Trinity Sunday as Black Lives Matter
[Trinity Sunday: Genesis 1:1–2:4, Luke 4:14–21, Matthew 28:16–20, 2 Corinthians 13:11–13]
This blog is from the sermon for Trinity Sunday in the church calendar. We begin this Trinity story at the beginning. Genesis. The creation of all. God created it, celebrated it, and called it good. God set up a rhythm of life. Work and rest for 6 days, then a day of total rest. The command for the Sabbath began in the beginning. The beginning of creation, the beginning of the scripture.
On the sixth day, God created humanity. Humanity was created in God’s image. This blessing was only given to humanity. This description was not used for the rest of creation. It was all good. God was pleased with all of it, but it was not all in God’s image. Many believe, this image of God, in part, means rationality. The ability to discern beyond instinct in ways other animals cannot. A dog cannot look at its food bowl and say, maybe I need to lay off it a little bit to watch my health.
This blessing also shows the value of each individual human being. Every single human being is an image-bearer of God, even if it is blocked by so much. Even Trump, even rioters, even people of the opposing political beliefs. Even Hitler. All in some way, bear the image of God. No human being is evil through and through, nor does any human being lack some form of God’s image.
This text, however, can be misinterpreted to say “We were all created in God’s image, so I don’t see differences between people. I don’t see color.” The problem with this is it does not value the lived experiences of people of another race or ethnicity. While we say it with good intentions, the person receiving this saying does not feel validated, and because of this, they do not feel their image of God truly being seen. We will come back to this concept. So, we have touched on the beginning of creation, now let us journey to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry in Luke.
Here, three important things happen. 1) Jesus fulfills the prophecy of being the Messiah. 2) Jesus sets the tone for what the Messiah is to look like. And 3) Jesus is anointed by the Holy Spirit. We have now reached a point where the theology of the Trinity has been mentioned. God created the world in Genesis, Jesus, God’s son, prophesied about is on the scene. Finally, God’s Spirit, or God’s presence in action amongst creation is with Jesus, is empowering Jesus.
So, In Jesus, the words of Isaiah are fulfilled. Jesus is God’s Word, made human, empowered by the Spirit, which is God’s presence. Now in all, we do not know exactly how all of this works, it is a holy mystery.
Finally, and equally important, we get what Jesus cares about, justice and love. I call these words of Jesus in Luke 4, Jesus’ manifesto because it set the tone for his earthly ministry. These words: release to the prisoners, recovery of sight to the blind (literal and figurative), to liberate the oppressed, and to enact Jubilee, the refreshing of things so all get a fair chance. Noticed, no one said, why prisoners? They deserve it! Why are you helping the blind? All disabilities matter, Jesus! I don’t see any oppressed, we’re all made in God’s image! Jesus, you are the one making disabilities and oppression an issue and making it worse by bringing it up. Jesus acknowledges specific forms of injustice and oppression and says that he is present to rectify the situation.
Now we are at the end of Jesus’ ministry on Earth and he is about to ascend and his work will continue with his new body, the church. This passage is, as theologian Warren Carter states, “proclaiming obedience to Jesus and his teaching.” Carter states:
There are rivals for human loyalty, who are, like the gospel’s vision, intolerant of other claimants. There are competing understanding of what God and/or the gods, want from humans.
For example: Nero, emperor of Rome: “Have I of all mortals found favor with heaven and been chosen on earth to serve as the vicar of the gods?”
Following Jesus challenged allegiance to Rome, thus a threat, and does the same in our country. We hear people claim that we are a Christian nation. I’ve heard it said that America has a covenant with God. We don’t. We even co-opted God into the pledge of allegiance, which furthers a nationalistic agenda, not God’s. “There are rivals for human loyalty, who are, like the gospel’s vision, intolerant of other claimants. Jesus must be the focal point of discipleship, not any country or political agenda.
In verse 28:18 Jesus states, all authority of heaven and earth has been given to me. Fulfills prophecy.
