A Mother’s Day Proclamation for Peace
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
May 14, 2023
Happy Mother’s Day and welcome to Light Reflections from First Friends. Our scripture for this morning is John 17:20-23 from the New Revised Standard Version of scripture:
I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
I want to begin this Mother’s Day sermon by introducing you to Julia Ward Howe. She was born in 1819, in New York City. Her parents died when she was very young. She barely even knew her own mother. She was raised by her aunt and uncle. Her uncle was known as a bit of a radical. He saw to it that his niece received a good liberal arts education; something very rare for a young woman of Julia’s day.
When she was 21 years old, Julia married Samuel Gridley Howe. Howe had made a name for himself as a reformer who took quite a strong stand against slavery. Samuel often told people that he admired Julia’s ideas, her quick mind, her wit and above all her commitment to causes he supported. But Samuel, like many men of his day, believed that women should not take an active part in the causes of the day, nor should they speak in public.
For her part, Julia did her best to respect her husband’s wishes. Julia had six children. Two of her children died when they were very young. In her diaries, Julia describes her life during the early part of her marriage as one of isolation.
In deference to her husband, she had no life outside of her home except for Sundays when she attended church. Julia wrote of her husband’s violent outbursts as he attempted to control his wife’s activities. Julia’s only out-let was her writing. She began to gain quite a name for poetry. It is not clear just how she managed to get her poems published, but the success of her poetry led to invitations for Julia to speak at various gatherings.
Apparently, Julia had quite a mouth on her. A friend of hers wrote that,
“Bright things always came readily to Julia’s lips, and second thoughts often came too late to prevent her words from stinging.”
Samuel resented his wife’s success and after he managed to lose most of Julia’s inheritance from her father, he became more and more violent. Julia raised the issue of divorce, but Samuel threatened to take the children from her, so instead Julia decided to try to fill her days of confinement to her home by educating herself.
Julia began to study philosophy. In time she even managed to teach herself several languages. Her diaries speak of her husband’s concern that Julia’s attempts at self-education were outrageous for a woman in her position in society. It was not until Julia discovered that Samuel had been unfaithful to her that she was able to negotiate a more active public life for herself.
Julia began publishing books, essays, and plays. Both Julia and her husband became more and more active in the anti-slavery movement. Julia’s abolitionist work, led to invitations to the White House. Abraham Lincoln appointed Julia to the U.S. Sanitary Commission. (Did you know that more men died in the U.S. Civil War from disease caused by poor sanitary conditions in prisoner of war camps and in their own army camps than actually died in battle?) The Sanitary Commission was the chief institution of reform for conditions in the camps and Julia’s work saved many lives.
In 1862, at the request of the President, Julia traveled to Washington. On route, she visited a Union Army camp in Virginia across the Potomac. There, Julia could hear men from both the North and the South singing. The Northern camp sang a song in admiration of John Brown’s fight against slavery, while the Southern Camp sang a song in celebration of John Brown’s death.
“John Brown’s body lies a’mouldering in his grave.” A fellow traveler asked Julia to write a few lines to counter the words of the popular southern tune.
The poem which Julia wrote that night was set to the tune of “John Brown’s Body” and became the best known Civil War song of the North. The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Today the Battle Hymn of the Republic is what most people who remember Julia Ward Howe at all, remember her for. But her accomplishments did not end with the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Julia became even more famous, and she was asked to speak publicly more often.
In the aftermath of the Civil War, Julia, like many before her, began to see parallels between the struggles for legal rights for blacks and the need for the legal equality for women.
She became active in the movement to gain the vote for women. Julia discovered that she was not so alone in her long-held beliefs that women should be able to speak their minds and influence the direction of society.
In 1868, Julia helped to found the New England Suffrage Association, and three years later she co-founded the American Woman Suffrage Association. In 1870 she became one of the founders of the Woman’s Journal, which she continued to edit for twenty years.
Julia saw some of the worst effects of the Civil war. She knew that the ravages of war went far beyond the death and disease that killed and maimed the soldiers. She worked with the widows and orphans of soldiers on both sides of the war. She also saw the economic devastation of the Civil war.
And so, in 1870, Julia Ward Howe took on a new issue and a new cause. Distressed by her experience of the realities of war, determined that peace was one of the two most important causes of the world (the other being equality) and seeing war begin again in Europe, Julia called upon women to rise up and oppose violence and war in all its forms.
