Liturgies

Today is Mother’s Day. We began to celebrate Mother’s Day in Australia in 1924 following the lead of the USA by celebrating on the second Sunday in May. This celebration began in the USA in 1908 when Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother but it had an earlier start with Julia Ward Howe in 1870 after the American Civil War and Franco-Prussian War with her trying to set aside a day, a Mother’s Day, to say NO to WAR. Many would like to see a return to the origins of Mother’s Day and emphasize the need for a world beyond the need for war.
Allow me to tell a story:-
Two men were at a bus stop. They begin to talk. How’s it going?
Not so well says one. Why’s that? It’s me flat mate. Why what’s wrong? He thinks he’s a chook. What do you mean he thinks he’s a chook? Well, 12 months ago he started going outside and scratching around like a chook for worms; then he started roosting on the fence and around the house has started up his clucking.
I tell you I’m starting to get worried. It sounds like he needs help.
I know. Well why don’t you get some help for him?
I can’t. Why’s that?
I need the eggs!

Saying we will always have war is like the man in this story who says he needs the eggs. We seem to be addicted to it, despite what was said about the First World War – a war to end all wars. It has been far from the case. The human species seems driven by the madness of war.
When will we wake up and see nothing is solved by war and bloodshed? More problems are created than solved.
Julia Ward Howe who lived from 1819-1910 was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist and poet. Her accomplishments mostly reside in her contribution to Women’s Rights and laying the foundations for many women’s rights groups. She realized the madness of war. Therefore in 1870 she attempted to unite women to stand as one, as women and many as mothers, to SAY NO TO WAR – to declare a Mother’s Day to remind humanity that we are all one; that we are all born of mothers and it is they who often suffer the most among the many who suffer.
Hoping to rally women against war she failed in her valiant attempts, but this proclamation remains her legacy. In some of her final lines she writes:-
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take council with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own kind the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.
This reference to Caesar is not incidental. The early Gospel writers were aware of the clashing agendas of the Disciples of Jesus and the Empire governed by Caesar. After the great defeat of Antony and Cleopatra in the Battle of Actium on the western coast of Greece on September 2, 31BC.
Octavius, who was to become Caesar Augustus and reigned for 41 years united the empire and once again Peace was restored (Pax Romana – Roman Peace).
To remind the people of the importance of unity in the empire and to ward off potential perpetrators and disturbances of the peace, on every archway, temple, building and byway were placed the words

BATTLE................ VICTORY..................PEACE

That peace in this genre was obtained only through violence. It was like saying, don’t tempt us. We will take you on and we will win, mark our word. In the BATTLE we will have VICTORY and ultimately PEACE.
The disciples of Jesus of Nazareth had another agenda – their way to Peace confronted and was at odds with that of the Empire. The mantra of the Gospels and the way to peace for Jesus and his disciples was

REPENT...................ENTER THE KINGDOM...................PEACE

REPENT: the Greek word was MetaNoia
To Meta – to move above
- to transcend
Noia - the mind
- the small judgmental mind
Who’s in/ who’s out
Who’s right/ who’s wrong
Black/ white
Woman/ man

To move above to the larger mind of God where there is no separation, where there is only Oneness; where there are no goodies and baddies; where all are connected and part of a whole. The experience of this, is to enter the KINGDOM OF GOD, the Realm of God and in this realm there is PEACE, harmony and love. This is the path to sustaining real peace. The other peace is fake, phony and will not be sustaining. For soon there will be another enemy to battle and maybe there will be defeat and therefore no peace.
The Peace of God transcends this temporary world of defeating and beating each other. There can be no lasting peace in this realm as found by almost every Empire that has ever existed. The agenda of Jesus seems madness, that is to see and embrace all as one and hence have no enemies. It may appear as madness but it is the way of lasting Peace.
The materialism that has infected Mother’s Day today is the same materialism that infected the Roman Empire under Caesar. And it is the defence of materialism and its greedy motivations that can often be the reason for so many wars. This shallow acquisitive grasping embrace of this world, says Jesus, cannot bring lasting happiness or peace.
The Peace of Jesus is the peace that brings Life as we hear in today's Gospel – Life in all its fullness – the life we deeply desire and that will truly sustain us.

I would like to finish with Julia’s words written 144 years ago appealing for a new way, an ancient way, and a Jesus way, to real and lasting peace. I will use inclusive language as I am almost certain if Julia was writing it today would have used.

From the Appeal to womanhood throughout the world
Arise, then, women/men of this day! Arise, all who have hearts, whether our baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands and wives shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons and daughters shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women and men of one country, will be too tender of those of another country, to allow our sons and daughters 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 vindicate possession.
—Julia Ward Howe[