Rev.
Ann C. Fox
(508) 992-7081
UFairhaven@aol.com
Unitarian Universalist
Society of Fairhaven
Rev. John Haynes Holmes, Courageous Peacemaker
a sermon by Rev. Ann C. Fox
September 16, 2007
Note: A reading is attached, which you might like to read first.
What I say from this pulpit are my own perspectives that I offer to you for your consideration. You are the arbiter of what is your truth. When you do not agree with what I say, I am happy to listen to your point of view; indeed, you may give me much to ponder. And if necessary, we may have to agree to disagree. This is the statement I like to make at the beginning of a church year when we are likely to have many visitors. This is the church where we invite you all to create your own theology, your own perspectives, for we have no fixed truths, or creeds to offer you. We must all do the hard work of thinking things through for ourselves. Having said all this, however, I hope you have noticed the bulleted list of our seven principles that are printed in your Order of Service each week. Today, I embrace for myself our fourth principle “a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.”
One day, I asked a spiritual teacher that I admired what type of books people benefit from the most. I was surprised at his answer for he said, “Biographies, stories of people’s lives. You will read about that life and ponder it deeply and will likely not forget the story even as you are creating your own story.” This year, I read the autobiography of the Reverend John Haynes Holmes. I chose it because Rev. Holmes was not only a peacemaker but also a pacifist, one who does not believe in violence or going to war, no matter what the cost. The church he served for 40 years in New York City was the church of Henry Huttleson Rogers, who many of you know built this church for us as well as the other fabulous buildings in this town. Mr. Rogers became a small part of the story of Reverend John Haynes Holmes, so let me begin the story by way of Mr. Henry Rogers.
You may know that in his adult life, Mr. Rogers came only in the summertime to his beloved Fairhaven, his boyhood home. He spent most of his adult life in New York City. He belonged to the Unitarian church there called the “Church of the Messiah,” a popular name for large inner city Unitarian churches in those days, along with the name “All Souls.” When the Church of the Messiah was looking for a minister in 1907, their search committee heard of a brilliant young minister Rev. John Haynes Homes serving the Dorchester Unitarian Church. They asked Rev. Holmes whether he would be interested in serving their church. They were essentially trying to “steal” Rev. Holmes away from his Dorchester church, a practice that would be much frowned upon today. John Holmes was very flattered to be asked to serve in such a distinguished pulpit at the young age of 27 years old. Dr. Robert Collyer, Mr. Rogers’ minister that you see with the clergy collar in the stained glass Beatitude window to your left, he was the minister emeritus at this time. Rev. Holmes came to regard Dr. Collyer as his treasured and saintly mentor and friend. Later he was to write a two-volume work of Dr. Collyer’s life and letters.
When John Holmes began his ministry, attendance at services was sparse. At first, Mr. Henry Rogers and his wife were regular church goers, occupying a pew in the center of the church. As time went on more new people began coming to services. However, he found that some people in the church did not like the newcomers invading their church. There often would be only one person sitting in a pew which was either owned or rented by a family. If a newcomer should sit in the pew, there would be a great fuss and an usher would have to ask the person to move, even though the pew had only one other person sitting in it. Rev. Holmes was outraged and immediately began to address with the congregation that they abolish the renting and owning of pews. This was an old New England tradition as well. The people who owned the pews had likely contributed to the building of the church. Mr. Rogers began to attend less and less as the new minister began to preach on evolution and religion. Finally, even the gracious Mrs. Rogers stopped coming to church. There was no fuss, no complaints. They simply didn’t attend any more. However, Mr. Rogers died suddenly in 1909 and his funeral service was held here with his former minister, Rev. Collyer presiding, probably an indication of where his hearts truly lay. He is buried in Riverside cemetery upon on Main Street.
As more new people came into the church, it began to change in its beliefs and its sociological make-up. It was becoming not just a social club for the very rich to gather only on a Sunday morning and at no other time. Many long-time members learned to adjust to the new ideas. Their biggest challenge came in 1915 when their young minister began using the teachings of Jesus to persuade the congregation to be pacifists. This was an incredibly courageous step for John Holmes to take, especially on the eve of America’s entry into World War I. You heard in the reading the words and argument John Homes used for his stance on pacifism. How would it be for you if **I** counseled pacifism? I confess to you that I am moving slowly but surely in that direction.
I have preached often for the cause of peace, particularly before our country went into Iraq for I found little argument for such a step and much against it. I know some of you did not hold the same opinion. I was exercising the freedom of the pulpit granted to me by tradition and by the encouragement of these carved statues of the major prophets of ancient Israel around this pulpit!
When John Holmes preached his sermon, he knew the Board of Trustees of the Church of the Messiah would hold an emergency meeting the next day, on Monday evening, to which he would not be invited. He knew that he risked losing his pulpit by going against public opinion. All but one man on that church board were against Rev. Holmes’ views on the War. However, they concluded that for nearly a hundred years (1825-1917), their church has been a free church. The minister has been able to freely express his view and so has the congregation though they may disagree with the minister. They determined that Rev. Holmes should remain as the minister of a free pulpit in war as in peace. They concluded, and I quote, “And we pray that [the minister] will pray with us that the grace of God may abide with us, and therewith help us upon our way.” A courageous and wise Board and congregation indeed!
The Church of the Messiah lost about 25% of its membership but its membership numbers grew greatly in the following months and years. The book that John Holmes wrote called New Wars for Old went through many printings, including in World War II. People buying books on pacifism in the midst of war shows the ambivalence Americans felt about war in general at that time. They were, after all, not so far away from our nation’s Civil War. The bumper sticker, “War is expensive, peace is priceless” had not yet come into vogue. You can imagine that Quaker leaders were part of John Holmes’ clergy friends. They were indeed.
