Scripture Readings:
Hebrew Scriptures – Jeremiah 31: 15-17
15Thus says the Lord: A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more. 16Thus says the Lord: Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord: they shall come back from the land of the enemy; 17there is hope for your future, says the Lord: your children shall come back to their own country.
Gospel Lesson – John 14: 23-29
23Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.
25”I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.
28You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.
“I Hear Rachel Weeping for Her Children.”
The Rachel Sabbath Initiative that we are highlighting today – on Mothers’ Day – is named for the matriarch Rachel in the Hebrew Scriptures, who died in childbirth.1 Rachel first appears in Genesis when she encounters Jacob, her future husband.2 Her story progresses with heartache over struggles with preempted love and infertility. Eventually, Rachel gives birth to a son and clings to the desire for more children. Like millions of women today, though, she endured a terrible labor and, with a midwife by her side, Rachel dies after delivering her second child. Jacob’s caravan stops to bury her on the road to Bethlehem because (as in many cultures even today) the bodies of women who died in childbirth were considered a threat to those still living. When my wife Martha and I visited the site of Rachel’s tomb on our trip to Israel with the Pearson’s, I remember being deeply moved – yet again – by her story and by her place of rest.
Rachel’s story, though, is one (sadly) that keeps being told and retold in the lives of young mothers to this very day. It speaks to the persistent need for maternal health care – particularly in the developing world – that we might begin to save the lives of more than half a million women who die every year in childbirth or from pregnancy-related complications.
Later in the Hebrew Scriptures, we hear from Rachel again: “Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”3 Rachel’s voice still cries out today, I think, calling us to respond to the needs of the one million children left motherless every year due to maternal mortality. And the tragedy of that one death is all too often compounded, because these children are then three to 10 times more likely to die themselves within two years of their mother’s death.
So “The Rachel Sabbath Initiative” is a call to all faith communities to honor Rachel and her children by our committing ourselves today to not only saving the lives of women and children next door, but saving those same lives all around the world. 4
I don’t know of any religious tradition that does not affirm that life is sacred. Whether it’s Christian or Jewish, Muslim or Buddhist, our faiths celebrate the divinely bestowed blessings of generating life and assuring that that same life can be sustained and nurtured into maturity. As with many other religious communities, The United Methodist Church supports responsible procreation, the widespread availability of contraception, prenatal care, access to abortion services and compassionate, intentional parenting.
The resources to save children’s and mothers’ lives are basic ones. The knowledge that leads to infant and maternal health is common knowledge. The solutions are simple. And yet millions of mothers and children still die or suffer needlessly every single day. In far too many parts of the world half of all children die before their fifth birthday from preventable diseases. The “Mother and Child Survival” program of the United Methodist Committee on Relief5 is working very hard to turn this situation around in just four basic ways: nutrition, oral rehydration, immunization, and growth monitoring. Through our support of these programs we can work toward the prophet Isaiah’s vision of the new Jerusalem where he said “No more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days.”6
Today is Mothers’ Day and I’m reminded of the creative work of Miriam Therese Winter, a Roman Catholic sister and theologian. Her continuing invitation to us all (and I think it’s fitting to hear it on this day of all days) is to consider the feminine images of God – not in some tasteless drugstore Mother’s-Day-card kind of theology, but by addressing God in relational ways. In one of her many reflections she offers this to us today:
The God of
history,
The God of the Bible.
is One who carries us in Her
arms
after carrying us in Her womb,
breastfeeds us,
nurtures
us,
teaches us how to walk,
teaches us how to soar upward
just
as the eagle teaches its young
to stretch their wings and
fly,
makes fruitful,
brings to birth,
clothes the lilies of
the field,
clothes Eve and Adam with garments new made,
clothes
you and me
with skin and flesh
and a whole new level of
meaning
with the putting on of Christ...7
Do you think that’s a radically different way of thinking theologically and imagining God? In reality it’s not a very new way at all, and yet, sadly, the feminine image of God – which has been around for generations – was successfully buried by the “good-old-boy network” of the church as smacking of “paganism.” So thinking theologically – which our biblical stories of today require us to do, I think – means more than just interpreting the given orthodox biblical tradition and creedal statements of the church. It also means being willing to think differently now about what went on in the past. Given the traditions and hierarchy of the church, though, this can be dangerous stuff. Jesus proclaimed good news and yet his message was, for the most part, rejected. Not because it was good, but because it was new!
