El amor materno de Dios en el evangelio de Marcos

Amen. Yes, we thank God for

our mothers. Please open the

powerful to Hebrews, chapter 1. Please

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

to

Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

chapter

1. The

maternal love of

God in the Gospel of

Mark. I ink it.

Hebrews 3. Hebrews 1, verse 3. I

Hebrews 1:3

'm going to read it in English

first. God's

glory

exacte. Meaning the God, Jesus is not a

reflection of God. Jesus is God.

Amen. The sun is the radiance of God's

glory and the exact representation of

his beings, sustaining all things by his

powerful word.

We'll spend most of our time

studying in Spanish, but I want to just say

this. Oftentimes our vision of God is

God as father. And rightly so, we find

that in scriptures in a patriotic

culture and that's

great. But sometimes we

missed the reality that God is

maternal. God too has

motherly love. And for many of

us, you know, we have this idea

sometimes, you know, I've heard it said growing

up and I used to say many times,

you see God the way you see your

dad. There's a lot of truth to

that. And as someone who grew up without

a dad, that complicates relationship

with God.

But if God created all things and we are made

in God's image, then the way we see

our mom is also the way we see

God. And for me, mom was always present

and

available. Dad was

absent. And so it's been really healing

for me to see and experience the

maternal love of God.

I wanted to spend that time in English because

most of the sermon right now is going to be

in Spanish, but I

wanted to point out to our

English-speaking audience where we're going.

Hebrews 1:3 says, "The Son Jesus is the

Hebrews 1:3

radiance of God's glory and the exact

image." Another way of saying the exact

image or the exact, the same

nature. And if you remember our

study in the gospel of

John, the revelation that Jesus is God.

What is God like? It

's not an old man with a white beard in the

sky and clouds as I write The

Simpsons.

God, what is God like? gods like Jesus,

because Jesus is

God and Jesus is the exact perfect

revelation of God in flesh and

blood. How can we know God without

Jesus?

So, it is so important to know

Jesus, because we can know God.

Amen.

And Jesus is God and God is the creator of

everything. And we were created in the image of

God. Amen. And we were created male and

female. So, many times our

dominant image of God is God the

Father. And it is right and fair. and in a

patriarchal culture in this in the

Old Testament and in the New

Testament it makes

sense. That is, how does

God describe humanity? He's going to use

human concepts and relationships so

we can understand him. Do I make myself clear?

But no, God not only has these

qualities of a

father, God also has

maternal qualities,

maternal love. And that can help many of us

who may not have had a healthy

relationship with a father, or an absent father, or

no connection.

In my early years of faith, I

often heard people say, "Hey, you see God

the way you see your father."

So, there has to be healing and

restoration like that because

unfortunately most of

us maybe didn't have a

good relationship with our parents, so it

helped us.

So, if Father, if our

physical father was emotionally absent and that

is your first image of God, then you

will feel God absent and

distant, right? If my father didn't help me,

I did everything on my own, why should I

ask God for help? I'm going to do it

all myself.

So there is also

healing and restoration there.

But for someone like me, who

grew up with a single mother, with an

absent father with no

relationship, I also think it would have helped me to

hear how

you see, you see God as you see your mother. And

in my context, my mother was always

present,

working, fighting, sacrificing,

giving me attention. So, it

would have

helped me to have this image of not a

God who is absent, but a God who is

present. Amen.

So, in our study we're going to

read passages that may be very familiar, but

the idea is that we can

discover

God's maternal qualities.

And by discovering these maternal qualities

of God, you can perhaps heal,

restore your image of

God. Amen. That is our task

before starting this hike.

And we begin with this passage in Isaiah

66 before entering the gospel of John.

As a mother comforts her

child, thus says God, I will

comfort

you in Jerusalem. Here's your

home, son. In

Jerusalem they will be

comforted.

comfort you and you shall be comforted

in Jerusalem. There's a home for

you. Of all the human imagery in this

crucial time of crisis for Israel, God

could have chosen any relationship to

explain how he feels. And it was so

important during this time for God's

people to feel comfort. And so God

chooses the image that brings the most

comfort.

God reveals God s like a mother holding

and

comforting her child. What an

image. And he says, "This is how I will comfort

you. You know what that looks like.

You know what that's like.

