The readings for 27 March, the Fourth Sunday in Lent and Mothering Sunday, are as follows. Note: these are readings chosen for Mothering Sunday. To read them, click on each reading.

I have heard people ask before whether there is a passage from the Bible that sums up the whole Christian faith. Something that just bundles up the whole faith into a few words.

I have heard a few suggestions. One is the Beatitudes from Matthew’s Gospel. You know:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted…”

And so on.

Other people have suggested that the way to sum up the Christian faith is with the Apostle Paul’s great hymn to love in 1 Corinthians 13:

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal…. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude….”

And so on.

And then there is the verse from John 3:16 that really does sum up a core part of the faith:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

But there’s another passage that I think sums up the Christian faith very well. At least it sums up how we are supposed to live in the light of God’s love for us shown in Jesus Christ. How do we live? How do we treat one another? That passage is the one that we heard from Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. Here is a summary of what it says:

You are God’s chosen ones, and God has chosen you and loves you.
Wrap yourselves round with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Be tolerant of one another!
Forgive each other.
God has forgiven you.
Especially wrap yourselves round with love, because it binds everything together as one.
Let your hearts and decisions be guided by the peace of Christ.
All of you are together in one body. You are one, in Christ.
Be thankful. Give thanks to God.
Let Christ’s word live in you.
Be wise guides and teachers to one another.
Sing to God, with thankfulness in your hearts.
Let everything you do and say be in line with the Lord Jesus.

What a wonderful way to live. Truly. What a wonderful way to live.

We read this today for Mothering Sunday. Between the day and the passage, it’s a time to think of how we treat one another.

Well, here’s a funny thing about that. It seems that treating one another well is harder and harder to do the closer we get to home, to our own houses and our own families. Often people care a whole lot for people out there in the world, hundreds or thousands of miles away. And that is a good thing: to care for the refugees in this world, for the people fighting for their lives and their homes in Ukraine, to recognize that all those people in those faraway places are part of us and we are part of them. What happens to them affects us, or might affect us. We have learned that from the Covid pandemic and now from the war in Ukraine.

But then we get closer to home, and we have our neighbors and the people in our towns and villages and the local politicians or publicans or store owners or what have you. We know these people a bit better than we know those people in faraway places in the world. And it might be easy to gossip about them and to criticize them, and oh, a bit harder to treat them with compassion and kindness, to be gentle and patient toward them, to be humble before them and to tolerate all their weirdnesses. But they are even more part of us and we even more part of them.

But then it gets even closer. There are the people in our own families, and especially the people in our own households. And oh my, talk about weirdnesses! Do I really have to put up with my sister or brother taking my things, or my spouse speaking a harsh word to me, or my parent losing patience with me? Do I have to be humble before my brother, because I think I know more than he does anyway?

Ah, God Almighty! You have given us our families and we thank you for them. Yes, really, God, we do thank you. But do we really have to forgive them?

Well, yes, of course, the Lord would say back.

Can we really live together with them in unity and harmony? It seems so hard.

Yes, it is hard, but it really can be done. I showed you how.

The passage from Paul tells us what the aim is, but he also tells us how to get there.

Let the peace that Christ gives you guide you in the decisions you make. It might mean stopping and thinking — better yet, praying — when we must make a decision.

Sing psalms and hymns together to God, with thanksgiving in your hearts. When Kirk and I went to a conference about singing several years ago, they quoted this passage from Paul a lot and talked about the value of families singing together.

Remember in all things that God loves you, God has chosen you, and God forgives you.

Let this love from God spread to those around you: to your family members first, and then to your neighbors.

It’s the only way to change the world: to love those at home first.

So to mothers today: Happy Mothering Sunday. May God give you the love, the compassion, the patience, and the peace of Christ for the mighty responsibility and privilege that is yours.

We give thanks to God for the mothers who have guided us and loved us in our own lives.

And to us all: May Christ dwell in us all and guide us and bring us all to unity in him.