(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Service, today shared on paper across our circuit and with the congregation at Calverley Community Methodist Church led by Paul Coleman. Paul is a student Presbyter linked with the circuit while undergoing training at Queens College in Birmingham. If you would like to give some feedback on this service, you can email him on colemanp@queens.ac.uk.
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
All the songs and readings for this service can be accessed on this playlist
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOIvXgJMantmn4BMKhrYlMkwTt54cffJG&si=KmSfliavsC3nd9q5
Welcome and Introduction
Today is mothering Sunday, it is a day that for many carries mixed emotions, as people celebrate the lives of their mothers, both by birth and those who have been mother to so many in their church or community. Some grieve the loss of a mother or grandmother. It is also a day when we recognise and celebrate that God transcends our gender-based preconceptions. Not just Father but also Mother to us all.
Opening prayer
Come, Mother God,
come as an enfolding
nurturing presence,
come as steadfast love
to hold us.
Come, Mother God,
come as an enabling
strengthening force,
come as tough love
to let us go.
Come, Mother God,
come as friend and comforter
healing our wounds,
walking our way,
come as wounded healer
to make us whole.
Amen.
Song – StF 117 – Sing Praise to God who reigns above
Mothering Sunday has a long history, dating back at least as far as the medieval church, it takes place on the fourth Sunday in Lent, and was a time when people returned to the place where they had been baptized. Mothering Sunday became a rare opportunity for families to reunite. Apprentices, domestic servants, and young labourers (often working far from home) were given a day off to visit their families and attend their mother church. This journey home became intertwined with honouring earthly mothers, as children would pick wildflowers along the way to gift to their mothers or to decorate the church.
This theme of returning home is one that is also evident in todays gospel reading
You can listen to the reading here.
Reflection
I suspect that throughout our lives many of us have identified with different people in the parable of the prodigal son. We have likely seen something of ourselves in both of the sons and possibly even in the character of the father. Yet there is at least one other character in this story. One whose existence is implied but not acknowledged. If there are two sons, there must surely be a mother. Yet, in this parable she remains invisible, silent and voiceless. I wonder what she would have to say. Here is an account in which the mother is present. We do not name her, but she is there, and this is her story.
I was never meant to be a silent presence in our family’s story—even if the ancient texts chose to overlook me. Although our society was structured by patriarchal norms, women like me navigated those constraints with resourcefulness, forging networks, engaging in local trade, and participating in the religious and social life of our community.
When our youngest son chose to leave, it was not merely an act of rebellion but a quest for identity. Together we hoped for his return, my husband watching the horizon, while I used my contacts to listen for any news of our son.
Years passed. I had heard of famine in the lands where he had travelled, rumours of a once rich young man reduced to swilling out the pigs, abandoned by his friends … could this be our son?
We saw him from a distance, dressed in rags and weighed down by the consequences of his decisions and a world which only celebrated wealth and success. My husband ran, robes billowing, to meet our boy on the road. I did not run but began organising to celebrate his return.
Our eldest son, returning from the fields, was filled with rage and jealousy, shouting in the courtyard, “Why does he feast while I’ve toiled like a slave?” I listened to his anger and hurt, realizing that we had been so caught up in the search for our lost son that we neglected the one who had stayed behind. I guess all parents have their favourites, even if we are not supposed to. I hope he will calm down and see that there is love enough for both of them. Our youngest was forgiven and welcomed back into the family.
I was never really absent from this story, but rather unacknowledged and overlooked. Being hidden for so long hurts, but I have come to realise that even without acknowledgement my love would remain. Neither myself or my husband gave our love or forgiveness for the praise others. But we gave it, imperfect as it was, seeking to show something of God’s love for us all.
When reading this parable, or indeed when reading scripture generally we describe God as Father. Yet, the Bible is full of maternal images of God. Despite this there is not a single occasion on which God is referred to as “Mother” Its perhaps not surprising, until recently the people who studied and interpreted scripture have tended to be men. At the very least it is worth stopping to consider how we use and understand this maternal imagery, and what we might learn about God if we look beyond God the Father and discover God the Mother.
