A Hooker for Mom of the Year

Last week we started looking at:  What Jesus Said About our Emotions, and we’ll be coming back to that next week, this week is all about mom. 

If you were looking for a contestant for “Mother of the Year” this mom probably wouldn’t have made your list.  She was just a hooker, a lady of the night.  And normally we wouldn’t even consider her to be in the running for “Mother of the Year” but then again, it’s not “Wife of the Year” we are looking at, it’s “Mother of the Year” and the two aren’t always the same.  Maybe you know the story, maybe you don’t.  We don’t know a whole lot about her, we know that she was a prostitute; we know that she lived with at least one other prostitute, we know that she was a new mom and we know that she had a major problem. 

It seems that both the heroine of our story and her roommate gave birth at the same time, which was probably an occupational hazard of their particular profession. And they both had sons.  One morning shortly after the boys were born it was discovered that one of the children had died in the night.  The cause given was that the mother had rolled over and smothered him.   It’s here that the story gets a little confusing.  The mother with the dead child claimed that it wasn’t her son, that her colleague had switched the boys in the night after the accident.  The other mother protested her innocence and maintained that she had done nothing wrong and that the children had never been swapped.

One of these women was lying; both could not be telling the truth.  People do that you know, they lie.  Honest.  I’ve been in the ministry for a hundred years, well maybe not quite a hundred years but over thirty years, and I’ve seen people lie.  I have sat down with couples in marriage counselling and she has said black and he has said white, and to look at them you swear they were both telling the truth, and yet they couldn’t be. 

I’ve heard her say “He does this vile thing” and him say “no I don’t, never have.”  And I just shake my head. 

They sound like a couple of kids, “Did too” “Did Not”, Did too” “Did Not”, “Did too”. 

And so we have a problem, who is telling the truth and who is lying?   The story is found in the Old Testament book of 1 Kings, David has died and Solomon his son has become king of Israel. 
Tamara is going to come to read the story for us, and I’m going to ask that you stand for the reading of God’s word. 1Kings 3:16-27

(Scripture Reading)

To put this story into context we need that understand that shortly after Solomon had become king, he went to a place called Gibeon to offer a sacrifice to God and while he was there he had a dream where God appeared to him and offered him anything he wanted. Anything. Suppose God appeared to you and made you the same offer.  “Say Bob, you can have anything you want, you name it and it’s yours.”  What would you request?  A better job, a bigger house, a nicer car?  More money, a happier marriage, there are probably a dozen good requests that you could make, all valid choices.  But listen to how Solomon responds in 1 Kings 3:9 Give me an understanding heart so that I can govern your people well and know the difference between right and wrong. For who by himself is able to govern this great people of yours?”

Of all the things he could have asked for he asks for wisdom.  Maybe he didn’t need to ask for wisdom, maybe he was already wise because listen to how God answers his prayer, 1 Kings 3:12-13 I will give you what you asked for! I will give you a wise and understanding heart such as no one else has had or ever will have! And I will also give you what you did not ask for—riches and fame! No other king in all the world will be compared to you for the rest of your life!

You gotta love that.

And so Solomon goes back to Jerusalem and throws a feast for his entire court. It’s not long after that the two prostitutes show up with this compelling problem. This is to be the first test of Solomon’s wisdom.  It is an interesting enough story that it has been used at the Harvard School of Law as a case study. 

So what can we learn from this story and from this mother?

1) She was Willing to be Persistent. I wonder how many different avenues this woman how already exhausted? Did the two women work for the same madam or pimp?  Had she asked them to intervene?  Had she gone to the local authorities?  Perhaps the magistrate?  Had they all given her the same answer, “There is nothing we can do, how are we supposed to know which one of you is lying?”  How often had she considered giving up, just throwing up her hands and saying “It’s no good, I’ll never have my child back.”? And if she had of done that what would the result have been? Her child would never have been returned, she would have gone through the remainder of her life full of self-doubt and self-loathing.  For the rest of her time on earth she would have been plagued with “What if” and “if only”

And yet deep down inside she knew that somewhere there would be someone who would listen to her, that somehow the truth would come out.  Most of us will go to extremes for our kids, we drive them back and forth to music lessons, soccer, hockey, baseball, hockey, school events, dances, did I mention hockey?  We want our kids to have the very best and we are willing to persevere to make sure they get the very best.

