AN ADDRESS: “GIVE HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE”; DELIVERED TO THE IGBO ANGLICAN MINISTRY WORSHIP-SERVICE, AT THE CHURCH OF THE ASCENSION, DALLAS, TEXAS, ON THE OCCASION OF MOTHERS DAY, ON THE SECOND SUNDAY OF MAY, 8TH MAY, 2011, BY SIR. OYIBO E. ODINAMADU, MON; B.A.; M.A.; KSC.
1. PROTOCOLS AND SALUTATIONS!
Umu Chineke-ei!…….E-i-i-i!
Ndi Otu Christ-ei!.....E-i-i!
Ndi Uko-Chukwu ma-nma!.........I’so kwa!
Ndi Nne ma nma……………………..I’so kwa!
Ndi Nna ma nma!.........................I’so kwa!
Igbo-abuna-Igbo………………………….ma nma!....I’so kwa!
Kene-nu Jehova n’ihi na O’di nma-o!
N’ihi na rue mgbe ebigh-ebi ka ebere Ya di!
INTRODUCTORY CHORUS: Oh! Mothers! Oh! Mothers!...
2.PRAYER BEFORE THE ADDRESS:
Oh! God; open thou our eyes and mind, that we may behold, the wondrous things, out of thy laws, so to speak and meditate on them, to the glory of thy Holy Name, through the precious and mighty Name of our Lord, Savior, Advocate and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Amen!
3. OBSERVE ONE MINUTE SILENCE: In the indelible memories of our mothers; Who have answered to the higher call; To return to the Lord;
FIFTEEN SECONDS
PRAYER AT THE END: May the souls of our mothers; and the souls of all the faithful departed; through the mercy of God; Have eternal rest with the Lord. Amen!
CHORUS: “Obu gini - k’anyi g’eyi - mgb’anyi g’ano - na mbala Enu-igwe….”
4. THE THEME OF THIS ADDRESS IS:
“GIVE HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE”
5. THE ORIGINS OF “MOTHERS DAY” OBSERVANCE
5-i. The observance of MOTHERS DAY started in Africa – in Ancient Egypt, which s the earliest cradle of civilization. It started with the spiritual honoring of their goddess Isis, whom they revered as the Mother of Kings – the mother of Pharaohs.
5-iii.. In the Roman Empire, when most of the empire had became Christian, under Emperor Constantine, Christians started to observe the fourth Sunday in Lent, in honor of the Church in which they were baptized. The Church was regarded as their Mother Church. They also used the day to honor Mary, the mother of Jesus. And this turned the occasion into that of an observance for human mothers.
5-v. The observance to honor mothers started in England in the 1600’s, as a Mothering Day and then changed to Mothering Sunday, on the 4th Sunday of Lent. The British missionaries carried the observance to all the places that England colonized, including Nigeria.
6. MOTHERS DAY OR MOTHERS SUNDAY IN THE USA
Mothers Day has become synonymous with Mothers Sundayin the USA. Anna M. Jarvis (1864-1948), who was extremely attached to her mother, Mrs Anna Reese Jarvis, is credited with originating the observance of Mother's Day or Mothers Sunday in the United States of America, though it was initially in honor of her mother.
6-i. The First Mother's Day observance was a Church service honoring Mrs. Anna Reese Jarvis on May 10, 1908. The United States congress approved Mother’s Day in 1914, and designated it for the second Sunday in May.
6-ii. Mothering Sunday in the Anglican Church of Nigeria
Mothering Sunday resonates very well in the Anglican Church of Nigeria, on the fourth Sunday of Lent. It is meant to offers a break in the season of fasting, between Ash Wednesday and Easter for Christians. The Anglican Youth Fellowship (AYF), and the Children’s Ministry entertain Mothers with some drama, and distribute gifts to the mothers.
Mothering Sunday is not a day for serving breakfast to mothers in bed, or for taking them out to a good Restaurant and giving them a really good treat. It is for mothers to extend mothering to as many people as possible, by providing a lot of food and other refreshments, for invited and uninvited guests, who may or may not bring presents.
The mothers of the Anglican Igbo Ministry, Dallas, promise you a taste of that extension of mothering, immediately after this Worship-Service, at the Fellowship Hall. Please, stay for it; enjoy it; and then, come again!
CHORUS: Nne n’aso! Nne n’aso ka ofe egwusi!...
7. THE THEME FOR THIS ADDRESS IS: “GIVE HONOR TO WHOM HONOR IS DUE”.
7-i. As Saint Paul said, we should give honor, in various ways, to whom it is due. We should mostly give the honor of love – out of the abundance of our hearts.
