MAY 10th, 2026 PASTOR DON PIEPER
MOTHER’S DAY LUKE 10:38-42 / 7:11-17; 8:1-3
“AN EXTRAORDINARY MOTHER’S DAY”
Hat's off to all our moms here today! Being a mother is not an easy job. The hours are endless, the pay nonexistent and the recognition generally insufficient. My mom, for one, did not have it easy. She'd invite friends from the church over only to have naked boy go streaking thru the living room, or be find evidence that a tornado had touched down in my bedroom..., or be awakened in the middle of the night by one of my screaming nightmares. I could've been a role model for young Calvin...
Don: (lying on 'bed') MOM! MOM! WAKE UP, MOM! COME QUICK!
Mom: (rushing to his bed) What's wrong? What's the matter?Did you have another nightmare?
Don: What? No, I was just wondering. Do you think love is nothing but a biological reaction designed to make sure our genes are passed on? (mom pauses, looks at cong, then Don)
Mom: Whatever it is, it's all that's keeping me from strangling you right now. (shuffles off)
Don: Mom's midnight reassurances are somehow never very reassuring. (lies back down)
Mom: (calling from A/V booth) Don, get up! It's time for school!
Don: (pulling up cover and mumbling) Yeah, okay - Just a few more minutes, mom.
Mom: DON, GET UP! YOU'RE GONNA BE LATE!
Don: Being late sounds great....
Mom: (enters) HEY! Let's move it!! This is the third time I've called you! Let's go already!
Don: Whoever invented mornings should have their head examined. (exits to sacristy)
(mom sits in a chair) MOM!! HEY, MOM!! I'M HOME! YOU KNOW WHAT?!
Mom: Calvin, stop yelling across the house! If you want to talk to me walk over to the living room, where I am! (Don walks over to her) Now what is it?
Don: Well, uh I stepped in some doggy doo-doo. (both look behind him; mom covers her face)
Mom: Some day I hope you have a kid that puts you through what I've gone through.
Don: Funny, that's what grandma says she used to tell you. (Mom gets up & sweeps floor)
(Don walks over to where she's working) Mom, I'm bored. I don't have anything to do.
Mom: Well, then, why don't you go clean your room?
Don: (looks at cong,, then with hands on hips replies smugly) Actually, I was bragging.
(Mom looks at cong, & returns to mopping) So Mom, what was I like as a baby?
Mom: You were stinky.
Don: (looking at cong) Stinky?
Mom: Yes. Very stinky. (Don looks at cong)
Don: It's always a bit disconcerting to have one's existence reduced to a blurb about one's odor.
Mom: (lying down on bed) Don, I'm not feeling very well. I'm going to lie down for a while.
Don: (sitting on bed) Are you okay? It's hard to be a mom for a mom, isn't it, mom?
Mom: (sitting up and giving Don a hug) I'm okay. Don't worry. You do fine, sweetheart.
Don: WHOA! HEY! What if you're contagious?! Oh, well, happy mother's day, mom.
(Don returns the hug and then mom exits and returns to her seat in the cong.)
It's true. Some times it's hard to be a mom for a mom. For some of us, it's our first glimpse of unconditional love. As my mom used to say: 'Don,’you’re something else, your mother loves you, but what a mess!’ Being a Mom is messy business! It can be hard to be a mom for a mom.
That certainly was the case for the mother from the village of Nain. Can you imagine? First she lost her husband and now her only son has died as well. It's a mother's worst fear, to lose a child.
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What's more, she's not only overcome with grief, she’s also burdened with anxiety. How will she make ends meet? First century Jewish women didn't learn a trade. They were expected to take care of the home not work for a living. Without a husband nor any sons to earn an income her future is suddenly at risk. Who’s going to provide for her? Not a Nain, apparently!
Enter Jesus and his entourage. Luke informs us that “A funeral procession with a large crowd was heading out of the village as he and his disciples and a large crowd following him were coming in...” (Luke 7:12) Can you picture it? One large crowd meeting another crowd at the city gate. It's a bottleneck. There's a lot of “excuse me” and “coming through” and “watch your step” going on.
One crowd is following the source of life and the other is following a reminder of the loss of life. Who makes room for who? Normally, the former will give way to the latter, right? What do you do when a coffin bearing limo and it's procession pass your way on the road? You stop, right? You give them the right of way. But not Jesus! Instead of giving way, Jesus gets in the way. Luke tells us that “He walked over to the coffin, touched it, and the pallbearers immediately stopped.” (Luke 7:14)
What's he doing? That's the question running everyone's wondering. What's he thinking? Luke doesn't leave us guessing. He tells us: “when (Jesus) saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion.” (Luke 7:13)
He saw her. Clearly he saw what others saw: a widow dressed in black, eyes red with tears, body convulsing in soul-wrenching sobs, shoulders sagging under the weight of the world. Jesus sees all that, and more. He sees therein the potential for a transformativee moment, for grief to become great joy, for a woman of little significance to become a catayst of God's extravagance.
He sees all that yes and in that moment He sees her tremendous need. He hears her heavy sobs. He feels her aching heart. So Jesus reaches out to her to encourage her. “Don’t cry!” he tells her. Why shouldn’t she cry? Because death isn't the end of the story, not when Jesus is in the picture!