So on this day, as
this church season that we’re in (which celebrates new or changed
life) comes to a close, maybe we could imagine the “womb” of God
giving birth yet again to each one of us to be the wonderful,
creative, and caring human beings we were meant to be – born in the
image of the One who has borne us.
I leave us all with a poignant
Mothers’ Day image given in one of Mary Oliver’s poems – this
one entitled “A Letter from Home.”8
She sends me news
of blue jays, frost,
Of stars and now the harvest moon
That
rides above the stricken hills.
Lightly, she speaks of cold, of
pain,
And lists what is already lost.
Here where my life seems
hard and slow,
I read of glowing melons piled
Beside the door,
and baskets filled
With fennel, rosemary and dill,
While all
she could not gather in
Or hid in leaves, grow black and
falls.
Here where my life seems hard and strange,
I read her
wild excitement when
Stars climb, frost comes, and blue jays
sing.
The broken year will make no change
Upon her wise and
whirling heart; -
She knows how people always plan
To live
their lives, and never do.
She will not tell me if she cries.
I
touch the crosses by her name;
I fold the pages as I rise,
And
tip the envelope, from which
Drift scraps of borage, woodbine,
rue.
May the memories of our mothers – near and far – be a blessing to us all this day.
* * *
1 Genesis 35: 16-20
2 Genesis 29
3 Jeremiah 31: 15
4 On June 2, 2009, the Religious Institute issued a statement on behalf of national religious organizations and religious leaders in the wake of the murder of Dr. George Tiller in his church on Sunday, May 31, 2009. The statement is signed by religious leaders, including the Presidents of three national denominations, who have joined to mourn for Dr. Tiller and to condemn the violence that led to his death:
We mourn for Dr. George Tiller. We decry the cruel act of violence that ended his life. We pray for his family, friends, colleagues, and staff, and for the untold number of women and families who have been deprived of his compassionate care.
We condemn physical and verbal violence and harassment directed against abortion clinics, their staffs, and their clients. We call for a society that assures safe access and delivery of reproductive health care services, both for the women and families who need them, and the practitioners who provide them.
5 This, and much of what follows, is taken from the UMCOR website at http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umcor/work/health/community-health/mother-child-survival/.
Through educational programs and basic health resources, mothers learn about proper nutrition, including the importance of breast feeding. Health workers encourage women to breast feed their infants. Formula is more expensive, may not always be available, and in places with a scarcity of clean water or poor sanitation, it can make children sick or even cause death. Rural and urban mothers, health workers, pastors, and evangelists receive training in life-saving oral rehydration. In Bangladesh alone in the late 1960s, a simple, miracle discovery was made in treating children with life-threatening diarrhea: a home-made solution that can be given by mouth to prevent dehydration. Consisting of salt, baking soda, sugar, and clean water, this solution is given to infants and children at the first sign of diarrhea.
Preventable childhood diseases are still prevalent in many areas of the world. Health care workers receive the knowledge and resources to provide immunizations for the six primary childhood diseases: polio, tetanus, whooping cough, typhoid, measles and tuberculosis. Polio continues to strike and kill children. Even mild cases can be disabling and prevent young men and women from supporting themselves. When pregnant women are immunized against tetanus their baby is protected as well. Neonatal tetanus is a common cause of death in infants. Whooping cough still causes prolonged illness in children in developing countries. When combined with malnutrition, the child often dies. Likewise, measles, typhoid, and tuberculosis are still major killers in some countries.
