“Under His Wings” 5/9/10 Mother’s Day Psalm 91; Matthew 23:37-39

            The other day, I heard someone say in church, “You’ll have to ask the preacher that question.”  So, I asked them, “What question?”  The little curious girl said, “Who made God?”  That is probably the most frequent theological question I am asked from children.  The answer is that no one made God.  He is the uncaused cause.  He is the unmoved mover.  He is the unbegun beginner.  God is by very definition eternal.  Only things that had a beginning- like the world- need a maker.  God has no beginning and has no end.  To ask who made God is about like asking “Who made the unmade?”  “Who Created the Uncreated?”  One may as well ask (says Norman Geisler) “Where is the bachelor’s wife?” 
            On Mothers’ Day we are grateful for our mothers who gave birth to us.  Without them, we would not be here.  We are especially grateful for the mothers who love their children with unconditional love- for that points to God’s love for us.  As Perry Tuttle said here a few weeks ago, many times when an athlete has done something great and the cameras are on him or her, their words are “Hi Mom!”   But to me, Mothers’ Day points to gratitude for the one who gives us life, nurtures us, gathers us under their wings, and gets us going- always eventually on our side.   In a sense we can go back farther and say that God does that too.  God gives us life, nurtures and sustains us, protects and provides for us.   Yet there is a vast difference between mother’s and God.   Isaiah said, “As a mother comforts her children so will I comfort you.”  Jesus said, “As a mother hen gathers her chicks so would I have gathered you, but you would not.”  God compares His love for us like a good mother’s strong love for her children.  Never in the Bible does God call Himself a mother- but He uses similes- that as a mother- so is God; or like  a mother so is God.  But scripture distinguishes this Creator God from the prevalent earth idolatry that God is a goddess who has not really created us- or cut the umbilical cord; or just incorporates/morphs us into God’s being.  One of Jesus’ new and key teachings was to make God more personal calling God abba, father.   Paul’s teaching stood in sharp contrast to the Greek Artemis (of the Ephesians)who was the ultimate mother God.  Often when God is described as goddess, there appears to be a huge rise in the prevalence of sexuality outside of marriage.   In our day, we describe God in motherly terms but not in fatherly ones (more later).   There is a huge movement afoot to start calling God “Mother” and to see God not as a Creator or Father who cuts our umbilical cord and is separate from us, but who just incorporates us into the big cosmic womb.   Some say today that God created the world out of God’s self.  But the Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” implying there was a time when the world was not, but also implying this world is different from God.  God was the world’s cause but not its substance.  As a painter creates a painting, so God made all that we see- including mothers and fathers.   The image Jesus gives in this passage is not of a mother with the baby still inside the womb, but of a mother hen whose chicks are separate from her- who are actually running away from the protection of her wings.   The overwhelming biblical idea- and the idea incorporated by our Lord is that we are created and separate from God.   That separation shows in our sin and God’s holiness.   The Bible says “all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.”  We are not only different from God- but we are running away from Him heading away from his protection, his provision, his safety. 
            Unlike God we are made.  We can see inside wombs now and take ultrasounds of babies growing.  Scientists can show us movies of eggs being fertilized, and human beings being made as cells multiply and grow.  But we do not make like God makes.  We use the created substance that God has given us to make others.  I believe that Edwin Hubble (confirmed by the telescope named after him) points to a certain time the world began- creation.  The idea is that when we look at objects in space they all seem to be moving away from each other-expanding- at a rapid space like a huge cosmic explosion has taken place.  It is literally like the world we see exploded into existence from what scientists say is virtually nothing. This points, then, not only to the origin of matter and energy, but also time and space.   It is not like the world just is a part of the eternal god, but it is a created picture-- exploding on the canvass of space.  And we also see that energy is running out of usable energy- running down- which means it cannot be eternal.  It has a beginning and it has an end.  We look at creation like a car that is running out of gas, and we have to know that somehow gas got into the car.  God is the energy maker- the life giver.  In the sense that God gives us life, He is like a mother.   But He gives us life out of nothing.
            God nurtures us.  If a mother did not feed her child, the child would die.  We hear stories of mothers lifting whole cars to get their child out, or running into a burning building to save their child, or giving their kidney to save their child’s life.  This is why it is really, really shocking to us when we hear of abusive parents who neglect to feed their children, or leave their children as trash.  Just last week a three year old in South Carolina was left asleep in the car in a drug dealing neighborhood.   Shots were fired and the three year old was killed.  Just last week a man living in South Carolina was indicted for killing his two year old son.  These are things that should never happen, and they used to happen so rarely.  Now they happen so often we are almost numb to the idea of parental abuse, neglect, and homicide.   This past week I was talking to a representative from Thornwell.  Most of the kids there are there because of horrible neglect or abuse- often involving drugs.   In contrast to this- God says to his people- those who believe in Him- “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”  He calls us the apple of his eye, inscribe on the palms of his hand.  He says, “A mother may forget her nursing child, but I will never forget you.” 
     Sometimes we neglect our children to achieve our own goals.  It is easy to be so driven by the push to have success, that we neglect those who love us most.  Alice Walker for the eighth child of Georgia sharecroppers who grew up during the time of segregation.  She was very intelligent and driven and ended up going to a NY University.  She won the Pulitzer prize for “The Color Purple.”  But in her push for success she neglected her own daughter.  When her daughter was very young,  she would leave her by herself often or give her to a neighbor to care for her.  So her daughter began using drugs and became pregnant at 14.  Alice Walker disowned her daughter,  and has never seen her second grandchild.   The good news is this- God gives us every breath with the chance to come back to Him.  We are all prodigal children who rightfully could be disowned.  But God doesn’t give up on us until we fully and finally give up on Him.              God longs to protect us- Jesus said as much in his wail over Jerusalem.  There is a church on the Mt. of Olives to commemorate this saying before he went to Jerusalem.  From the Mt. Of Olives Jesus can look down over the whole city- and he wept for it.  He said he longed to gather Jerusalem under his wings like a mother hen would her chicks.  I have spoken about the dove’s nest next to my deck.  A few weeks ago there was a storm with some strong winds.  We worried about the baby doves in the nest, but the mother and then the father took turns sitting on the nest covering the babies in different parts of the storm.  We tried to see those baby dove chicks, but they were completely covered so that you couldn’t even tell there were babies under there, but there were. 
      In our day of terrorist threats, earthquakes,  a volatile economy in which the stock market plunged 1,000 points in a few hours,  We are looking for cover.  Jesus said He is offering us cover and we aren’t looking to him.  It would be like a guy on the front lines, bombs are dropping everywhere, machine guns blasting at them, and there is a fellow running around like a chicken with his head cut off- with no tree to hide behind, no rock to get behind, no hole to jump into- and Jesus is yelling from his bullet-proof, bomb proof, fireproof bunker- come in here, and the guy doesn’t believe it is safe there- so he keeps running around aimlessly, hopelessly- knowing that one of these bombs, one of these bullets is sure to strike him.  Life is fragile and never completely secure.  Security in terms of things or have life go on forever here is an illusion.  God wants us to have security.  It is found in coming to God- getting under his wings.  But we want to run around- look everywhere else.   We want to figure out how to dodge the raindrops instead of get under his wings.  We want to find every way we can to be on our own, and not get under his wings.  But Jesus said, “How I would love to have gathered you under my wings.”  Many who are not believers today will look everywhere else but to Christ.  They will look to drugs; they will look to alcohol, to friends, to psychologists, to other religions- looking for some relief from the pains and problems of life.  Jesus is calling to us- come gather under my wings.