Friday, January 24, 2025

*** This is a rough transcript of today’s show ***

It is the 24th of January 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

A quick note and thank you to Roy in Tennessee- a listener who reminds us that while pronunciation is often a matter of custom and preference, there is a story from Judges 12 that warns us about a people who couldn’t pronounce a certain word and were thus killed- we read: “they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’” If he said “Sibboleth” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.”

And thus we also have the basis for the English word “Shibboleth”:  a custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people. Thanks, Roy, as always.

Some of us go to New York City and are blinded by city lights and Broadway; others of us wonder what could have been. For just as Istanbul was once Constantinople, so too was New York, New Amsterdam. The New World wasn’t just for the English and the separatists but for my people- the Dutch (the Van Voorhis family settled in Flatbush in Brooklyn in the 1660s). And the Dutch experience was, for a period, much less about religious freedom (they had that in the Netherlands) and more about economic opportunity. And on this account, the early Dutch settlements had no ministers but instead met as congregations for prayer and scripture readings but could not celebrate the Lord’s Supper or any baptisms in the New World.

Thus, in 1628, a call came from New Amsterdam to Old Amsterdam for a minister willing to brave the Atlantic and serve as the first Dutch reformed minister in America. He was Jonas Michaelius, born in 1584 he matriculated at the University of Leyden at the age of 14. After serving a parish in Holland, he served as a chaplain in the Dutch Navy. With this call, he found his way to the coast of Brazil and the capture of San Salvador in Brazil in 1624, where he stayed for a time as a chaplain. From there, he found his way to the African Coast off Guinea until he returned home in 1627.

Now, with a wife and two children and no position, he was keen on adventure but also a place to remain with his wife and kids. And so, when the call came from New Amsterdam for a minister, he put his name in and was chosen by the Dutch Church to be the first ordained minister in the Dutch Church in North America.

The trip across the Atlantic was especially difficult. Jonas wrote of the Captain that he was “unmannerly as a buffalo,” and the lack of discipline amongst the crew was alarming.

But the family arrived, seasick but in good spirits. Jonas set up his congregation on William Street- today a Steam Sport Car Rental. But tragedy struck, and his wife died after just 7 weeks in the New World, leaving Jonas to raise two children while also shepherding a church. He wrote in his diary, “All things must work together for good to them that love God. I hope therefore to bear my cross patiently, and by the grace and help of the Lord, not to let the courage fail me, which in my duties here I especially need."

He also had to contend with differing opinions as to how to evangelize the natives- it was Michaelius’ opinion that the children of the natives should be taught and raised to be missionaries to their own people.

As might be expected, not all were keen on having a minister in their midst, and he would travel back home to the Netherlands- when the home church wanted to send him back to New Amsterdam, we read that it was rejected by the Manhattan church, and Jonas Michaelius disappeared into history. But, his church would be the first of the Dutch Collegiate churches- and the first Dutch Reformed Church in America- and his congregation would establish the longest-standing, continually worshiping church in New York. Today, we remember the minister, chaplain, and New World missionary on the day he set sail for New Amsterdam: Jonas Michaelius.

The last word for today from the daily lectionary- from Romans 12:

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 24th of January 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man we dare not compare to a Buffalo- save his handsome mane- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man named Daniel van Voorhis, great-grandson of Steven Court, who helps found Oyster Bay Dutch Reformed Church in Long Island- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.