Sunday, May 8, 2022

As Zion Was In Labor: Sermon for Mother's Day 2022

Today, people all over the United States of America observe and celebrate Mother's Day as part of our national calendar, honoring and thanking the essential contribution of motherhood to every human life. But twenty-six centuries ago, the mothers of Judah were not finding themselves celebrated – and it's not just because Mother's Day as a holiday is less than 150 years old, developing gradually from women's peace efforts in the aftermath of our Civil War. But Jerusalem in the year 587 BC was suffering woes Antietam and Gettysburg thankfully never knew. For by this time in 587 BC, Jerusalem was well over a year into an extended siege by the sons of the mothers in Babylon, and the situation was dire for the mothers in Judah. “The tongue of the nursing infant sticks to the roof of its mouth for thirst” (Lamentations 4:4). “Infants and babies faint in the streets of the city... as their life is poured out on their mother's bosom” (Lamentations 2:11-12). “Even jackals offer the breast, they nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel” (Lamentations 4:3). “The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground” (Lamentations 2:10). Food supplies had fallen so short that malnourished mothers had nothing in themselves to nurse their children with. Infant mortality was high. And things only got worse from there – unspeakably worse (Lamentations 1:20; 4:10).

But through the siege and eventual destruction of Jerusalem, the mothers of Judah were not the only mothers bereaved. For Zion herself – Jerusalem personified – is a Mother to the people, and her children's faithlessness was the source of considerable grief and shame even before the Babylonians arrived. But once they did, then her sons “lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net” (Isaiah 51:20). “Zion stretches out her hands, but there is none to comfort her” (Lamentations 1:17). “There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne; there is none to take her hand among all the sons she has brought up” (Isaiah 51:19). And so “she weeps bitterly in the night with tears on her cheeks” (Lamentations 1:2). Once the temple is burned and her children are carried off captive, Mother Zion is described as utterly “bereaved and barren” (Isaiah 49:21). No wonder “Zion said: 'The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me'” (Isaiah 49:14). Zion was honored with no Mother's Day that year, nor in any of the years that followed, once “Zion has become a wilderness” (Isaiah 64:10). And so Mother Zion was left to grow old and gray alone.

That's hardly a cheery note. And if that were the final line, it wouldn't much be worth saying on a happier day like today. But – thanks be to God – across the years cuts the voice of the prophet, offering a word of promise, of a day to come that would be startlingly different from the day of lament. On that day, Zion's fortunes would abruptly revive. “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before her pain came upon her, she delivered a son! Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in a day? Shall a nation be born in a moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she brought forth her children!” (Isaiah 66:7-8). What a miracle! Mother Zion, for long decades old and gray, is suddenly in the glory of her youth, suddenly conceiving and giving birth to a massive child: an entire land, the fullness of a nation. And there's no pain in it. No sooner is she ready to give birth than she simply does, suddenly and painlessly. Long ago, when Eden said goodbye, the Lord had warned Mother Eve that henceforth mothers would find it personally quite costly to introduce new life into the world – that all would enter in hardship and agony, in sweat and blood (Genesis 3:16). But here, Zion is a mother who gives birth all-but-instantaneously, without the labor pains of Eve. On the other side of the exile, Jerusalem has been restored, when suddenly Zion gives birth to a prospering nation, when suddenly the desolate land around her is a full-fledged land again, when a sudden population boom astonishes the world.

'Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?' says the LORD. 'Shall I, who cause to bring forth, shut the womb?' says your God” (Isaiah 66:9). God finishes what he started in her! The same God who brings her pregnancy to its ninth month has no plans of calling it quits then. Nor does the God who so loves his Zion's fertility have plans to put limits on it – to say, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther” (Job 38:11). He would be acting against himself if he did, if he brought things to such a point and then stalled or reversed course on her. And if God is that committed to Zion's fruitfulness, to Zion's maternity, then it can only mean that more children are shortly on their way! More exiles to return, and new mothers in the land to raise up young!

Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her! Rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her, that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast, that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance” (Isaiah 66:10-11). I wonder if Isaiah, contemplating such words, would recall watching his wife nurse their sons. I wonder if the image came to mind of how happy and content little Shear-jashub was, falling asleep on his mom's shoulder after being burped. Once, in the siege, the mothers in Judah had been so malnourished that they could produce no milk for their little ones – or, if they could, it was scarcely a drop, not enough to satisfy. But the prophet turns that picture on its head. Now, in rejoicing and celebration, Mother Zion's breast never runs dry. Her abundance is glorious and well-supplied for all the little ones. After the long ardors of exile, what must this prophecy have meant, to think that the era of mournfulness is past, that satisfaction and delight are close at hand, that once-dry Zion will swell with strength and plenty!

For thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream...'” (Isaiah 66:12). Before, Israel nearly drowned when against them came “the waters of the river, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory” (Isaiah 8:7). War rushed on them as a river – on Israel then from Assyria, on Judah from Babylon later. But if only Zion's children had kept their Father's commandments, “then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea, and your offspring would've been like the sand, and your descendants like its grains” (Isaiah 48:18-19). And now, that's exactly what the LORD promises – belated through their faithlessness, but assured through his faithfulness! Instead of a dangerous river rushing to drown Zion's children, a river of peace and wholeness will flow her way, in which all her children can bathe and drift beneath the summer sun. And the very riches and prestige over which Zion's children once drove themselves mad with greed shall now wash ashore for the family like a rising tide, for the glory and strength, the gold and silver, the reputation of the empires will be theirs.

'...and you shall nurse, you shall be carried on her hip and bounced on her knees! As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you: you shall be comforted in Jerusalem; you shall see, and your heart will rejoice...'” (Isaiah 66:12-14). Think of a mother, carrying her baby on her hip as she moves about the house. Picture a mother, bouncing her little one on her knee, amusing him, playing peekaboo with him. Envision a mother, bopping him gently and rhythmically up and down, softly shushing and cooing to reassure him and bring his cries to a happy conclusion. See a mother, as her child ages, wrapping her arms around him and tending to his scuffs and scrapes, his bumps and bruises – holding him through his tantrums, reasoning with him through his pouts, cheering him through his sorrows, encouraging him through his doubts. That's the prophet's picture here of Mother Zion. In their great festivals, they'll nurse on the flavors of their sacrifices again at last, and not be cast out from their homes. Secure and shapely, Mother Zion will soothe, amuse, and bond with the children God gives her, dangling the nations' glory like car keys to her grinning child's delight. And when her children are still crying from the losses they once endured, now they have comfort from God in their mother's arms, comfort as only a mother can give. And so their hearts will rejoice with her.

A wonderful prophecy in its time. But even the ancient Jews saw meaning in it beyond the return from exile – a return that seemed to fall short of the glorification of Mother Zion they'd been hoping for. And so, in the line we read about Zion giving birth to a son, ancient Jews heard there a promise of a royal son – a king, the Messiah.1 And in time, over five centuries after the Jews returned to the land, the Messiah was born. He was born not in Jerusalem but just over five miles south, in nearby Bethlehem, to a mother named Mary. Mary's role was to perfectly personify Mother Zion – to be Zion giving birth to the Messiah, mothering the Messiah, giving the Messiah to her people for their consolation. And for just that reason, as far back as we can go, many, many Christians were convinced that, when Mary gave birth to Jesus in Bethlehem, the childbirth was literally sudden and painless, as if the Fall and its results for Eve just couldn't touch her.2 And far be it from me to argue with them! In England today, there's a mother of three whose longest labor, start to finish, has so far been 26 minutes. Her shortest? That was last year, and it was 27 seconds. She didn't even realize what was happening to her until the baby's head was out. Delivery was painless; afterward, not so much.3 Still, if she can give birth like Zion, why not Mary, when it seems so much more fitting there?

