” Protected & Loved.”

It is Mother’s Day today and how fitting the cover of the Bulletin is for today. A very joyous image of Carol Aust called “Six in Bed.” 1 mother, 4 kids and 1 kitten.

Carol Aust works in acrylics on canvas and wood panels from her studio in Oakland, California. Her figurative paintings are emotionally charged narrative fragments sometimes infused with mysterious tension and secrecy. She often places her figures in precarious environments where anything could happen.

Sometimes celebratory, sometimes lonely and disturbing, her paintings express a wide range of human desire and yearning. Aust’s work consistently features strong and vibrant colors along with figures that are both engaging and vulnerable.

Through her own private study, she has been influenced by artists such as Emil Nolde and Marc Chagall. Her work is represented in private collections throughout the United States.

It is indeed a colorful and vibrant cover today. A painting full of movement and emotions. The older kids are climbing the bedcovers and the mother, while she is trying to get her two younger ones to nap or rest. She really needs the rest herself. The kitten, the cat, sits like only a cat can sit, undisturbed, elegant and remarkable untouched by the commotion. But this moment will be altered when the climbing kid gets to the tail of the kitten – and all erupts into chaos.

It is Mother’s Day today and the painting may evoke all kinds of feelings and emotions in us. We might recognize the situation. We might miss the time of small kids in our bed. We might long for the moment of kids or grandchildren. We might ache in sorrow over lost opportunities, lost children, lost love.

Like any good painting this painting tells a story that may resonate with our narrative, our emotional memory or deep longings.

“Protect them in your name.” it is written on the cover and bed linens.

“Protect them in your name.” Mother’s and Father’s are meant to protect and love their children. To give them the very best opportunities and to keep them safe from harm. Most parents do, while with different ways and abilities, but some do not. Today we recognize that the image of a protective mother or father might touch deep wounds or neglects from a childhood that was anything than protective and safe.

One of my favorite stories of H.C Andersen is the very sad “The Story of a Mother" (Danish: Historien om en moder). The tale was first published in December 1847.

The story also begins in a bed setting, but quite different from the happy cover.

A mother has not slept for three days and nights watching over her sick child. When she closes her eyes for just a moment, Death takes her child.

 The mother rushes into the street and asks a woman, who is Night, which way Death went.

Night tells her to go into the forest, but first the mother must sing every lullaby that she has ever sung for her child.

 In the forest, a thorn bush tells her which way to continue, but only after she has warmed the bush by pressing it to her chest, causing her to bleed.

The mother then reaches a lake that carries her across in exchange for her eyes, which she cries out.

The now blind mother reaches the greenhouse where Death cares for the flowers and trees, each one a human life. Here the mother finds the little sick plant that is her child, recognizing it by the sound of its heartbeat.

The old woman who helps care for the greenhouse tells her, in exchange for her hair, that when Death comes, she must threaten to rip up the other flowers. Death will then be afraid for he must answer to God; only God decides when the plants are pulled up and planted in the garden of Paradise, where we do not know what happens.

Death gives her back her eyes and asks her to look into a well. Here she sees the futures of two children, one full of happiness and love, the other full of misery and despair. He says that one of these futures would be the future of her child, were it to live.

Then the mother screams in fear, "Which is my child! Rather carry my child into God's kingdom than allow it to suffer such a life."

Death says, "I do not understand. Do you want your child back or should I carry it away into the unknown?"

And the mother wrings her hands, gets down on her knees, and prays to God:

"Do not listen to me when I ask against your will! Do not listen to me, do not listen to me, do not listen to me!"

And Death leaves, carrying her child into the unknown land.

 

It is indeed a sad and moving story. It is the story of a mother and a mother’s love. When she is asked how she will find her way, she simply replies: “I am a mother.”

An archetype of a mother who is sacrificing all to protect and save her child.

And in the end, she chooses to let her child be carried by God’s loving arms to Paradise instead of possibly living a life with a tough path. So, the mother bids farewell to her beloved child, with love, with faith and hope that God will carry her and sustain when she cannot.

 

The reading today is from a long Farewell Speech given by Jesus in the Gospel according to John. A deep and heartfelt prayer given on the offset of his suffering and death – to instill hope and faith in the disciples who will be left behind.

“Protect them in your name.”

Jesus is asking God to protect, to guide, to sanctify his dear disciples – so they might find strength and purpose to be in the world without him.

Just like the Mother in the Fairytales asks God to protect her child when she cannot.

Just like the Mother in the Painting asks God to protect them in his name, the name of love.

“Protect them in Your Name.” Jesus prays as he is preparing his disciples to a life without him. And as Jesus is praying for his disciples, he is preparing them to be in the world as his witnesses and disciples with eyes and hearts set on greater and higher visions.

“holy Father, protect them in Your name, that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

 

A prayer of unity and peace.

A prayer of belonging and believing.

A prayer of love and longing.

While Jesus prayer in the Gospel according to John, might seem a bit convoluted and complicated, - like it is going in circles with words words, words, – we can focus on these lines of prayer: “Protect them in Your name, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

That is how we would pray for our children that they may be safe and sound – and be one in the family, among siblings.

That is how the mother in the painting is praying for her crawling, climbing and curious kids to be safe and sound, protected and loved outside that haven of the bed. And be one big happy broad of siblings.

That is how the mother in the Fairy tale prayed to God “to protect her child even as she cannot.” To be protected by God’s love as a child of God.

 

So, on this Mother’s Sunday, please pray for protection and love for your children, grandchildren, students, siblings, parents, and especially Mothers.

Amen