May 12, 2003

MOTHER’S DAY WITH MUSCLE

If the name Julia Ward Howe is familiar to us , it's probably because we have sung many times the words she wrote in the Battle Hymn of the Republic: "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword-His truth is marching on." That militant song is often used in government and civic settings as a call to arms.

But Julia Ward Howe wrote a very different poem in 1870. It was written to mothers, and it was a call to disarm. The holiday that we have celebrated in this country ever since was begun that year with Howe's "Mother's Day Proclamation." It was written in the aftermath of our bloody Civil War. It was written to women who had lost husbands and sons, appealing to women to rally for peace:

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
“ We will not have questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking of 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 his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God .
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
that a general congress of women, without limit of nationality,
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."

That was the beginning of Mother's Day, a rallying cry to all mothers, who share in common a love for their children, to unite as mothers across the ethnic, social, educational, and any other line that otherwise divides us. The Mother's Day we celebrate today began because one mother's interest in the welfare of her children impelled her to do something about the state of the world!

The emphasis of Mother's Day has shifted over the years. But today I wanted to highlight the powerful force of motherhood, which has allowed women to accomplish the impossible, simply because they are mothers. Here are some modern day examples:

* I lived in Argentina in the 70s when a military coup took over the democratically elected government. The military began a massive crack down on terrorism and communism. Tens of thousands of people, many of them young men, disappeared. They were pulled off the street and were never heard from again. There was no freedom of expression. People didn't criticize the government for fear of being targeted. But after years of this, some mothers just couldn't stand it any more. They took to the street, first a few, then hundreds, demonstrating in front of government buildings. They demanded to know what had happened to their children. They kept it up, old and middle aged women marching in the streets. It was an embarrassment to the government, and it was an important crack in the silence and suppression that eventually led to the reestablishment of democracy.

* In this country, look at what Mothers Against Drunk Drivers have done. They have changed legislation. They have changed our awareness, and even our culture of acceptance simply because one mother's child was killed by a drunk driver, and she did something about it.

* There is currently a group of women in the Middle East, Israelis and Palestinians, who come together across their dangerous border, to work for peace. This is remarkable, because Israelis and Palestinians just don't come together. What brought them to this point was that they were mothers who had lost children to the war. They come together in spite of the fact that it was perhaps their friends or kinsfolk, and certainly their governments who were responsible for the death of the person on the other side. They've had to deal with hatred and revenge in their own hearts caused by the deaths of their loved ones. But they've gotten fed up with the endless cycles of violence, and they don't want any other mother to face the pain that they've had to bear. Their purpose is to work for peace, refusing to accept what everyone else says is impossible.

Sometimes a mother's love for her children can express itself in a soft and sentimental way. But when it comes to the welfare of her children, there is nothing soft about it. These women were all ordinary, everyday, average women who were galvanized to action simply because they were mothers.

So, on a day in which we celebrate mothers, let us be grateful for the very best expressions of a mother's love, which is not a fluffy thing at all. Let us be grateful if we have been fortunate enough to give or receive this kind of love.

And let us reflect on the visible picture, in these mothers, of a love that will never let us go. Like God’s love.

–Pastor Connie Larson DeVaughn