Should Mother’s Day be on the church calendar?

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Next Sunday is Mother’s Day and once again I’ve wrestled with what emphasis to give the holiday as part of the Sunday morning worship service. Specifically the question I’ve been thinking about is what to preach on Sunday. Should there be a Mother’s Day sermon?

Expect the expected?

In truth, I do have my sermon idea picked out already for Sunday, and yes, it will be tied in with Mother’s Day. But is this an unspoken expectation? Is this holiday something we should feel obligated to acknowledge? Will Father’s Day in June get the same attention, or will dad take a backseat?

I’ve heard many opinions on this subject, some suggesting that to ignore the day is to shoot yourself in the foot, others saying the church needs to do nothing more than include mothers in the morning prayer. I suppose I take a middle ground.

Somewhere in between.

My feeling is that culturally Mother’s Day is a significant enough day that ignoring it is unwise. However, I never feel obligated to preach a Mother’s Day sermon. Sometimes the only nod is a point of application (if it’s there in the passage) directed toward mothers or parents in general. Other times it is a more traditional Mother’s Day message. Either way it has to fit in to what I already have planned for the series. I don’t think I would ever break from a series just because it’s Mother’s Day. At the same time I do take care as massage the order of a series so that an overly sensitive topic doesn’t happen to fall on that Sunday.

I know there is other wisdom out there and probably some great experience worked out in the laboratory of the pulpit. I would be curious to hear how others have dealt with this issue so be sure to comment with your two cents. And while you’re here be sure to subscribe to the blog fee in your favorite reader and link to this post on your favorite sharing site.