St. Paul's Lutheran Church Messenger
May 2010
625 W. Gibson Road, Woodland, CA
 

No Pastor's Message for June-July 2010?

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ;

As always may this message find you well and at peace with God and mankind.

May brings up many images. Spiritually there is the Ascension and Pentecost. There is May Day rooted in either Marxism, the celebration of Spring or the Labor Union movement. And, of course there is mother's day, which of these holidays will be the most widely observed of all.

But, the truth be told, mother's day is really the beginning of the feminist movement. However, like many other things considered today to be "political" it is forgotten that it was originally a Christian movement. While there were many ancient pagan traditions which are pointed to, the modern observance finds roots England with the expansion of honoring the virgin Mary to honoring all mothers on "Mothering Day".

The US observance began with a Christian woman, Anna Jarvis, taking an activist roll in advancing sanitation and health conditions in Appalachia. She called it "Mother's Work Day". The concept was picked up by others like Julia Ward Howe, a Christian woman, author of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic", a pacifist deeply disturbed by the Civil and Franco-Prussian Wars, and a suffragist. The observance originally was related to attending church, writing to moms and the encouraging of women to take an activist role in social and political issues of the day, especially those affecting women. It was a day to call attention not so much to what mom has done but what moms can do to effect change in society through the application of their Christian beliefs, hence the term "Mother's Work Day".

Mrs. Jarvis' daughter, instrumental in making it a holiday, later regretted the fact that it had turned into a gift giving sentimental observance (not that such appreciation is wrong). But it lost the original significance of the appreciation of and the challenge to women to work actively on moral, social and political issues. It was a Christian message to "by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' (Acts 20:35)

So buy a nice gift, go out to eat - whatever you choose. But also, go to church and learn from the Word of God the great calling women have been given and its value to society remembering the best gift would be to do the "Mother's Work" of advocating for moral and social justice and action in our world.

Happy Mother's Work Day,
Hank Scherer. Pastor