A word for word transcription from an audio tape, by Eric Maynard

BISHOP GAYLE HARRIS’S MOTHER'S DAY SERMON

Lord Jesus, we each come with private thoughts and dreams--- with pain, sorrow, doubts and desires. We come here to open our souls; to be touched and embraced by you. We come in quiet, ---and yet in the midst of the crowdedness of life; with concerns for dear ones and the world at large. We come remembering those who nurture us as mothers.

Here, ---we come into this place of beauty, stained-glass symbols and power ---seeking acceptance to dwell with you-- the Holy One. Dwelling even with our struggles and hopes; disappointments and thankfulness, in the midst of our joys and our sorrows.

Lord, we have no small words to express which stirs us. So brood over our sweet faithfulness, so that in remembering your embracing sacrifice for us, we may live into your resurrection. May each of us, find within our own lives--- you; a new and different way that we may have strength for our weakness; discover help for our souls; -- a motive to transform ourselves from self-concern to compassion for others. So come Lord Jesus, and be our companion this and every day that we may not be the instruments of our own ---or another’s oppression. Amen.

Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia! That was probably a B, maybe a B plus. ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN?! THE LORD IS RISEN INDEED, ALLELUIA! Oh?! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! Happy Mother's Day! O God! You people are down to a D now. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! Amen.

It is good to be here among people of great hope. I know you have great hope, because someone turned off the heat. But we can be warmed in the spirit, and be warmed by each other, even if our hands are freezing. It is a joy to be here with you again here at St. James's, but this time, I am sitting in a different place than I was when I came here as your Suffragan Bishop Elect. I sat just about there in the middle. This is the first church I attended in the diocese of Massachusetts following my election. I was here when Barbara Harris (otherwise known as THE DUCHESS) was making her last visitation as your Bishop Suffragan, on what I remember was a day of great fellowship; the wonderful diverse music, and the marvelous food, so that the first time I came here, you had HER GRACE, and her SEQUEL. I bring you greetings from your other two bishops, Tom and Bud, and together we are a team; although at times, we see things a lot differently. Sometimes we don't always agree, but then, you know. Bud’s up here somewhere; Tom is in middle somewhere; he’s a monk, and I clearly don't see life that way, but..., we're still a team; a team with you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. But you know something, that's what the diocese is. I hear people always talking about "What is the diocese going to do?" Well guess what? You are the diocese. The diocese is every member, all 77,000 of us in this area of eastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Harbor Islands. We are the diocese of Massachusetts. It's not just those of us who work at 138 Tremont St. I'm from Chicago, I will pronounce it right. TRIM-ONT STREET. Was I close? I can finally say QUINN-ZEE now, although in Chicago we call it QUINN-SEA, but that's all right. And I finally got PEE-BUDDY right. I'm still working on GLOUS- TAH. Gleh, Gla, bleh bleh, GLOUSTAH! GLOUSTAH! Look, I’m working on it, OK?! I'm a work in progress.

But all of us matter where we are, ---North Shore, Inner City, downtown Brockton; we are the diocese. It's not just those of us who work at 138 Tremont. You are the diocese wherever you are. You know, ---my friends back in the Midwest's always ask me. "What's it like being a bishop there in (they call it Yankeedom.) I have to tell them it's New England Yankeedom as opposed to those other Yankees a few hundred miles southwest of us that Boston doesn't particularly care for. But we did beat them in the World Series, did we not? They ask, ‘Gayle, what's it like to be a bishop among Yankees?’ I answer back. "It's just so wonderful!" Everywhere I go I hear wonderful welcomes, ---lots of lobster and seafood and very good food. It's so wonderful to be here. But my friends still keep asking me, ‘Gayle, tell us what it's REALLY like to be in New England?’ I say, "It’s lovely", and they say, ‘No, No Gayle, you know how Yankees are. They are dour, solemn, stern, severe, aloof and very remote. You know, COLD!!!’ And I said, "No, you’re wrong. Everywhere I go, I have a wonderful welcome." But I say, "I do know what you mean by that look on their faces---sometimes." But you would look that way too if you had to drive on Route 128. It is so great to be here with you.

I know this parish enjoys live and engaging worship and Christian education. You have a commitment to the work of the mission of the gospel and proclaiming liberty and freedom. I know that this is a place of hospitality and inclusion and empowerment for all of the people of God. Indeed, I know that you were one of the main sponsors with strong leadership for the walk-a-thon, the worship walk-a-thon that happens in June, raising money for Jubilee ministries to work with AIDS victims in Africa. And I know that this parish and Michael Povey have been very helpful in spearheading the planning in this Episcopal Deanery.

