(1 Samuel 1:21-28)
What is “my calling.” That might be a good Jeopardy response if a contestant chose “Vocation for $500.” Simply put, your vocation is your calling. Today we begin a series that will clarify what our calling is and guide us in carrying out. While some talk about discovering their calling or feeling a calling from God, it’s actually much simpler than that. Your calling is the role God has given you to carry out right now where you’re at in life, and to carry it out in a way that serves God and others to the best of your ability with the unique gifts and responsibilities that God has given you. Are you a student – that is your calling. Employee? So is that. Single? Coach? Church member? Community volunteer? Instrumentalist? Sibling? Yes – each of these, all of these, some of these – any combination of these and so many other stations in life are what make up our calling. This morning we focus especially on one vocation: motherhood. And one doesn’t have to have children for this vocation to be worth our consideration, because none of us would be here today if not for mothers. So we appreciate the calling of motherhood from God.
Hannah isn’t a bad mother to look at. Sadly, part of the reason she appears especially godly is because the men in the account don’t! Her own husband, well-intentioned as he might have been, comes off looking rather insensitive in his poor attempt to console her at her inability to have children. He points out that she shouldn’t be taking it so hard, because he should mean more to her than not being able to be a mother. Husbands, that’s how not to do it! Then the priest Eli, when he witnesses Hannah pouring out her soul in prayer to the Lord for the gift of a child, wrongly presumes she’s been drinking. Eli, who fails miserably at managing his own sons, assumes the worst of godly Hannah praying for a son of her own! So in stark contrast to the less than stellar examples provided by others in the account, Hannah’s godliness stands out. Her relationship with the Lord was not an afterthought. It wasn’t a means to an end. It was a priority, and it showed itself especially in the realm of motherhood.
It’s rare to see anyone with that kind of a dedicated faith-focused relationship with God. Moreover, mothers especially have the unique challenge of Satan pitting the blessing of children against God. One of the most subtle idols in our culture today is the devil’s elevation of children. While not a shock in the world, do not be naive and suppose that only the world struggles with such an idol as a child. Do not presume it is such a large leap for a child to jump from being a gift from God to becoming a gift over God. Now none of us would be terribly quick to admit that we can allow our children to become idols in our lives, but then, are we terribly quick to admit any idols in our lives? Isn’t that often the criteria that applies to something being a dangerous idol – we aren’t even aware that it is crowding out or already has crowded God out of our hearts as our first love? Or, we’re very aware of it, and will guard it tenaciously!
Children become our idols when our worlds either intentionally or unintentionally revolve around our kids. It happens when we are concerned more about their friends, finances, and future, than we are their faith. It happens when we allow their sports and their social schedules to push aside our Savior and our own spiritual growth. It happens when we spend more time worrying about their temporal life than we do praying for their eternal life.
That’s a real danger, mind you – the idolatry of allowing our children to hold the primary place of importance in our lives. It’s one that God helped Abraham be aware of. Remember how God finally granted Abraham his own son with Sarah? That promise was a long time coming! All of God’s future promises hinged on that one child, and God finally granted him Isaac. Then, in a demand that knots up our hearts, God commanded Abraham to slay his own son and kill him. Why such a gut-wrenching request? God knew how easily a parent’s love for a child can replace a parent’s love for the Lord. That experience not only made it clear to Abraham, but it also was an opportunity to put his faith into action and demonstrate that Isaac had not replaced God as number one in Abraham’s heart.
How did Hannah – whose desire for a child was no small thing! – guard against her child, young Samuel, replacing God in her heart? She gave him away. How does a mother do that? She realizes her child is not hers; her child is His. Like absolutely everything else in this world, children belong to God first and foremost, and like everything else with which God blesses us, they are gifts on loan to be managed well. Her dedication to the Lord first and foremost was evident by her willingness to dedicate her own son in service to the Lord. She was so filled with gratitude at the gift of a son God had given her that in thanksgiving, she gave him back. It is not an easy thing to send a son or daughter away to high school like CLHS or MLS or LPS or college like MLC for possible service to the Lord in ministry, but it is one way to reflect that children are God’s gift on loan to us, and to dedicate them to possible future ministry is no small sacrifice. Hannah would have agreed.
