Grace and peace to you siblings in Christ.

Today we celebrate the Seventh Sunday of Easter and Mother’s Day. Happy Mother’s Day to all.

When I was growing up it took me a while to realize who I wanted to be. Many times I was asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” But rarely do I remember being asked what kind of person, who would I be? To help me learn and understand this was my mother.

I was adopted at five days old and welcomed into our family no different than my sister who was the only child born to my parents.

Everyone was notified and I recall pictures of family, friends, and neighbors gathered around my crib in our home in Roseville.

My earliest memories of a loving family was the fact that I was adopted, this was a point of sharing love not separation.

Our family was like many suburban families, split level house, close to schools, shopping, restaurants, and our church just down the street.

The love my mom had for me was affirmed when I read a letter she wrote to me that is part of my “baby book.”

In that letter she described how they were called to pick me up from Lutheran Social Services and my dad had to leave work early.

Really a situation not unlike when a child is born into a family, there was a sudden rush of excitement and activity.

I think I have mentioned in the past, but to round out the picture was our beloved collie dog “Muffy” who actually used her shepherding skills by tugging me by the

diaper back into the yard after I figured out how to open the gate on our fenced yard,

This period of life was calm and enjoyable on my part, but little did I know the difficulty and pain that my parents were going through.

My parents were divorced by the time I was nine years old.

My dad moved a little ways away and I continued to live in our home with my mom and my sister.

During these difficult times I always knew my mom’s love for me and our family.

Through all of the pain she must have felt there was always an undercurrent of joy.

Joy for being a part of a family that loved each other through thick and thin. A big part of our joy was the support and involvement we had at church.

Divorce was not a common thing then and many of my friends' parents were married.

Fortunately we were never singled out, or at least I wasn’t aware of that.

My mom worked hard to support us and stay in our home, working long hours with very average pay.

My mom’s prayer for us was to get a good education and graduate from college. Both my sister and I were able to do that with her support.

Little did I know what my mom gave up for that.

As an adult I learned that my mom started one of the first retail stores in Roseville, before the behemoth Rosedale took over the small shops.

Many people knew my mom and fondly remembered her excellent selection of ready to wear clothes and outstanding customer service.

I am told that I even participated in some of her fashion shows.

Yet my mom had to walk away from that to something even more important, her children.

There is nothing greater than a parent's love for their children.

The joy that comes from being a part of their lives and being there as children learn priceless lessons from their parents.

A connection between people that is strengthened through experience. Like the strength of a rope that has many strands versus a single strand.

Even when it feels like our lives are unraveling or even snap, we know someone loves us.

That someone is Jesus.

Think about all of those years that Jesus lived where we don’t have scripture of what Jesus was doing and learning.

Jesus was out living life, experiencing the hardships and the joys of being a child of God, a God who he will reunite with in heaven.

Jesus learned who he was to be in relationship with all of humanity, with all of those given to him by God.

Through our lives we learn how to become ourselves.

This relationship is a gift and blessed by God.

A gift that was made possible by creation and what God deemed was good.

Imagine the immense joy God must have felt to rest on that last day. “With this I am well pleased.”

I think that is the similar feeling my mom must have had after watching my sister and I graduate from college.

The joy of her dream for us fulfilled that we might go out and share the love that she had for us.

In our gospel from John we hear Jesus’ high priestly prayer.

There it is for everyone, the disciples, the gentiles, and a few thousands years later you and I.

A prayer that Jesus intercedes for us, a prayer given on the night that he would be betrayed by one of his own disciples.

Jesus knew who he was and where he was going, home to his father.

Jesus fulfilled what God had asked, “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.”

Jesus is making that connection that we share, God knows us and we know God. We are part of the joyous creation.

Through this relationship we know that everything given to Jesus was from God, then given to us, and we have received it.

In this awesome prayer Jesus identifies each one of us with him.

Praying for us, “I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.”

Jesus has been glorified in us.

I think that’s how my mom must have felt knowing that she gave up much of her life for my sister and I.

Now we were glorified in her, to carry on that special connection and love.

Love in a world that was shattered by divorce, but put back together in a new relationship.

Just as we have a new relationship with Jesus who has ascended to the Father. We aren’t left alone, but left with a promise to protect us as siblings in Christ. How the disciples heard this on that night had to have been comfort to their fear. A light in the darkness of doubt and the unknown.

“Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me.” Jesus the good shepherd that guarded and continues to guard us. Jesus announces his going to God and the joy for us in such a difficult time. “So that they, you and I, may have my joy made complete in themselves.” All of this is to take place in the world that has shunned the love of Christ. In a world that has evil, a world that sometimes doesn’t seem to care. Jesus prays for our protection from that evil one.

We belong to Jesus and not to the world.

A sometimes strange concept when all we really know is the world. A world that is made out of God’s love for us.

A world that Martin Luther understood us as both saints and sinners.

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.”

Jesus sends us out into the world.

My mom sent me out into the world with the love of Jesus in my heart.

We share in the same love of Jesus. As siblings and the saints who have gone before us.

This morning I honor my mother as I pray that you have similar feelings and love.

We are sanctified to give glory to God, just as we are, to our best God given ability.

For this we can say, “Thanks be to God.” Amen