"Legacy of Love"

Sermon Summary: Legacy of Love

On Trinity Sunday, Rev. Jon Gilbert Martinez delivered a heartfelt message titled “Legacy of Love.” Exploring the doctrine of the Trinity, he emphasized how God’s nature—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is fundamentally rooted in love and relationship. Using biblical narratives and personal stories, he encouraged us to examine the legacies we leave behind through acts of compassion and community.

Key takeaways included:

• God’s relational character: The Trinity shows us that love flourishes in connection and mutual support.

• Living out our faith: We’re called to build inclusive, loving communities here and now.

• Cultivating spiritual legacy: Our everyday actions—how we treat others—form the foundation of the legacy we pass on.

The sermon ended with a call to action: to embody this legacy of love in our words, our deeds, and our church family.

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Most of you know, especially if you've gotten to know me a bit, is that I usually have a manuscript for my sermon ahead of time. A couple of you have said you prefer when I just go in the moment. And I don't do that often because of the way that we were trained. And honestly, it gives me added anxiety because if I were to do that, I have very few colleagues that do that, you might repeat yourself too often.

But when we've had heavy weeks like we have this past week, a lot of my colleagues will call each other out if we fail to recognize the pain and the trauma and the hurt that has occurred because Jesus would not shy away from talking about it. Jesus would call you out on it.

This past week, maybe to you it hasn't affected you. But to some of us, it gives us major anxiety. The Middle East is being destroyed. Mainly by one political power. But then of course, another political power says, well, they're not going to beat us. And they continue that game.

And if you pay attention, most of the times the countries that are fully supported worldwide are those who will predominantly look like Muslims. The countries that people tend to look more like mean or darker tend not to be supported as much. Now, you can ignore that. You can say, I'm just talking out of nowhere about it. Or you can acknowledge it and embrace it. That is the reality of the world that we live in because that is what we live in.

How many of you walk around with your passport in your wallet? And I'm not talking about the full-size passport, obviously. Your wallet size. Raise your hand if you walk around as a U.S. citizen born here, with your passport in your wallet. Take a look. How many of you?

What does that say? Your own pastor carried his passport. Why?

Now, most of you by now know that I'm adopted. My birth family generations have resided in Texas. But as many in my culture, many came from southern Mexico. But if you look at who I recognize as my dad, someone we would celebrate today, whose anniversary of passing is in two days and there will be two years—he was an immigrant. His parents were immigrants.

He would drive from my hometown, which if you're not familiar, is Laredo, deep south Texas, literally the other side of the country, all the way up to Wisconsin to pick crops as a child with his siblings and his parents. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Some of you I know work at farms, so you know how that routine goes and how hard that labor is. And that was your family's livelihood, so you have to do it, right? There's no ifs or buts. So you recognize some of that similar journey. But imagine driving across a country to have to do that so that your family can live.

Now, I'll say what the rhetoric with most people right away is like, he did it the right way. He did it the legal way, and he did. His family did it. But back then, it was way cheaper. The process wasn't so difficult. And it seems that no matter what administration leads our country, it just gets harder and harder and more expensive for people.

How does this work? All right. Taylor. And there's so many people who voted for our current president and now are seeing their families being picked up. Some who have followed the law, who have been through application, but are showing up to court for their appointments and being picked up.

See, my dad was a resident from his elementary years till even after he served in the U.S. Army. Why? Because our country does not give you automatic citizenship if you fight for our country. Imagine that, putting his life on the line and was not awarded with automatic citizenship. It was not until he got engaged and my mom told him, "I'm not marrying you if you're not going to do the paperwork already."

Now, I never get a judge at all these days. Thank you. My dad was a very intelligent man, but he hated paperwork, so my mom sat in because she was used to processing tons of applications for her job. She worked for community development in housing, where you know the applications were like gay high to apply for different programs. So they both sat there and they did it. A few hundred dollars, a few weeks later, boom, he was being sworn in and they got married shortly after.

Now, people will turn around and say, well, why can't everybody do that? Well, my dad, to an extent, had privilege to be able to do that. There's countless people who don't have that privilege, who are escaping Latin America or other countries in the world where all they have is clothes on their back and the money they have saved up to perhaps do it the right way.

You, you, you, you. Oftentimes, they have to pay coyotes, which are human smugglers, and sometimes they get trapped in there, and that's how human trafficking begins, or they die in the 115-degree heat in South Texas because they don't have water.

Now, I'm not justifying that people should be breaking the laws of this country, but I am reiterating what Jesus taught us: to love our neighbor. And not twisting scripture like, if the laws that we have now were implemented so many centuries ago—because I'm sure Mary and Joseph weren't caught at border checkpoints when they were escaping to save the life of their son.

Because if you believe they were held at a checkpoint, let me know so I can find that in Scripture. And I'm not saying any of you would say that, but I'm sure you've heard some of these arguments.

We have to move beyond what someone thinks makes them a scholar because they've read the Bible from cover to cover ten times, and now they feel they know the Bible, the context, the history, when it was written, who was the audience, what was the author trying to say.

There's a reason why you hear a sermon reflective of Scripture, most of the time the Gospel, is that it is our job as your resident theologian, your pastors, to interpret that the best way that we think we know how, based on the education that we have. And that's knowing that there is context to everything we read.

And that's knowing that there's an equivalency. Why do you think you're going to do as an Afghan Taliban issue? And so many would be, we don't pass it together. Let's assume we actually saw the beautiful thing about us. We had a libertarian perspective. And that's something that we did. Now, it's nice butterfly and sun shines to take just what's there in black and white and say, oh, that's what it is. And sometimes, yeah, let's do that especially when it's something nice. It makes us feel good. But when it's those deeper verses, we need to do our research.

