Trinity Sunday, Joni Ernst, and The Life of Chuck

A sermon preached on Trinity Sunday, June 15, 2025, at Messiah Lutheran Church in Park Ridge.

The state of our world and our politics sure isn’t great these days, is it? And I think we’ve all become a little numb to the chaos that surrounds us, and discourse about what we can plainly see happening with our own eyes. Amidst everything that’s occurred in the last week… I’ve found the disrespect and, frankly, abject cruelty toward political opponents to be the most striking. And recently, some politicians have even turned their ire and cruelty toward their own constituents. 

Some of you may have seen the exchange between Iowa Senator Joni Ernst and the public at a recent town hall. Senator Ernst, a supporter of the so-called “big, beautiful, bill” received some tough questions from her constituents about the bill’s proposed massive cuts to Medicaid. The senator said she was comfortable with folks that she deemed “undeserving” getting kicked off Medicaid. The crowd was shocked at her casual dismissal of so many of her neighbors, many of them in the room! 

In response, one person in the town hall yelled out, “People will die!” And Senator Joni Ernst, an outspoken Christian, responded with perhaps the single most nihilistic answer I’ve ever heard from a politician. With an air of exasperation and disgust, Senator Ernst replied, “Well, we’re all going to die.” 

Now, Senator Ernst is, of course, correct – we are all going to die. But the casual, condescending manner in which she responded to the fears of her constituents is galling, isn’t it? 

Her response is reflective of a worldview that is, in my mind, far too common among Christians. It’s a perspective that devalues this life and this world, our lived realities, and in its place promotes only the hereafter—in essence, eliminating the need to care about the suffering of our neighbors. 

It’s a worldview that says, just believe in Jesus, that’s all that matters. Don’t worry about the injustices of this world, the hunger, the suffering, or even (and perhaps especially) the laws enacted that prevent all creation from flourishing. It doesn’t matter. We’re all going to die anyway – and so only the next world matters.

To make matters worse, Senator Ernst followed up this performance with a snarky, sarcastic apology video, condescendingly filmed in a graveyard of all places, where she said that she was surprised so many people didn’t know that every person will eventually die. She, of course, also included in her video an appeal to her Lord Jesus Christ as an alternative to worrying about the quality of life folks may have here in this world, before they die. 

Now, I can be a pretty cynical person. Not too much surprises me anymore. However Senator Ernst’s townhall and subsequent apology video knocked me on my butt. I know this worldview exists among many Christians, but to see it enacted and weaponized by a politician seeking to strip healthcare from her constituents was a bit more than I could bear this week.

I spent a lot of time thinking about why I was so unsettled by this weaponization of God’s love. And there are a lot of reasons. But what stands out to me most is the way that this nihilistic understanding of God’s grace devalues the beauty and wonder and mystery of God’s work in the world today. That’s not the God I know. And that's certainly not the God revealed in the farewell discourse in the gospel of John either. 

You know, Senator Ernst might say that this world doesn’t matter because Jesus ascended to Heaven to be with the Father, and that’s where all our hope resides. She might say that our hope resides in the next world, only in what is to come. But Jesus didn’t just ghost us in his ascension. Jesus didn’t sneak out in the middle of the night, nor did he throw a big farewell party on his way out the door. 

God’s presence and power didn’t disappear from the earth when Jesus ascended. In fact, God’s presence was transformed and magnified in the Holy Spirit to speak every language and abide in every place and with every person. 

In the Holy Spirit, God doesn’t casually dismiss this life and this world, quite the contrary. The sending of the Spirit reveals God’s deep love for us here, now, today, in our daily lives, our relationships, our pain, our suffering, and our world. The gift of the Holy Spirit affirms that God is profoundly interested and involved in what happens here, in our lived realities.

Yes, we’re all going to die, but through the Spirit, God has promised to be here with us, through the highs and lows, the joys and the pain, and yes, even through death itself. God did not abandon us. God is with us here, now, today, and always.

Today is Trinity Sunday, the day we celebrate the mystery of the three-in-one, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity is a way of understanding God’s identity – it holds together the God revealed in scripture, in Jesus himself, and in the movement of the Holy Spirit. 

But there is another way of describing the Trinity that I think is helpful for us today that emphasizes not who God is, not God’s identity, but instead what God has done. The Trinity can also be described as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. God as Creator… God as Redeemer… and God as Sustainer.

All three point to God’s work here, in this place, and in our world. Think about it… the Creator lovingly crafted every grain of sand and every eyelash on your beloved face. The Redeemer became flesh and suffered alongside us, restoring the relationship between humanity and God, and humanity and creation itself.

And the third person of the Trinity stands in stark contrast to the nihilism of a worldview that minimizes this world and our lived experiences. God as Sustainer. The one who celebrates with us in our joys and comforts us in our sorrows. The one who abides with us, enlivens us, and wipes away every tear. A God who doesn’t care about this world wouldn’t be here with us, among us, sustaining us as we both celebrate and suffer.

You know, last weekend, Sara and I went out to see a movie that I’ve been anxiously waiting to see for a long, long time. The film is based on a Stephen King short story called “The Life of Chuck.” In the film, we see the account of one man’s life told in reverse. Chuck dies young. Very young. Too young. Just 39 years old. But the story reveals both the tragic pain and the joy and beauty of his life… and the powerful impact that his life had on the world through his joy and his relationships.  

There is no overt Christian message in the film – it stays grounded firmly in a non-religious understanding of the world. But the Life of Chuck’s stubborn insistence that our lives and our joys matter–that they matter even when we know we are going to die–it’s insistence that our lives and our joys matter is the closest thing I can remember to a Christian worldview in a film. Our lives matter. The certainty of our death does not change that. If anything, it only enhances the power of God’s creative, redeeming, and sustaining love – that joy and love and life can blossom and bloom even when death is imminent. 

What we do and how we live matters to one another and to God the Sustainer, who journeys with us as we cry, and laugh, and hope, and dance and mourn. God the Sustainer is not somewhere off far away just waiting for us to die… but instead is right here with us crying and laughing and hoping and dancing and mourning. 

There is so much beauty in this world. So much beauty and wonder and mystery. There is love and life and joy breaking in… and so often, it’s through relationships. 

Last week, we invited you all to share a few words about your favorite hymns, and I suspect many of you noticed that our favorite hymns were not necessarily those with the best melody or tempo or even the best theological perspectives. 

Our favorite hymns were those that reminded us of someone we love. Our favorite hymns reminded us of someone whose life made a lasting impact on us. Our favorite hymns connected us to another one of God’s beloved children. Their lives matter. Even those who have died, even those who are no longer with us in this world… their lives here on earth, in this world, matter. They still matter. And we are connected to them through the one who Created, Redeemed, and Sustained them.

I love the idea of God as Trinity, God as Three Persons, because it’s a mystery. The Trinity is not something you can ever fully understand. But it’s beautiful, isn’t it? Just like these lives we live – they’re beautiful. Just like the world God created, the world God redeemed, and the world God sustains. 

Yes, Senator Joni Ernst, we’re all going to die. But the gifts of God’s love and grace are not reserved only for the next world. God is here, and our lives today matter. God the Sustainer be with you.