Readings for Absalom Jones whom our Church remembers today:
Psalm 126 Isaiah 42:5-9 John 15:12-15
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
This Commandment of love from Jesus is different from the Commandment we get from Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels. In Matthew, Mark and Luke we get Jesus commanding us to love our neighbor as ourselves. The big assumption here is that we in fact love ourselves.
The Gospel according to John does not let us off so easy. John records Jesus commanding us to love one another as he, Jesus, loves us. And he loves us all the way to the cross. Jesus literally loved us to death.
Absalom Jones loved his people too in just the same way. He also loved the Episcopal Church. He would not leave this Church to join Richard Allen in the African Methodist Episcopal movement. Jones was a man of conviction. As a slave he bought the freedom of the woman he loved and married her and then bought his own freedom.
I can’t talk about Absalom Jones without also lifting up Bishop William White. White was Bishop of Philadelphia and ordained Jones to the Deaconate and then to the Priesthood. And while this ordination was for Jones to be a priest for people of color, he was still ordained in God’s One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. Bishop White listened to God and opened his heart and the Church to make a space for this important ministry.
Blacks were asked to relocate in a parish and they left the parish. And as a result, Jones met with Bishop White and this brand new Episcopal Church made room for them. Bishop White listened to the voice of God for what to do about this Episcopal Church and former slaves. Being brought about in the midst of a revolution already, he further heard the call to be open to providing for displaced African descendents. Absalom Jones then decided to work with Bishop White and not leave the Episcopal Church, but rather, give of himself to this unexpected opportunity. Praise Jesus.
More detailed information about Absalom Jones can be found at: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/Absalom_Jones.htm
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
onewhoponders 