite that way, though. What she often said had to do with the making of chicken salad out of a less than desirable chicken substance, a line I would learn only late in life was actually original to President Lyndon Johnson and not my mother. From this somewhat earthy and crude aphorism I learned that the accomplishment of anything worthwhile, required having what one needed to do a job well ---- otherwise the end result would not match the original hope or vision.
Mom believed that God has a plan for your life. Long before popular aggressive evangelism programs began to exploit this phrase; it was heard around our home. Coupled with the idea was Mom’s thought that the plan of God was good and required our participation to be realized. From this I learned that my life had a purpose that I should not miss that was bigger than I could imagine on my own.
Mom believed that you should stand fiercely for the people and things that you believe in, they are what matters, and they will be there when all else is gone away. My family never questioned that before any harm came to us it would have to go through Mom first. From this I learned to stand for the people and the values that are important to me, for even when it costs something, it will be worth the cost.
Mom believed that you should never accept anything exactly as it appears on the surface. There is always more to the story, always something else you can and should know. This lesson more than any other explains who I am. I will always ask why, what for, and want to know the particulars. I have an insatiable curiosity about the things that matter to me and in which I become involved, and for that you can either thank or curse my mother.
Mom believed that you can always learn something from both the good and the bad decisions that others make. As a result, she and my Dad conducted our household pretty much as an open book with few secrets. In an age where it is popular to blame parents for adult decisions that are attributed to something bad in one’s childhood, I’ve never found the need to do that, because I learned early that my parents were not perfect, but were great sources of knowledge, in their failures as well as their successes.
Least you leave here thinking otherwise let me assure you, that I know my Mom was not perfect. She could be opinionated, stubborn, and set in her ways. (Not unlike some of her children!) Mom loved a conspiracy theory better than anyone, she was convinced that the world would never really know the truth about the Kennedy assassination, and that Elvis had not left the building, but is alive and well on planet Earth. However, despite her imperfections, she was a living, breathing, Gospel of Jesus Christ who made the world better because she was in it. She embodied as well as anyone the values we celebrate in Mother’s Day! May God give us the grace this Mother’s Day and forward to make sure the same is true of our lives, whether we are Mothers, Fathers, or just fellow travellers with others on the journey of life. AMEN!