Eastertide
May 10, 2015

Scripture Reading: John 15:9-17

‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. –John 15:12-17

My immediate thought when I read this scripture was of the song, Called as Partners in Christ Service*. I pulled it up on my computer and had to laugh because this scripture along with Galatians 6:2 Ephesians 2:15-22 were listed as its source. I invite you to read them all.

Jesus Christ called all of his followers to become a part of God’s Kingdom as full citizens beginning with his ministry, life, death and resurrection and lasting until the full Kingdom is fulfill in God’s good time. It is a job rather like that of a parent it has no end.

My mother was a shining example of one who, to the best of her ability, did that job to the very end of her life. She had to be placed in nursing care when she was 95 because she had had a small stroke that had apparently damaged her balance center. While she missed her home, particularly her garden, she continued her quest for Christ through loving the people in that home especially the children who visited and with whom she did craft work. Her greatest gifts of ministry during those last years was her fertile life of prayer.

On this Mother’s Day, it might be well to consider our calling in service to God as nurturing the fruition of the kingdom like a mother.

Called as partners in Christ’s service,
Called to ministries of grace,
We respond with deep commitment
Fresh new lines of faith to trace.
May we learn the art of sharing,
Side by side and friend with friend,
Equal partners in our caring
To fulfill God’s chosen end.

Prayer: Holy Parent, sustain us when we grow weary in our ministry like you sustain mothers who always seems to have love in abundance when it is needed no matter how tired or frustrated they me be. Amen.

*Called as Partners in Christ Service words by Jane Parker Huber, see at http://worship-organizer.awtrey.com/hymnal/?number=343

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.