Sermon: HUMAN FIRST, THEN CHRISTIAN.

The Danish Lutheran Church has a motto. Of course, it had to be a motto by Grundtvig, the beloved hymnwriter and pastor, who was also a very dedicated politician and deeply involved with the Danish Constitution from 1849, which we celebrated this Friday at Danish Constitution Day.

Our motto is:

Human first, then Christian.

Menneske først, så kristen.

Think for a moment about what that means. And the listen again to the words from Genesis:

27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was good.

The beautiful creation story is like a divine poem about the beginning of this life and this creation. God, as the creator and our heavenly father, blessed this life and the world, and gave it to us to live. “In the image of God, he created humankind and he blessed them.” No mention of race, color, age, or religion.

Just humans, male and female.

“Human first, then Christian.”

This world of ours, this life we live, is indeed good. It was created and began as one big divine explosion of YES to life, love, and light; one big YES to sun, moon, rainbows, stars, rivers, mountains, oceans, valleys, flowers, birds, fish, animals, and humans.

The beginning was indeed good. The intention was indeed good. It was indeed a blessed beginning and a big resounding YES to everything good.

I have been thinking about our Motto; Human first, then Christian, many times during this time of unrest, division, injustice, and hundreds of peaceful protests. I shared the motto with our confirmation class and they too were pondering the meaning and implication of the motto in our time. That it is indeed about shared humanity first and foremost, before shared religion, faith, politics, or beliefs.

I do agree that black lives matter, as I do believe that every live matters.

But why I agree that we need to focus on black lives matters today was clearly stated on a poster, I saw among the thousands of peaceful protesters:

“We said: black lives matter

We never said: only black lives matter

We know: all lives matter

We just need your help with #BlackLivesMatter for black lives are in danger.”

As humans and as Christians we can only be appalled and sickened by the killings of black men, that we have sadly witnesses.

As humans and Christians, we can only be united with our brothers and sister to try to stop this and change our ways.

And yes, - the looting and the riots are horrible, criminal and bad. The looting and the violence hurt the message that we need to hear.

Remember that protesters protest, while looters loot. Demonstrators demonstrate, while troublemakers make trouble. We have every right, constitutional right, to peacefully protest and demonstrate, to voice our fears, anger, and frustration. The violence, the looting and the destruction does not help the case, and it is not what most of the protester condone or think. They and we want change, not smashed windows or burned cars. We need to focus on the message of justice, change and discrimination.

Human first, then Christian.

Does any of you remember a book called “American pictures” by Jacob Holdt. “Amerikanske billeder.”

It was published in 1977 and this book had a profound impact on youth in Scandinavia.

Jacob Holdt is a Danish photographer, writer, and lecturer. His mammoth work, “American Pictures” gained International fame for revelations about the hardships of America’s lower class. Through his photos he showed the human face of poverty, racism, and injustice in America as he witnessed it in the 1970’ies. He stayed in US more than five years, crisscrossing the country by hitchhiking more than 100.000 miles and taking thousands of photos. Jacob Holdt was the son of the pastor at Grundtvig Church in Copenhagen, and I remember when I like thousands of other young Danes heard him give his lecture while sharing his dauting slideshows.

Many things have improved since the 1970’ies that was still in the aftermath of the Civil Rights movements.

We are now in 2020; and the past weeks has shown to all of us that we are still struggling. The “American Pictures” that we see today are still scared with injustice, discrimination, and hatred.

We need to be honest. We need to dare to address issues that I as a middle-aged white blond blue eyed woman might never fully comprehend.

We need to remember the motto of or church:

“Human first, then christian.”

Human first, then white, black, brown, Native, Christian, Muslim Hindu, Atheist, Republican, Democrat, Dane, American.

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It is Trinity Sunday – A day to focus on the complexity of our God and our faith.

· We believe in God as Father, as the creator, who created humankind in his image.

· we believe in the Son, in Jesus who broke down every human barrier and always protected the broken, the marginalized, the weak, the lonely, the old and the sick.

· and we believe in the Holy spirit, Gods moving spirit that moves around us and within us to inspire us and strengthen us to act and be.

One God, three expression or revelations. Three-in-one. Trinity.

“One for all, all for one.” It is a phrase made famous by its use in the novel “Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas. “All for one and one for all, united we stand divided we fall.” This was the motto of a group of brave musketeers who stayed loyal to each other through thick and thin. But long before the Three Musketeers made this motto famous, in the book of Galatians written in the first century, the Apostle Paul sounded a similar call for unity:

“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free,

there is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. “

Human first, then Christian.

Paul’s message was clear and compelling: to abolish social distinctions of the world, reorder human relationship with equality for all, to call the new church of Christ to be reconciled with their neighbors, live in mutual respect as they all are children of God. - Like we heard in another of Paul’s Letters this morning:

11 Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

There are things we should remember, but that we too often forget.

If we listen, we are indeed reminded these days, when racial tensions, discrimination, anger, injustice and both peaceful just demonstration and disgraceful acts of looting and violence, - have been on the news and our minds.

We are reminded that we are created equal in God’s image, which we also confess when we express our love for this country that should have liberty and justice for all.

We are reminded that The American Picture stills reveals racism, discrimination, and hatred.

We are reminded by the greeting from Paul that we should put things in order, agree with one another, and try living in peace.

We are reminded by the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: “WE must learn to live together as brothers, or we will perish together as fools.”

We are reminded by the gospel this morning that we are called to do something. We are called to go. We are called to go out there and make disciples and be disciples, to baptize and live as baptized, teach, and remember what we were taught.

We are called to go out there and be good servants and good examples. We are called to serve one another, act with mercy, and walk humbly with God.

We are called to go and be good human beings and faithful Christians to make this world a better place, a more just place, more as God intended it to be. A good place for all humankind.

Politically, religiously, culturally, we are still too often putting ourselves first, reverting back to human relationships that are not built on mutual respect or trust, but instead preserving power, making some great and others not so good, and mistrusting the very humanity of the others. As if we were not all children of God.

“Human first then Christian.”

Despite how clear Jesus was in his call and in his actions, despite how clear Paul was in his message and mission, and despite that we love the quote of Grundtvig: we still seem to forget to be humans first.

We are saddened these days.

As citizens and residents of this great nation we are all committed to fight for and believe in liberty and justice for all. As Christian we are committed to love and respect all of Gods children.

So, let us live our baptized lives with mercy, love, and compassion.

As we believe in God who created this wonderful world, as we believe in Jesus who taught us how to live, and as we believe in the Holy Spirit, flowing freely among us and within us to inspire us and strengthen us to be Humans first and then Christian. Amen.