Edited to add: Due to popular demand, I’ve put together a short read about Mother’s Day for women who need a little solace, and pastors who need a little help. Check it out here, or by clicking on the cover to the right.

Mother’s Day sermons are notoriously awful. Sentimental tripe that leaves some women feeling smugly self-satisfied, while others leave licking their wounds.

But not this Mother’s Day sermon, given by my friend James Walsh, an associate pastor at my church.

Seriously? You’ve got to love a sermon that begins with “Ladies of Mission Covenant Church, you are more than…”

This was a sermon that celebrated ALL women.

This was a sermon that affirmed ALL of women’s diverse, God-given gifts.

This was a sermon that encouraged women to grow and take great risks. Seriously, when was the last time you heard a sermon where the the pastor urged women to “take great risks”?

By the end, I wanted to stand up and cheer.

Really, the sermon was too good to keep to our little church. So I’m posting the audio here, my gift to everyone who endured a painful (or even mediocre) mothers day message.

You can listen to the streaming audio here, or on Mission Covenant Church‘s media page.

(Note: This blog post was written in 2012, and the links to the audio sermon are no longer available. Sorry!)