7-ii. An outstanding example of honor, love and respect to be given, in the Holy Bible, is the 5th commandment: “Honor your father and your mother…” The example is not a request but a command. God requires us to honor our parents, who have bestowed immeasurable goodness - of life, love, care and education - upon us.
In return for that goodness, one should pay the parents with love, high honor and deep respect. My mother used to say that the debt children owe their mothers is not only that of mother’s milk, but includes sleepless nights, stress and nursing when they are sick, soiling her clothes, going with little food so that the children will have enough. These acts are not quantifiable. They are debts that can never be fully paid. .
7-iv. In the Psalm for this Mothers Sunday, the Psalmist says: “How shall I repay the LORD, for all the good things He has done for me?” I believe that all of us are saying the same thing about our mothers today. We have prayed for mothers.
CHORUS: Ewo! Nne-mu-o! Agam eji gini we kene Mama-mu-o!...”
7-v. Jesus honored the lowly, the weak, the widowed, the hurt, the sick, and the rejected by lifting them up in love, and showing compassion on them. When these attributes are extended they, invariably, lead to a return in kind.
8. TWO WOMEN IN THE BIBLE – ONE TREATED LIKE A QUEEN; AND THE OTHER, LIKE A VILLAIN:
8-i. RUTH WAS GIVEN DUE HONOR; WAS TREATED LIKE A QUEEN; AND SHE BECAME A QUEEN.
8-i.a) This event took place in B.C. 1312. Due to famine in the land of Judea, Naomi migrated with her husband and two sons to the land of Moab. The two sons married Moabite women. Her husband – Elimelech and the two sons died in Moab. Naomi, upon hearing that the famine in Judea had subsided, returned to Judea with her two daughters in-law - Orpah and Ruth. Being that her two sons had died, Naomi entreated her two daughters in –law to return to their mothers and their people.
8-i.b) It was the phenomenal kindness of Naomi to Ruth and Orpah, that made them not to want to leave her, even though their husbands have died, and they had no children. They cried bitterly at the thought of leaving such a kind and loving mother in-law. But after a while, Orpah kissed her mother in-law goodbye, and left.
8-i.c) But Ruth, compelled by her deeper love and commitment , also due to her destiny that the Messiah will come from her lineage, clung desperately to her mother in-law. She refused to go, under any circumstance, and responded to her mother in-law’s pressures, in Ruth 1: 15, as follows: “Do not press me to leave you, or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go! Where you lodge, I will lodge! Your people shall be my people! And your God will be my God! Where you die, I will die! There I will be buried! May the Lord do thus and so to me, and more as well, if ever death parts me from you!”
8-i.d) The actions of Ruth are a model for most women today, who see great adversaries in their mothers in-law, sisters in-law, and daughters in-law. How many of us women feel this way towards our sisters in-law, who are married into our paternal families? How many of us are intent on being unifiers rather than polarizers?
9. MARY MAGDALENE – WAS DISHONORED AND TREATED LIKE A VILLAIN
9-i.a) Jesus recognized and honored women greatly, especially by showing Himself first to a woman, whom He also called by her name. He immediately made her the First Apostle by sending her on an errand – the very first errand – on which the Risen Christ sent anyone - to announce the Good News to the world.
He sent Mary to carry the Message of His Resurrection to the cowardly and cowering Eleven Men Disciples, who were hiding in the Upper Room – the Room of the Last Supper. She carried out this duty very well. Then Peter and John followed her, to see the Tomb for themselves.
9-ii. But as it turned out, it was all of the Eleven, including Simon Peter, who denied Jesus thrice before the cock crew twice. And Saul of Tarsus, who was a pathological persecutor of Christians, and who practically presided over the stoning to death of Stephen - the first Christian martyr. But he received the miraculous Conversion, on his way to Damascus, to continue his persecution of Christians, after 44 years of the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus.
Rather than acknowledge Mary Magdalene for her love, devotion and commitment for the Lord, and being the one that brought the Good News to the world, the Early Church denigrated her; and labeled her with such names as a prostitute, Jesus’ wife, and writer of the Gnostic Gospel of Mary;
It was only in the past forty years, that we have the facts released that her identification as a prostitute was false.
9-iv. In his reign, Pope John Paul II who reigned as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City for almost 27 years, made over one hundred apologies, including the ones to Galileo, women, and so many others. The apology to women was entitled:
"Memory and reconciliation: The Church and faults of the past.” On 10th July 1995, “in a letter to every woman", he also extended a request for forgiveness. But there was no mention of Repentance and Restitution to former glory!
We are happy to see and to say that the foregoing unfair treatment, given to Mary Magdalene and women by the Church, did not kill women’s interest and spirit in the Church.
