sustain:if:able kiwi

worship resources for mothers day

On Sunday I posted a “Mothering Day” sermon; Proverbs 31, and my wonderings about whether the Bible was feminist or patriarchal in tone? The prayer prayed just after I preached is now up on the internet (here). I think it’s a SUPERB Mother’s day pastoral prayer.

As part of the service, I also prepared a responsive Bible reading, mixing together some Scriptures which portray God as like a mother. I have been intrigued for many years with Biblical images of God as like a mother – playful, breastfeeding, birthing. (It was a re-working (for worship) of some of the material from Postcard 3 of my out of bounds church? book).

Anyhow, for those interested in worship material that places a Biblical framework around feminine images of God, here is the reading I composed;

Leader: My heart is not proud, O LORD, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. (Psalm 131:1)

Response: But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. (Psalm 131:2)

Reader 1: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (Isaiah 49:15)

Response: But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. (Psalm 131:2)

Reader 2: “Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the LORD. “Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery?” says your God. (Isaiah 66:9)

Response: But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. (Psalm 131:2)

Reader 3: For this is what the LORD says: “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;
you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees.
As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you;
and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 66:12-13)

Response: But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. (Psalm 131:2)

Reader 4: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” (Matthew 23:37)

Response: But I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. (Psalm 131:2)

Flowers were then given out to all the woman present, with images of mothers on powerpoint, while Sinead O’Conner’s superb music track “This is to mother you” from her Gospel Oak EP was played. (I had to buy a new copy because someone flogged mine in Seattle. And it was a Christian conference too:))