February 9, 2008
(Feast Day of Absalom Jones)
Throw it Away!
By Myron F. McCoy, President, Saint Paul School of Theology
Isaiah 61:1-4 or Isaiah 42:5-9 • Psalm 137:1-6 or Psalm
126 • John 15:12-15
(From The
Lectionary Page)
Note: The feast day for Absalom Jones is February 13. It was celebrated at the Cathedral on February 9.
Although the late James Baldwin wrote these words on the occasion of the one-hundredth anniversary celebration of the emancipation proclamation they could have very well been the words spoken years earlier to a young Absalom Jones:
This innocent country set you down in a ghetto which, in fact it intended that you should perish . . . You were born where you were born and faced the future that you faced because you were Black and for no other reason . . . The limits of your ambition were, thus expected to be set forever. You were born into a society which spelled out in brutal clarity, and in as many ways possible that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence; you were expected to make peace with mediocrity . . . you have been told where you could go and what you could do . . . and where you would live and whom you would marry.
Born in slavery in 1746, Absalom Jones demonstrating great leadership and forward thinking as a young boy was able to accumulate enough tips to purchase a spelling book and a New Testament which led to him learning how to read. By 1762 his world and family were torn asunder as the whole family was split up and dispersed amongst different slave traders. Absalom Jones was most fortunate to be purchased by someone who lived in Philadelphia who put him to work in a grocery store. Thus even while a slave a young Absalom was able to attend a night school operated by Quakers for African descendents; he got married, and even earned enough money to purchase their freedom in 1784.
The resilient and industrious Absalom came to the Christian faith through Methodist preaching joining the St. George Methodist Episcopal Church where he met and developed a life long friendship with another leader type in Richard Allen. Both men shared a passion for the Gospel and led many of their African American brothers and sisters into membership at St. George’s. Jones was even licensed as a Methodist lay preacher in 1786. Both Allen and Jones were also concerned for addressing the total human condition and developed in April 1787 with others what they called a Free African Society where persons were given not only spiritual, but also moral and economic guidance. With the increasing numbers of blacks coming into the church as needs were being addressed this created a great deal of consternation for the white membership to the point of a decision made of building a balcony for the placement of black worshipers. With this decision the white membership decided that they would in essence throw away the parts of the biblical witness that spoke of all being created in the image of God and all being one in Christ Jesus.
In November of 1787 the climatic moment occurred as African-American members were prevented from praying at the altar. Obviously disappointed and insulted the African membership left St. George and vowed never to return. Richard Allen described the situation in this way:
A number of us usually sat on seats placed around the wall, and on the Sabbath morning we went to church, and the sexton stood at the door and told us to go to the gallery. He told us to go and we would see where to sit. We expected to take the seats over the ones we formerly occupied below, not knowing any better. We took those seats the elder said, “Let us pray.” We had not been long upon our knees before I heard considerable scuffling and loud talking. I raised my head up and saw one of the trustees . . . Having hold of the Rev. Absalom Jones, pulling him off his knees, and saying ‘You must get up; you must not kneel here’ Mr. Jones replied, ‘Wait until prayer is over’ . . . By this time prayer was over, and all went out of the church in a body . . .
O, how we would hope this kind of callous discarding of people would be the residual memory of some far away unenlightened past, but the fact remains it isn’t. In recent months we in Kansas City have been poignantly reminded. Racism is still an unfinished task of both the church and society.
Two decades ago, Eric Foner warned that in our day, a period of radical change followed by a desire for stability would give way to an explicit attack on the very achievements believed to be irreversibly established by federal law and the Constitution. Even with the excitement of new faces being serious contenders for one party’s nomination for president we see and experience other forces at work who see it as their duty to dismantle, diminish, and disinherit decisions of inclusion we thought had been made once and for all. What might I mean? We see such in American public education as Gary Orfield of the Civil Rights Project of Harvard University writes, “That at the beginning of the twenty-first century American public schools are now 12 years into the process of continuous segregation.” The “throwing out” of desegregation has led to a new racial isolation where almost three fourths of black and Latino students attend schools that are primarily made up of persons of color and interestingly enough the concentration of poverty in these schools seems to go hand in hand. Jonathan Kozol reminds us that “one of the most disheartening experiences of those who grew up in the years when Martin Luther King and Thurgood Marshall were alive is to visit public schools that bear their names, or names of other honored leaders of the integration struggles that produced the temporary progress that took place in the three decades after Brown, and to find that these schools are the bastions of contemporary segregation.” We have made children of color “throw away” people in school districts across this land and we are operating with more of a commitment to fund scholarships to prison than to fund equitably public education in re-segregated schools.
We are a “throw away” culture as well as we live in a world of dwindling natural resources, massive pollution, overpopulation and over consumption. We toss away more Styrofoam, paper and plastic with every passing day. Not only do we casually toss those things that are designed to be disposable - takeout food containers, diapers, coffee filters, vacuum-cleaner bags, contacts - we also prefer to throw away, rather than fix, increasing quantities of our durable goods. It is just too much bother and trouble to repair them ourselves. When is the last time you took shoes to the shoe shop to be resewn or resoled? Do you recharge batteries, or do you toss them out and run to the store and buy more? I am reminded of a poem written by Joyce Shutt some years back which still speaks powerfully to our human condition:
Throw away bottles
throw away cans
throw away friendships
throw away fans
disposable diapers
disposable plates
disposable people
Disposable wastes
instant puddings
instant rice
instant intimacy
instant ice
Plastic dishes
plastic laces
plastic flowers
plastic faces
Lord of the living
transcending our lies
infuse us with meaning
recycle our lives.
