Absalom Jones, a Herald of the Gospel – Br. Curtis Almquist

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Br. Curtis Almquist

Commemoration of Absalom Jones, Priest

Isaiah 42:5-9
John 15:12-15

In the calendar of the church we commemorate today Absalom Jones. His parents were slaves; he therefore was born a slave, this in 1746 in Delaware. He taught himself to read from the New Testament. At age sixteen he was separated from his parents and siblings when he was sold to a store owner in Philadelphia. There he attended a night school operated by the Quakers for African-Americans. At age twenty he married another slave and purchased herfreedom with his slave earnings. He remained a slave for eighteen more years, until he could buy his own freedom. This was legal freedom but certainly not freedom from the insidious racism and injustice that infected both the church and society.

Absalom Jones became active as a lay evangelist and social organizer among African-American Christians. They were denied access to the Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Nonetheless, his ardent work as a pastor built up what was called “The African Church,” which was ultimately received into the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania in 1794 as St. Thomas’ African Episcopal Church. Shortly thereafter, in Philadelphia, Absalom Jones was ordained as a deacon and, in 1802, as the very first African-American Episcopal priest.

Absalom Jones denounced slavery, warning the oppressors to “clean their hands of slaves.” He was certain that God always acted “on behalf of the oppressed and distressed.” His empowered preaching, his constant visiting of his pastoral flock, and his kind, tender-hearted manner made him much beloved. St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church grew to over 500 members during its very first year.

And this was in Philadelphia. Ironically the Declaration of Independence had just been signed in Philadelphia in 1776, upholding “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as the “unalienable right” given by the God to all human beings.[i]  However African-Americans were not fully human. In 1787, with the signing of the U. S. Constitution in Philadelphia, African-Americans were discounted as three-fifths of a person.[ii]  Such insidious racism. The Reverend Absalom Jones knew the promise from Isaiah: “I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people…”[iii] Quite true, he knew.

It is for Absalom Jones’ faithfulness, courage, and the absence of bitterness I most revere him. He spent his entire life mediating God’s love and foraging for justice in the name of Jesus Christ.[iv] And he lived and worked in this way without being consumed by hatred from his own lifetime experience of injustice. What a beautiful example and inspiration for us in our own contemptuous time.

Blessed Absalom Jones, whom we remember today.

[i] At least 1,700 members of Congress enslaved Black and Indigenous Peoples at some point in their lives, including 374 senators, at least 1,477 representatives, and at least 23 territorial delegates to the U.S. House. From “Congress Slaveowners,” The Washington Post (February 3, 2022).

[ii] The “three-fifths clause” of the U.S. Constitution of 1787 (Article I, Section 2).

[iii] Isaiah 42:5-9.

[iv] John 15:12-15.