But I also know that you face so many issues and challenges like every church in this diocese around the issues of finance, maintenance and repair of your building and physical structures; what it is to make new members ---active members; ---and how do you encourage and prepare more people to take on more active roles in leadership. But I also know that what you need is here already. For all that, God is present here, and God is present in your sisters and brothers in this diocese, who surely are in this ministry with you. And God is in each one of you. In particular, I think God is moving and wonderfully present in a wonderful, faithful and creative pastoral presence ---your rector Michael Povey. You can clap louder than that. Sometimes we Episcopalians have got to just get over ourselves. I do know that you will succeed; for God, as St. Paul said, can do infinitely more in us then we can ask or imagine. So, give God the glory that God is here present with you as you face your challenges and the great hope that is in this place.

On this Ascension Sunday, ---and this Mothers Day, we have two celebrations ---two major celebrations of FAITH and FAMILY. On this day, the words of the prophet Jeremiah ring out to me ---across this land; across the sea; across time and history. The words that we have too many times in too many places ---too many to be counted, ---the words, ‘Thus says the Lord, A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are not.’ Ascension Day ---the day we commemorate when Jesus ascended into heaven to rein with God the father. The celebration of Ascension Day and Mothers Day are connected this year ---very poignantly, I believe. They are connected by life and death. They are connected by the lamenting of many women across the world, who are weeping and suffering in unmitigated grief as the result of political and military cycles of terrorism, revenge and bloodletting; Mothers ---, whose children have been maimed or killed by violence; mothers who are Israeli, Palestinian, Sudanese, Tibetan, Indonesian, African, Irish, Afghani, Colombian, Iraqi and American. As we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord this Sunday, we must remember that it is rooted in Christ's death and Christ's resurrection; the vindication of Jesus and Jesus’ commitment to the reign of God here on earth today, ---not just in the age to come; Jesus’ faithfulness to God’s reign of ultimate and complete justice and mercy concludes in this ultimate victory of life that we see in the resurrection; over death and destruction; over all of the things that divide us and cause us to go to war. But this day essentially; the Sunday that we celebrate our Lord's Ascension into heaven; marks the end of Jesus' physical presence among us and yet foreshadows the birth of the church on Pentecost when we will hear again how the church was born out of witness that says when we see and hear and know Jesus, we see and know the will of God.

In today’s gospel, Jesus opens the minds and wills of his community to understand that they will speak his word to the world about them. And we, ---hearing these words are called also into being witnesses today of the victory of God in life. Neither history nor our lives have always lived up to that; to this vision; to this victory of Christ ascending into heaven; establishing the reign of God here on earth. Our divisions within the church are apparent. We have been dysfunctional of late; at times self-serving, demanding, and we are now witnessing intolerant behaviors that a generation ago would not have been thought possible. But in fact that does not nullify the message of this seasonal Easter. We need not only to repent of our failure to live up to God's mission as the church; we must live up to our call to be people of justice and mercy. But this is not the only a final word that we need to remember from today--- repentance and failure. No, we need to act and think differently. We as individuals need to act and think differently; according to the love of God. We in the church need to act and think differently with God's love for all people. Too easily, are we as a church, and as individuals caught up in the world values and how to the world goes about differences; how others act. Too often it is so difficult to tell the difference between the polarization in the church and the polarization we see in national politics when we demonize one another. Too often, we do not act as if God's victory over oppression and death are real. We do not act because often you and I are just silent. We are reluctant to speak up, and that just empowers and perpetuates the evil of prejudice; the evil of prejudice and exploitation and exclusion, that is going on in our society and at times in our church. Silence empowers that. Silence has given power to the religious right’s condemnation and narrow view of life; their view of Holy Scripture; their intolerance. It allows them to condemn people because of their sexual gender or sexual orientation. Silence, ---and our apathy does that, just as it does in blessing our government’s erosion of our liberties and the use of violence on a massive scale to justify a narrow and arrogant political policy and military use. We can no longer afford to keep silent. We can not keep silent; ---and that is where the connection of Ascension Day and Mothers Day is fascinating to me.

The original impulse for a national Mothers Day came from Julia Ward Howe, the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic when she called for a national day of dedication to PEACE. She witnessed firsthand the suffering and losses untold in our own Civil War and that of the Franco Prussian war--- wars that were both founded on the principles of prejudice, oppression and greed. These behaviors forced her to call on mothers to turn carnage created by men into a new creative effort to make the world a safe place for children. She called for us to be activists for PEACE and JUSTICE, and she called on women to do that ---for women give birth to life.

