The Diocese of East Tennessee
Sermons

April 9, 2000
Lent V
Delivered at St. Columba's, Bristol
/ St. Thomas, Elizabethton

Sermon: A Defining Reality
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

What a wonderful occasion this is! What a happy time for St. Columba's / St. Thomas and for me as Bishop of East Tennessee! I am truly delighted to celebrate with you the new ministry we share with the Rev. Harry Bahlow. You have not yet gotten to know Arnetta Bahlow well. But you will later on - and you will be blessed by her presence among you also.

Harry, never forget those wonderful words in the Gospel … words so appropriate at the Celebration of a New Ministry: "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." These are words from this congregation and from me as well. Never, ever, forget them. And I offer these same words to everyone here, as the plea of our fellow men and women in this world: "We wish to see Jesus."

But today I want to consider other aspects of this Gospel reading as well - aspects that help to show us Jesus in a new light. And I want to begin these reflections by thinking of places … favorite places.

I suppose that every child has favorite places to play or to hide or, just to be. And, as adults, every former child probably remembers those special places with particular fondness and nostalgia. In fact, perfect as the places may have been, our remembered imagination probably improves on their perfection.

I have such a place - a place I remember for its wonder and its refreshment and … well, for its perfection. It was a scuppernong grape orchard almost completely surrounded by trees. This was a wonderful place indeed - a place of pleasant retreat and of cool shade on a hot summer day and of countless, succulent grapes … grapes enough to spoil an appetite for several meals to come.

But there was a problem with this wonderful spot. And the problem had to do with its location - not with its remoteness but, rather, with its accessibility. You see, it was just off the road I walked each day to school. Every school morning my scuppernong orchard stood there as a great temptation. After all, I would much prefer to feast on scuppernong grapes than on the three "r's" my teacher had to offer. And lounging in the cool dampness of that orchard seemed far superior to sitting upright all day at an uncomfortable desk. And the thoughts I might devise, and the schemes I might scheme - all there, waiting in my grape orchard.

Yet, I managed to walk by that orchard each school day for six years. And, on many a school day afternoon, I rewarded myself with a detour to the pleasures of the grapes. But, not in the morning. I managed to avoid skipping school in that favorite spot.

I suppose that I must have been concerned about getting caught if I spent the day there. Surely that was one motivation to keep on walking on those early school mornings. Getting caught would have threatened my relationship with the place. But something else was at work, too. In my elementary way, I knew that my main job in those days had to do with school. Somehow or other, part of my defining reality was tied up with that schoolhouse. And so, morning after morning, I walked past that tempting, wonderful place on the roadside.

Long ago, someone else had conflicting thoughts about the relative values of various places and actions. We are presented with a special insight in our Gospel today - insight into a personal dilemma. Jesus admits, "Now my soul is troubled." What to do; where to go; what to say; what - even - to pray? "Father save me from this hour"? In terms of my childhood dilemma, the grapes on the roadside must have seemed far preferable to what lay ahead on the route Jesus was travelling. Surely, he would much rather remain there in the cool shade than hang from a cross in the heat of the day.

But then, Jesus continues the debate within himself. "No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour." The defining reality for me waits up ahead. I must press on.

I remember a difficult time in a parish I served previously. We had grown to the point of needing to build a new parish hall. However, some among us were convinced that as we undertook this worthwhile and much-needed project for ourselves, we also had to find a means to share blessings with others as well. And so we looked, and we listened, and we talked, and we prayed in search of an object for outreach.

Hungry people in that community emerged as answers to our thoughts and prayers. Hunger was a significant but usually-overlooked or ignored problem in that town. However, in answer to a call and in response to our prayerful search, we began the long process of developing a community soup kitchen.

I must tell you that in that process there were times that I wondered, "Why bother?" Why try to convince people of something they don't want to believe? Why try to show people things they don't want to see? It would be much easier to stop by the roadside and to rest in the grape orchard.

But that soup kitchen had become a defining reality for some faithful people of the church and of the community. Thus, we pressed on … And before too long, a soup kitchen was there serving hungry people - as it still does today, some fifteen years later - and a beautiful new parish hall rises in welcome as well.

Sometimes we are claimed by a reality larger than we are. We know with crystal clarity that "It is for this reason that I have come to this hour." We are swept up in a tide far beyond the depths we had dared previously to venture. And that tide becomes our defining reality.

At our best, we Christians allow the tide - which is Christ's call to us - to define the primary reality of our lives. At our best, we ride that tide, trusting in the One who leads us and encourages us on the way - Jesus the Christ. At our best, we lose ourselves, believing that in Christ we discover more of who we are meant to be than anywhere else. At our best, we accept with joy the tide which lifts us ever higher; we follow the way which leads to God, the source of all goodness; and we affirm in our lives our defining reality to be the example of Jesus Christ, the Lord of life.

Copyright © 2000 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee