Trinity Episcopal Church
A Parish of the Diocese of Los Angeles
4274 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90029
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A Community of Survivors
Trinity Sunday
June 15, 2003
Exodus 3:1-6; John 3:1-16
Trinity Sunday -- a celebration of God's enduring presence in the midst of human history, and here at Trinity Parish, a celebration of how one community bears living witness to that enduring, loving, gracious presence.
Gathered from far and wide into this little corner of Hollywood in the city of Los Angeles, we are a wider range of people and experiences than many would believe possible in one parish community.
Many of us, perhaps more than in most churches, would say it's something of a miracle that we're even here. As I've gotten to know the community here at Trinity, I've begun to hear the stories. Stories of years spent alienated from Church, believing there was no place for you among God's people. Stories of long treks through the desert when going back was not an option, and surviving the trek forward seemed impossible. Stories of friends and loved ones and family dying in shocking numbers, of hope near destroyed by loss. Stories of families divided, of violence, of hatred, of shame.
Trinity, more than many places, is a community of survivors. Few here could not name at least a few of the beloved who did not come far enough to celebrate with us today.
And yet we gather not only, or even mainly, in sorrow but in hope and even joy, celebrating the wideness of God's mercy, the embrace of God's love.
In some places Jesus' words to Nicodemus are a puzzlement, or even a source of fear. 'Very truly,' he tells Nicodemus, 'I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.' But here these words should bring a knowing smile. Few here at Trinity do not know what it means to be born again, to find new life suddenly kindled just when it seemed hope was lost.
Moses fled the land of his birth and left behind all hope in the faith of his people. And yet one day in the midst of the new life he had found, the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush. And he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.
God's reach and God's power burn far brighter than Moses would ever have imagined possible, and yet out of the fire comes not death, but life.
And God tells Moses to remove his sandals, for he stands on holy ground.
As we witness to one another the enduring power and wide-reaching power of God's presence in our lives, we too stand on holy ground.
We may not know or understand one another's stories, but together we are an undeniable witness.
Perhaps not coincidentally, in these days surrounding Trinity Sunday, we at Trinity participate in two great celebrations of the larger community -- celebrations of new life and hope.
This Sunday, we receive the image of El Salvador del Mundo, which has traveled through war-scarred land in El Salvador, along the path of immigrants fleeing violence only to encounter new violence and new fears. It is here in Los Angeles to witness to the survival of a people, the rebirth of a community in a new place, the birth of children and new hopes and dreams in a city that is now home to the second largest population of Salvadorans in the world after San Salvador. At the beginning of August, El Salvador del Mundo will preside over the gathering of tens of thousands of Salvadorans in Exposition Park, very much alive and full of life and love.
Next Sunday, we venture outside these walls to take part in Christopher Street West -- the celebration of the community of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in Los Angeles. It is another community that has suffered deeply -- suffered rejection, hatred and violence, suffered the horror of the AIDS crisis -- and yet stands today as a vibrant community, very much alive and full of life and love. The rainbow symbol that will pervade the celebration is a symbol that has walked with the people, proclaiming survival and light and beauty even in the darkest of times.
These are the celebrations of people who know what it is to be burned but not consumed. Neither community is naïve enough to think that its struggles are over. But they walk forward in the knowledge that it is indeed possible to be born anew. They walk on holy ground.
As I celebrate Trinity Sunday with you for the first time, I give thanks for your witness. I give thanks for all of you, for those who are gay, for those who are from El Salvador, and for all of us who fall in neither of those groups, but who add our stories of new life to the mix. I give thanks that we are all here together, for the ground on which we stand is holy ground.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God, Mother of us all.
Amen.
-- The Rev. Anna B. Olson
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Trinity Episcopal Church
Phone: 323 660-1110
FAX: 323 660-8954
E-mail: TrinityLA@aol.com