Look around here. I consider this more of a women-majority congregation, and I also know not to say certain things because some of you, not all of you, would throw a purse or a shoe at me. And let's face it, my mom would probably pinch me from beyond.

But in the last few years, how have women's rights changed? For the worse. And some of you may have remembered what it was before. Although most of you are in your 20s, I know that.

But what does it do to generations that are to come? To once again be told what you can and cannot do with your lives as a woman. We cannot stay silent when we say, well, I just, I don't want to take a side. Do you think I really want to come up here and tell you about this? Half of the time, I don't. Because I'm struggling with some of it. And I have to reserve my own personal emotions and think a little bit more as a pastor and a minister first.

But I have to think how it affects everybody. Thank you. When it comes to women's rights, you know I've helped raise my nieces. You've seen them. And if I were to say, well, I don't want to say anything. I'm just going to stay on the side. I become part of the problem.

How many in Nazi Germany didn't say, well, I don't know if I should say anything? I'm just staying on the sidelines. Well, it's not affecting me. How did that work out for our Jewish siblings? For our LGBTQ siblings? Think about that for a moment.

Now, am I saying get your megaphone and go hit the streets? No, because that's not something I would do either. But if you hear someone, feel free to push back, providing you don't put yourself in danger. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Because we don't want that again. So think about that. As we continue in our service and actually deliver the sermon I have written, focus on that one candle in the middle. What does it signify for you? With everything going on, with your own worries, your own sorrows that are weighing heavy on you, what does it mean?

See, when we speak against certain governments, particularly the Israeli government, that is not an excuse to hate all Jewish people. It's like, how many of you enjoy hearing that people around the world hate U.S. citizens? Any of you? No, right? No, right? Based on our government's actions.

We don't like that feeling. And I know none of you share hate. Let's do it. So, we're good. Because I know we welcome one of our siblings who comes almost every Sunday, who is not Christian, yet she feels welcome here. Why? Because that is what you all provide. That love.

So Jesus once told his disciples, "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Now, these words remind us that God's love, like truth itself, is often revealed gradually, with tenderness, compassion, and patience.

God doesn't overwhelm us with more than what we can carry. Instead, divine love unfolds in ways we can receive. This is unlike the journey of fatherhood. Just as God reveals truth slowly and graciously, a parent grows in their love and understanding over time.

Fatherhood is not a one-time act, but a daily choice to walk alongside a child. Fatherhood is not a one-time act. Thank you.

To evolve, to guide rather than control. So let me tell you about a map. He lost both of his parents as a young adult. Just as a time when life should have been open wide with possibilities, instead of freedom, he stepped into responsibility.

His younger siblings were still underage, and so he became more than a brother. He became an emotional anchor, a financial provider, a protector, and a steady presence in their lives.

For years, he put his dreams on hold to care for others, working long hours, carrying invisible burdens, quietly sacrificing. And when he finally married in his late thirties, his new wife generally encouraged him to shift his focus and build a new life with her, now that his siblings were grown.

This woman he married had a teenage son and had been told she could not bear more children. He never made her feel inadequate or less than. He simply loved her.

Together, they chose to become a family through adoption. The first adopted children were a pair of siblings who needed a home. He became their father, not by blood, but by courage, not by DNA, but by love. And over time, they adopted more children.

He raised each of them with humor, guidance, and deep affection. Today, those children carry his name. But more than that, they carry his legacy. They carry the love he instilled in them, quietly, faithfully, every day.

That is what makes someone a father. Not biology, not boldness. Not flesh, but faithfulness. Not obligation, but an open heart.

This story, in so many ways, bears the story of God. The triune God we honor today. God the Creator brings life in ways we do not always expect. Christ the Son calls us to see family beyond bloodlines, saying, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Whoever does the will of my Father is my family."

And the Holy Spirit moves among us like breath, guiding us towards the truth we weren't ready to bear before—affirming, comforting, and gently shaping us into love. We do not worship a distant or indifferent God. We worship a God who claims us, adopts us, walks with us through trauma and transformation, through silence and revelation—a God who parents us still.

Let's say this plainly. Anyone, if father or child, and we see that often in our society. But it takes courage, compassion, and conviction to be a father. And just to respect this, or to avoid judgment, so it's going to move on.

And we then throw out some armor in the inner. So that's how the family is going up. A lot of others to be dad. It takes strength to choose love over evil, to raise a child who may not look like you, think like you, or love like you. That is not weakness. It is holiness.

It is one of the deepest reflections of God's own parenting nature—to affirm children exactly as they are. You are queer, transgender, neurodiverse, questioning, wildly unique, and beautifully beloved. As Mr. Rogers once said, "You don't have to do anything sensational for people to love you. You are loved just for being you."

That kind of love, the quiet, steady kind, is a heartbeat of true fatherhood. It's also the way God loves each of us.

Let me ask you, who are you being called to father? Not biologically, but spiritually. Who is waiting for you to nurture, affirm, and love? We can put it in the background of what you have when we wear. We first are down. We are suffering from our sins...

And are you willing to let God father you? To guide you with truth that are liberating, even if they're hard to bear?

This week, bless the dads in your life, but also bless the teachers, mentors, uncles, mamas who do both, foster parents, adoptive caregivers, and every person who says, "You are mine, and I love you." That's what fathering in the image of God looks like.

Let us pray.
Gracious God, you are our parent, our bride. You teach us that fathering is not about biology, but about bold, abiding love. Thank you for those who have graced us, who have chosen us, who have walked with us, especially when they didn't have to. Guide us to be that kind of presence in the lives of others, to love without limits, to affirm those who've been rejected, to carry the legacy of truth—even when it's harder to bear. Make us family by your Spirit. Make us courageous by your grace. In the name of Jesus, the child of God and our true brother. Amen.