So, it’s estimated that more than 100 billion people have lived on this earth at some point…and around 8.3 billion of those people are alive today. And every one of those humans so far…has developed inside a mother’s womb. Pretty cool, huh?
I mean…they are developing an artificial womb…mostly for preemie babies…but so far the record stands. Everyone …every single person…grew and developed inside a mother… attached to her by an umbilical cord…and we’ve all got the belly buttons to prove it.
And then, at some point, every one of us had to come out of that warm, dark, cozy, safe cocoon in which, before birth, we lived and moved and had our being…and were thrust into the cold, loud, bright terrifying shock of the “real” world. And I’m guessing about 99.9 percent of us howled in protest…as our lungs were forced to breathe air for the first time.
And since it’s Mother’s Day, it’s as good a day as any to remember that universal truth…that all of us had a birth mother at some point. And admittedly, some of those mothers did a better job than others bringing us into this world. I mean, some of us had mothers who made sure they ate all the right things and did all the right things when they were pregnant, played the right music even….and some of us had mothers who did and ate all the wrong things. A lot of you who are my age and older had moms who smoked and drank and caffeinated themselves throughout their pregnancies because no one thought anything of it at that time. In my case, my mom was sick throughout my pregnancy…actually lost over 30 pounds….and it being the 60’s…her doctor gave her pills for it — pills to wake up, pills to go to sleep, pills to keep food down, pills for the pain….all she remembers of the pregnancy was taking pills and feeling out of it and miserable. What do you do? It is what it is. Matt’s mother was RH incompatible with Matt, so the two of them barely survived the pregnancy and birth. We all have a story.
A story of how we came to be. This grand adventure of becoming alive…of coming out the womb and into the world. Out of that relative safety and into brutal reality.
And I was thinking about that this week…especially as I read the lesson from Acts….where Paul is talking to the Athenians about the “unknown God”. The God who gives life and breath to every living thing….The God whose offspring we are. Last week, Matt talked about God as a nursing mother, offering us milk. But here we have God, our mother, in whose very womb we exist….the God in whom all of us “live and move and have our being.” It is as if these ancient Athenians and Paul understood that although we all had been thrust out of our mother’s womb…we still were still existing safely inside of God’s womb….a creation being miraculously formed anew day by day. They understood that our very existence is wrapped in God.
And you know, sometimes I need that reassurance. When the world is loud and bright and cold and shocking. When people do awful things. When I see people hurt. When I am hurt. When I feel scared of what is going on around me. I need to be able to trust that God is bigger than it all. That I am not alone…that we are safe…cocooned within God’s love.
In our gospel, Jesus is talking to his disciples shortly before he will be arrested, tortured, and executed. He’s talking to his friends who will be living through the worst life can bring — all our human cruelty and greed and power on full display. And he knows they will be afraid. They will feel alone. It will be horrible…shocking. And he says to them…look. I’m not going to leave you alone. I’m not going to leave you orphaned…he says. You will not be left without someone who has your back….who will support you and love you.
I wonder…how many of you are orphans here?
I remember my dad, after my grandma died, saying he was an orphan. And I just thought it was weird. I mean…he was like, at least 60…you know …old. But it’s been 9 years now since my mom died…and I was “orphaned” at 50…with no living parents. And I remember finally understanding what he meant. People are often surprised at how hard it hits them when their parents die…especially when they are older. After all, it’s expected, right? But the thing is…when they are gone…it kind of feels like someone knocked the foundation out from underneath you…and it’s a surprise because honestly, you didn’t realize you were even standing on them. I thought I was all grown up and didn’t realize how much it still mattered to me that they were around.
Being orphaned is losing the solid ground underneath you…the thing…the people… that gave you stability…and a sense of where you belong in the world, for good or ill. And it takes a while to regain your footing when it’s gone.
Jesus says…I will not leave you orphaned…I will not leave you without solid ground to stand on. You may not see me, but you are in me and I am in you and we are both in the Father. We abide in God. All of us. No matter what happens. Even when the worst happens…we all abide in God. In God, we live and move and have our being…and we are safe.
Safe in the love of God…love that connects us to ourselves and to one another. Love that fixes our sense of belonging in this world. Love that surrounds us , the water in which we swim, the womb in which we are being formed. And that is the good news for us this morning. No matter how brutally shocking the world may be…you still are safely in God’s care.
Some of you might be familiar with St. Patrick’s prayer…a prayer that places us all squarely in the center of the all encompassing presence of God in the Trinity — God the creator, God in Christ, God the Spirit. God who encompasses us from birth to death, from the beginning of the day to its end, surrounding us every step of the way…God who will not leave us orphaned.
This morning, I’ll close with St. Patrick’s words…
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.
May you arise today…and everyday, knowing you and all creation is being formed and held in heart of God…God’s spirit. God’s Christ. May you arise, knowing that you are firmly embedded in the safety of God’s womb. And you have nothing to fear. Amen.
Leave a Reply