It's a story, it's a very

crucial context for the people of Israel. They

are in exile, they have lost their

identity, their city, in other words, they are in

crisis and of all the human relationships

that God could have used to encourage them in

this time of chaos and

crisis, God

chooses this

example that is most faithful to who God is

and says, "Like a mother who comforts

her

child. Health that wakes up at midnight

because rumina is snoring

. Thus I will

comfort

you. Wow.

Because we've all lived or seen, and

if you're mothers, you know very

well, when someone says something to your

child, I mean, we were gossips, but

now

that

jealousy, that

love, no,

that protection.

That's how God describes himself, that's how you see

God. This is how you see God

. That's how you see it, so

accessible, so

close. We enter our world of

Marcos.

In Mark 6:34, when Jesus landed

Mark 6:34

and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on

them because they were like sheep

without a shepherd. So he began to

teach them many things. It is a

very familiar passage. We see the ministry, the

heart, the leadership, the presence of

Jesus, that is, of God. But let's

look at the maternal side of this. What does

a mother do when she sees people

in

need? What does a mother do

when she sees one of our

friends in need?

Jesus has a deep and

maternal love. God's compassion is like that

of a mother who feels the

suffering of her children from the

depths of her being. And what does a

mom do? He acts, he does

something, right? And sometimes you are so forced

into that action that your children grow up and

no longer want that action. Yeah, not anymore, ma, not anymore

.

And a mother sometimes doesn't know how to

stop that

instinct. Where does that come from? It's an

instinct from God

and that's how God feels about you

when He sees you in need.

And maybe you say, "No, I have to

fight, I have to Yes, go ahead."

But keep this reality in mind, that

God loves you, sees you

and is drawing near.

because he wants to comfort you, he wants to

support you, he wants to provide you with what you

need. And we see here this

maternal love that sees the needs and acts.

Let's see several more. In Mark 8:

2, I feel compassion for these people,

Jesus is describing himself, because they have been

with me for three days and have nothing to

eat. The people ate until they were

satisfied.

Afterward the disciples gathered up seven

basketfuls of fragments that were left over.

If this doesn't describe the boss, the

maternal love, I don't know

what, because the

Latina mother doesn't just say, "I

love you," she also says, "You've already eaten."

Yeah, every now and then. Our

Latina mother, you come into your house and her house and

sit down to

eat. You've already eaten, since you've eaten,

when you leave, here it is,

right?

And sometimes a mother-in-law's instinct is,

oh, they're going to feed you, they're going to take

care of you like I do, my

treasure, my

king. Because

maternal love is providing what is

needed. You see? The maternal heart of

God, of

Jesus, was the only one who saw the people who had

not eaten. Isn't that the

mother's instinct?

There's a dad who makes the plan for

everything, but what are we going to

eat? This instinct,

right? And

then, what does Jesus do? This

maternal love, get cleaning.

The people ate until they were

satisfied. Afterwards the disciples

gathered that it is not the love and

training of mom.

But before that, if you still don't

believe it, here

it is. What does Jesus say? Pick up the

leftover food so you can have it for later.

Don't let that go to waste. for later.

There are other children who do not have

food. Do you see maternal love? Yes, from

God.

How about you

believe it? What if you truly

believed that just as your mother loves you, God

loves you even more?

How about you believe it?

Because once again we have

overplayed the

song that God is a father and how good he is.

But we don't pay much attention to the

maternal aspect of mom that God has,

the

maternal instinct, right? In our

Latin cultures, when dad is younger,

dad is the

king, not the owner, the

boss. But

then the

years go by and who is the most

important person in the family? The grandmother.

Grandma doesn't have a birthday. Every time it's

Grandma's birthday.

The grandmother is the one who unites

everyone, because our

Latin culture is a maternal culture,

but when we only listen to the

paternal gospel, we sometimes lose that

connection, not just culturally, but also of how

God cares for you.

family life. Yes. And many Latino families

say, "Oh,

American families turn 18 and that's it.

And sometimes we criticize that, but

the house keeps growing by

thousands of people."

But it's something different, strange, because the

Latin cultural family is unity and there are

certain weaknesses there too, I mean, we

already know that, but we're talking about

values ​​and we see this

God who values ​​that

unity. It is very likely that

Jesus lived in the same house with his

mother, with all his brothers and sisters.

And when he left, eh, come

home. And he says, no, I have to

be here. As

? What is a household going to tell you

? What's that? Is that weird? Do

n't you? Who? Who are those? Mother

relates. Okay, the notes weren't there

, but there it is. The maternal love of

God sees the

hunger of the

people before they ask for something, which

is not motherly. That's how it is.