But it isn’t just idolatry that mothers have to worry about. There’s another struggle that goes on in a mother’s heart, one that may not be so obvious to others: guilt. There is constant comparison to every other mother with children, and a natural tendency to zero in on the one other mother in the store or at the park who seems to effortlessly execute her mothering skills and ought to be teaching a “Momming 101” class somewhere. Or, when a mom thinks she may just be getting the hang of the motherhood thing, her own mom or mother-in-law deflates her with an observation or offers a “helpful” suggestion on how to handle something differently. Or, if she feels like a rockstar mothering and managing the children, feelings of failure in the marriage or neglecting her husband or not getting a job or some other perceived deficiency settles in. Guilt for mothers, whether self-imposed or brought on by others, can be crippling. So it isn’t the weight of a stroller, a diaper bag, or her child’s backpack that is the heaviest burden a mom often bears, but rather guilt. Guilt can easily outweigh them all.
Want a real solution to the danger of idolatry and the dread of guilt? Let’s talk about identity on Mother’s Day. If you are a mom, it’s easy to see that as your identity. It’s who you are. It’s where your focus is. It’s what you do around the clock. You care for your kids. You meet their needs. You schedule their appointments. You drive them around. You bandaid their scrapes. You grab their snacks. You wash their clothes and fold their laundry. You pack their suitcase. You make their bed. You do it all – you’re their mom!
But all moms are something else before they are mothers: they are daughters. And I am not talking about daughters to your own father and mother; I mean you aredaughters of the Lord. You are children of the heavenly Father. You are his. Before even the first thought of a name for your child crossed your mind, the Lord knew your name from eternity as his. Before God ever blessed you with the joy of holding a nursing infant in your arms, he held you in his heart. He chose you to be his long before ever blessing you with the status of motherhood. In Isaiah 43 he says as much: “But now, this is what the LORD says – ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine’” (v.1).
And he went to the greatest of lengths to solidify your relationship with him! He himself was born of a woman so that he might redeem women, mothers included. He perfectly honored and respected his own mother in a way no one else ever has or could, so that his keeping of the Fourth Commandment might count as our perfect track record. He loved his Heavenly Father with a holy, perfect love. He never allowed another idol to displace that love in his heart, so that his pure heart would count in the place of our own idolatry, whether a mother’s disordered love for her children before God or any other idolatry that takes root in our heart. Finally, he bore all the sin, and all the shame and guilt along with it, when he was pierced for us, crucified, and gave his life not just for his own mother, but for every mother – to guarantee that every failed mother would be first and foremost his prized daughter.
And oh, how he cared! Even in the midst of unbearable suffering and pain, his heart went out to his own mother, as we were reminded in the Gospel for today. Even then he cared for Mary, not just as his mother, but as a daughter of the Lord. He looked after her. He cared for her. He cares for you, mother. Even when your own children do not appreciate you. Even when your husband doesn’t support you. The Lord cares for you and always will, for you are his daughter.
The right relationship with the Lord allows mothers – and all of us – to have a right relationship with others. When the Lord is our first love, we are freed to be more concerned about our child’s faith than our child’s future. My child doesn’t need me to make sure that he’s never bored by ensuring around-the-clock entertainment – my child needs Jesus. Planning birthday parties and play dates aren’t priorities – Jesus is. Coordinating amazing experiences and unforgettable family vacations for my kids right now does nothing for my child in eternity the way Jesus does. The best thing a mom can do for a child is repeatedly point that child to Jesus and Jesus’ love for their child. That way everyone wins. The child will come to love Jesus more and more, which will in turn result in the best kind of love a child can give to a mother. Mom, help your child love Jesus more than your child loves you. They’ll love you for it. They’ll get a sample in you of the dedication the Lord has for them. And they’ll see you the way Jesus’ perfect life and payment for your sin has made you to be – as a dedicated mom. Happy Mother’s Day.
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