Sermon: "God’s More"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

[This sermon by Bishop vonRosenberg was delivered using the following notes.]

The basis of all sin involves putting ourselves in the place of God. In our readings today, we are offered examples of human limitations as over against the limitlessness of God. God’s message to us is “more” – more grace, more resources, more opportunities, more love – while our tendency is to claim less and less. Thus, as human beings, we seek to restrict and to control … and, at the same time, in our sinfulness we try to claim the place of God. That then is the universal human condition, living – as we do – in a fallen world.

In the reading from Numbers, we heard the wonderful story of Eldad and Medad. These two fellows were back in the camp when Moses and the seventy leaders he picked were in the tent of meeting. That tent was the designated place to encounter God. However, when God’s spirit permeated the tent of meeting and empowered those gathered there, the same spirit also rested on Eldad and Medad in the camp. They began to prophesy as well as the others. Joshua reported this heresy to Moses, who then responded, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!”(11:29).

You see, God’s work – and God’s word – always mean “more,” even though human beings try to restrict God. The hymnist writes, “For the love of God is broader than the measure of the mind” (#469). We cannot control what we do not understand. But somewhere out there – beyond the boundaries of our control, beyond the measure of our minds – God is at work, on our behalf, for “more.”

The reading from the Letter of James calls people to the exercise of appropriate humility. “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you” (4:10). The author goes on to indicate that when we do not exercise humility but, rather, speak evil against one another, we do more than harm the other person and ourselves. In fact, “Whoever speaks evil against another or judges another speaks evil against the law and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save and to destroy. So who, then, are you to judge your neighbor?” (4:11-12).

Thus, not to exercise humility but, rather, to speak evil of each other – and to judge each other – is to claim the position of God. And that, as we have pointed out, is the essence of sin.

Finally, in the Gospel reading, Jesus speaks figuratively of the distinctiveness of kingdom thinking. “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell” (Mk 9:43f). From that reading, we should learn to take sin very seriously. And, we should also learn not to read the Bible literally.

Further, in Jesus’ words, we begin to understand that our participation in the kingdom of God should claim a higher priority than things we value in this world – even things like our hands, our feet and our eyes. Setting different priorities, therefore, represents the process of kingdom thinking.

Thus, again, God offers more – blessings beyond our understanding – even as we seek to restrict and to control our world. It may be that we would prefer to try to limit God in our world – to put God in a box, as it were. But if we achieved that, would we not be overlooking the extensiveness of God’s presence … the God who offers us more?

Remember that God’s spirit is inside the tent of meeting but beyond it too … back in the camp with Eldad and Medad. Remember that God calls us not to judge one another but to live in humility, keeping in mind our place in God’s creation. And remember that, in spite of evidence to the contrary, the blessings of God’s kingdom exceed anything that we can “ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20).

Thus, in conclusion, we live our lives now in the faith and hope that there is more – more to God’s direction than we yet perceive, more that we have in common with each other than that divides us, and more to God’s kingdom than the earthly priorities that claim us. As we live in faith, therefore, may we also grow in awe of God’s great “more.” Amen.

Copyright © 2003 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee