Nurturing Love of God

Mothers/Graduates Day Sermon

May 10^th 2026

Readings: Isaiah 49:13-18 & 1 John 4:7-21

Mother’s Day is always a mixed bag, isn’t it? As adults, we have opinions about our own mothers.. and many have experienced motherhood themselves. This means that there are probably as many good feelings about Mother’s Day as there are negative feelings about Mother’s Day in this room. Many had/have amazing mothers, mothers they think of fondly and lovingly. Many have complicated, non-existent or even traumatic relationships with their mothers. Many of you mothers out there have had children you adore! Many of you mothers out there have felt distant from your children, and some have even lost children. Whatever it is you’re feeling today, I want to validate those feelings. Because nothing in life is actually black and white – either/or.. everything is both/and. You’re allowed to feel a wide range of emotions. Those emotions make you human. Those emotions lure you toward healing, wholeness, and love.. if you allow yourself to feel them.

One of the things I REALLY love about God, is how God provides us ALL perfect parental care. In this way, we are always perfectly loved by a mother/parent, and we always have an example to lead us in our own relationships. Traditionally, I’d say the dominant narrative or picture of God has unfortunately not been as a parent, but as a far away deity who sits on a throne, counts all our faults and missteps against us, and doles out punishments left and right. This is a God whose power is wielded in force and fear. A God who has no empathy, who is incapable of being vulnerable, and asserts their dominance over all creation.

However, this is not the God that I preach because this is not the God that I believe in. If we look at Christ alone as our example of who God truly is, then we can know without a shadow of a doubt that God IS love. That God’s power is not in domination or fearmongering, but in LOVE, service, sacrifice, empathy, and vulnerability. God, like a parent, created all of us and would die in our place if it meant we got to live. God never gives up on us and refuses to abandon us. God calls us by name, tells us we’re special, and believes in us more than we will ever believe in ourselves.

God is fundamentally a relational God. There is no fear or punishment in LOVE – perfect love casts out fear! Perfect love requires freedom and responsiveness. God does not call us to fear God; God calls us into relationship. And we all know what it means to be in relationships; one sided relationships rarely last and if they do, they certainly aren’t healthy or fulfilling! God calls us to be responsive to God’s invitation to relationship – it has to be mutual, or it’s not a relationship at all. Relationships also require freedom, each party free to be authentically themselves.

Now parents out there might understand the lure to be controlling or restrict freedoms because it’s a big scary world out there and if we don’t micromanage children’s choices, then they might make the wrong one and they might end up hurt or hurting someone else… Those are valid fears! But what else do relationships require? Trust and safety. If a small child feels they can trust you, that with you in the room they are safe, then they feel brave enough to take that step, to fall down, to get back up and try again. But they must retain their own agency. Parents cannot do the walking for their children, we must all learn to walk on our own.

Our relationship with God is no different. God is not the puppet master of our lives, but rather the nurturing persistent parent who is gracious, patient, forgiving, trusting, trustworthy, present, emotionally available and vulnerable, resilient, influential, compassionate, supportive, adaptive, and safe. God is the parent with the open door policy – you’re never forced to enter, but the invitation is always present. God doesn’t force, but always accompanies us faithfully through every possibility life may offer.

And God in Christ proves to us that God is NOT impartial, but rather God suffers and feels along with us. God rejoices when we rejoice, weeps when we weep, and carries the world empathetically. Like many of you who have been moved by your child’s grief, pain, or anger, God also shares our emotions and bears our wounds with us through relationship, enduring them together and helping us heal.

There is intense RISK involved in becoming a parent. You have no idea who that child will grow up to be or what they will do to either harm or heal the world. You have no idea or control over how that child will interact with you – the one who gave them life! You have no idea the immense joy and/or suffering that child might bring.. and yet, you take the risk and you love with all your might. This is how I view God. Creating the world was and is risky business. Becoming human was risky business that got God murdered. For all the times humanity has broken God’s heart, God keeps choosing life. Keeps creating. Keeps loving us and inviting us into love in return. That’s all a parent can really do at the end of the day, isn’t it? For coercive, controlling love undermines love itself! We were not given free will as a test. We were given free will because love cannot exist without freedom. 

God IS love. God as creator has woven the fabric of the universe from God’s very self – we are all bearers of divine DNA. We are all capable of love and free to choose it in everything we do and say each and every day. We are made of love, made with love, and made TO love. We love because God first loved us, paved the way, showed us how, and invites us to go and do likewise. To love the world, even when it breaks your heart. To not only love those easy to love, but love those who are foreign to you, love even your enemies! For love is the only thing that can and will transform the world.. and transform your own life.

Today and everyday, let the nurturing-motherlike love of God wash over you, remind you of your belovedness, and send you out to love others as God first loved you. Amen.

*I preach from the lens of Process Theology and Open & Relational Theology - check them out to learn more! :)