“The Bible’s maternal imagery for God often portrays divine protection and shelter for God’s people. Yet this imagery also carries a striking variation: a God who nudges their children toward independence and strength. Mother eagles are known to teach their young ones to fly by deliberately pushing them out of the nest but catching them before they plunge to the ground. I wonder if there is something of that in the story of the prodigal son, a child who is if not pushed, then at least allowed to jump out the nest. And before assuming these images merely reinforce stereotypes of gentle, nurturing motherhood, take another look at Hosea 13:8, where God declares: ‘Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open.’ This is no cosy, comforting portrait, but a raw reminder of divine fierceness that transcends simplistic ideals of maternal tenderness.”
Lynn Japinga writes, “Language about God should help us to understand and encounter God, but we should not confuse the reality of God with the limits of our language.” When we describe God as Mother or Father, we are limited by our own very human understanding and experience of what a mother or father is. Human language and concepts cannot encompass the enormity of God. When we try, we often end up with idealised father or mother figures, whom we cannot hope to emulate. Our idealised concepts of mother or father have been shaped by societies expectations today, as well as our cultural history and context. The mother character I have added is broadly reflective of the time and culture within which the original parable was set. She probably does not wholly encompass present day Western European concepts of motherhood. In this version, neither her nor the father are presented as perfect examples of parenthood, but as people doing their best to love their children as God loves us.
Whatever language or imagery we use to the describe God, They don’t require our acknowledgment, praise, to love us completely. In our daily lives God’s presence often fades into the background—unseen, unspoken, overlooked. Yet this silence does not diminish the abundance of divine love poured out for us. Just as the parable’s hidden figure works tirelessly for reconciliation, God’s ultimate purpose is to restore wholeness to all of creation. This is the heart of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem: to heal the fractured family of God, to bring every member home, and to reunite us all within the embrace of God’s boundless, untamed, and liberating love.
As you reflect, listen or sing along with the Hymn. Here is Love.
Intercessions
Loving God, you who are both Mother and father to us, in this time of prayer we thank you for your love. We thank you for Jesus who taught us of your all-encompassing parents’ love; the love that waits with anxiety for us to return home; the love that also runs down the road to gather us in your arms; the love that searches until we are found; that loved us so much you sent us Jesus.
We thank you that we are your children, called by name, called even before we were formed in our mother’s womb, called into your world-wide family, where there is such diversity, such individuality, such creativity, such beauty.
We ask that rejoicing in the diversity of humankind, we might always love as Jesus loved us; that we might always appreciate others of different faith and cultures, asking pardon for the times when we have failed you in love.
Remembering the worldwide family we are so much part of, we pray for places around the world…
We give you thanks for our own families, remembering especially our own mothers or those who stood in her place who took care of us, who met our needs, not only nurturing our bodies, but also in love and security. For the love of those who are still with us and for the love that is in your nearer presence we give you thanks. And knowing the imperfect nature of humankind, where there may a need of forgiveness that you would forgive and help us to forgive.
For mothers at the start of the adventure of motherhood that you will give them all they need.
For mothers who are stretched in patience and love, who find things hard, with too much to do and not enough time to it, with babies who don’t sleep, or children with special gifts, running out of energy and patience.
For mothers whose children do not have clean water, or enough food to eat, or proper medication.
For mothers experiencing miscarriage or babies still born, or those unable to have children, that their motherly natures would be used in nurturing others.
Loving God, in You we find life, health, and strength. Through Your gifts we have everything we need and so we bring our offerings to you. Take them and use them and use our all our good intentions for the growth of your kingdom on earth. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
O God in heaven
Mother and Father to us all
Hallowed be your name
Your Kingdom come,
Your will be done
On Earth as in heaven
Give us today our daily bread
Forgives us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us
Lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For the kingdom the power and the glory are yours
Now and forever.
Amen.
Song – StF 503 – Love Divine
Blessing
As we go into the week,
We know that we are embraced by the love of God;
a love that is sweeter, more tender and more complete
than any we have ever known.
