Today is one of those symbolically loaded Sundays.
It is Good Shepherd Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Easter.
It is also Mother’s Day.
One of the earliest stories of our faith is of Rachel, the wife of Jacob. She was a shepherd. When Jacob first met her she was tending sheep.
She was the mother of Joseph, the dreamer who saved the children of Israel from famine, and of Benjamin who became the tribe of Benjamin, the family that Jesus was born into.
Long after she was dead the people of Israel believed she still looked over her children, the prophet Jeremiah said that she wept for her children when taken into captivity in Babylon.
When we cross reference Shepherd and mother Rachel appears.
Birthing the young, tending, caring, nurturing, and protecting- shepherding and mothering have much in common. They are images and relationships of intimacy, immediate presence, deep emotional connection and the everyday practical stuff that is love. The way of relating that makes life thrive. They are images of God, the one who is abundant life, who gives abundant life.
Jesus is called the Good Shepherd, the shepherd and guardian of our souls. It really is not surprising that Julian of Norwich, the medieval mystic and saint, called Jesus mother.
As shocking as it sounds to us today, it does make sense. In him we are born anew, we are born into a new life, a new humanity, we are nurtured by his body and his presence.
Shepherding and mothering have much in common.
The book of Job has this image of God birthing the sea and wrapping and swaddling it with clouds and the darkness of the cosmos.
The first image of God in scripture is of the Spirit of God brooding over the waters of creation like a mother hen brooding over her young.
Jesus picks up on that mothering image when he says he often longs to gather the children of Jerusalem as a hen gathers her brood under her wings.
While I am wandering about on the subject, St. Francis called the earth our mother. The term “mother earth” comes from the creation account where the first man was gathered from the dust of the earth. His name, Adam, means of the earth, or earthling, born of earth. Mother’s day takes on another layer of meaning and purpose in that light. The recent reports on climate change have made me think about doing a better job of loving our mother.
Mothering, shepherding, birthing, caring, weeping.
Images of God, the God who is present, who knows our name and who cares about the details of life, who is abundant life and who brings about abundant life.
Like I said this Sunday is loaded.
God is loaded.
Don’t get between a shepherd and the sheep.
Don’t get between a mother and her children.
Don’t get between God and the creation that he swaddles and wraps with love.
May we live the kind of life and relationships that bring about life abundant.
Like Rachel may we be the image the Shepherd who is good.