(Luke 7:13)
What he does next no one in Nain will ever forget – especially her. With a word he returns life to her son. With a word he returns meaning to her life. With a word he returns a son to his mother and a mother to her son. And the sounds of sobbing and wailing are changed, in a twinkling of an eye, into the sounds of praise and celebration, as Jesus simply says, “Young man, I tell you, get up!”
(Luke 7:14)
How’s that for a Mother’s Day gift? What an extraordinary Mother's Day! Jesus’ heart over-flowed with compassion and the young man’s funeral flowers were transformed into Easter lilies!
It reveals the first of three extraordinary Mother's Day gifts Jesus offers those who come to see and be seen by him – the gift of his compassion. For those of you who have known loss and grief, whose hearts ache and tremble, know this – Jesus sees you. And his compassion for you runs deep. To be sure, his compassion is no mere emotion; it's what prompts him to action. His compassion action turns loss into gain, longing into finding and despair into redemption. Luke's observation is not just historical, it's personal: “When (Jesus) saw her, his heart overflowed with compassion.” (Luke 7:13)
Those of you whose hearts are heavy know this, Jesus sees you and he has compassion for you!
So one gift Jesus offers is that of his compassion in action. Jesus' second mother's day gift, evident in our readings, is that of validation, as seen in the story of Martha and Mary of Bethany.
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To be clear, it's not that what Martha does here in her home is wrong, it's that what Mary does is better. And what Mary does is indeed quite bold, for she takes a position generally reserved for one of the twelve. Luke tells us that “Mary sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he taught.”
(Luke 10:39)
She's stepped out of the gender expectations of her culture, and as articulated by her own sister, and stepped into the position of an apprentice. She's sitting where we would expect to find Peter and John. She's investing herself wholeheartedly in learning from Jesus, presumably so she can pass it on.
After all, to be a a disciple is to make disciples. As Jesus instructed his disciples, “Go and make disciples of others..., teaching them everything I have taught you...” (Matthew 28:19-20)
Jesus validates Mary's right to do just that by affirming her taking a spot at his feet, to learn from him, and to do as he did, when he tells Martha: “There is only one thing worth pursuing. Mary has discovered it and it will not be taken from her.” (Luke 10:42) In this he validates any and every woman who pursues him and seeks to live their life as his apprentice making apprentices. She's not a minor league disciple with the men as major league disciples. She's one of them. She's someone who has set everything else aside in order to learn from Jesus, become like Jesus, and do like Jesus. In this way Jesus validates women who seek to make their pursuit of him the one thing most worth pursuing.
That brings us to Jesus' third mother's day gift – participation as Kingdom players, the invitation
to become full partners with him in the Kingdom of Heaven he brings to life among us here on earth.
That certainly is Mary Magdalene’s story. This is a different Mary, btw, not to be confused with Martha's sister. This Mary is introduced in Luke 8 as a woman from whom Jesus had cast out seven demons, one of a number of women who’ve taken to following Jesus and support his ministry.
Neither here nor any where else is any family of hers mentioned. Women were identified with either their husbands or their families of origin, but not Mary. We know her merely as the Magdalene, that is, she's identified as being from the town of Magdala, a small city of little significance. What’s her story, I wonder? Did her family disown her or did she disassociate from them, that she should be identified by where she lives instead of to whom she belongs, plagued with not one but 7 demons?
Luke tells us that “Jesus was touring towns and villages, preaching the Good News about the Kingdom of God, and that he took his twelve disciples and some women, including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, from King Herod's court, and Susanna who financially supported Jesus ministry.”
(Luke 8:1-3)
These women were crucial to Jesus' ministry. They not only traveled with him, they were also listening in and learning at Jesus' feet as depicted in The Chosen. They were totally invested in what he was saying and doing. It's these very same group of women who wound up being the first witnesses of Jesus' resurrection. They were not merely bystanders, they were key kingdom players from the start!
Jesus built his supernatural kingdom on the support these key women provided. Through these passages in Luke we see Jesus offering women his compassion in action, validation of their value as his apprentices and active participation in his kingdom alive among us! For reasons such as these we cele-brate the women among us with gifts that bless us all – like Karen and Katherine's passion for the kids in our community, Merebeth, Joy and Jill's gifts for reading and praying, Claudia and her team's gift for worship leadership and Jamie's gift for preaching. We're richer, healthier for their apprenticeship!
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[Joy's written testimony]
Next week we'll transition from Luke’s gospel to its sequel, The Acts of the Apostles, a book that reveals how Jesus’ compassion continued to overflow on hurting, disconnected people through the witnesses of the resurrection. We’ll read of other extraordinary mothers days like a certain single Mom, a business woman by the name of Lydia, who became an amazing apprentice of Jesus, how her whole family followed her lead, and then her whole city as well, thanks to her bold witness.
These are not isolated events from the ancient past. Luke put these stories into writing so that all those who seek to know and follow Jesus might also experience his compassion and validation, that like Mary we may accept his invitation to participate in his Kingdom that even now is on the move.
May we, like the people of Nain, come to declare:“God has visited His people today!”
(Luke 7:16)