homily preached
at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Bellingham, WA
by the
Rev. Josh Hosler
Thursday,
May 24, 2018
Collect: Lord God, in whose
providence Jackson Kemper was chosen first missionary bishop in this land, and
by his arduous labor and travel established congregations in scattered
settlements of the West: Grant that the Church may always be faithful to its
mission, and have the vision, courage, and perseverance to make known to all
peoples the Good News of Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives
and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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I frequently
find myself preaching on the feast days of missionaries: missionaries from
Europe to Africa, the Far East, the South Seas … the late 19th
century, especially, saw many white Christians doing their best to bring the
Gospel to people all over the world. They have earned a place on the saints’
calendar through their faith and their courage.
Yet I always
find myself taking a deep breath before preaching about them, because we look
at them today through the lens of the sad legacy of colonialism. When Europeans
exported Christianity, they also exported many unquestioned assumptions about
what it meant to be “civilized.” There was racism in their work—lots of it. And
those of us who are descended from them didn’t recognize that racism until much
later.
 |
| The Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper (image from Wikipedia) |
So yes, here
was a man of great courage, great faith, and great talent. His accomplishments
were numerous, and many others have since watered the seeds that he planted. And
yet I wondered … how much can we hope for from the missionaries of two
centuries ago?
In an 1841
sermon to the Board of Missions, Kemper preached:
How remarkably peculiar, how vastly important is the position
of our Church! Possessing as we fully believe all those characteristics which
distinguished the primitive fold—a scriptural Liturgy, evangelical doctrines,
and the apostolic succession—having the form of godliness and the power
thereof—free from the false and worldly scruples and the time-serving policy of
civil governments—independent—respected and influential—in the midst of an intelligent,
enterprising and commercial people—Brethren! may it not be our duty to convert
the world—may not this high, this inestimable privilege be offered to us?![1]
So let’s
talk about “converting the world.” It was a common trope of 19th-century
missionaries. But do we all agree on what it means?
The final
sentences of Matthew’s Gospel give us the words of the Resurrected Christ: “Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to
the end of the age.” First of all, I’ll note in passing that this is the first
occurrence anywhere of the familiar Trinitarian formula, whose theology had yet
to be developed when Matthew wrote. But more importantly, Jesus himself tells
us what evangelism is: making disciples, baptizing, teaching Jesus’ words of
eternal love. This is called the Great Commission.
And so we do
seek to convert the world. We hear it in the Prayer of St. Francis: “Where
there is hatred, let us sow love.” But I believe that the question of whether
that comes with a full understanding or acceptance of the Anglican tradition or
even of Christianity is entirely secondary. Not everyone will seek baptism.
Does that mean that we should force the issue? Or is it better to put our
efforts in helping people seek loving solutions to persistent injustices,
regardless of the nature of their faith?
When people
live in love, they are living in accordance with our understanding of what the
Gospel is—regardless of the faith tradition they espouse. They may have some
modicum of incorrect theology, or quite a lot of it. I have no doubt that I do,
too. But for the Christian, correct theology must always take a backseat to
love. When it doesn’t, then we can’t be said to be following Christ, but
rather, our own anxieties.
This is why
I find it easier to be critical of my fellow Christians who act out of fear or
hatred, and more difficult to be critical of the loving people I know who, for
whatever reason, are not Christians.
I think
Kemper probably lived more like this than not, whatever his shortcomings may
have been. Rather than insisting on a church full of white leadership, Kemper
ordained Enmegahbowh [En-meh-GAH-boe] to the diaconate in 1859, the first
Native person to be ordained in the Episcopal Church. And Kemper once described
in his writings a church service he shared among the Oneida that was marked by
“courtesy, reverence, worship—and obedience to that Great Spirit in whose hands
are the issues of life.” That’s pretty cool.
I see hints
here that Kemper did not fit the stereotype of missionaries we may carry in our
minds. I see a humility in him that reminds me that I am specifically not one of those who has left my
comfortable surroundings and braved the wilds of an unfamiliar land. (The
campus of Western Washington University doesn’t count!)
It also
occurs to me that many people have become missionaries not primarily because
they think they have something that others can’t get in any other way. Rather,
they become missionaries because they are among the least racist of the people
around them. They want to meet strangers as equals, as brothers and sisters,
and because they are Christians, they can and must bring with them the Good
News of Jesus Christ as they go. That doesn’t have to mean beating people over
the head with a Bible, or dressing their children in English schoolboy
uniforms, or preventing them from continuing to teach their own language, their
own stories, their own culture.
As Kemper
himself put it, missionaries are those “whose hearts burn within them when they
hear of people or nations wholly given to idolatry, or licentiousness, or
worldly-mindedness.”[2] We today might interpret
the presence of such factors in different ways: the idolatry of money, the
licentiousness of having it our own way all the time, the worldly-mindedness of
belligerence and intransigence.
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