Sermon: "All One Body"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

The Lady Vols have had a rough week. Their star player - Tamika Catchings - sustained an injury that will keep her out of action for the rest of the year. Subsequent questions have focused on the issue of how good the team will be without their star. Basketball certainly is a team sport. However, just as certainly, individual players can make a great difference indeed.

To their credit, the remaining members of the Lady Vols have stepped up their performances - at least thus far. When one member of a team falters, a heavier load falls on the rest. It remains to be seen if other team members can continue to carry their own weight along with the extra load that now is required of them.

In a few minutes, some of you will be presented as candidates for baptism, confirmation, reception, and reaffirmation. You come as individuals, with particular gifts and talents to offer. In addition, though, each of you comes as part of a class - a large, wonderful class - and that class is part of a team. Christianity teaches that individuals are tremendously important. However, we need to remember that Church is a team effort.

St. Paul writes to the members of the Church in Corinth, "Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ." And then, later, "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it."

In our worship service today, we focus on the candidates who will be presented. However, after those candidates affirm their baptismal promises, we all will participate in renewing our own Baptismal Covenant together. In that Covenant, our promises are clear - promises of belief, of obligation to the Church, and of service to the world for which our Lord died. And the context in which we renew these promises - and in which we live our faith - is the Body of Christ on earth, the Church.

St. Paul writes clearly about the varieties of gifts that we each possess and about the varieties of service to which we are called and about the varieties of activities in which we engage ourselves. Thus, St. Paul readily affirms the individuality among members of the Church. However, the point he makes in affirming such variety and individuality is that there is a larger unity and wholeness. It is that unity and wholeness that he calls "the Body."

Therefore, each member has a responsibility - for the good of the whole body. Each part needs to function properly for the body to be well. We know this from our own experience. If we have a toothache or a sore foot, that infirmity seems to throw everything we try to do off course, too. The pain demands our attention. In St. Paul's words, "If one member suffers, all suffer together with it."

St. Paul also makes a similar point, while taking a slightly different tack. He says that no one part of the body can make the decision to be separate. In a rather facetious example, he writes, "If the foot would say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body."

Then, St. Paul makes this observation. No one part of the body is able to scorn any other part. Thus, again in St. Paul's words, "The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.'" Indeed, to say "I have no need of you" is not appropriate for any member of the body.

It's a team effort, you see, this work of the Church. If a member of the team goes down, the responsibilities of the team continue, nevertheless. The rest of the team has to pick up the slack and work extra hard, for the sake of the whole team … the body … the one.

A primary attribute of the Episcopal Church is our unity - not only the unity of a particular local church but also the unity of a diocese. The bishop represents this unity, even as he or she visits each of the individual diocesan churches. For instance, today - as an indication of our unity - congregations all over the diocese are praying for the Church of the Ascension. You see, Baptism and Confirmation in the Episcopal Church clearly involve membership not only in the local church but also in the larger Church as well. Therefore, individual churches also are parts of a larger body … or, of a team. Each part - each member - is important. But, it is the team effort that counts most of all.

As your bishop, I feel that I must share something with you that may surprise some of you. It may also disappoint you, as it surely does me as well. One of the clearest signs of our unity as a diocese involves the way we spend our money. Indeed, Jesus himself said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also"(Matt 6:21). If our treasure - our money - indicates where our heart is, then as Episcopalians we need to emphasize our unity in the way that we allocate our funds.

According to my records, Church of the Ascension has never met its yearly fair share financial asking from the Diocese of East Tennessee. Now, in the early 1980's - when all of Tennessee was one diocese and the percentages were higher, by the way - the yearly fair share was met. However, in the seventeen years that East Tennessee has been a separate diocese, that fair share has not been reached. And, you may be the only church in the diocese with that distinction - certainly one of only two or three.

Now, I need to add that you have made significant strides forward in recent years, especially under your current clergy leadership. I am indeed grateful for those efforts, and I do not want nor intend to belittle them. Having said that, however, it is true that other churches in recent years have had to shoulder their load and take up the extra slack as well. As a result, we suffer as a team … as a body … as the Church in East Tennessee.

I am not going to say - or imply - that we have no need of you. Quite the contrary. The Diocese does need you. As your bishop, I need you. I hope, I pray, that soon this particular distinction of Ascension will be removed. You have many gifts - and indeed, you offer those gifts for the good of the whole body. But, according to our Lord, your money indicates where your heart is. The Diocese needs you, and I need you.

"Just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ." "Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it."