Whitegate, Little Budworth, Trinity 11, Proper 14
As members, friends and supporters of the Mothers’ Union we celebrate its founder Mary Sumner, who died on this day 92 years ago - 11 August 1921. [1]
And as Mary was a devout and educated Christian woman who would have known her scriptures well, we celebrate some aspects of her life by weaving them together with aspects of today’s gospel reading, teachings from Jesus about how we should live as citizens of God’s kingdom.
Jesus said, ‘where your treasure is, there your heart will be also’. (Luke 12.34)
And Mary was the daughter of Thomas Haywood, a partner in the family banking business, a successful magnate of the Georgian and Regency eras. Undoubtedly Haywood’s financial treasure resided in the bank’s vaults at St Ann Street, Manchester - but Thomas‘s biographies suggest that his heart lay elsewhere - he gave up banking early, and his passion was in collecting books of local history, developing a major library and publishing various papers related to the life, society and religion of North West England. Thomas helped to found The Chetham Society, one of Britain’s earliest-established antiquarian and historical societies, and undoubtedly her father’s enthusiasm would have impressed on Mary the value of learning and the dissemination of knowledge. [2]
And as Mary treasured these things, so now today the Mothers’ Union has her heart for engaging with the issues of our society and sharing with others a passion for ‘tackling the most urgent needs challenging relationships and communities’. [3]
Jesus said, ‘Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes’. (Luke 12. 37)
And when Mary married George Henry Sumner, she married into the family of the great slave trade abolitionist William Wilberforce. [4] She, like her clergyman husband and Wilberforce himself, would have struggled with some of the scripture texts which seem to heedlessly accept slavery as a given, just as many scripture texts seem to blithely demote women and describe poverty as an unalterable fact of life. But being a keen student of the scriptures Mary would have dug deeper to find the undercurrent of grace which is always there for those who read the Bible through the lens of the values of God’s kingdom.
Mary would have read on from where Jesus said, ‘Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes,’ to hear him complete his sentence, saying, ‘truly I tell you, [the master] will fasten his belt and have [his slaves] sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them’. (Luke 12. 37)
As he does so often, here Jesus turns the values of the world upside down, challenges its oppressive practices and offers a model for another way of being altogether - a way of human flourishing where both slave and master are liberated to live together in an equality and unity of grace. This is a kingdom in which both woman and man are equally valued, where poverty is challenged and overcome.
And as Mary sought to apply these values of God’s kingdom to her situation, a timid young woman finding strength in these scriptures to follow her heart and develop her vision, so now today the Mothers’ Union ‘provides a network through which women can serve Christ in their own community - through prayer, financial support and actively working at ... grassroots level in programmes that meet local needs; lobbying local and national governments on issues affecting family life and campaigning to challenge legislation that neglects the vulnerable and marginalised.’ [5]
Jesus said, ‘If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour’. (Luke 12.39)
And we can be fairly sure that Mary would have struggled, as we do, with this unusual passage, in which Jesus portrays himself as a thief, a housebreaker; a passage which sits uneasily alongside Mary Sumner’s dedication to the protection of family life, the promotion of homes which are safe for their children to live in. But then Mary the student of scripture would be aware of the New Testament metaphor of the thief in the night, always used in connection with the coming of Christ, the fulfillment of the kingdom of God on earth. ‘This is ... not an image of Jesus coming to take what is not his own ... [but an image] intended to inspire wakefulness and preparation [in his followers]’. [6]
Jesus said, ‘Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit’. (Luke 12.35)
And Mary Sumner’s readiness to live out the values of God’s kingdom in her place and time continues to galvanize the Mothers’ Union members in their mission today, ‘to show [their] Christian faith by the transformation of communities worldwide, by promoting stable marriage, family life and the protection of children’. [7]
When Luke wrote his gospel believers were still expecting Christ to return sometime soon, influenced by apocalyptic expectations of a judgemental God coming in revenging power to enforce his just rule on the world. But Jesus’ words as recorded in Luke suggest that believers put apocalyptic thoughts aside to embrace Christ coming in the here and now, to play a part in the growing of the kingdom of God here on earth today. To be always ‘dressed for action’ in the work of sharing God’s love in the world.
In this spirit Mary Sumner did not spend her time passively awaiting the Day of the Lord ‘as a certain moment to come’, she was instead struck by Jesus’ revelation of God’s kingdom as ‘a certain sort of continuity between this world and the next’ [8], and sought to spend her days living in the light of his teachings.
In an ever-changing world institutions such as marriage and family life are in flux, and the Mothers’ Union struggles at the forefront of those who seek to apply the values of scripture to the conversations taking place about these things. Like Mary Sumner we will often be surprised by what scripture says, sometimes challenged by the sideways look Jesus’ teachings seem to take, but if we share her intention to be ‘dressed for action’ in the work of sharing God’s love in the world, then we will not be disappointed by where scripture leads us, but energised by Jesus’ teachings about how we should live as citizens of God’s kingdom.
Notes
[1] Wikipedia: Mary Sumner
[2] Wikisource: Thomas Heywood
[3] The Mothers’ Union: About Mothers’ Union
[4] Wikipedia: George Henry Sumner
[5] The Mothers’ Union: About Mothers’ Union
[6] ‘Thief’ in Ryken, Wilhoit, Longman, Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, p.863
[7] The Mothers’ Union: Our Vision: Purpose, Aim and Objectives
[9] For a far more in-depth exploration on this concept see ‘The Eschatological Imagination’ in James Alison, The Joy of Being Wrong: Original Sin Through Easter Eyes, pp.212-21
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