Sermon for Mothering Sunday: Conrad, the Sea, & Motherhood.

Revelation 21: 1 - 5

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth, ”for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Luke 2; 33-35

33The child's father and mother marvelled at what was said about him. 34Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."

I recently came across a quote I had written down from Joseph Conrad's, 'The Mirror of the Sea.' Published in 1906, 'The Mirror of the Sea' is a collection of essays and reflections on Conrad's time as a merchant mariner.

The quote is from a passage in which Conrad discusses the craftsmanship and dedication of those involved in sailing ships—specifically the skill of shipbuilders, riggers, sailmakers, and seamen, men who love their trade. He explains how the mastery of a craft requires time and patience, and laments that these qualities are at odds with the rushed, modern industrial world, he writes,

"In fact, love is rare—the love of men, of things, of ideas, the love of perfected skill. For love is the enemy of haste; it takes count of passing days, of men who pass away, of a fine art matured slowly in the course of years and doomed in a short time to pass away too... Love and regret go hand in hand in this world of changes swifter than the shifting of the clouds reflected in the mirror of the sea."

I had written under the quote, 'do love and regret go hand in hand?'

Conrad was writing about sailing and the sea, but if we have a deep, devoted passion, for a craft, or an idea, or a people, or for somebody, in this world which is subject to change and decay - is not a sense of regret inevitable?

Love requires time, and is grieved by the consequences of time.

We can love with all our might, but we cannot protect against any injuries the passing of time brings to us, and to those we love.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, knew this well.

In our passage from Luke we heard part of the story of Mary and Joseph taking the baby Jesus to the Temple to fulfil the Religious Law that required the consecration of their first born son, and the purification of Mary after her pregnancy.

Whilst there, they encounter Simeon, a devout elderly man who has been waiting for the promised Messiah. Simeon takes the baby Jesus in his arms, praises God, and then says to Mary,

"This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against... And a sword will pierce your own soul too."

In his ministry Mary saw that Jesus was 'despised and rejected...a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,' but Simeon's painful prophecy was ultimately fulfilled at the crucifixion.

To see your own son die, or rather, to see him be killed, must be heart wrenching, and truly soul piercing.

The truth is anyone who loves will know what sorrow is, but Mary, like most mothers, has more cause than most for tears of sorrow.

Love brings both joy and regret, that's why loving people takes courage.

Only people with cold hearts do not experience sorrow.

In his book, 'From The Four Loves,' CS Lewis writes,

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal...Lock it up safe in the... coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket...it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable."

Lewis concludes by writing that the only place free from love's dangers is Hell, so refusing to love may lead to spiritual death.

People sometimes ask, 'if there is a loving God, then why is there suffering?'

Perhaps the question should be, 'is love inextricably linked to suffering?'

Do love and regret go hand in hand?

The bible goes further than merely saying that God is loving, 1 John 4:8 states that "God is love."

God is love: that means if you have known love, the kind of generous, healing, unconditional love shown by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, then you know God.

In love we find the presence of God.

In those relationships that matter the most to us, that define who we are, our beloved family and friends – there is the presence of God.

If God is love that also means He must know what it is to suffer the grief and regret that goes hand in hand with love.

In fact He must know that grief infinitely more than any of us could imagine.

If God knows and loves each one of us, He knows both our sufferings and our joys, and as our Heavenly Father He grieves for each of us with a love amplified by the depths of eternity.

Our Father God grieves with us all, but He was also personally grieved - the same sword of sorrow that pierced Mary's heart pierced the heart of God the Father.

Like Mary, God the Father witnessed His son 'despised and rejected...a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,' and at the crucifixion, God the Father witnessed His son die at the hands of those He had created.

The story does not end in regret, this is the story of the victory of God's love, John 3:16, “...God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

No where is the love of God made known to us more than at Calvary, and no where is the power of love to transcend suffering made known to us more than on the day of resurrection.

If CS Lewis is right, and hell is the absence of love, than heaven must be the presence of love, and if so can you see that the gateway to heaven must be characterised by the suffering that comes with love?

The cross is the gateway to heaven, the cross on which was offered the supreme act of love and and suffering, made by the one who was with God in the beginning, the one through whom all things were created, the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth, the one who was God – the love of God made flesh.

In the next world, freed from the passing of time, love may linger with the beloved.

There's another passage in Conrad that takes the ocean as a metaphor, this time for God, he writes,

“The problem of life seemed too voluminous for the narrow limits of human speech, and by common consent it was abandoned to the great sea that had from the beginning enfolded it in its immense grip; to the sea that knew all, and would in time infallibly unveil to each the wisdom hidden in all the errors, the certitude that lurks in doubts, the realm of safety and peace beyond the frontiers of sorrow and fear.”

The problem of life is too voluminous for the narrow limits of human speech, but

God who has from the beginning enfolded us in His immense grip, will in time infallibly unveil to each of us the wisdom hidden in all the errors, the certitude that lurks in doubts, and the realm of safety and peace beyond the frontiers of sorrow and fear.

He will wipe every tear from our eyes, Amen.