Jackson Kemper – Missionary Bishop
“The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labour of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.”
1 Corinthians 3:8-11
Jackson Kemper was the first missionary bishop in the United States and May 24 is the day set aside in our church calendar to remember him. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church in 1835 established the role of missionary bishops who would serve in the western frontier of the United States as well as in foreign lands.
“Although he was assigned to Missouri and Indiana, he also laid foundations in Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Kansas, and made extensive missionary tours in the South and Southwest.”[i] Bishop Kemper worked to train new priests and lay people, establish colleges to educate them and lay the foundation for people to spread the Gospel. He served as Bishop of the Diocese of Wisconsin from 1859 until he died in 1870.
Paul wrote to the Corinthians in the passage above, speaking to them about building on the foundations others have laid for us. Paul worked to build upon a foundation for them, reminding them that “no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.” Jackson Kemper built on the foundation to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the western United States.
In 1952, the founders of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church also built on the foundation of spreading the Gospel in the western U.S. Now, it is our time to continue building on that foundation that was laid for us. How will you work to share the Gospel and further build upon that foundation of Jesus Christ?
Collect for Jackson Kemper
O God, who sent your son Jesus Christ to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that we, like your servant Jackson Kemper, may proclaim the Gospel in our own day, with courage, vision, and perseverance; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, now and forever. Amen.
“Lesser Feasts and Fasts,” 2018, page 239.
[i] Episcopal Church. (2019). "Lesser Feasts and Fasts," 2018. New York, NY: Church Publishing.