There are three steps to establishing the expansion of Christ’s body on earth:
1: Make disciples
2: Baptize them
3: Teach them to follow Jesus
This commission is not making believers of all nations. It is making disciples, followers, enactors. This work must look like Jesus’ manifesto from Isaiah in Luke 4 to be his work, otherwise, it is just something to say and means no more. To do this, we must emulate Jesus. We must see people in their divine image, in all their experiences and uniqueness. In the last post, I wrote about how the disciples didn’t tell people to learn Hebrew or Aramaic in order to learn the Gospel, rather, the Spirit enabled them to submit to others and their languages. This starts by recognizing their languages. In the case of the person who speaks Egyptian, the disciples didn’t say All Languages Matter, rather God valued their individual language enough to enable the disciples to speak it and to recognize their difference.
In order to be a disciple, we must see people of any minority status as Jesus did, specific people with specific stories, and specific needs. Then to become one with them, as the disciples did as they spoke and understood the foreign languages during Pentecost.
We may all be one human race, but the outward expressions of the differences such as skin color, the shapes of our features, the color and texture of our hairs, etc, come with experiences, and the best way to show we honor one another’s image of God is to honor their whole selves, their race and ethnicity, their family life, education, sexuality, sex and gender, health, economic means yada yada yada. We are all to become, to become our true selves in God’s image, not to make minorities conform to our image.
A melting pot is not the goal, that is making all conform to one image. A tossed salad is not the goal, that is a bunch of separate ingredients never blending with one another. As theologian Derek Hicks told me once, gumbo is the goal. All ingredients maintain their uniqueness, yet, through the stock, the Holy Spirit, a common flavor permeates all the ingredients. And in the end, it is spicy and delicious, the way life ought to be.
At this very moment, and in fact, for the last 400ish years, our black brothers and sisters have had it bad in this country. They were sold and/or kidnapped into slavery, they were lynched by vigilante mobs for crimes often not committed, they were prevented from gaining generational wealth in the ways most of us were able to get, and are more likely to face aggression from those sworn to serve and protect. All minorities in this country have experienced some form of oppression, whether they know it or not, but blacks and native Americans have experienced a specifically unique and harsh form of racism. One being kidnapped and brought over, the other being conquered and subdued. It definitely expanded to middle easterners after 9/11. It is also important to note that most Latinos are part if not all native American. Their ancestry comes from the tribes of central and south America that were conquered by the Spaniards and Portuguese.
The last passage of this Trinity Sunday here has a few points to note: 1. Paul affirms the theology of Trinity. He ends his letter with this:
GRACE of Christ, LOVE of God, COMMUNION of the Holy Spirit.
Christ is God’s Grace. God is Love. and, they are all in communion with the Holy Spirit. Communion. This is crucial. Notice, back in Genesis, what we read today, God said, let US create humanity in OUR image. Community. Trinity. The Trinity shows us how to live. They are separate yet one. We as humans are separate individuals of different backgrounds, races, stories, sexualities, expressions, genders, and so forth, yet we are one. We are one body, one human race. When Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit, God doesn’t say, all persons of God matter. We know that, but there is a time and a place to recognize the uniqueness.
Paul says to live in peace. Peace is not simply the absence of tension or conflict, but the presence of justice. The calls to the rioters to be peaceful misses the point of what peace is. Now I’m not condoning violence and definitely do not support opportunists, but the issues facing us right now exist because there cannot be peace without justice. When protestors yell “No Justice, No Peace,” that is not merely a threat, but a true statement. There cannot be peace without justice. It is simply not possible.
So, what do we do with this? How do we follow Jesus as disciples, not simply believers, and how do we live as if the Trinity has impacted our lives? For this time in front of us, I will be starting an anti-racist curriculum with my local congregation and community members. There will be reading, discussion, and action. This can be an opportunity for thechuch community to lead in the wider community in a way that brings peace, that recognizes, appreciates, and celebrates the diversity of our image-bearing neighbors, and lives out the communal life that we have modeled for us in our Triune God.