In dedicating Mothers Day, Julia Ward Howe wrote, "Sons shall not be taken away from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of CHARITY, MERCY and PATIENCE." Motherhood---and God’s victory of life and peace over destruction and death are bound together on this day by her words.

On this Ascension Day and Mothers Day, let us reclaim---let us re-embrace the true full meaning of both days----today. Let us not live as helpless and ---comfortless people. Let us not be overwhelmed by the many crises that surround us, but to live empowered and emboldened witnesses of the ascended Christ, so that as St. Paul wrote; so that with your eyes and your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which God has call you, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe according to the working of his great power. Arms, ears, hearts and minds and hands lifted up to God. That's what we are supposed to be about; witnesses of the victory over oppression; over destruction and death; agents of God’s reign of justice and peace on earth as it is in heaven. Let us this day in remembering the ascended Christ and the mothers among us; give thanks for those women who had given us birth of those who have given us nurture and even those men who have at times acted as mothers. But let us not just honor them with words; the sentimental cards, but by joining with mothers in witnessing to life as God’s will for PEACE and JUSTICE, by joining and participating, by supplementing and being active, by speaking out and contributing, by praying and marching for PEACE and LIFE. This Mothers Day let us try to create a world that is safe for children. Too many children die----too young from malnutrition. For a dollar a day; one dollar a day; we can feed a family in many parts of the world. Children are dying because they have no food; because of violence; because of land mines that this country will not sign a treaty against. We should ask why our nation should not engage to combat hunger and sickness and illiteracy among our children and to eliminate the breeding ground of terrorists. That is who they are going after, and they are already committed. This Mothers Day, let us not celebrate just with cards and candy and dinners out; although I love those things. That's nice. But let's add to that. Let's commit ourselves and act as our foremothers did, joining in the effort for the abolishing of slavery; our foremothers who joined in, that women may be able to vote in the suffrage movement; the first women who formed the American Red Cross to give aid and comfort to those who suffered the worst pain and disaster in war. Why in this day and age can we not act like our foremothers? Here in 2005, why can't we also this very day dedicate ourselves to be activists--- to support womankind and girls in Afghanistan, as well as the Middle East--- and our sisters here in Massachusetts; in this very church who are in trouble, because they are homeless; because they are poor. Why can't we activate ourselves on this Mothers Day to volunteer; to donate to centers that care for abused and battered women, who are seeking to free themselves from the cycles of poverty and domestic violence? We can do this by supplementing group's that are already in place; supporting mothers of missing children in Argentina and Central America who have become a force of peace and proud strength and have changed their nations; supporting the mothers of Northern Ireland who have built bridges of tolerance across Catholic and Protestant divides; joining Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Mothers Against Guns; that our homes can be safe; streets can be safe; that we might work together to respect the dignity of all life. We can do these things my brothers and sisters. This Mothers Day join in with mothers in neighborhoods and community groups; in walk-a-thons, just like the Walk and Worship walk-a-thon that you are sponsoring; joining the Association Retarded Citizens----Boys Clubs, Girls Clubs, Scouts; volunteering to be tutors for those who want to improve their quality of life through education and strengthen our common future. We can join with women and men in Amnesty International; in Greenpeace; in the Sierra Club, working for the just and proper treatment of life and the care the environment that God has given us. There are so many things that we can do. We can even give ourselves and our money to the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund to help rebuild lives that are damaged by despair and disease; disaster and more.

See, ---you and I have been given a great power. But we don't use it. We have voices, ---but we don't speak out. We have organizations to join--- but yet we hesitate. We have been given great power from on high from the ascended Christ to change this world; to honor and enhance life; to be witnesses and agents of higher goals in life. We are agents of the ascended Christ, ---and we have the power to think and act globally and to act locally. To honor all life is to honor all mothers. To honor all life is to worship the ascended Christ. As our foremother, Julia Ward Howe wrote, ‘Let us remember this Ascension Day, this Sunday; and this Mothers Day, that ‘In the beauty of the beauty of the lilies, Christ was born across the sea with a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me. As he died to make us holy, let us live to make ALL free, while God is marching on.’ So ---Onward Christian soldiers. Glory, glory Hallelujah! Glory, glory Hallelujah! We are his witnesses; we are the agents of God's truth. We, ---God’s compassionate and generous instruments. We--- God's people of PEACE and JUSTICE; in us, and with us and through us. Glory, glory Halleluiah! Our God still marches on. AMEN.