9-iii. REPENTANCE AND RESTITUTION NEEDED
The present Pope should know that women need and expect restitution for the apologies made by his predecessor in-office. Women all over the world demand commensurate restitutions now – in the Churches, and in the societies, all over the world – in all the areas, in which their rights have been “denied, violated, infringed, “in the historical denigration of women”.
It is only such restitutions that will give meaning to the apologies. Pope Benedict XVI, would have written his name in letters of gold, studded with diamond, if he would render appropriate Repentance and Restitutions to women and all the others, to whom his predecessor in-office apologized.
10. HUSBANDS AND WIVES TO HONOR EACH OTHER
10-i.a) St. Paul charged husbands and wives to: “Be subject to one another out of reverence to Christ…Just as Christ does for His Church, because we are members of His body… Eph. 5: 21-33.
10-i.b) To my mind, this mutual action of subjection means reciprocal attention of love, honor and respect - no longer that of a maid-servant obeying her master. By the way: How many men and women are wearing their wedding rings?
10-i.c) St. Paul emphasized in his Epistle to the Romans, in Rm. 13:7, when he said: “Render, therefore, to all - not to some or just some select individuals - their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom is due; fear to whom fear is due; and honor to whom honor is due.”
11. GIVE HONOR TO OUR CHILDREN
11-i.a) We honor our children – your child, my child, every child around us - by teaching them what they should know. In our culture, the principle of raising children is: Spoil the rod and spare the child. But in this culture it is the opposite: Spare the rod and spoil the child. This is called: Recognizing the rights of the child.
Yes, children have rights to be recognized and respected, but the rights of the parents to raise the child properly supersede those of the children. In Igbo culture, there is an adage which says: I’welu aka nni tie nwata ife, I’welu aka ekpe dokpuruta ya, ka I’we gugua ya, nye kwa ya ndum-odu. This supports the right of the parents to spank a child, so as to teach him/her a good lesson in good behavior and discipline. But also, after that, to draw the child to his/her bosom, to console and explain things to the child. This is in the teaching and learning process.
11-ib. However, the kind of the maltreatment and incest that children everywhere suffer, nowadays, both in our culture and in the Western culture, at the hands of their parents, pedophiles and child abductors, is really pathetic. For information about the situation in Nigeria, a search of: UNHEARD VOICES – Report by AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, NIGERIA, on the Internet will shock you. Such are the cases for which Christian parents should watch out, guard against, stop, and report to the appropriate authorities.
11-i.c) Christian parents should strive to make a difference in the lives of their children, by teaching them the Golden Rule, mostly by example.
d). It is imperative that parents should teach their children the Ten Commandments, and to lay emphasis on the 5th Commandment, which is given to children, to honor their parents, in Ex. 20:12 and Eph. 6:2. They should learn that God promises to bless the person who obeys this Commandment.
g). Children – both boys and girls - should be taught that all human beings – male and female – are created equal; to develop the right attitude to work; to learn to cook; and to do household chores;
h) Children should be taught how to love and honor Jesus, which is: to trust and obey Jesus, and to know that Jesus loves them, when they are good. There is a little chorus we were taught, as little children, in Monday Catechism Class:
CHORUS: “Trust and Obey; For there is no other way , to be happy in Jesus; but to trust and obey”!
12. We will have a Thanksgiving by Mothers, after the General Offertory. The Mothers of the Anglican Igbo Ministry would want to:
i. Set up Sunday School for children during the monthly Worship-Service, so as not to distract mothers from the Worship Service;
ii. Procure the proper Anglican Worship Books – The Ancient and Modern and the Book of Common Prayer.
We ask everybody, please, to join us and to give us good support. Our good God will not fail to replenish your bounty, many folds.
14. KA ANYI KENE CHINEKE - CONCLUDING PRAYER
Oh! Lord, I thank You for giving me the words to speak; making them understandable to the minds of the listeners; rendering our words and thoughts acceptable in your sight, and making them useful in our lives, to the glory of Your Holy Name? Amen!
15. PROTOCOLS AND SALUTATIONS!
Umu Chineke-ei!…….E-i-i-i!
Ndi Otu Christ-ei!.....E-i-i!
Ndi Uko-Chukwu ma-nma!.........I’so kwa!
Ndi Nne ma nma……………………..I’so kwa!
Ndi Nna ma nma!.........................I’so kwa!
Anglican Youth Fellowship (AYF)…ma nma!.....I’so kwa!
Igbo-abuna-Igbo………………………….ma nma!....I’so kwa!
Kene-nu Jehova n’ihi na O’di nma-o!
N’ihi na rue mgbe ebigh-ebi ka ebere Ya di!
CHORUS: Nwam cheta mu-o!...
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