INSPIRED TO ASPIRE
BY THE REV. ABSALOM JONES
1st Black Priest in the Episcopal Church USA
INTRODUCTION
Anecdote: The Rooster and the Ostrich Egg
(I heard this anecdote from Dr. Tony Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Church, Texas). One day, a rooster, was walking about in the neighbourhood around the chicken farm, making sure everything was well. Then as he came around a bush, he saw something he had never seen before. It was an ostrich egg! He was stunned. Mr. Rooster hurried back home and called all the other chickens to follow him. He had something really new he had discovered for all them to see. The chickens rushed around the bush and saw that ostrich egg; all the chickens were stunned and amazed. Noticing the growing concern on their expressions, Mr Rooster was quick to assure them with these words:
“Please, understand I am not saying that I find fault with the wonderful work you are doing. But I just wanted you to see how others are doing.”
I. INSPIRATION
We could say that the discovery of the ostrich egg inspired the rooster to think of new possibilities. The saints we celebrate in our liturgical year cycles, like Absalom Jones today, inspire us in our day to never stop imagining new possibilities beyond the status quo. To inspire is to arouse, infuse, motivate, trigger,
be ambitious, dream, seek, pursue, yearn, to influence, move, or guide by divine or supernatural inspiration. To exert an animating, enlivening or exalting influence onto spur on, impel, motivate.
All of us in one way or another can be hostages to the status quo realities, the normal, the way things are, and settle back and do little.
However, as a people of faith, we just happen to worship and server a missionary God, a God who always calls and sends us out of the status quo by putting before us opportunities to open up new histories, to create new futures that shake up the status quo and give witness to the power of the Christian faith.
What is the source of inspiration: Is it the latest trends on twitter? Is it the daily newspaper? It is the TV news? No. It is The Word of God, the prophetic word, that through the Daily Office, and the Liturgical worship, inspires us continually.
After hearing the thunder of the prophet Isaiah in the words of the Old Testament reading for this day, you cannot help it but re-evaluate whatever status quo realities you face, and most importantly, you cannot help it but evaluate your place and role in the status quo.
From today’s reading in Isaiah 42:5-9 we hear these inspiring words, which become our mandate in Christian witness. In a loose direct translation of this passage from the Hebrew, goes like this:
This is what the true God, the Lord, says –
[Meaning the God who created the sky and stretched it out, the one who fashioned the earth and everything that lives on it, the one who gives breath to the people on it, and life to those who live on it]:
“I, the Lord, officially commission you; I take hold of your hand. I protect you and make you a covenant mediator for people, and a light to the nations, to open blind eyes,
[This does not refer to literal physical healing of the blind. As the next two lines suggest, this refers metonymically to freeing captives from their dark prisons where their eyes have grown unaccustomed to light].to release prisoners from dungeons, those who live in darkness from prisons. [This does not refer to hardened, dangerous criminals, who would have been executed for their crimes in ancient Near Eastern society. This verse refers to political prisoners or victims of social injustice].
The thunder of such a prophetic word comes to the believer, in some form, and inspires that person to aspire to more than the status quo.
The results of such inspiration by the prophetic word can be most remarkable!
• Moses received the call in the burning bush and was inspired to go and tell mighty Pharaoh, the ruler of the super power of his day, “Let my people go!”
• St. Paul was blinded on the road to Damascus and he said, “Even though I am the most patriotic Jew of all Jews, I must now go preach Christ to the Gentiles!”
• Martin Luther, the reformer had the courage to say, “Here I stand, I can do no other!”
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, heard the call, and went on to inspire an entire movement to dream about one America, of equal access to power and privilege for all her citizens.
• Absalom Jones heard the word, and said, “I will be free, my wife will be free, my children will be born free, and my people will have control of their own destiny, and the best place to do that is in the Episcopal Church” Amen? Amen!
• Mahatma Ghandi heard the voice of peaceful resistance and he brought an empire to its knees.
• Nelson Mandela heard the call for freedom for his people and he ended apartheid.
• The Christians of Redeemer Church Sarasota heard the Gospel and said, we shall celebrate Absalom Jones feast every year as the principle service. Moreover, the mission of Redeemer church in the Anglican Communion continues to provide critical support for many vulnerable ministries that impact God’s people, especially in Uganda.
Yet this vision of the new beyond the status quo is always historically challenged by a dialectic dynamic, the push and pull, between the status quo, of slave and free, of free but second-class citizen, of equal but separate, and today, still together yet more unequal in many ways.
II. ASPIRATION
Once inspired, we are led to Aspire, to seek, to attain or accomplish a particular goal
Absalom Jones, born a slave, was inspired by what he read in the master’s house, as he taught himself to read using the New Testament. What he read was the vision of the Gospel and the kingdom of God, which directly did challenge the realities of his status quo as a slave in the United States of America. He aspired to ensure that the next generation was born free, and worked hard to free his wife so their children would be born free as well.