Before we even make it out of the New Testament, there are hints that Mary – still embodying the prophecies of Mother Zion – is portrayed with a relationship to all Christ's disciples, each reader of John's Gospel invited to see themselves standing beside her at the foot of the cross as Jesus declares, “Behold your mother!” (John 19:26). But her role as Mother Zion is then stretched into a template for the Church's maternal calling, for as Paul says, “the Jerusalem Above is free, and she is our Mother” (Galatians 4:26). The Church, seen from the standpoint of heaven, is our Mother Zion. And no sooner was Mother Zion in labor than she brought forth her rejoicing children – and that's us! Think first of the three thousand added on Pentecost (Acts 2:41), think of the five thousand not long after that (Acts 4:4) – isn't that a nation brought forth in a moment (Isaiah 66:8)? All those added on Pentecost or after were incorporated into the Body of Mary's Son, all brought into the Christian family, all made children of Zion. “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47), for shall the Lord “bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?” (Isaiah 66:9). God continues onward as faithful as ever to our Mother's fruitfulness, refusing to withhold her strength to continue conceiving and bearing new Christians from her womb. For as the early Christians said, these words in Isaiah include “the mystery of the new birth, both of us and of all who look forward to the glorious coming of Christ in Jerusalem and strive in their every action to please him.”4 And so, at Christ's coming, Zion will at last give birth to an earth all at once, when the new creation is born and all blessings of prophecy are enjoyed in full.

It's in light of this prophecy and this fulfillment that we can celebrate Mother's Day today – both in our families and here in the bosom of our church. So how does the prophet tell a child to respond to a mother?

First, a child should “love her” (Isaiah 66:10a)! Isaiah assumes that, from the very basis of nature, a little child will love his mother, will be close to his mother. As a little child, that's not so hard. As a teenager, things tend to be rougher. In adulthood, attachment can find a mature balance. For an adult child, loving his mother can no longer be the dominant attachment in his life, but that's hardly to say it's anywhere close to unimportant. In a healthy relationship between mother and child, whether immature or mature, that love, that attachment, that connection is undying. And so should it be for us and Mother Zion. We show love for Mother Zion when we cultivate a real connectedness to the church. We love our mother when we don't withdraw from her, don't push her away, don't detach ourselves from care and concern for her.

Second, a child should “rejoice with her in joy” (Isaiah 66:10b)! Now, a little child can rejoice in just about anything, so long as it's presented to him as exciting to someone he loves. Say it in an exciting voice, and the words don't matter, the excitement does. When a mother is excited, the child can be excited and rejoice with her in joy. As the child grows, though, and becomes an adult, he might in some ways find it easier to have a mature rejoicing, because he's capable then of a deeper understanding of how his mother really fares. It might not look as exuberant, but he can and should take festive delight in things going well for his mother. And so should it be for us and Mother Zion. We rejoice with Mother Zion when we rejoice over the state of the Church overall and over the affairs of the local church. Is she at peace and untroubled, from without and from within? She rejoices – rejoice with her! Does glory flow to her, crediting her for her good? She rejoices – rejoice with her!

Third, a child should “nurse and be satisfied” (Isaiah 66:11)! This one is essential in an infant child, especially in the world of ancient Judah – no baby formula there. To fail to nurse is to be in mortal danger. As we heard, that happened plenty during the siege of Jerusalem, not from the infant's failure of desire but from the mother's lack of milk. When each of you was an infant, you regularly nursed and were satisfied, else you wouldn't be here today. Later, as you grew, you likely ate other things your mother prepared, not from her own body, but with the efforts of her hands. No longer nursing, you ate solid food, but it was still a mother's gift. And so, with Mother Zion, are we called to “nurse and be satisfied.” As the Apostle Peter tells us: “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Peter 2:2-3). We nurse on the church when we listen to her teachings. We nurse on the church when we eat what she puts on the table. And to fail to nurse, to fail to drink, shows a problem with our desire, a disturbance in our appetite – because Mother Zion never runs dry of the pure spiritual milk that makes us grow.

Fourth, a child should “be carried upon her hip and bounced upon her knees” (Isaiah 66:12). As a little child, this is just natural. It's not something an infant even has to choose; it's a natural consequence of a mother's tender involvement in her child's life. She carries him from room to room, she holds him, she plays with him, she bonds with him. His task is simply to not struggle and just accept the bond she creates. Later in life, a child has more choices, and the kinds of bonding should look different – good luck bouncing a forty-year-old on your knees! – but the bond still can be a source of fun and enjoyment. And so with Mother Zion. The church invites you to be carried on her hip – to accompany her, to be present with her. The church invites you to be bounced on her knees, to play – and that play is worship. It's a natural consequence of the church's involvement in your life, of being present where she is. Worship is how the church bonds with her children, worship is what happens when you gaze at the gospel she jingles before your watching eyes, and you smile and giggle your praise and awe at the shinyness of grace and dream of the glory that's to be revealed.