Mothers and community health workers learn to use growth charts to monitor a child's overall physical condition. Monthly weighing and monitoring of infants and children under five years of age enables mothers to know whether their children are growing, healthy, and properly nourished. If a child is underweight or her weight decreases from one month to the next, health workers provide counseling and assistance so the mothers may help their children to grow.
In an effort to save women and children’s lives, the General Board of Church & Society (GBCS) is placing high priority on maternal health through a new project called "Healthy Families, Healthy Planet." Globally, every minute a woman dies from complications due to pregnancy or childbirth. Over 200 million women in the world lack access to family planning information and services.
To help address these issues, GBCS has launched "Healthy Families, Healthy Planet," a one-year project funded by the United Nations Foundation. Katey Zeh is the consultant directing this effort. She will be working in 10 U.S. annual conferences to educate folks about the importance of family planning and what the church can do to ensure greater access.
Motherhood can be dangerous for women and children:
Globally, every minute a woman dies from complications during pregnancy or childbirth.
Nearly all of the annual 536,000 maternal deaths worldwide occur in the developing world.
Annually 4 million infants die within a month of being born. When a mother dies, it dramatically increases the risk of death for her baby.
Women account for nearly half of all people living with HIV and are disproportionately affected by new infections. This could be reduced if women and men had access to contraception.
With Millennium Development Goal #5 to improve maternal health and to reduce maternal mortality by three quarters by 2015, there is still much work to be done in achieving this goal. Since 1990 maternal mortality has dropped by only 6%. Women and children are healthiest when pregnancies are planned.
When a woman delays pregnancy at least two years after the birth of her previous child, she is much more likely to have a healthy pregnancy and birth.
Healthy mothers have healthy babies. Spacing children lowers the risk of infant mortality. Unmet need for family planning affects many women and families.
Worldwide there are more than 200 million women who would like to avoid pregnancy but lack a family planning method.
As a result, there are 80 million unintended pregnancies each year. More than half result in abortion, many of them under illegal and unsafe conditions.
Investing in family planning reduces unintended pregnancy and increases health for women and children. By empowering women and men to make healthy decisions about how to space their children and determine their family size, family planning helps create healthier lives for themselves and for their children.
The United Methodist Church is a global denomination with approximately 11 million members. Throughout our history we have been committed to the health of women and families and stand in strong support of family planning. Resolution #25 on "Responsible Parenthood" (p. 118 of The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church: 2008) states:
…As developing technologies have moved conception and reproduction more and more out of the category of a chance happening and more closely to the realm of responsible choice, the decision whether or not to give birth to children must include acceptance of the responsibility to provide for their mental, physical, and spiritual growth, as well as consideration of the possible effect on quality of life for family and society.
To support the sacred dimensions of personhood, all possible efforts should be made by parents and the community to ensure that each child enters the world with a healthy body and is born into an environment conducive to the realization of his or her full potential.
Social Principle ¶ 162 K (p. 173 of The Book of Resolutions of The United Methodist Church: 2008) regarding population says:
People have the duty to consider the impact on the total world community of their decisions regarding childbearing and should have access to information and appropriate means to limit their fertility, including voluntary sterilization.
The “Healthy Families, Healthy Planet Project” is funded by the United Nations Foundation. Through education and advocacy, the goal of the project is to raise awareness among United Methodists about the importance of international family planning and reproductive health.
The “Global Resources & Opportunities for Women to Thrive Act" (GROWTH) Act (S. #1425) is an innovative bill that would give millions of women tools to overcome barriers and lift themselves, and their families, out of poverty: tools such as microfinance and small business training, property rights, improved working conditions, and access to markets and fair trade. The United Methodist Church is committed to the eradication of poverty and affirms our Christian mandate of seeking wholeness for all God’s people. This bill works to achieve that and would make a significant difference in the lives of many women around the globe.
6 Isaiah 65: 19-20
7 Miriam Therese Winter, Woman Prayer Woman Song: Resources for Ritual (Meyer Stone Publishers, Oak Park, Illinois, 1987) p. 20.