Like a mother who

anticipates that what her child

needs is going to be cold. Put on your

jacket,

take it with you.

Who's going to pick you up? Jesus feeds

the multitude with

generosity and

abundance. I hope this

perspective does something for

you, that it helps you

see that God loves you. Amen. May it help you

see the maternal instinct that God

has for you.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

One

more in Mark

4. And with many such parables

Jesus taught them the word as far as they

could understand. He said nothing without

using parables. But when he was

alone with them, his disciples

explained everything to them. In

Jesus' ministry, who spoke the

most? Jesus. In our homes, who

talked more? Dad or mom?

Hey, they say that if the mother speaks two

languages, right? Children are more likely to

speak two languages.

Because? Because it's mom who talks most with her

children.

But if the father speaks two languages ​​and

the mother only one, just one,

the children are less likely to speak two

languages, because the mother is the one who

speaks to them more. If I explain myself, it

is the mother who

constantly has the most

conversations with her sons and daughters.

What do we see in Jesus?

Constantly

speaking to them like a mother who speaks with

patience, I hope, not always, and

clarity, Jesus

teaches in a way that everyone

can

understand. He guides his disciples with

care and attention.

God's maternal love is

patient,

relational, and helps us grow step by

step. None of this should lower

our honor, honor, that of the father.

Amen. It is not a criticism of our parents.

Amen. What we are trying to

elevate is this maternal love of God.

Amen. Amen. Because I think the version has

been like this and we want it to be more

balanced because God is the creator of

everything. Amen. Amen.

God is the creator of man and

woman. God is not a man who makes man

and woman. God is

God. Yes. God reveals himself as man,

but God is

God. Okay. There we stayed.

Now, in all of this it is important to

pause

here, a

pause of

regret. Lament is expressing our

pain. Regret is feeling our

pain without being victims.

It is expressing our pain without

blaming. It

is normal to be able to name what

hurts, what has been lost,

what should not be, but it

is an act of faith, it is a complaint of

faith. And we can

regret here that not all of us

perhaps had a healthy

relationship with our mother. We

can also lament here that perhaps

we lost our mother

or still have

relational wounds with

mom. And that's

fair because Mother's Day can

be very complicated for some

people, just as Father's Day

can be very complicated for

others. So, as a community of

God and faith, we create this space to

also

lament that not everything has been as it should be

.

with our moms. There's still

complications and we're still healing

and trying to figure out those

relational wounds. And in the community

of God, there must be space for lament.

Lament is a

faithful

complaint to be able to name what is but should

n't.

Amen.

So, in

Jesus, God demonstrates his

solidarity with human suffering and

the wounds of our

relationships. Jesus.

From the beginning, Jesus knows what it is like to

be hurt by someone

close to him. Jesus not only suffers

physically, he also experiences

deep pain in his relationships.

Betrayal,

abandonment,

loss. How does that help us?

that God not only helps us carry

these sorrows and

pains, but has

felt them,

relates to them, and

accompanies us. And in Mark 3, immediately after

some followers, one of his followers

says, "No, how do we find a way

to kill him? The people he's

helping betray him. He

heals someone and doesn't do what Jesus

did and complicates his

ministry. Then his disciples

abandon him, they betray him. What is

God living?

Human life to

relate to

us. And the saddest thing is that many

of us have an image again

of a

distant God who only wants you to behave

well so that one day you will be with him. That

's the version. How

sad. God is relational, he is alive,

present, active in our lives, he has

suffered like us, he accompanies us, he

relates, he doesn't ask you to do something, he

is forming you to be who you should

be. Amen.

We continue after that pause. Mark

Mark 4:35

4:35. He

got up, rebuked the wind and commanded the

sea.

And there I put it still in English, the

wind calmed down and everything was

completely

calm.

The boy or girl who is in their room

says, "Oh, there something under the

bed, there's something in the

closet or go grab that." No, it's already

nighttime, I don't

go out anymore. No, I remember in Mexico it was

nighttime and I didn't go out to the yard. No,

which one?

And our room, the room in the

house was here, it was only one

room and there were like seven of us. And on one

side was the kitchen, but there was no

door, you had to go

out. And Martín, go get the milk. No,

which one? And everything. Yes, yes, yes. And who did

I go to for rescue?