Fifth, a child should cherish God's comfort through a mother's love: “As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you” (Isaiah 66:13). Comfort is that sigh of relief as tension and fear leach away, as pain is obscured and soothed. Every mother, I'm sure, knows what it is to rush to her child when she hears his cry. Every mother knows what it is to hold her child close, to kiss where her child bumped his knee, to bandage a scraped chin, to tell him things are going to be alright. And so it is with Mother Zion. When we pray in the church's embrace, God wants us to have that sigh of relief that comes from knowing he's near and is holding us through. And faithfully the church holds you too, as many of us can attest practically but as all of us can trust spiritually.

Sixth, a child should “take her by the hand” and “guide her” when she needs it (Isaiah 51:18). This especially belongs to an adult child. As your mother ages, or when your mother's ill, she may be in greater need of some of the gifts she used to give you – like a hand to hold, like guidance on the way, like strength for a task. Give it. It's not foreign to the role of a child to do it; it's most proper to give her support and help. And so with Mother Zion also. When we actively lend our strength and support to the church's ministries and mission, we're taking her by the hand, holding her up. To help the church as her child is as fitting as helping our mothers in the flesh.

And seventh, a child should once again “rejoice” (Isaiah 66:14) as he sees his mother's fruitfulness continue (Isaiah 66:9). It can be difficult, though, for a small child to see things this way. As naturally focused on self as young children naturally are, jealousy and possessiveness can get in the way, a trial in understanding a newborn brother or sister as other than a potential rival for all the love, for all the care. But one of the kindest attitudes a child can have is to be happy, not merely to him- or herself be gaining a little brother or sister, but to be happy for the mom. And so this is a crowning mark in celebrating one's mother – it's to rejoice with her over her subsequent children. It's to love and embrace a growing band of siblings with love and respect for her sake, and to share in her joy over them. And so also with Mother Zion! God, having already begun his work in her, isn't going to let all Zion's perceived weaknesses on earth bring her birthgiving to a halt. God has every intention of strengthening Mother Zion to successfully bring our new brothers and sisters to birth, raising them up from the waters of new birth before our eyes. And it's our lot to rejoice with Mother Zion over each new soul added, and to cheer on our Mother's fruitfulness, and to gather with her under her one roof as one family.

To those of you in the church who have been mothers or grandmothers – whether by birthgiving, by adoption, by influence, or whatever the case – thank you for reflecting a great mystery into our lives, whether you did so for many decades or for a shorter while. To those of you in the church who were not mothers after the flesh, but who have faithfully lived your calling in other ways, we honor and thank you also for assisting the mystery in whatever way you did. Happy Mother's Day to you all. And as each of us remembers our mothers, and perhaps in turn are remembered as mothers, may we all celebrate God's goodness to Mother Zion! Amen.

1  Targum Isaiah 66:7 – “Before distress comes to her, she shall be delivered, and before shaking comes upon her as pains upon a woman in travail, her king will be revealed.”

2  For instance, see Ascension of Isaiah 11.8-14 (late first century); Odes of Solomon 19.8 (early second century); Protevangelium of James 19.2 (late second century); Irenaeus of Lyons, Proof of the Apostolic Preaching 54 (late second century); Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 7.16 (very early third century); Methodius of Olympus, Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna 3 (late third or early fourth century). See also discussion in Manfred Hauke, Introduction to Mariology (CUA Press, 2021 [2008]), 183-193.

3  For news coverage, see, e.g., “Rocket Baby!...”, The Daily Mail, 6 May 2021, <https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9550065/Basingstoke-mother-gives-birth-just-27-SECONDS-single-push.html>.

4  Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 85.7 (mid-second century). In Dialogue 85.8-9, Justin quotes Isaiah 66:5-11.

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