But then the same passion called Absalom to look beyond his immediate family, and to work towards building the capacity for the faith community in the face of oppression and opposition.
This same spirit brings us today to continue aspiring to bring about a more just society, for slavery is still alive and well in new forms in a globalized world: Child trafficking, economic gaps growing between the rich and the poor.
III. PERSPIRATION
Once we aspire, we are ready to commit to the hard work of creating the new future and to the opening up of new histories. We can now perspire. The hard work of opening up new histories of new communities can be dangerous, is never a popularity contest, can be lonely, is often times uphill, and this aspiration can be a long, long journey indeed, with the destination still yet to be realized.
IV. APPLICATION
I invite you, I challenge you, to embrace the witness of Absalom Jones, and the history of the people of African descent in America, as our common history, and not just the history of another race or another tribe.
Why is Black history our common history? Because we are all connected to this history, and more significantly, because our future is a common one to all of us, assured and guaranteed by the Lord Jesus himself, the head of the church, the author of our salvation, whose vision and plan for all God’s children is to be one family.
As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians Chapter 4 verse 4, a scripture that has become our opening acclamation in our Baptism liturgy,
Celebrant There is one Body and one Spirit;
People There is one hope in God’s call to us;
Celebrant One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism;
People One God and Father of all.
CONCLUSION
I invite you, I challenge you, to immerse yourself in this year’s Black History month by paying more attention to the events, the education materials your children bring home from school.
Specifically, I invite you to join the Union of Black Episcopalians by signing up to a life long membership on line http://www.ube.org. In this way, you will be honoring the legacy of Absalom Jones, who chose to join the Episcopal Church, and stayed, within the Episcopal Church for he could see the gifts and strength the Episcopal Church had to offer for his aspirations, for his vision of a free people in charge of their own destiny. This alliance led to the birth of the historical African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia http://www.aecst.org
Anecdote: Robert E. Lee at St Paul’s Episcopal Church, Richmond Virginia.
http://www.georgiatrend.com/November-2007/Robert-E-Lee-And-Equal-Rights/
I was told this story by the then Senior Warden of St Paul’s Episcopal Church Richmond Virginia when I visited there in 1998. The story went like this:
Soon after, the Civil War, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, the people gathered for Divine worship. In the pews sat the Who-is-Who of the Confederacy. The blacks in church were seated at the back, as was the custom of the time. Their former white masters were seated in front. The worshippers were still mourning the loss of their vision, the death of their loved ones in the conflicts; the emotional wounds were still fresh and raw.
Right after the invitation by the celebrant to the congregation to receive communion, a black man beat the usher teams, and boldly advanced to the communion rail, knelt down, and put out his hands to receive communion. The congregation was stunned. Usually whites received communion first. The altar ministers were paralyzed. Nobody moved. Nobody knew what to do at this sudden challenge if not shake up of the status quo.
After a moment, a tall white man got up and knelt beside the black man, and held out his hands to receive communion. The white man who joined his black brother was Robert E. Lee. Now, who could dare refuse to give Lee communion? And how would you give Lee communion and deny the brother kneeling next to Lee? The altar party was freed from their paralysis, and both men received communion. At the foot of the cross, the two men received grace to create a new future for the congregation, and to open a new history to aspire to by the church. Watching the scene, others both white and black followed.
That Sunday, at St. Paul’s Richmond, the church caught a glimpse of what it truly means to say in our baptism:
Celebrant There is one Body and one Spirit;
People There is one hope in God’s call to us;
Celebrant One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism;
People One God and Father of all.
I believe that the brother that decided to take communion first and not wait his turn as was the custom was inspired by the prophetic word and preaching that Sunday to take that bold step. And I believe that the same prophetic word inspired Lee to make that move and kneel beside the brother and open a new history for the entire congregation.
This is why I ask you to take on a life membership in the UBE. Just like Lee knelt beside his brother at the altar then, the UBE needs your alliance and support in advocating for equal access in all the structures and levels of the Episcopal Church for all God’s children.
I now ask you some questions as I conclude. Please let your answer be loud so the saints can hear you.
Did Jesus give up in the face of the religious leaders’ opposition to his ministry? No!
Did the apostles and early church give up in the face of persecution? No!
Will you, Christians of Redeemer Sarasota, give up in standing side by side with your brother and sister by another mother to open new histories and create new futures for all of God’s people? No!
Let us stand together, and pray the collect for this feast of Absalom Jones as our pledge.
Set us free, heavenly Father, from every bond of prejudice and fear; that, honoring the steadfast courage of your servant Absalom Jones, we may show forth in our lives the reconciling love and true freedom of the children of God, which you have given us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Sermon preached for the Feast of St. Absalom Jones
(Moved to the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany)
The Rev. Canon Benjamin B. Twinamaani, Rector
Grace Episcopal Church
Tampa, Florida
The Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
8 February 2015