And we don’t give up on them, we want them to do the very best they can do in school, in sports, socially.  And we push them and encourage them, sometimes we berate them.  But we do it so they will achieve and be the very best that they can possibly be, although sometimes I wonder if we are pushing them to be the very best we should have been or could have been. 

And we try not to give up, even though at time that would appear to be the easiest thing to do. As parents we are supposed to be the ones that know the benefits of perseverance, they are children we are adults. 

They can’t see the end result; they think we are just being annoying when we continue to pester them about doing their homework, and practicing their piano and brushing their teeth.  But we know that in the end those are the things that will make the difference. That when they are adults and have an education, can play the piano and don’t’ have to keep their teeth in a glass they will thank us. 

And it’s not something that we do once, you know in grade one your kid comes home, you say “Don’t forget to do your homework.” And that’s the last time you have to mention it.  And every parent here knows the truth of Margaret Thatcher’s statement when she said “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” This woman was willing to go the second mile and the third mile and the fourth mile, even if it meant that she, a prostitute, would have to make her way to the throne room of the King of Israel, the spiritual leader of the nation to plead her case.

As parents we all know the need to persevere in the things of the world, school, sports, music, but how about the spiritual?  Are we willing to go the limit to make sure our kids are in church, go to youth group and are involved in spiritual things  After all if they blow their education they can go back for upgrading, if they don’t learn piano oh well, they probably won’t make it to the NHL anyways and they can always wear dentures, but eternity is forever. And remember you may have to fight that battle more than once to win it, but it needs to be won.   

I don’t know what Robert Strauss was referring to but he could have been referring to parenthood when he said “It's a little like wrestling a gorilla. You don't quit when you're tired, you quit when the gorilla is tired.”

And it was Julie Andrews, who said “Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.” I think it was Suzanna Wesley, John and Charles Wesley’s Mother who had nineteen children, twelve of whom live. Once she was telling one of her children something and someone said “That is the tenth time you’ve told that child that.” And Suzanna replied, “And if I’d only told them nine times, I would have wasted my time.” You understand what she meant right?  It might be the next time that sticks.

2) She was willing to Make Sacrifices Here was a woman who was willing to give up everything for her child, her time, her pride and even her child.  We all know that raising kids require sacrifice, right?  Financially you all heard how much it costs on an average to feed, clothe and educate your children. An article in US News started off this way “To examine in coldly economic terms a parent's decision to have children is widely thought to be in bad taste. A child, after all, isn't precisely akin to a consumer product such as a dishwasher, a house, a car, or a personal computer--any one of which, of course, is cheaper to acquire and usually easier to return.”  According to money sense magazine  the cost to raise a child to the age of 18 is $243,660.00 and that doesn’t include the price if you kids get really serious about their sports or hobbies, that assumes you have health insurance for dental, prescriptions and glasses and it doesn’t include their post-secondary education. 

That’s a small bungalow, somewhere, or ten Harleys, 1.2 Mercedes SL550 convertibles, or staying with the fine German Engineering ragtop theme, 12 Smart Convertibles.  And that’s before they go to college. But of course the sacrifices don’t end there.  We make sacrifices of our time, or our energy, and for the most part they think you enjoy getting up at 5 a.m. to get them to hockey practice and that you enjoy waiting up until midnight or later to make sure they get in safe and sound. And for the most part we are willing to make those sacrifices.

And it’s those sacrifices that make us parents; South African Writer Nadine Gordimer said “There is no moral authority like that of sacrifice.”  And Mothers you know that,  how many times have you used sacrifice as your moral trump card?  “After all I’ve done for you, carried you for nine months I was as big as a house, my feet swelled up like bedroom slippers, and do you want to see my stretch marks? And then, and then, you want to break my heart, well go ahead.”  There well may be folks here today because mom played the guilt card. 

But this woman was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, she was willing to give up her child. She would give up her opportunity of being a mother in order for her child to live.  That’s what set her apart from the other woman, with the other woman it was all about her. 

