Absalom Jones

A sermon delivered in Christ Chapel February 13, 2002, by the Rev. Dr. Michael Floyd, Professor of Old Testament

Galatians 5:1

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

For Paul, this call to freedom is at the very heart of the gospel. In the context of today's celebration, as we commemorate the example of Absalom Jones, we may be tempted to take it literally, as a call to freedom from the kind of slavery to which Absalom Jones and millions of other African Americans were subjected. His wise leadership in their struggle to be free from the cruel institution of slavery is, after all, one of the main things that makes him so heroic.

Born a slave in 1746, he took advantage of educational opportunities that came his way, and by the age of forty he had managed to buy freedom for his wife and himself. In his preaching, Absalom Jones made it clear that the liberation of his people was his ultimate goal, and in his pastoral ministry he demonstrated how they should care for one another on their way toward this goal. To this end, he and his colleague Richard Allen founded the Free African Society at Philadelphia in 1787, to which members paid dues in order to assist those in need. To this same end they formed congregations and sought to establish denominational affiliation -- Richard Allen by organizing the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Absalom Jones by applying for membership in the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. To this same end, St. Thomas African Episcopal Church stipulated that their incorporation into the Diocese would entail recognition of Absalom Jones as the leader of the congregation, and on this basis he was ordained as the first black priest of the Episcopal Church in 1802. His whole life and ministry presupposes the goal of his people being literally liberated from slavery.

As stirring as this story is, we might miss the point if we assume that it is only about liberation from the historical institution of slavery. Slavery of this sort is a thing of the past, at least in this part of the world. Although its effects are still painfully evident today -- as recent events on the University of Texas campus clearly show -- the struggle against racism today is not a struggle with slavery in any literal sense. If we see the story of Absalom Jones only in terms of the civic liberty that he bought for himself and tried to gain for other blacks, we distance it from our own lives. We make it into something from the past, something that is very admirable, but not directly relevant to our present situation. We miss its deeper significance.

To discover this deeper significance, we need to go back to the source of Absalom Jones' own inspiration, back to the scriptures themselves and to Paul's summary statement of the gospel in his Letter to the Galatians:

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Paul was of course using the concept of slavery metaphorically, to describe what results from a particular understanding of religious tradition. The Torah, or the first five books of the Bible, was the main embodiment of religious tradition for the Jews of Paul's day, and for him the central question was whether they saw the Torah as laws that happen to be part of a story, or whether they saw the Torah as a story that happens to contain laws.

To see the Torah as laws that happen to be part of a story is a kind of slavery, because it results in following the law as an end in itself. Those who see the law this way are shackled by it, as arbitrarily subject to its regulations as slaves are arbitrarily subject to their master. But to see the Torah as a story that happens to contain laws is a kind of liberation, because the story provides a basis for understanding what the law is for. Those who identify with the story can understand the underlying purpose of the law, and can freely obligate themselves to any and every rule that serves this overall purpose.

Precisely because Absalom Jones grasped deeply Paul's metaphorical use of the concept of slavery, he was empowered to struggle literally with the institution of slavery. If he had understood the Torah as a collection of laws that happen to be part of a story, he would have focused first on the fact that its laws clearly condone slavery. To cite just one example:

When a slaveowner strikes a male or female slave with a rod and the slave
dies immediately, the owner shall be punished. But if the slave survives a
day or two, there is no punishment; for the slave is the owner's property.
(Exodus 21:20-21)

If this had been his starting point, Absalom Jones would have lost hope. But because he understood the Torah as a story that happens to contain a collection of laws, he instead focused first on the episode that most clearly shows what God intends for God's people, and what God intends to accomplish through them for all humanity. He turned first to the account of the exodus:

The Lord said [to Moses], "I have seen the misery of my people who are in Egypt I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them... So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt. (Exodus 3:7-8, 10)

Because this was his starting point, Absalom Jones understood what the law was for, and knew that he could freely obligate himself to any and every rule that served this overall purpose. Thus he was incredibly disciplined, motivated and savvy in his work for the welfare and freedom of the black community.

As a result of the way in which he identified with the biblical story, Absalom Jones also knew just when he had to actively resist the dominant ways of the larger society. It happened one Sunday in 1784 at St. George's Church. The white members of the congregation had grown alarmed at the rapidly rising number of black members brought in through the efforts of Jones and Richard Allen. Without telling the black members, the vestry had decided that they would be segregated to an upstairs gallery. When the ushers tried to remove them, the black members took their leave. Led by Jones and Allen, they knew when things had reached the critical point at which they could no longer participate in good conscience. They knew when to walk out.

If we take the example of Absalom Jones to heart, hearing the same evangelical call to freedom that he heard, we are not only confronted with the moral question of whether we will struggle with the racist legacy of slavery in the same way that he struggled with slavery itself. We are also confronted with the question posed by Paul, the theological question of how we understand our religious tradition, what it tells us about God, what else this impels us to struggle with besides racism, and when we have to actively resist the dominant ways of the larger society.

In Absalom Jones's day, the main affront to the gospel was slavery. In our day, the main affront to the gospel is the war toward which we seem to be hopelessly headed. This threat forces us to ask how we understand our religious traditions, as they are embodied above all in the scriptures. Do we see them as laws that happen to be part of a story, or as a story that happens to contain laws? If we see them as laws that happen to be part of a story, we will focus first on the fact that the scriptures clearly condone war. If this is our starting point, we can rationalize and acquiesce, but at the cost of becoming enslaved to the law as an end in itself -- the type of bondage so forcefully delineated by Paul. If we instead see the scriptures as a story that happens to contain laws, we will focus first on those episodes that most clearly show what God intends for God's people, and what God intends to accomplish through them for all humanity. We will turn not only to the story of the exodus, but also to the story of the creation, the restoration, and the resurrection, and of Christ's return in glory. By identifying with this story, we will come to understand what the laws are for, and realize that we can freely obligate ourselves to any and every rule that serves this overall purpose. As Paul sums up this overall purpose elsewhere:

The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the glorious freedom of the children of God. (Romans 8:19-21)

As Paul knew only too well, the liberation of creation can be a painful process-but only if it's creative pain, like the pain of a mother giving birth. If this glorious freedom is really what God is up to, the war that presently threatens us cannot be part of that plan. Perhaps there is no war that can any longer claim to be part of the creative pain through which creation is freed, but this war-so cynically perpetrated on the world-cannot even pretend to be.

If we allow our identity to be shaped by the biblical story, and by what it tells us of God's overall purpose, I suspect that we will be tested by the course of events. We will soon see if we, like Absalom Jones, know when to walk out. We will have to discern the point at which we must actively resist the dominant ways of our society. I have no idea what that will require of us. I only know that as we venture down that path, Absalom Jones will be holding our hand and singing with us:

Oh, freedom!
Oh, freedom!
Oh, freedom over me!
And before I'd be a slave,
I'll be buried in my grave.
And go home to my Lord,
and be free.