Mother's Day has become one of those Hallmark Holidays. We spend about 14 Billion on Mother's Day each year. But what most people don't know is that Mother's Day in America started as a radical plea for peace. Julia Ward Howe (pictured left), who wrote the lyrics of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, also instituted the first celebration of Mother's Day in 1870 as a plea for peace. Tired of mother's losing their sons and women having to embrace their husbands "reeking of carnage" due to war, Howe penned the following Mother's Day Proclamation:
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women
who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great questions
decided by irrelevant agencies.
Our husbands shall not come to
us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons
shall not be taken from us to unlearn
all that we have taught
them of charity, mercy and patience.
We women of one country will
be too tender of those of another
to allow our sons to be trained
to injure theirs."
From the bosom of the devastated earth, a voice
goes up with our own.
It says, "Disarm, Disarm!"
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.
Blood not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons
of war,
let women now leave all that may be left of home for a
great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women,
to bewail & commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel
with each other as to the means whereby the great human family
can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred
impress, not of Caesars but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity,
I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit
of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed
most convenient
and at the earliest period consistent with its
objects,
to promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
the amicable settlement of international questions,
the great
and general interests of peace.
Although Howe's holiday never gained real traction during her life, later another woman, Anna Reeves Jarvis picked up her idea and used the "holiday" as a time to promote peace and reconciliation among West Virginian families and neighbors who had been torn apart by the Civil War. After Jarvis' death, her daughter Anna Jarvis campaigned for an official holiday. This led to the first official celebration of Mother's Day on May 10th, 1908 at Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, the church where her mother had taught Sunday School for 20 years and had worked tirelessly for peace and reconciliation.
As we celebrate Mother's Day, it is important to remember the history of this holiday in America as being a radical declaration of non violence. The type of peace advocated by Howe and Jarvis, was the type of peace that the New Testament church lived out. What were the ingredients for the witness of peace among the early church? I would say they include the following:
1. The absolute belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and it serving as proof that He had conquered once and for all the violent and coercive powers of this world.
2. Because Jesus had conquered the worst that evil powers of this world could throw at Him, Christians practiced absolute allegiance to Jesus Christ as the true Lord. Rome made sure that its citizen's allegiance was to Caesar. In fact, Rome insisted Caesar was son of the gods and proclaimed him as Lord. When Christians proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God and Lord, they simultaneously proclaimed Caesar to be a fraud.
3. Belief in the resurrection of those who had died in the faith. Early Christians believed wholeheartedly that they too would be resurrected. They lost their fear of death and thus were free to obey Jesus Christ and His commandment to practice radical love and peace even when it became a threat to do so. Early Christians did not shy away from suffering, persecution, or the fear of death. In fact they expected to face the same trials Jesus suffered, including martyrdom.
4. Their poverty and lack of political capital. Early Christians were generally not the wealthy and powerful in society. This became more true as laws banning the practice of their faith made them vulnerable to loss of means and income. Our early brothers and sisters did not stand a chance in a war against the powerful iron boot of the Roman army whose job it was to swiftly and decidedly crush any threat to the Pax Romana (Roman Peace). Early believers did not even have the power of the ballot box. Their "power" was their faithful witness to the love and peace that is possible under the Lordship and Christ and the power of His Holy Spirit. Over the centuries this principle seems to hold true. Christianity has had its best moments and spread like wildfire when it is poor and powerless. This holds true today. Just look at where Christianity is exploding. However, when it becomes married to money, influence, nationalism, and military might it has had its worst moments.
5. Remembering Jesus' words to Peter, when at His arrest he used violence to defend Him, "He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword." After Jesus' resurrection, early believers understood that there was no need to pick up the sword because Jesus had conquered evil, not by meeting violence with a greater force of violence, but by the greatest force; love. Therefore early Christians were always willing to die for Jesus but were not willing to kill for Him.
For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. I John 5:3-4 (NRSV)
What was Jesus' commandment? We find it in this Sunday's reading from the Gospel of John.
"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." John 15:12-13 (NRSV)
We can't live this type of love without FAITH in the Risen Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ who has conquered evil and death. Outside the context of faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, it is absolutely absurd not to fight for self protection and preservation. That is where worship becomes so important. Good worship proclaims the truth of the Gospel that Jesus Christ is the true Lord. It calls us to put our trust in the One who has conquered. When we stop worshiping rightly, our allegiances can easily begin to shift. We begin to have faith in money, in political power, in military solutions against all threats, in the Republicans, in the Democrats, and worst of all in our own abilities to impose our wills on those who stand in our way to achieving our ends (even good ends). Most, if not all, conflict that divides churches is a result of those using the devil's means to achieve godly ends. It boils down to a lack of faith in the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
In worship, we must proclaim the Lordship of Jesus Christ. With the issue of Lordship settled, we can then live in love and be at peace.
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