There is an old joke about Quaker pacifism. There was once a Quaker farmer who could not get his mule to move, no matter how he cajoled, pushed, or pulled. Finally, he looked the mule straight in the eye and addressed him by name. "Josiah," he said, "Thee knows I shall never curse thee, and thee knows I shall never strike thee; but if thee doesn't start moving this very instant, I shall sell thee to a Baptist who will!" Of course, the mule moved immediately.
John Holmes had received his education at Harvard Divinity School. Over the years, he began to put his theology books on the very top shelves of his library. The books he wanted most at hand were those of the reformers who were concerned about humankind for he believed that this was God’s work and worship was not enough without the work. He believed that the work of the church was for the Community and the solution to all our problems was by expanding ever wider circles of love. He knew that this was idealistic but he believed whole heartedly in expanding ever wider circles of love.
He focused his attention on the thoughts of other pacifists. The writings and actions of Mohandas Gandhi came to his attention. He believed that Gandhi was the “greatest man in the world.” Holmes was primarily responsible for bringing Gandhi to the attention of America and he visited Gandhi and corresponded with him. He wrote a book called My Gandhi for which he was greatly criticized. Gandhi was pacifism in action. The teaching of Jesus, “Do not repay evil with evil” was shared by Gandhi as well. Rather than war and violence, John Holmes believed in passive resistance, the use of reason and persuasion, the use of love and service to others, and that these in the long run would disarm the human race. These ideas may seem hopelessly idealistic to some, but perhaps such radically loving ways of being are what it takes to set the world, and our country, on a different path. John Holmes believed that this was the way of a truly committed Christian, a true follower of Jesus’ teachings.
In 1919, the building of the Church of the Messiah burned to the ground. John and the church Trustees saw this as a sign to change the name of the church to what it had really become, the Community Church of New York. This is what it is today—a magnificent modern church, dedicated to social justice work and one of the few churches that is truly diverse in its racial and ethnic make-up. If you look on its website, you will see that the church lives out its ideals completely.
John Holmes was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU, and the National Association of Colored People, the NAACP. He was devoted to these two groups for forty years. The Community Church of New York is still committed to the ACLU and the NAACP, as is our entire denomination. I am a member of both of these organizations and though I sometimes have to pull back on my charitable contributions, I never drop contributions to these two society-changing and freedom preserving institutions.
It has been a riveting experience to read Holmes’ biography. I noticed that my copy is “From the Collection of Eleanor Roosevelt” and it is signed by John A. Roosevelt, who was presumably her son. As I was half way through this book, I found myself thinking, “Where are John’s wife and children in all this?” I was relieved to read at the end that his only and deepest regret was the neglect of his children and his admiration for his wife for continuing the family life without him. He did not know how to solve that problem and he became a doting grandfather to the next generation in hopes of making some amends.
So what do you think of pacifism? Can we “Turn the other cheek” when someone strikes us? Can we offer reason, persuasion, and love when confronted with threats? When evil is in our faces, can we extend the hand of love and peace, though that hand may be cut off? Can we dare to tread in the footsteps of Jesus, Gandhi, the Buddha, Lao Tzu and other great ones?
These possible ways of being are worth holding in our mind and heart and deep, deep spirit. This is the cutting edge of human evolution. The path of peace dances before us tantalizingly, waiting for our eyes to see what has always been before us.
As for me, I am raising my sights to a year from now and I am listening for a man or woman candidate for president say some of the things that will lead our country to act in the ways of peace and love. You have heard the words often from 1 Corinthians 13, “There are three things that last forever: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of them all is love.” We cannot solve all the world’s problems but we can tread in the footsteps of those who have helped us to come forward through the ages, like our hero, John Haynes Holmes.
References
The following informed and inspired this sermon:
Holmes, John Haynes. I Speak for Myself: The Autobiography of John Hayes Holmes, New York: Harper & Brothers: 1959.
Robinson, David. The Unitarians and the Universalists, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1985.
Reading: from I Speak for Myself: The Autobiography of John Haynes Holmes (1879-1964)
These words are from the sermon that Reverend Holmes delivered to his congregation on the Sunday before America entered into World War I. It was in April 1, 1917.
“War is an open and utter violation of Christianity. If war is right, then Christianity is wrong, false, a lie. If Christianity is right then war is wrong, false, a lie. The God revealed by Jesus, and by every great spiritual leader of the race, is no God of battles. He lifts no sword, he asks no sacrifice of blood….His law, as interpreted and promulgated by the Nazarene, is ‘Love one another,’ ‘Resist not evil with evil,’ ‘Overcome evil with good,’ ‘Love your enemies.’ Such a God and such a law others may reconcile with war, if they can. I cannot—and what I cannot do, I will not profess to do…. (p. 176, Holmes)
“In time of war, as in time of peace…I shall love my country and serve her to the end….And how shall I, a pacifist, serve my country in time of war?....If any man or boy in this church answers the call to arms, I shall bless him as he marches to the front…But I also have a conscience, and that conscience I also must obey….If this means imprisonment, I will serve my term….
“So long as I am your minister, this pulpit will answer no military summons…. Other parish houses may be turned into drill halls and rifle ranges; ours will not. Other clergymen may pray to God for victory for our arms; I will not….So long as I am priest, this altar shall be consecrated to human brotherhood….In a time of raging hate and brutal passion, I will keep alive that spirit of good will toward men….To discover terms of reconciliation, to work out methods of cooperation, to soften hate and dispel suspicion, to spread abroad sweet influences of confidence and healing….How better can we serve our country than by restoring to her that high mission of peace-making?” (pp. 178-179, Holmes)
© The Rev. Ann C. Fox