When I was still quite small myself, my baby cousin was brought to visit us, and I can remember him lying in a little carry cot made out of wicker, something I’d not seen before. My aunt told me it was called a Moses basket, and I remembered I’d been told the story in Sunday school about baby Moses floating on the river in a little basket. The same story we’ve heard this afternoon. I think my brother and I probably wondered whether we could try out our cousin's Moses basket to see whether it floated like the one in the story. But there was no water at hand, or not enough, anyway. It would of course have been an extremely naughty thing to have done, and it wouldn’t have worked anyway. In the story the basket was smeared with pitch or tar to make it watertight. Without it, the basket would have sunk.
My cousin’s Moses basket wasn’t designed to float, but just to look nice and be easy to carry. Modern Moses baskets taken down to Marton Pool or along the Montgomery Canal will not float, so don’t do it, please. But the first ever Moses basket was designed to float, and it was wedged in carefully amongst the reeds, while Moses' sister Miriam stayed close by to keep an eye on things.
That was vital, for if Pharaoh’s men had happened to see the basket, it would have been curtains for Moses. The Egyptian king had given orders that every baby boy born to a Hebrew mother had to be put to death - he’d be taken down to the river, thrown in, and left to drown. Thankfully, baby Moses had a mother and a sister who were determined he should not die. They made sure he was as safe as he could be, with Miriam there to do her best to make sure nothing bad happened. And their clever plan saved him; for it was Pharaoh's own daughter who found Moses, and she decided to keep him. She even gave him back to his own mother to wet nurse him, though of course, she didn't know that it was Moses' real mother she’d appointed.
This is I think a good reading to use on Mothering Sunday, because lots of mothering is happening in this story, not only by Moses' own mother, but also by his sister, as together they trusted God to take care of him, which he did. And Pharaoh’s daughter? She’d been tricked, I suppose, but her own mothering instincts kicked in when she saw the child. Mothering Sunday isn’t only about mothers, because mothering is done by all kinds of people in fact: people who care for others, give time to others, people ready to offer protection and help to those who can’t easily help themselves.
And there’s a message there for all of us. When we follow Jesus we follow together. We're together part of his family. Mothering, taking care of one another, is fundamental to all that we do and are as Christian people. Even if life gets difficult or dangerous, our motto as Christians should never be 'every man for himself'.
St Paul wrote about this in his letter to the Colossians; as Christians we should put on, we should clothe ourselves with, things like compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. When we do so we’re imitating our Lord, doing our best to be like him. That’s what Jesus is like, and his Church should be a caring and loving family of people who know we belong together, because together we belong to our Lord.
When my children were in Sunday school they used to sing a song called 'Magic Penny', which went something like this: "Love is something if you give it away, you'll end up having more." Well, mothering is about giving love: and we are to love one another because Jesus first loved us. If his love is in our hearts, we'll always have more than enough of it, to keep and to share.
So our Mothering Sunday today should do what it says on the tin: firstly, celebrate our mothers, but secondly, also remind us about mothering as something we should all be doing - taking care of each other, and being thoughtful and protective.
Jesus wants his Church to care for people in need, in fear, in pain; he wants us to stand firm against the uncaring and destructive forces of the world; his heart bleeds when those he loves are hurting or are badly treated. A Church that’s trying to be like him will notice when people are hurting, and will notice when people are abused, abandoned, cast adrift, damaged; for he wants us to care when other people don't, cross over and help when other folk pass by.
So little Moses bobbing in his basket among the reeds stands today for all who are vulnerable, all who are at risk, all who have little power to help themselves. I'm glad Moses had his mother and sister there to make sure something good came out of a situation that might have seemed almost hopeless, with threat and danger all around. Because they were there, what God wanted to happen did happen. The mother and sister of Moses in this story are a good example for us; like them we too need to be resourceful, active, caring, courageous, mothering people, because when we are, we are working with our Lord.
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