Acts 1:6-14

&nb= sp;

Mary shows us the values of Christian living.

A sermon preached by

Dr. William O. (Bud) R= eeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, Arkansas

May 10, 2009

I heard a cute sto= ry about a little girl who was helping her mom do the dishes one night. As they stood at the kitchen sink,= the light caught the mother’s hair just right, and her daughter noticed t= hat her mom had several strands of gray hair sticking out in contrast to her mo= stly dark hair. She looked at her = mother and asked innocently, “Mom, why are some of your hairs white?”<= /p>

Her mother didn’t really appreciate her gray hair being pointed out, so she said, “Well, every time you do something wrong and make me cry or be unhappy, one of my hairs turns white.”

The little girl thought about that for a minute and then asked, “So mom, how come ALL of grandma’s hairs are white?”

It’s not easy be= ing a mom (or a dad), is it? If eve= ry stressful moment turned a hair gray, there wouldn’t be any dark-haired parents! Parenthood can be on= e of the most joyous and rewarding relationships in our lives. But it’s not easy.

Even if your son is th= e Son of God, you still don’t get it easy.= You would think Mary would have been completely free of stress-induc= ed gray hairs, with a son as perfect as Jesus. Do you think Mary ever had to remi= nd Jesus to pick up his clothes, make his bed, or quit pestering his little brother? I doubt it. But if you read the Biblical story= , her life was one crisis after another. <= /span>

First there was the bi= rth itself. The angel announced t= hat she, a virgin betrothed to Joseph, would bear God’s Son. Then Joseph threatened to end the relationship before he understood the truth of what she was saying. Mary gave birth in a stable in Bethlehem, far fr= om home and any type of comfort. Then= shortly after the birth, the family had to flee into Egypt to escape the sword of Herod’s henchmen. It wa= s a rough beginning.

Then there was the time Jesus got lost in Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph hunted for their m= issing twelve-year-old for three days before they found him in the Temple, asking questions of the teachers there. Did Jesus apologize for bringing gray hairs into the head of his mother? No! He said, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not= know that I must be in my Father’s house?”[1]

After Jesus grew up and began to teach on his own, Mary and her other sons found him and presumably tried to get him to come home, or at least to listen to them. But Jesus had a different idea. He said, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Looking around at his followers, he exclaimed, “Here are my mothe= r and my brothers! Whoever does the= will of God is my brother and my sister and my mother.”[2] Don’t you know that cut= Mary to the quick?

Eventually, the journe= y of Jesus took him to Jerusalem for his date with destiny. Ma= ry was there. Mary did not lose faith. She believed in her Son as the Messiah of God, and her faith kept her strong as= she endured with Jesus the horrible events of that week: the arrest, the trial,= the crucifixion. Mary heard her S= on speak from the cross and tell his beloved disciple John to take care of her after he was gone. Mary was t= here as they took the beaten, broken, battered body of Jesus off of the cross and laid him in her arms for the last time.&nb= sp; She saw the stone rolled in front of the tomb, but still she believe= d.

Because she did believ= e, Mary was one of the first to witness the resurrected Christ. The different Gospels tell it diff= erent ways, but most scholars believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was one of = the women who first came to the tomb. Imagine her joy as a mother who had seen her beloved son die, only to see him alive again by the power of God! She began to experience the Easter Effect—the reality of the risen Christ=

The last mention we ha= ve of Mary is in the Book of Acts. = After Jesus had appeared for forty days following his resurrection, he ascended i= nto heaven, and the disciples began to wait and watch and pray for the coming of the Holy Spirit. With them was Mary, as faithful as ever, and the brothers of Jesus. The ones who had doubted him had b= een won over. They had all experi= enced the Easter Effect.

As I have studied the = life of Mary, I keep seeing a familiar pattern.= The values of Mary’s life are the same values I find in the li= fe of Christ. I know Jesus had s= ome other sources of character, namely his heavenly Father. But isn’t it interesting to = see the same values, the same character, the same priorities standing out in the li= fe of mother and the Son? She undoubtedly had a hand in molding his character as well. As we look at Mary today, we can s= ee in her the same values Jesus lived and taught.

The primary value of M= ary was her faith. You would be hard pressed to find another human being with a faith as strong as Mary, the mother of Jesus. From the very beginning of the jou= rney, when the angel appeared to her and announced that she was going to be the mother of God’s Son, her response was one of pure faithfulness: ̶= 0;Here am I, the servant of the Lord; le= t it be with me according to your word.”[3]

As we try to live by Christian values today, our priority must be the same. We are people of faith. We are a community of faith. Faith in Jesus Christ is our found= ation, the rock on which our lives are built.&nbs= p; Without faith at the very core of our being, nothing we do will have meaning or purpose or effectiveness.

Faith is the basis of = good parenting. Mary was a good mo= ther because she trusted God to lead her as she raised his child. You and I will be better par= ents or grandparents if we keep faith as the foundation of our relationship with= our kids. Thank God for faithful mothers and fathers who trust in God. They are the ones who are devoted to their kids and will be there for them in any circumstance. Mary’s faith in God made her devoted to her kid, too.

Devotion follows faith. Mary = could go all the way to the cross with Jesus because there was nothing that would separate him from her love. W= hen the other disciples betrayed him and abandoned him and tried to save their = own skin in the panic of the last hours, Mary stayed. She was there, as she had been the= re when he was born, as she had been there when the soldiers of Herod were slaughtering the babies of Bet= hlehem. She saw Jesus heal the sick and fe= ed the hungry and touch the children. She was not going to leave him when the crowds yelled, “Crucify him!̶= 1; and spit on him as he dragged the cross through the street. She was devoted.<= /span>

We have a problem with parental devotion today. Maybe that’s not a problem in your home—I hope it’s not—b= ut we live in a culture where more and more kids are raising themselves, or they’re being raised by the media, while their parents are off doing their own thing. I know churc= hes and social service agencies that send backpacks full of easy-to-fix food ho= me with needy kids. You know why= ? Because in every community, childr= en will go home after school and not see a parent until nighttime. Even then, they will not have anyo= ne to fix a nutritious meal for them until they return to school the next day.

