6 Epiphany – 2/16/25 – St. Mark’s, Charleston – Luke 6.22 - JTCO
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets."
On this day, we give thanks for the life and example of The Rev. Absolom Jones…
Blessed Absolom – the name Absolom – The Father is Peace. Or Father Peace. How beautiful and of him that is very true.
He lived a long, productive life and I want to lift one chapter today but first, a little background.
The Rev. Absolom Jones lived from 1746- 1818 – born into slavery in Delaware and purchased his freedom in 1784 at the age of 38. He was ordained as a deacon in 1793 at the age of 47. Nine years later, he was ordained to the priesthood becoming the first black Episcopal priest in our Church.
The year he was ordained as a deacon, 1793, was a fateful one for the city of Philadelphia.. At that time, Philadelphia had a population of 50,000 – including 2,000 persons of African descent. It was the largest urban center and busiest port in the newly constituted United States at that time – thanks to the Delaware River. Compare its population of 50,000 to Charleston at the same time with its population of somewhere between 16,000 and 17,000 souls.
While the many ships brought wealth to the city, they also, in 1793, brought unwelcome and lethal visitors – the Aedes aegypti mosquitos which were the carriers for Yellow Fever..
A Yellow Fever epidemic began in August of 1793 and lasted through November of the same year. Somewhere around 20,000 persons, the wealthy and privileged, fled the city – leaving behind the poor, the working classes, and the enslaved which, no doubt included most of the members of Blessed Absolom’s church – The African Episcopal Church St. Thomas. Somewhere around 5,000 persons died of which nearly 250 were black.
Now, I want to give credit where credit is due. I was reminded of the service rendered by Blessed Absolom and Richard Allen by the Rt. Rev. Shannon Macvean-Brown, the bishop of the Diocese of Vermont, who made a mention of this in her sermon preached at Vorhees this past week at their Absalom Jones commemoration.
But, back to 1793 and the Yellow Fever epidemic. At one point, the leading medical doctor in town asked Absolom Jones and Richard Allen if they could organize black volunteers to nurse the ill – mostly white people. And they did just that, hundreds of black church members volunteered and rendered heroic service. They nursed the sick, transported victims to hospitals, and buried the dead.
And yet, instead of being recognized for their extraordinary courage and service, they were accused of treachery.
It may be a miracle that Blessed Absolom did not contract yellow fever… or , more likely, it was that there was a good amount of knowledge among the enslaved and free black persons who were from Africa where the disease originated. They probably knew that it was connected to the mosquitos, how to protect themselves from the mosquitos and to keep them out of their homes. They had knowledge based on experience and I’m sure they tried to share it…but it was not until many, many years had passed that the white medical establishment finally made the connection between yellow fever and those particular mosquitos. The connection was first suggested in 1905 and fully confirmed in the 1970s. How much suffering could have been prevented, had the white medical establishment listened to people who knew the connection.
Ryan P. Langton writes this in his book Philadelphia Under Siege " ... instead of being rewarded and celebrated for their efforts and sacrifices, Black Philadelphians were shunned out of fear of infection and accused of profiteering. In a pamphlet published after the epidemic abated, Irish-born publisher Mathew Carey claimed that "the great demand for nurses afforded an opportunity for imposition, which was eagerly seized by some of the vilest of the blacks." Even as he acknowledged that leaders such as Absalom Jones and Richard Allen deserved "public gratitude," he repeated rumors that Black volunteers "were even detected in plundering the houses of the sick."
Jones and Allen responded with their own pamphlet championing the services offered by Black Philadelphians. Jones and Allen also witnessed whites demand exorbitant prices [for care] and [also] take the valuables of the deceased. One person threatened to shoot them if they tried to carry any bodies near his home. Meanwhile, many Black nurses worked for no pay, with one elderly nurse asking only for a meal for her services. Living in a city that still saw Blacks as inferior to whites, Jones and Allen needed to show their detractors that Black volunteers exhibited "more humanity, more sensibility" than white Philadelphians during the epidemic. ”
Jones and Allen and the black volunteers had cared for anyone - no matter their race - because they were the servants of Jesus Christ and this is what Jesus had asked of them..
Now, notice something – They did not fold.. they did not just quietly go away.. they confronted the slander, called out the racism, and defended themselves… They did not back down from expressing their righteous anger in pamphlets – the primary method and form of political discourse at the time along with speeches – And, also, at the same time, faithful as they were, I suspect they held tightly to the fourth beatitude –
“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets."
Let’s draw out some thoughts and questions…
For the longest time, as a kid, that beatitude really annoyed me. It sounded like deliberately putting yourself in a position where you would be rejected would be a good thing, or even to the point of being a doormat … and that you would be blessed if you did it… Little did I know that when it comes to following Jesus , we don’t have to go looking for rejection.. and please notice, Jesus is not telling us to lay aside our self respect.
When we try to show the love of God and the love of neighbor whether in the public square or in private, it often results in scorn being heaped on one’s head..We can challenge these things just as Jones and Allen did – they called out the treatment that they received. Remember, remember…Even when you being rejected, do not let anyone rob you of your self-respect.
So many people down through the years and all around the world have striven for the rights of fellow human beings to just have the right to simply live a life of dignity – often at the cost of being lied about, rejected, and losing their lives in doing so..
We promise in the baptismal covenant that we will strive for justice *and* peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being.
Friends, if we take that promise seriously, it puts us at some risk – if Jesus called you to care for other in a time of plague, what would you do? If Jesus called us to respect the dignity of people we really disagree with, can we do it? If Jesus calls us to speak up on behalf of those who have no one to speak for them – the poor, the homeless, the vulnerable – can we do it?
So, On this day we give thanks for Blessed Absolom – for the legacy of this beloved ancestor – and , yet, we also need to ask, what part of his work do we need to carry on?
Education, mutual and practical care for each other in the church, resistance against persistent racism, caring for those of any race whatever the need might be, or continuing to press against the ongoing dehumanizing of other people? May our Lord Jesus Christ help us hear rightly. Amen.
