Friday's thoughts about Sunday's sermon

Why should we honor our mothers?
So we can live long in the land God has given us. That is a paraphrase of what is written in the 20th Chapter of Exodus. Basically, we are told that we should honor our mother if we know what's good for us.

I think the direction I would like to take with this sermon is to establish a rationale for honor our mother that would include the following:

1. We honor our mother for her sake. We honor her because she is a child of God, a human being with feelings, fears, joys, hopes, and wisdom. We honor her and recognize that she is not perfect but she is who she is and she does what she does and some of what she does we have trouble understanding sometimes. Some of what we do we have trouble understanding. Human beings are complicated. We honor our mother for her sake. We let her be who she is and give her the respect she deserves.

2. We honor our mother for our sake. Whatever role she has in our lives it is determinative. We are what we are to some extent because she helped us become it. Some of it is good and some less than good (perhaps). We honor the person who gave us some of the most important values we have held. We honor her for the wisdom she shared and, most importantly, for the love we experienced because of her.

3. We honor our mother for God's sake. There is a spiritual dimension to the relationship between and child and a mother. It is one of the strongest bonds in the world. She knows when we are sad and why we are sad. She can read our minds and hearts and we honor her for that.

Currently, here are the points to the sermon. I will be working on it for the rest of the day today (Friday) and will be rewriting it and working on it tomorrow.

If you have thoughts about this subject write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to share your ideas with the readers of the blog click on the box below.

If you would like a copy of a rough draft of the sermon write me and I am happy to send it to you.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Charles Schuster