It’s not that we don’t have the model for good parenting. We have Jesus; we have Mary. We know how it’s supposed to= work.

It’s supposed to= work like it did on August 16, 1987, near Detroit, Michigan. Northwest Airlines Flight 225 cras= hed just after takeoff, killing 155 people.&nb= sp; The only survivor was a four-year-old from Arizona named Cecelia Cichan. She was found walking through the wreckage of the plane. The re= scue team at first thought she had been in one of the cars on the highway where = the plane crashed. But when they checked, her name was on the passenger list.

Cecelia survived becau= se as the plane was falling, her mother, Paula, unbuckled her own seat belt, got = down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and would not let go.[4] Paula’s devotion to her chil= d knew no bounds. Her sacrifice, lik= e the sacrifice of Jesus, gave life to her child. That’s what loving parents do. Her courage inspires us.<= o:p>

Do you see where we= 217;re going today? Faith gives birth to devotion, and devotion produces courage to live by the principles= we believe. When we see faithful, devoted, courageous discipleship in action, we are inspired to live by those values in our own daily lives.

Mary had the courage to endure her own suffering and the suffering of her son Jesus. She experienced Easter and saw the= new age of the Church take shape. As she appears in the Book of Acts, she is continuing the mission of Jesus. She knows the work is just beginning. There was a made-f= or-TV movie several years ago called Mary, Mother of Jesus, and at the very end of the movie, after Mary has faithfully endured the suffering of Jesus and witnessed his resurrection, s= he makes a great statement of our mission as disciples. The apostle John offers to take he= r home to Galilee because her work is finished.= She says, “Finished? But we have just begun.”

John replies, “W= hat then are we to do?”

Mary says, “We a= re to go into all the world, acknowledging our weakness, and try to teach as he taught, to live as he lived, and to love as he loved.”= = [5] Those are the principles we live by today, the principles that give us courage, the principles of the Easter Effect.

Let me close today wit= h the story of a lady who lived by the principles of Easter. Her name was Rose, and at the age = of 87, she returned to college to finish her degree. On the first day of class the prof= essor asked the students to get to know another student they didn’t know. Rose turned to a young man sitting= next to her and smiling broadly said, “Hi, handsome. My name is Rose. I’m 87 years old. Can I give you a hug?”

He said, “Sure!&= #8221; and he hugged this little wrinkled lady.&n= bsp; Then he said, “What are you doing here at such an innocent you= ng age?”

Rose responded, “I’m here to meet a rich man, get married, have a couple of kid= s, retire and travel.” The= n she added, “No, really, I’ve always dreamed of getting a college education, and now I’m getting one!”

Soon Rose became the m= ascot of the entire campus. She made friends wherever she went, and everybody knew Rose. The next spring, she was invited to speak at the all-campus athletic banquet.&= nbsp; She was introduced, and this little old lady stood up to address a roomful of young athletes and their coaches and parents. The first thing she did was to fum= ble her 3x5 cards containing her speech notes.= They flew everywhere. = Rose leaned into the microphone and said, “I’m sorry I’m so jittery. I gave up beer for L= ent, and this whiskey is killing me!”

When the laughter subs= ided, Rose said, “I’ll never get my notes back together, so let me ju= st tell you what I know. We do n= ot stop playing because we get old; we get old because we stop playing. There are only four secrets to sta= ying young, being happy, and achieving success.= [First] You have to laugh and find humor every day. [Second] You have to have a dream.= When you lose your dreams you die.= There are so many people walking a= round who are dead and don’t even know it!= [Third] There is a huge difference between growing old and growing up. If you are 19 years old a= nd lie in bed for a full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will tu= rn 20 years old. …Anybody = can grow older. That doesn’= t take any talent or ability. The id= ea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change. [Fourth] Have no regrets. The elderly usually don’t ha= ve regrets for what they did, but rather for things they did not do. The only people who fear dea= th are those with regrets.”

Rose ended her speech = by singing a song called “The Rose.” She challenged the students to lis= ten to the lyrics and to live them out. I think the words say a great deal about the experience of Easter:

Some say love, it is a river that drowns the tender reed.

Some say love, it is a razor that leaves your heart to bleed.

Some say love, it is a hunger, an endless, aching need.

I say love, it is a flower, and you its only seed.

It’s the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance.=

It’s the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance.<= o:p>

It’s the one who won’t be taken who cannot seem to give= .

And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live.<= /span>

When the night has been too lonely,

and the road has been too long.

And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong.<= /o:p>

Just remember in the winter underneath the bitter snows<= /span>

Lies the seed that with the sun’s love =

in the spring becomes the rose.[6]

At the end of that sch= ool year, Rose graduated with her college degree. A week later, she died peacefully = in her sleep. Over 2,000 students at= tended her funeral in tribute to a woman who had the courage to live by the princi= ples she believed.[7]

How will the Easter fa= ith affect you today? For Mary, i= t did not change anything she already believed.&= nbsp; But her relationship with the living Lord enhanced and deepened and strengthened her values. Noth= ing was different, yet everything had changed.

You may not be any dif= ferent than you were a month ago, before Easter.&= nbsp; But as you open your heart to realize and recognize the presence of = the living Lord, you will find that your faith is enhanced, your devotion is deepened,= and your courage is strengthened to live a Christian life day by day. If this happens to you, and I pray= it will, you will experience the Easter Effect. Amen!