Sermon

15th March 26

Fifty years ago, when I was a young Curate, I went to visit a lady who lived in Bickley but who came to our Church in Bromley.  I was shown in by her butler.  The maid brought sandwiches with the crusts cut off, and tea in those silly little cups with handles that you can’t get your finger through!  I still remember my hostess saying to me: “My dear, I do hope that you’re not having trouble finding staff: it’s so difficult to get young people to go into service nowadays”.

Once upon a time, young people did go into service.  They left home, frequently as young as twelve, and lived in great houses where they worked long hours for poor pay.  Others, mainly boys, would be bound as apprentices, often living away from home, although at least they would be learning a trade that might serve them well later in life.  

But once a year, these young boys and girls would be given time off to return home for a long weekend.  That was normally this weekend three weeks before Easter.  They would have time with their mothers and the rest of their families, and they would worship at their mother Church where they had been baptised.  The epistle in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer for this day from Galatians includes the words: “Jerusalem which is above is free; which is the mother of us all”.  Thus, for all these reasons, this mid-Lent Sunday became known as Mothering Sunday.

In America in 1914, following a successful campaign by Anna Jarvis, President Woodrow Wilson made the second Sunday in May Mother’s Day: a national holiday to honour mothers.  Other countries soon copied this.  However, in England, it was decided that it should be rolled into the existing celebration of Mothering Sunday.

So here we are.  On this mid-Lent Sunday, we ease up on the harsh elements of our Lenten observance, symbolised by these rose pink vestments.  We celebrate mother Church and mother Mary.  But we also include the themes from Mother’s Day: thanking God for our own mothers, and praying for all involved in family life.  And, finally, we pray for the souls of our deceased mothers, that they may find peace in the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all.

(Note on the punctuation of Mother’s Day.  Anna Jarvis noted that “it should be a singular possessive, for each family to honor (sic) its own mother”.  It was also the spelling in President Wilson’s 1914 proclamation, by the US Congress, and by various US Presidents since.)

Amen