February 2023

 Good morning everyone!

We're back with another Reconciling in Christ Ministry Moment, whereby we offer some brief educational and thought-provoking content for your consideration. 

We'd first like to thank you for the emails and comments you’ve sent to us so far. We will be addressing those specifically during service on February 26th. Going forward we plan to come before you twice a month to offer our Ministry Moments, like today, and answers to your submitted questions along the way, so keep ‘em coming!

We continue to remember and remind ourselves that excepting the love we have for God, Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

In honor of Black History Month, we want to share some important history about the Lutheran Church and some of its influential black leaders. I’d like to first highlight the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, from the book of Acts. To paraphrase: 

Philip the Evangelist was told by an angel to go to the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, and there he encountered the Ethiopian eunuch. The eunuch had been to Jerusalem to worship and was returning home. Sitting in his chariot, he was reading the Book of Isaiah, and Philip asked the Ethiopian, if he understood what he was reading. The Ethiopian said he did not, and asked Philip to explain the text to him. Philip told him the Gospel of Jesus, and thus the Ethiopian asked to be baptized. They then went down into a water source and Philip baptized him.  After this, Philip was suddenly taken away by the Spirit of the Lord, and the eunuch "went on his way rejoicing" (verse 39).

The eunuch to whom Philip was sent by God to teach and baptize was a Black man and a sexual minority.  He was outcast by the church because of this. Theologian Jack Rogers writes that “the fact that the first Gentile convert to Christianity is from a sexual minority and a different race, ethnicity and nationality”  calls Christians to be radically inclusive and welcoming. 

 

 

Next, we'd like to share with you three important firsts in Lutheran history. I will be sharing the history of the first black Lutheran pastor in the United States, the Reverend Jehu Jones.

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1786, he worked as a tailor.  In 1816, when black people were first allowed to attend services in the Lutheran Church, he and his family became members of the Lutheran Church of German Protestants. They were made to worship in separate designated areas of the sanctuary.

16 years later, Rev. Jones was ordained as a Lutheran pastor in 1832 and first preached to black residents of Philadelphia. At that time, there were no black Lutheran churches there, so Jones and his congregation set out to build one. Unfortunately, the Synod of Pennsylvania did not follow through with their financial promise of support, and Jones and his church were sued by creditors. The building was sold in 1839, though Rev. Jones continued to preach to his congregation for 12 more years.

In 1849, Jones requested help from the Synod of New York to establish a Black Lutheran congregation in New York City. His request was denied, and a committee submitted a report that, without cause, questioned the faithfulness and integrity of his entire ministry. Despite these unfounded attacks, “Jones should be remembered, above all, for his unflagging commitment to his missionary calling and his steadfast faith in the teachings of the Lutheran Church.” 

The first black female Lutheran pastor, Rev. Earlean Miller, was ordained in 1979, nearly 150 years after the first Black male Lutheran pastor. Rev. Miller was first “in all the [denominations] of Africa and the Americas.”   

Born in 1935 in Robbins, Illinois, Rev. Miller was raised in a Baptist home where she loved reading and helped organize a front porch book club for girls - a group that later helped establish a public library. She also supervised Sunday School at New Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Robbins.

Before her ordination, Rev. Miller did secretarial work for various religious organizations, but was always drawn to the Lutheran church.  She received her Master's of Divinity degree from the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and was ordained at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Gary, IN.

Rev. Miller's first call was to Prince of Peace in Greensboro, in the North Carolina Synod, where she served from 1979-1984.  Over the years she moved on to calls in Minneapolis, Chicago, and finally Columbus, Ohio, where she was pastor of Hope Lutheran Church from 1989 until her retirement in 2000.  Rev. Miller passed away in 2014 at the age of 78. 

I would like to share with you about the first ELCA church. Does anyone have a guess as to where this is located? You may find yourself surprised, as was I, to find out that it is Frederick Lutheran Church on St. Thomas Island in the US Virgin Islands! It is a Black Lutheran church, founded less than 150 years after Martin Luther wrote the 95 Theses.

The history of the Lutheran churches in the islands isn't easy.  They were mainly founded by Danish colonizers who took control of land formerly stewarded by Indigenous communities.  Slavery made the Danes rich, and the churches had so much power that when the governor was not present, the pastor acted in his place. The churches at that time could jail people for not attending church and the parsonage contained rooms on the top floor for jailing enslaved Africans who spoke out about slavery.

These Lutheran churches played a role not only in the oppression of Africans living there, but also in their liberation.  On July 3, 1848, as Africans prepared to rebel in force, the governor proclaimed emancipation from the church’s front steps.

We pray that these historical recounts we’ve offered you today can serve as a reminder that our siblings in Christ of every color, race, ethnicity, and nationality are welcome in the ELCA and especially at Trinity Lutheran Church in Newport News.

Thank you.

Sources:

https://www.swpasynod.org/stories/jehujones

(https://nclutheran.org/leaders/women-in-ministry/)

(https://www.pressreader.com/usa/chicago-sun-times/20141217/282102045018096)

(https://www.livinglutheran.org/2020/11/a-legacy-of-opportunity/)

(https://bishopmike.com/2022/02/21/the-rev-earlean-miller/)

Living Lutheran magazine, January/February 2023