The other day I decided to go to the grocery store and pick up a few things before I picked up my daughter Kelly from childcare. I had my 3 ½ year old daughter Helen with me since she had been sick earlier in the day and hadn’t gone to school. As we were getting out of the car in the parking lot, her finger got slammed in the door. As you can imagine, there was a lot of crying and screaming and bleeding, but luckily two men who worked at the store took good care of her, carried her into the bathroom and cleaned it all up. Of course I still hadn’t done my shopping and since Helen had a bag of ice and a band-aid I thought she’d be okay if I put her in a cart and we could get a few things. As we were walking back to where the carts were, she said to me in a pained three year-old voice, "You did that to me." After my shock of hearing that my three year old thought I had hurt her, I responded that I didn’t do that, that what happened was an accident and I would never hurt her. By the end of the shopping trip she was saying that the door did it, and I was greatly relieved.

But having spent most of that day thinking about the Good Shepherd lesson that we heard this morning, and also realizing that I would, once again, be preaching on Mother’s Day, Helen’s words to me that day struck a chord. There is an obvious connection in my mind between Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and a mother with her children. In many ways mothers give up much of their lives for their children. They give their bodies, their hearts, and their time to nurture, guide, and grow a child. They strive to keep them safe while knowing that they can never totally keep them from harm’s way. And most mothers would give their life to protect that of their child.

So ultimately, a mother’s love parallels that of the Good Shepherd. Obviously we can see the metaphor of Jesus as the good Shepherd who laid down his life for his us, his sheep. A good shepherd does not only risk his or her life for his or her sheep, but a good shepherd makes sure that the sheep have access to the best grass available and that they are well taken care of. A good shepherd leads the sheep by familiarity, the sheep know the shepherd by voice and the shepherd leads them to greener pastures and fresh water. That is why the image of God as Father or God as Mother has rung so true for so many people. God nurtures and takes care of God’s flock, and that is why they trust in God.

That trust though, sometimes gets challenged, just as Helen’s trust was challenged when she thought I had slammed her finger in the car door. We, as God’s children, live in a world fraught with fear, hurt and death as well as grace, love and life. Bad things can happen to us and to those we love, and so often when that happens, we hear phrases such as "It must have been God’s will;" or "God is only testing you;" or "God only gives you what you can handle." Those are all words that are spoken out of faith and love, but is that really what our relationship with God is like? If we go down that path, then what we are really saying is that God makes bad things happen to us to see what we’ll do with them and how we’ll handle them. I don’t know about you, but to me that sounds more like the nutty professor than the Good Shepherd. God doesn’t cause people we love to die. God doesn’t cause countries to go to war. God doesn’t make bad things happen to good people, or for that matter, to bad people. God instead leads us to cool water and green pastures. God offers us the possibility of new life lived in love and filled with light. God offers us the freedom and safety to say no to the fear and hurt, and say yes to grace and love.

Throughout our lives, God has been present with us, teaching us exactly how to reach the place of light and love, but most of us have been blind to God’s presence among us. That is why we so often need something as trivial as a hallmark holiday to wake us from our stupor so that we can indeed see the love of Christ around us and among us.

As many of you heard me say last year, I don’t believe that Mother’s Day is a day when we should only recognize those who are our biological mothers. It’s also a day when we ought to pay tribute to those who have nurtured us. Like the Good Shepherd, parents, grandparents, godparents, teachers, and our favorite neighbors have "tended" us—they have touched and taught and led and comforted and mentored us. They have taught us that we matter and prepared us for life. Not all of them have been our biological mothers. Not all of them have even been women. But all of them have given us the particular gifts of memory and presence—of caring for us in ways that affirmed us and reminded us just who and Whose we are.

All of us have had people in our lives who cared for us and often we can even hear their voice, just as it is the voice of the shepherd to which the sheep respond. We carry that voice in our memories. It never leaves us, because we have heard it for so many years. And we will recognize it no matter where we go. I’m sure there are a number of you here today who were at one time embarrassed by a voice of love shouting out for you as you accepted an award, or received your diploma, or performed at some sort of competition. Even Jesus himself had a mother who pulled the strings of relationship to keep him reminded of his truest nature. He was at a wedding, enjoying himself with his friends when she insisted that he share his gifts, and his ministry of miracles began.

That mother’s voice and its power to compel us over many generations gives us a glimpse of what it means for Jesus to shepherd us. The Shepherd loves his sheep and keeps them close, both to him and to one another. This is what Jesus meant in the giving of the mandate that calls us to love one another as he loves us. It’s a commandment to know, value, honor, and protect one another, to share with one another from the riches of God’s bounty. If we recognize Jesus by the tender care he gives the sheep, we recognize his sheep by the depth and steadfastness of the concern they show for their fellow human beings and for all of God’s Creation. This is how God acts in the world. Through all of us and through all our neighbors.

May we on this day, not only remember the mothers who have nurtured us and made us aware of the love with which we were created, but may we also strive to be "a mother," God’s loving and nurturing presence to those around us. And may our spirits be filled with the strength to do so.