Even with our less than healthy proclivity to throw away, toss out and replace our scripture reminds us that there are some things in life that can be rather damaging to us if we do not part with them and throw them away. That is, you and I need to be able to part with resentment, retaliation, and revenge. Throw that away! But don’t throw away any person, because of something said or done negatively to us. Just like Absalom Jones you and I, too, are to face down the bad deeds of demons in our day with dignity and a desire to do the dutiful thing to deliver people and delight God. As the record shows that Jones harnessed any humiliation he harbored by not holding on to any hurt or becoming immobilized by any insult by serving a Savior and shepherding souls.
What a rich testimony is Absalom Jones’ life is to the veracity and power of Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount which calls for us to fail not to practice righteousness within every aspect of our lives!
You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom. Not only that – count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me . . . if you enter your place of worship and, about to make an offering, you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right . . . You’re familiar with the old written law, “Love your friend,” and its unwritten companion, “Hate your enemy.” I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst . . . (selected verses Mt 5)
There is an old saying that suggests if you want to dig a new hole, you don’t dig the same hole deeper! Yet that is the technique many of us use in response to life’s negative insults and setbacks.
- If you want harmony in the church or even in the community
. . . stop doing those things that cause discord.
- If you want peace in the world . . . stop doing those things that
contribute to war.
- If you want a closer relationship with your neighbors of different
racial backgrounds . . . stop doing those things that build up walls
between you.
- If you want the police and fire fighters of this city to reflect
the make up of the population of the city . . . stop using the same
tests and use other standards to decide qualifications.
- If you want elected officials who have no problem in standing on
high moral ground . . . stop electing those who lack moral back
bone.
- If you want folks who get government contracts to look like the
great rainbow of people who make up this city and county . . . Start
demanding fairness and equity for all people.
- If you want to stop being the “throw away” people of this land.
Stand up! Speak out! Reach back! Pull forward!
It is rather interesting to me that following the “throw away” slight at St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church “The Free African Society” continued to flourish by serving the spiritual and physical needs of the free and enslaved African population of Philadelphia. The society continued its members living moral and orderly lives, to support one another in sickness, and to provide or the benefit of widows and orphaned children. It also created space and a place where African brothers and sisters could worship God in sprit and in truth with dignity. When the terrible Yellow fever epidemic hit Philadelphia in 1792, Absalom Jones and members of the society nursed and buried many of the 4,000 or so people who died of the plague. As the society grew the members felt a strong urge to affiliate with an official denomination, and they solved this concern with Richard Allen, a part of the membership who formed the Bethel African Methodist Church and the others voting to affiliate with the Protestant Episcopal Church under the leadership of Absalom Jones. In 1794 the Diocese of Philadelphia established the “St. Thomas Episcopal Church” and in 1802 Jones was officially ordained as its priest and pastor. It is fair to say that under Jones’ wise and committed leadership the church grew both spiritually and exponentially. However, you would also want to know that Reverend Absalom Jones concern for the blight of his people led him to move beyond the walls of the church in getting schools started, being a co-founder of and insurance company, getting involved in real estate, and being a leader with others in sending an anti-slavery petition to Congress in 1800. Jones died 1818 having given 22 years of dedicated leadership. Buried in the church yard of St. Thomas the inscription on his tombstone reads, “To the memory of the Rev. Absalom Jones, who was a slave, and becoming possessed of freedom by good conduct, and rendered respectable by a course of virtuous industry, was principally instrumental in founding the African church of St. Thomas.”
Yes, it is possible just to stop bad, destructive behavior. But it is not easy. The cornerstone of Alcoholics Anonymous has long been that alcoholics must practice complete abstinence if they are to control their addiction. Yet it takes a tremendous amount of energy to renew that dedication to stop doing that destructive behavior each and every day. That is why AA and other “12-step” programs rely heavily on creating supportive communities of their peers - others who have “stopped it” and will stand by each other on those inevitable bad days. This is what Jesus calls the church to do as a community of faith dedicated to living an internalized righteousness.
You can have a new attitude . . . a new spirit . . . a new
dignity . . . a new pride . . . a new community . . . a new world
where reconciliation is the cornerstone - but only by stopping the
old destructive, hurtful behaviors that have been doggedly recycled.
“Throw it away!”
The changes we want to come about in our relationships one with
another will not happen just by wishing them to be so. We must throw
our old attitudes away.
In his novel, “The Chain,” Paul Wellman shares a scintillating story attributed to African Americans. According to the legend, after Jesus emerged victorious from the wilderness temptations, his disciples deserted and denied him and enemies and friends alike conspired in his crucifixion. Then the devil returned and whispered in his ear, “They ain’t worth it, Lord.” In response the Master was heard to say, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