I have a cousin who became pregnant when she was a teenager, in Australia we’d say she fell pregnant, which always caused me to have all kinds of weird mental pictures, opps, thump, “Dear I think I’m pregnant.”  Anyway, when my cousin was still in High School she gave birth, and gave the child up for adoption to a Christian couple who couldn’t have children. She felt that as much as she wanted to keep her child that they would have more opportunities with that family.

That’s not always the case, sometimes single moms make the sacrifice of raising a child by themselves because they feel that it will be in the best interest of the child. My mom was a teenaged mom, and she didn’t do a half bad job with my sister and me, then again my sister is in and out of jail all the time, well actually she works for the corrections department but I like my story better.

Oh and when you make those sacrifices so they will be better scholars, better hockey players, better musicians don’t forget to make some sacrifices so they will be better people, better Christians. Like getting up on Sunday Morning so they are in church, getting them out to youth events, paying for them to go to Christian rallies and Christian Camps. 

We have literature on the back table about Caton’s Island which is second to none when it comes to summer camping programs. You say “Denn we can’t send them to hockey camp, music camp, computer camp and a Christian Camp” Yeah you’re probably right, so you figure it out.

3) She Was Willing To Go To A Higher Power Here’s the question, do you take your kids to a higher power?  Not to the king but to God?  Do you pray for your children, over your children and with your children?  I have a confession to make, we weren’t very good at “Family Devotions” I hope that didn’t just destroy your image of the perfect pastoral family.  We’ve tried, and we would do it for a while, read scripture and pray together, but then it would get tough, we couldn’t get everyone together, we were tired and I know that was no excuse.  And I know that doesn’t happen with anyone else, but boy it was a struggle for us.

But we do pray for our kids, Angela prays for them when she has her quiet time with God, I pray for them when I have my quiet time with God and we pray for them together.  And here’s something we did, I’m not bragging, don’t get me wrong this is just something we did. Every day when our kids went to school they knew that they were not stepping out through that door until I placed my hand on them and prayed for them.  When I wasn’t home Angela did it.  We thanked God for who they are, we asked God to protect them and be with them, and we asked God to draw them closer to Him.  It wasn’t always an eloquent prayer, sometimes it was a rushed prayer, but we prayed for our kids every day from primary to graduation.

You do not have what it takes to be a parent, but God does and he can give it to you.  If you aren’t praying for your kids then you need to start and at the same time pray that God will make you a better parent. James the brother of Christ tells us in the letter he wrote, in James 1:5 If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.   And what parent doesn’t need wisdom?

The question has to be: Why?  Why was she willing to be persistent?  Why was she willing to make sacrifices?  Why was she willing to go to a higher power?  Because she was a mother and She Wasn’t Willing To Lose Her Child.  There are probably many of you here today who have come at the request of your mother for the same reason.  And probably husbands who are here to appease their wives on Mother’s Day.  And here is the truth boy and girls, the reason your mother is so concerned about you being in church is she doesn’t want to lose you. 

The thought of being separated for eternity from the ones she loves is almost unbearable for her.  In many cases it is mom who first embraces Jesus as her Lord and she wants to pass that gift onto the ones she loves.  Kids if you have never chosen to follow Jesus, husbands if you aren’t Christ followers then it is breaking the heart of your mother and your wife.  She knows the reality of John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

The reason that your mom pesters you about church and your faith and reading your bible, the reason she is willing to make sacrifices to get you here, the reason she lays awake at night and prays for you is because she loves you.  And just like the mother in this story, she doesn’t want to lose her children, or her husband.  Your mother could have written the words from 3 John 1:4 I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.

And so part of why your mother, or your spouse was so insistent about you coming today is because they are hoping I will tell you what they want to tell you and that is this:  They don’t want to lose you, they don’t want to go to sleep each night wondering where you will spend your eternity.  And they want so bad for me to tell you what Peter told the crowd outside of the temple gate in Jerusalem  Acts 3:19 Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.   If you are here today and you have never chosen to follow Jesus it is just that easy.  Repent is what you do, it’s when you stop following your desires, it’s when you turn away from the world and in doing that you turn to God.   It is the decision that you make to commit your life, your past and your future to Jesus Christ.   Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8-9 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

Are you ready to take that step today.  It really is win win, you get a gift from God, because his word tells us that the gift of God is eternal life, and in the process you give your mother a gift that she has only dreamed of.