Sermon Review: Holy Trinity Lutheran Church (New York City)

Located close to Lincoln Center and aligned with a row of handsome buildings on Central Park West, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church represents both the traditional and the novel in mainline Protestant Christianity. The church’s interior—with its stained glass, mosaics of saints, Gothic reredos, and rose window—might pass, to the untrained eye, for a Catholic church. The traditional vestments and altar vessels, too, might give a similar impression. Liturgically, the service at 11 A.M. on Sunday, April 25, retained many orthodox elements, from portions of the Introit and Kyrie to the psalmody between readings and the sequence after the Gospel. The church’s preaching and affiliation, however, fit within a somewhat different tradition, as this congregation’s leaders are known for a progressivist approach to Christian social doctrine. This Sunday, the service was led by pastoral associate Rev. Dr. David G. Burke, with pastoral associate Rev. Z. Ann Schmidt preaching the sermon.

The first reading was an account, from the Acts of the Apostles, of Peter’s miraculous raising of Tabitha from the dead. The second, from Revelation, included a particularly memorable passage: “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”

The Rev. Schmidt developed her sermon on the theme of Christianity as a refuge from fear—in particular, the small fears that characterize our daily lives. These are our “midnight dreads,” she said: fears that keep us awake at night, paralyzing us and tempting us to despair. Following the oft-employed analogy of humans to sheep, the Rev. Schmidt noted that our paralyzing fears may cause us to perceive relief as remote or unattainable. As the analogy goes, our reaction to fear is like the panic and vulnerability of a lost sheep—radically prone until brought to safety by its shepherd. On the theme of Christ as shepherd, the Rev. Schmidt noted that during our powerless moments, we can “experience the strength we don’t have ourselves” by responding to Christ. In a brief anecdote, she then recounted the hours of silence she spent with a dying woman who “preached a sermon” to the Rev. Schmidt through her knowledge, in the woman’s own words, “that Jesus is holding my hand,” both in her dying moments and throughout her life. The Rev. Schmidt said that although she could not find the “magic words” to allay the woman’s flood of emotions, she found herself consoled by the dying woman’s sense of divine guidance, even as her own pastoral role was, in part, to provide consolation.

The sermon ended with an exuberant proclamation of a phrase from the Revelation reading: “Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever.” It was a rather Pentecostal moment, given the measured tone of the rest of the sermon. One matter palpably absent from the sermon was the important qualifier that Christian spiritual life is not merely useful in our darkest moments but can help us avoid them altogether—not to mention the small course corrections it affords us each day.

The six vested leaders in the sanctuary then moved on with the communion liturgy, with an exchange of peace and general intercessions. Many in the congregation rose from their seats in the pews to exchange peace, and the intercessions were, well, somewhat surprising. The first, probably owing to the church’s proximity to the theaters and concert halls of Lincoln Center, was a prayer for artists and musicians. The second, though, was a prayer for the protection of endangered species and for the diminution of pollution and deforestation—an unusual choice for the top of the intercession list, given that hunger and homelessness came in later. The ninety or so congregants did not seem fazed by the intention, nor by its place at the top of the list. Sometimes you can come to know a lot about a person by what he or she prays for, and the same rule may hold for churches. The offertory hymn that followed the intercessions was sung by a visiting children’s choir, and the service proceeded with the Lutheran communion rites.

One can’t help but see that music is an essential feature of ecclesial life at Holy Trinity, with its location in the musical heart of New York, its famed Bach Vespers series, and, as I saw this Sunday, visiting musical ensembles. Its lustily sung hymns, eager clergy, and unorthodox theology together with its focus on liturgy present an unusual identity—one best understood, perhaps, by simply sitting back and listening.

Information:
City: New York
Borough: Manhattan
Neighborhood: Lincoln Square
Address: 3 West 65th Street
Phone: 212-877-6815
Website: www.holytrinitynyc.org
Religion: Christian
Denomination: Lutheran (ELCA)
Main Service: Sunday, 11 A.M.
Pastor / Chief Liturgist: The Rev. Dr. William A. Heisley; at this service, the Rev. Dr. David G. Burke and the Rev. Z. Ann Schmidt, pastoral associates