Fourth Sunday in Lent, 2003
Galatians 4:21-31

Susanna Wesley is probably one of the most well-known mothers in Church history. Two of her sons became famous: John and Charles. Monica, St. Augustine's mother is also very familiar. Susanna Wesley had nineteen children, of whom nine survived infancy. John Wesley was the fifteenth child, and his brother Charles the eighteenth. Susanna herself was used to big families. She was the last child in a family of 25. The pictures and memories of people at the time show her to be a beautiful and intelligent young woman.

Susanna's mothering style strikes us as quite remarkable. All the Wesley children were home-schooled by Susanna. On the fifth birthday of each child serious lessons lasting for six hours began. They were expected to learn the alphabet on the very first day. Daughters as well as sons became proficient in Latin and Greek, and at an early age had learned by heart a great part of the New Testament. Before midday meals and before evening prayers each child was examined by Susana. They were to eat whatever was put before them. If any of them ate anything between meals they were "most certainly beat". After spankings they were expected to cry softly.

Susanna could be a rigid disciplinarian and at the same time a kind and loving mother. Modern parenting methods tend to frown on the strictness of a Susanna Wesley, yet in such a lax and coddling culture like our own more strictness might be a refreshing improvement.

Our epistle passage today suggests that the Church is the mother of all believers. Indeed, it is precisely as the bride of Christ that she is our mother. Traditionally, this fourth Sunday in Lent has been called "Mothering Sunday." It is based on our epistle lesson from Galatians 4. The Bible's motherhood doctrine reveals the proper place of the Church in the Kingdom of God, and the importance of the Church for every Christian. Reading Galatians 4:21-31. [Read it.]

The text presents two mothers, two sons, two different Jerusalems, and two covenants. The images highlight the contrast between the New Covenant and the Old Covenant. The letter St. Paul writes to the Galatians on this occasion is in fact a challenge to the Judaizers. The Judaizers were Jewish Christians who insisted upon circumcision and other Old Covenant rituals for salvation. They were distorting the Gospel. St. Paul wrote this letter before the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem in A.D. 70. It was a confusing time. The new people of God were barely distinguishable from the Jews. Christians worshipped and met at the Temple that was still standing in Jerusalem (Acts 3:1, 11: 5:12). Christians were considered by outsiders to be merely a sect of Judaism (Acts 24:14). The doctrine of the Judaizers threatened to swallow up the Gospel. Hence, the Holy Spirit guided the apostle Paul to address this crisis.

St. Paul defends the Gospel from this Judaizing heresy by making a comparison between Abraham's wife, Sarah, and his concubine, Hagar. If you remember the Old Testament story, Sarah, the barren wife, gave birth to Isaac, the son of promise. Isaac is the one whose descendents would become more numerous than the sands of the seashore and the stars of the sky. Hagar, the slave, gave birth to Ishmael, the son of bondage. According to the apostle, the children of Hagar follow the earthly Jerusalem, and the children of Sarah answer to the heavenly Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit inspires St. Paul to see a symbolic meaning here. The imagery is intended to highlight the superiority of the New Covenant in Christ. The motherhood of Hagar, the slave, corresponds to the city of Jerusalem that was still standing; the motherhood of Sarah, the free, corresponds to the Jerusalem above. Hagar gives birth to offspring like Ishmael: cut off from the promise, enslaved to sin, children of the bondwoman, and members of the earthly Jerusalem. Sarah on the other hand gives birth to offspring like Isaac: children of the promise, recipients of the Holy Spirit, free from bondage, members of the New Covenant under Christ, and heirs of the New Jerusalem. The children of Hagar remain under sin and the curse, the children of Sarah are under the free grace of God in Christ. Hence, the two motherhoods are incompatible. One will have to give way to the other. Just as the motherhood of Sarah, a motherhood based on God's grace alone, takes the place of the motherhood of Hagar, and just as the Jerusalem above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God takes the place of the Jerusalem below, so the New Covenant of grace necessarily replaces the Old Covenant of works. The change brought about by Christ's accomplished work on the cross, the transformation of the Old Covenant to the New means that sinners are saved by faith alone, through grace alone, on account of Christ alone.

The Apostle has made a stupendous theological point, but this does not exhaust the passage. The transformation of the Old Covenant to the New also says something about the Church. The Church, the Jerusalem above, is now our mother. St. Paul declares in verse 26, "the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all." The Church replaces the synagogue and Temple.

Like Sarah, the Church, though barren in herself, gives birth by the Spirit to children of the promise. Her children are free. Free from the slavery to sin; free from Hell's judgment. These truths set up the concept that God is our Father, Jesus is our Elderly Brother, the Church is our mother, and Christians are members of the family of God that encompasses Heaven and earth.

Are there other passages that suggest or support the doctrine of the motherhood of the Church? Yes, the Bible hints at it in several places. In Matthew 23:7 our Lord cries, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" The apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonian believers: "But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children" (1 Thess. 2:7). Jesus told Nicodemus, "Most assuredly, I say to you unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Saint John addresses a local church like this: "The Elder, to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, . . . I rejoiced greatly that I have found some of your children walking in truth" (2 John 1). Notice that the apostle John calls this parish the "elect lady."

