Schereschewsky

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 -- Week of Proper 23
Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky, Bishop of Shanghai, 1906

Today's Reading for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 989)
Psalms 5, 6 (morning) 10, 11 (evening)
Jonah 1:1-17a
Acts 26:24 - 27:8
Luke 8:40-56

There is a lot to commend our attention today.

We begin reading Jonah, a book full of irony -- the prophet who runs away; sailors who treat God with more respect than the prophet; a successful preaching mission that the prophet resents, he cares more for the shade tree than for the residents of Ninevah. It's a tale about prejudice and about God's universal love and salvation.

Jesus restores two women -- one is perpetually unclean and thus isolated because of her vaginal bleeding; she has "spent all she had on physicians." The other is a 12-year-old child who has died on the verge of menses. Jesus brings these two back to community and fecundity.

Paul's trial concludes. He is innocent. Had he not appealed to Caesar, he could be released. As Luke writes the story, Paul's trials parallel Jesus'. Jesus was declared innocent three times by Pilate, who also had counsel with a different Herod.

But I want to comment just a bit about Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky who is commemorated today. His is an amazing story. In some ways, it is a mirror image of the Jonah story.

A native of Lithuania, he was studying for the rabbinate when he became interested in Christianity. He moved to the U.S., eventually graduating from my seminary, the General Theological Seminary in New York City. (1859) He responded to a call for missionaries to China and learned to write Chinese during the voyage on ship. Starting in Peking, he translated the Bible and parts of the Prayer Book into Mandarin. In 1877 he became Bishop of Shanghai and began translating the Bible into Wenli. He founded St. John's University in Shanghai. (That school is a fascinating story as well. Look it up.)

In 1883, at the age of 52, he was stricken with paralysis. For most of the rest of his life he lived in Japan where he continued his translation work, typing some 2,000 pages with the middle finger of his partially crippled hand. He lived until 1906.

Four years before his death, he said this: "I have sat in this chair over twenty years. It seemed very hard at first. But God knew best. He kept me for the work for which I am best fitted."

That quote humbles and awes me.

Lowell

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About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

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The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas