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