How about Church History? Did the Historic Church endorse this teaching? Yes. Tradition held this doctrine surprisingly high. It surfaces over and again in the works of the Patristic writers.

Origen penned these words, "He who does not have the Church for mother cannot have God for father." Cyprian says practically the same thing: "The Bride of Christ brings forth spiritual sons for God He alone can have God as his Father who first has the Church as his mother!" St. Augustine repeats the theme. In one sermon he preached: "The Church is a mother for us It is from her that we were born spiritually No one can find a paternal welcome from God if he scorns his mother, the Church." Cyril of Jerusalem commented on our Galatians text, saying, "The catholic Church is the proper name of this holy mother of us all; spouse of our Lord Jesus Christ, she bears the seal and likeness of the Jerusalem above, which is free and which is our mother. She began by being barren, but now she has numerous children."

Besides the Church Fathers and those of the Middle Ages, the Reformers also enunciated the doctrine; Luther, Calvin and Bucer just to name a few. It was foundational to Calvin's theology of the visible Church. He writes in the Institutes [IV.1.4]:

But because it is now our intention to discuss the visible church, let us learn even from the simple title 'mother' how useful, indeed how necessary, it is that we should know her. For there is no other way to enter into life unless this mother conceive us in her womb, give us birth, nourish us at her breast, and lastly, unless she keep us under her care and guidance until, putting off mortal flesh, we become like the angels (Mt. 22:30). Our weakness does not allow us to be dismissed from her school until we have been pupils all our lives. Furthermore, away from her bosom one cannot hope for any forgiveness of sins or any salvation. . . . it is always disastrous to leave the church.

Tradition indicates that the Church as mother is much more than a sentimental impulse. According to the Bible she "is the mother of us all." That is a strong phrase. For each and every believer the life of the Church is obligatory for spiritual growth, piety, sanctification, nourishment in the Word and Sacraments, as a matter of fact, for salvation itself.

No doubt, we are saved by faith in Christ alone through God's grace. But a necessary evidence of saving faith is commitment to the Church. A permanent disregard for the life of the Church is a red flag; a sign of serious spiritual problems. A century ago virtually every professing Christian assumed the value of church attendance and membership. Christians of former generations measured a person's commitment to Christ by his or her commitment to the mission and worship of the Church. That's no longer so. Many now hold a very low regard for the Church, both in theory and practice. On Sunday mornings they think to themselves, "I have nothing better to do today, maybe I'll go to Church." An attitude of indifference guides their habits. "If Church life makes you feel closer to God, fine. If Church life makes you feel good, great. If not, well, I can surely be a Christian without being a member of the Church. There is always television church, and radio church, and para-church ministries, and personal prayer time at home that can serve as a substitute for the Church." And so, for all the pretended religiosity of Americans, comparatively few believe that regular association with a specific body of people is a necessary and central part of a genuinely Christian life. Fewer still think of the Church as an institution with real authority over her members. The fact that evangelicals who are serious about the Church feel compelled to flirt with Rome and Constantinople suggest that something is amiss in the evangelical world. The typical perspective of the Church today is far too low, and thus Christianity grows steadily impotent.

What is the biblical view? The apostles never would have imagined anyone living the Christian life independently of the Church. Outside the Church was the "world," the system still under the dominion of sin and Satan. Only in union with the Body of Christ can one be united to Christ Himself. Baptism into Christ's death and resurrection automatically brings about incorporation into the fellowship of believers. At the Lord's Table the saints participate together in the Savior's life-giving body and blood. As a mother nurses her new-born babe, and later feeds and nourishes the child with food, so the sacrament of Holy Communion supernaturally feeds and nourishes our souls to everlasting life. In the Bible, submission to Christ means submission to the Church leaders He has installed (Eph. 4:11-16; Heb. 13:17). A believer who rebuffs God's ordained ministers is considered no different from a child who has dishonored his mother through insubordination or disobedience. Like the early Church we should accept the ramifications of St. Paul's words: the Church is "the mother of us all." As a mother teaches her children to walk and talk, and get along with the other family members, to have good manners, to know what is right and wrong, to learn discipline and responsibility, and everything else that children are supposed to learn; so we should be certain that to stay faithful on the path to life eternal is only possible in the household of faith under the tutelage of mother-Church.

Like most metaphors, this one has a bit of imprecision. In the physical realm, the child grows up and becomes increasingly independent of his mother. He leaves home. In the spiritual realm, the opposite is true. Augustine called the baptismal font the uterus of the mother Church. So we are born into the womb of the Church, and the more our sanctification progresses, the more we become intimately bound to her. Again Cyprian, "Anyone who withdraws from the womb of the mother can no longer live and breath alone; he loses the substance of salvation."

The message for you on this 4th Sunday in Lent is to be confident of the centrality of the Church. The epistle passage states, the Church is "the mother of us all." If you are in Christ, she is your mother. The Bible and tradition assume that membership in the Church is normative. If you won't have the Church for your mother, don't expect to have God for your Father. It is a disgrace to abandon one's mother. Be committed to her outreach, worship, and mission. She may be fraught with problems, rent with strife, and hobbling like a cripple. Yet, in Christ, she is the gorgeous and pure Bride of Christ. Our Lord is coming again for her and her children. God help us to love and serve her as Christ does.

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