She wanted women to come together across national lines, to recognize what we hold in common above what divides us and make a commitment to find peaceful resolutions to conflicts.
Julia declared a Mothers’ Day for Peace. She failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mothers’ Day for Peace. But by issuing her Mothers’ Day Proclamation in the Woman’s Journal, Julia managed to reach women all over the world. And each year in more and more places women struggling for equality and peace began to celebrate Mothers’ Day. Official recognition of Mothers’ Day would have to wait until 1914 when Woodrow Wilson, finally declared the first national Mothers’ Day.
Just listen to the words of her Mother’s Day Proclamation:
Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!
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 been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.”
We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country 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 does 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 and commemorate the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, 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.
In processing this Rev. Dawn Hutchings helped me see that the peace that our sister, Julia Ward Howe longed for, the peace that her Mothers’ Day Proclamation called for can only happen if people like us (especially us, Quakers) turn from and speak up against systemic violence and turn to the hope-filled possibilities of systemic goodness. I believe Julia’s proclamation and call to peace and systemic goodness is as relevant today as it was in her day.
I love that term – systemic goodness. I would like to hear it and see it more often in our world, today. Probably, because it is something we Quakers have taught since very early on. Systemic Goodness was also what early Quakers called the transforming power of Love. As it is stated in our testimony of Peace. Embracing the transforming power of love and the power of nonviolence is what brings peace. We are to strive for peace in daily interactions with family, neighbors, fellow community members and those from every corner of the world.
To embrace systemic goodness also means we will put our individual survival at risk for the sake of our family or community’s survival – it is the true biblical meaning of sacrifice or laying down one’s life for one’s neighbor. For we are one, one human family, one community, one creation.
And I am convinced, that Jesus’ life was all about his desire that we might see the reality of our oneness through our goodness and love for one another.
Jesus’ constant encouragement to his followers was that they turn away from the reliance on military power and the violent means of control in his day, which was the Roman Empire.
And I believe Jesus’ teachings continue to encourage his followers to turn away from the reliance on these forms of power and violence in our day.
Sadly, turning away from systemic violence, our lust for war and revenge, even our obsession with weapons and guns has become polarizing and controversial because it involves sacrifices that some are not willing to make.
If we learn anything from Jesus’ life and death, we ought to have learned that non-violent resistance of the powers and principalities that obsess on violent means can indeed threaten our individual survival.
But we also need to learn that in turning from systemic violence Jesus turned to a vision of systemic goodness – a goodness that he described as the Kingdom of God – yet kingdom is probably not the best word to capture the essence of the true meaning – household is much better. For we are siblings in one great human family.
Jesus’ vision of the Kingdom of God is of a household where everyone has enough, enough food, enough wealth, enough security, enough support to be all that they are created to be.
Now I know that some of you will say, “But that is just pie in the sky thinking.”
Well, tell that to Jesus.
Tell that to Black Elk.
Tell that to Martin Luther King Jr.
Tell that to Mahatma Gandhi.
Tell that to Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.
Tell that to Julia Ward Howe.
Tell that to her Quaker friends, Lucretia Mott and Alice Paul.
Tell that to Malala or Greta Thunburg.
Tell that to Billie Jean King, Bayard Rustin, or Harvey Milk.
Tell that Dr. William Barber or Shane Claiborne.
Tell that to those involved with Mothers or Students Demand Action or Sandy Hook Promise.
I could go on….
But what I am saying is tell that to the sea of activists and visionaries whose voices have fought and continue to fight for this Kingdom vision – this systemic goodness – this transforming power of love.
Folks, we must get there - for the sake of the collective survival of our species, for the good of our one human family we must be prepared to put our individual survival at risk.
If we are to turn away from systemic violence, we will first need to remember that we are ONE. For in solidarity with our siblings we will find the courage to turn toward the hope filled possibilities of PEACE.
My prayer today is that we at First Friends may again declare this Mother’s Day a day of Peace, of systemic goodness, of the transforming power of Love for the sake of the entire Household of God!
Now, as we enter waiting worship, I ask you to ponder the following queries:
· What must I sacrifice for the survival of my “siblings”?
· In what ways do I buy into systemic violence? And how might I turn it into systemic goodness?
· What is my role in supporting and helping the entire Household of God live in peace?