Sermon from Tuesday 13 February 2007, Absalom Jones (LFF)
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Readings: Isaiah 61:1-4, Psalm 126, John 15:12-15


For those of you who haven’t heard the story of the first African American Priest in the Episcopal Church, it is an amazing story of courage, perseverance, and faith.

His story comes from Lesser Feasts and Fasts:

Absalom Jones was born a house slave in 1746 in Delaware. He taught himself to read out of the New Testament, among other books. When sixteen, he was sold to a store owner in Philadelphia. There he attended a night school for Blacks, operated by Quakers. At twenty, he married another slave, and purchased her freedom with his earnings.

Eighteen years later, Jones bought his own freedom in 1784. At St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church, he served as lay minister for its Black membership. The active evangelism of Jones and that of his friend, Richard Allen, greatly increased Black membership at St. George’s. The alarmed vestry decided to segregate Blacks into an upstairs gallery, without notifying them. During a Sunday service when ushers attempted to remove them, the Blacks indignantly walked out as a body.

Three years later, Black Christians organized the Free African Society, the first organized Afro-American society, and Absalom Jones and Richard Allen were elected overseers. Members of the Society paid monthly dues for the benefit of those in need. The Society established communication with similar Black groups in other cities. In 1792, the Society began to build a church, which was dedicated on July 17, 1794.

The African Church applied for membership in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania on the conditions that they be received as an organized body; that they have control over their local affairs; and that Absalom Jones be licensed as layreader, and, if qualified, be ordained as their minister. Four months later, it was admitted as St. Thomas African Episcopal Church. Bishop White ordained Jones as deacon in 1795 and as priest on September 21, 1802.

Jones was an earnest preacher. He denounced slavery, and warned the oppressors to “clean their hands of slaves.” To him, God was the Father, who always acted on “behalf of the oppressed and distressed.” But it was his constant visiting and mild manner that made him beloved by his own flock and by the community. St. Thomas Church grew to over 500 members during its first year. Known as “the Black Bishop of the Episcopal Church,” Jones was an example of persistent faith in God and in the Church as God’s instrument.

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It is with good reason that today’s readings were chosen for Absalom Jones.

Isaiah’s testament to the Spirit being upon him in his being sent out to bring the kingdom of God near to those in need, so very reminiscent of Jones’ own life, is also a call to each of us to similarly be filled with God’s Spirit in our own lives.

I realize I preach a lot about the kingdom of God, but to me it’s the most important message of hope and the strongest call to continue Jesus’ ministry that we have. It’s the whole root and purpose of Christ’s ministry in the world, and it’s something that Christians as a broad religion just simply can’t seem to remember. It’s in the “Saints” like Absalom Jones that we see ordinary people living out a life empowered by God and driven by the Spirit acting within them. Through these examples, we see the continuing ministry of Christ brought to the world by people who are just like us. We seem to have tacked a super-human label on the saints in the modern church that never existed in the early Church. The Saints are all those who are baptized into the Christian family both past and present. We remember particular saints for the example they give us of a holy or particularly spectacular life, but we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that as members of the Body of Christ, WE are saints.

Jesus takes this idea of the kingdom a step further in the reading from John’s gospel today. With the disciples, we who continue to do Christ’s will in the world are called his Friends. With the disciples, we are called to love one another as Christ loved us – a selfless and compassionate love that expects nothing in return but the chance to reveal God’s amazing love for every part of creation.

Many of us take pause at the appended statement that follows this commandment to love one another, but the laying down of one’s life for one’s friends is simply the willingness to put another’s needs before our own. This is Absalom Jones buying the freedom of the woman he loved before slowly rebuilding his savings to buy his own freedom eighteen years later. This is Jones setting aside his former life to become a lay leader in the Church. It is Jones helping to found a revolutionary organization of African Americans, taking charge of their own faith and founding their own parish. It is Jones setting aside everything he previously knew and stepping out in faith to help bring God’s kingdom near to the slaves and former slaves of Pennsylvania. It is Jones, an African American, former slave, being ordained as a priest over half a century before the Civil War.

Laying down our lives out of love for another is simply acting out of the profound love of God to better the life of another instead of simply walking past them on the street. It is as simple as buying an extra hamburger at McDonalds for the homeless and hungry woman outside, or pausing for two minutes to recognize the humanity of the Vietnam Vet, panhandling on the corner, by talking to him, or even just visiting our friends and community members who are ill, hospitalized, or unable to make it to the church for services. It is not a complicated or even a life-long or life-ending practice for most of us, but it does hold the life-changing potential for God’s spirit to take hold of us and anoint us as it did Isaiah, Absalom Jones, and Christ himself into a lifetime of loving service of others.

May each of us, as the Saints of today, learn to love more fully, strive to be Christ’s hands and heart in the world, and pray to become the kind of saints that will be remembered in centuries to come for our willingness to lay down our lives in service of God’s kingdom.

Amen.