Grandma, I'm scared. Go yourself, leave the

child. That's God, who protects you. Amen.

Or who goes

with you and turns on the light. Yeah.

And some of us are living

in storms right now and there's

chaos and maybe you feel bad because you

caused it, but have

confidence that maybe God doesn't approve of it

and doesn't justify it, but he can

accompany you.

Just like you made a mistake with mom, but you

still ask him, you behaved really badly,

right? And then, what to

eat? You

carry me, you let me

go. But sometimes, just as we sometimes

try to manipulate Mom, we think that's

how we can do it with God.

His love is conditional. Don't mock it,

take advantage.

Let Him

form you, don't have this

image of an

absent God. wakes up, comes a

storm, right? There are no monsters in

the

closet. I'll come, turn the light

on. I'll help

you. That's who God is. That's who God is.

This maternal instinct is there as

well. And again, if you had

complications,

challenges, a relationship with Dad, but Mom

was healthier, great. You

can relate, God can relate. You can relate to God.

And I hope anything that

study gives

you

maternal

love. Jesus' response in the middle of

the storm reflects the swift and

protective action of a mother who runs to

meet her

children in danger. God's love is

active, present, and

capable of

calming the

chaos. Who calms the chaos in the house?

Mom. Who causes it?

Mom. She has that power.

Mom, no. Mom is happy. The house is

happy.

Amen. Mom has the

Maturity, wisdom,

spirituality, everything, nothing is

perfect, but the environment feels better

.

So,

Mom also learns from this

maternal instinct, because when she decides, the

Bible tells us, "Let us be like God."

Perhaps for a woman it might be, if

I have the image of God the Father, how am I going to

be like God? But you also have the

image of God the Mother, maternal love.

Ah, yes, I can do that. Yes, I can, that's what

I do there. If I have victory,

go ahead.

Amen. Mothers.

Mark 16. I'll finish it now so you can go

eat and take pictures.

In the

resurrection,

symbolically, who are those who reach

the

resurrection? The women: Mary

Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and

Salome.

Symbolically, those who proclaim new

life are women.

Those who proclaim the new

possibility of the new creation are

women. And I love that the gospels go out

of their way to show

us the women who proclaimed first. And it's not

a battle of the genders like it is

now. That's That's not what's taking

place. It's God is honoring his

creation.

The empty tomb becomes a

womb of new creation. The love of

God, like that of a mother, gives birth to

new life.

On another occasion, we can do a study

of the Holy Spirit, where generally

speaking in the Old Testament,

the Holy Spirit is referred to as

a male or

female. Again, this is not a

gender competition; it's the revelation

of a Trinitarian God. And if we are made

in the image of God, God has all

those qualities.

The mystery of God too.

In Isaiah

Isaiah 49:15

49:15, can a

mother forget her nursing child and stop

loving the son she has given

birth to? The answer is yes.

We've seen it, and it's

happened, and God understands those

sufferings and situations, but He also

says, "Though

she forgets, I will not forget you."

Amen. And when God says something, God

fulfills it, because God is faithful. Amen. I

bear you in the palms of my

hands. I always keep your walls

. Where you dwell, I

habit. Again,

human motherhood has

limits, but it doesn't

have weaknesses.

Yes,

and

even

wounds. But God's maternal love is

limitless,

unconditional, and

never fails.

That question. Can a mother forget

her child? Perhaps, but I will not forget.

And again, I hope this is a step

forward in the clarity, restoration, and

healing of our image of

God. That even though our mothers in relationships

with mothers have

limits, weaknesses, or even relational

injuries, not so with God. We

end our

study with some

questions

. How does

contemplating her maternal love enlarge your image of God

? And what might

that mean for your spiritual healing and

growth

? Number two, what did your

mom or a

maternal figure do that reflects God's love, and

how can you honor her

today? Honor her

memory in light of God's maternal love.

And finally, perhaps most

importantly, if as a child or toddler you used to

write Mother's Day cards

, imagine that today you write

one to God. What would you

say to express your love and gratitude

for Her

maternal care? And what would

you draw describing that

maternal love? This one, maybe it's the most

important if you used to write mother, mother's

day cards, growing up, imagine writing one to God

today. What you say, what

you

know? I invite you all, please, can you

spend maybe two minutes, just choose

one of these

questions, reflect, and then we'll

pray, take communion, and close

our service. Amen. Amen. So, choose

one of these questions and share with

someone close to you. All right, go ahead.