MOTHERS’ DAY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4046, 11 May 1938, Page 11

MOTHERS’ DAY

ST. JOHN’S CHURCH, TE AWAMUTU. SPECIAL SERVICES. Mother’s Day was kept in St. John’s Church last Sunday evening, the Sermon, hymns and prayers being arranged in keeping with the occasion. Taking as his subject “The- Dedicated Scarecrow,” the Vicar (Rev. Martin Sullivan), preached from 2 Samuel 21-I’o—“And Rizpah, the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it upon the rock for herself from the beginning of harvest until water was poured upon them from heaven, and she suffered neither the birds of the air to rest upon them by day, nor the beasts of the field by' night.” The background of this text comes from a story appended to the Book of David. A 3 year famine fell upon the land and the oracle when consulted declared that Jehovah was angry with h"s people. The cause, he explained, was that Saul had broken an ancient pact of honour between Israel ami the clan of Gibeon. David came therefore to the Gibeonites in order to assess the damages. Their reply was definite: no monetary compensation would avail. “Aji eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” was their demand, the inexorable law of other times. AN ANCIENT PARABLE. The blood of innocent members of Saul’s gulilty party could alone wash out this feud. “It is no matter of silver and gold between us and Saul or of his house . . . .; the man that consumed us and devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, let seven of his sons be delivered unto us and we will hang them up unto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul, the dedicated of the Lord.” This terrible request had in it all the seeds of fanatical madness and passion, which, from the beginning of the world have committed crime in the sacred name of religion. David was a product of his times; he knew no alternative. He lived according to the law of the jungle and accordingly he must obey. With a rare economy of words, the historian records his answer. “And the King said, 1 will give them.” What matters ‘it if innocent men may diet? Seven descendants of Saul —five sons of Merab and two sons of Rizpah, were seized and handed over. “The Gibeonites brought them up to Gibeon, the Hill of God, and there hanged them before Jehovah.” To the rock on this hill Rizpah wound her way and spreading her mourning cloak upon it she kept her dreary watch, warding off .the vultures by day and the jackals by night. She must wait there until the famine drought should break, else (so believed her contemporaries) the sacrifice would be of no avail. It is one of the sublime touches of Holy Writ, that the narrative stands still, while Rizpah, the concubine of Saul, holds the stage: and right royally does she hold it. By day and by night, she stays there, this Dedicated Scarecrow, bearing the burden not of her own but of another’s guilt.—prototype you might well say of another, who stood at the foot of a Cross, while her Son died for the world’s salvation. WAS RIZPAH’S AGONY IN VAIN? Let the sequel of the story show: David was told what this woman had done. He was so moved by what he had heard, that ho surrendered his sword of authority to Love, the Conqueror. Rizpah had triumphed. Deliberately, without taking- counsel of any man in the face of a popular superstition, David gave orders that her sons should receive honourable burial and that amends should be made to the house of Saul as far as lay within human power to do so. Here was an unheard of and an unprecedented action. This is a most marvellous story from barbaric times. David would live among the great souls of history jf he had done nothing else but this. A WOMAN’S AGONY HAD DONE THIS THING. Tho first obvious and simple lesson to be drawn from this story is the outstanding tribute to Motherhood. Who but a mother, would have climbed that height to guard the bodies of her sons? It is especially fitting therefore that we should take such a scene on Mother’s Day. Perhaps now these familiar and hackneyed lines might take on fresh meaning and give added inspiration : If I were hanged on the highest h 11 I know whose love would follow me still. If I were damned of body and soul I know whose prayers would make me whole. You, who are mothers, take a quick view of life. Call to mind your children, wherever they are, whatever they are doing. You will think of them, albeit now they are grown men and women, as little ones who ran eagerly in and out of your door and brought to you in utter confidence, their little triumphs and defeats. Think you not that Rizpah’s thoughts were just these? Did not Mary the Mother of Christ, see beyond the Cross on which her Son lay dying, to a crib in Bethlehem and to the village streets of Nazareth ? You who are children, take one moment now to look back in gratitude to a Mother and a Father’s devot on and sacrifice for you. Whatever you may have done in this world, it was their love and interest which first sent you on your way. Think now of your heart and home, of her especially, who mad& it so fragrant, and you must be eternally grateful. PRACTICAL APPLICATION. There stands the first lesson —yes— but a second and a more vital one awaits us. I repeat, a woman’s agony had done this th/'ng; a woman’s tears had washed the face of God, that men might see Him. Rizpah’s action reveals a vital principle in life, demonstrated daily in motherhood itself—viz.,—that the way of love and sacrifice xMlll always.prevail and that none other can give us a lasting peace. Rizpah might well have summoned her clan to arms to resist this injustice and called them to battle and

war. With what result think you? Things would have been as they were in the beginning—even worse. Instead, see what she did! Hopeless: ridiculous, you say! What possible good could come from this action? Yet in an age of savagery and barbarism she taught the eternal message of sacrifice and goodwill. With all our Christian heritage behind us we haven’t learnt it yet. Look to Europe and see the throne of of bayonets being built and each nation bringing its contribution. Will one of them have courage and vision enough to throw down its arms, abandon this hopeless method of conciliation and show the world a more excellent way? Hopeless, you say again: impossible! Look what would happen ? A LESSON FROM MOTHERHOOD. Yes, I know. As long as we think our standards are good enough and never attempt, with a bold bid, to rise above them, so long shall we think, so long shall we suffer. If you want authority and precedent it awaits you. Look at this woman and her deed. Stand with the Roman mob and watch the trial of Christ Himself. Who in that crowd, could ever have imagined that he was watching the judgment not of Jesus, but of Pilate and all his crew! This may seem a strange digression on Mother’s Day. I wonder! Every woman goes down In travail to the gates of death, in order to bring a new life into the world. What man, what state, what nation, has the Christian faith and fortitude and vision to run the risk of death to give the world the birth from courage, new hope and lasting peace ?