Sermon: "One Hundred, Fifty, and Counting"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

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

It has been a year since the diocese gathered in this space to help you begin to celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of St. Paul's Church. And, what a year it has been!

It has taken that long for some of us to be able to pronounce "Sesquicentennial!" However, I understand that recently this particular term is popping up in everyday conversation on the streets of Chattanooga. In fact, someone pointed out to me the other day that St. Paul's may be a hundred and fifty years old, but it seems like you've been through at least two successive sesquicentennial celebrations of LSU football around here!

This also has been a year that other things have been happening in the life of the Episcopal Church. In that regard, I want to thank St. Paul's for your timely celebration this year. In the midst of what may feel like crisis, it helps us to maintain a historical perspective. That is, the church has been around a long time in the past - and, God willing, it will be here for long into the future. We need a way to deal with the power of the tyranny of the present moment - and a historical awareness helps us do that.

In recent weeks and months, a particular analogy has been especially helpful for me. Annie and I experienced several hurricanes when we lived near the coast of North Carolina. In the first phase of those storms, invariably the electricity would go off. Gradually, then, our focus would become more and more immediate, and we sensed little awareness of the world beyond the boundaries of our own yard. Therefore, the weight of impending crisis demanded all our attention … and that attention was focused very locally. During the ensuing hours, from time to time, though, we would use our cell phones to call someone far away, in order to gain a larger perspective about what was going on around us. That perspective could be obtained only from someone outside the immediacy of our circumstances… History can offer that perspective when we are faced with the power of the current moment … the tyranny of immediate crisis. Thus, again, I am grateful for your timely Sesquicentennial Celebration.

Through the years, St. Paul's has been a community of faith, gathered for worship by the Spirit of Jesus Christ and scattered for service in his name. That worship and service represent two sides of the coin of our spiritual lives. It is interesting and appropriate, therefore, that today we read of spiritual gifts in the Second Lesson. In this reading and elsewhere, your patron, St. Paul points out what he calls "the varieties of gifts." That is, there are many different gifts, used to accomplish various things, but all for the good of the community. Or, as St. Paul writes, "To each (person) is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good."

Just following the passage read today, St. Paul compares the church to a body. In fact, "the Body of Christ" is his favorite way of describing the church. And, according to St. Paul, people in the church are like parts of a body, each serving a different function for the good of the entire body. In these terms, then, St. Paul's Church, Chattanooga, has lived as a body for these one hundred and fifty years - worshipping God and serving the world in the name of Jesus Christ.

Our community - the community of the church, local, national, and world-wide - this community is enabled to live out its calling and to live into its responsibilities, as members offer their gifts for the good of the whole body. The collect today reminds us that we are "illumined by the Word and Sacraments" of our Lord, and therefore, we are enabled to continue Christ's ministry as "the light of the world."

The reading from Isaiah this morning includes a similar theme, even as it anticipates the One who will be the world's true light. The prophet writes of Jerusalem - the holy city, the source of God's word: "I will not rest," he proclaims, "until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch." Therefore, we see the Epiphany theme that the light of truth and righteousness will shine in the darkness. Remember that the wise men followed a star - as they gathered beside the manger - and then, they carried the news revealed by that light, as they scattered back to their native lands. So it is also with our community - gathered here for worship and scattered into the world of the rest of our lives.

As your bishop, words that I am honored to repeat when I confirm people reflect a missionary intention. These words build on the expectations of our baptismal promises - promises that naturally turn our attention into the world for which Christ died. The bishop places hands on the head of the one to be confirmed and then prays to God on behalf of this person. And these are the action verbs of that prayer: "Strengthen … empower … sustain." Thus, the people who affirm their faith through Confirmation in this community bring spiritual gifts for the good of the whole body … and they are sent forth from this community as missionaries for Christ, for the sake of the world.

In the Gospel reading today, we perceive another viewpoint on the theme for today. Remember that the story told there describes turning water into wine. Thus, that which sustains the body becomes also a source for enlivening the spirit. We do well to recognize such connections in all parts of our lives. That is, we are body and spirit - and we need to pay attention both to sustenance for the body and life for the spirit. In this reading, of course, we also find a Eucharistic image, for we remember that we are fed spiritually by wine, which symbolizes the blood of Christ. As we gather at the Lord's Table, we gain the strength, power, and sustenance we need, in order to be Christ's lights to the world.

In summary, then, as a community, we gather for worship, as people have gathered here for a hundred and fifty years. In doing so, we bring our various gifts - promised at Baptism - and we offer those gifts for the good of the community. Here it is that we are strengthened, empowered, and sustained. However, our life here at St. Paul's Church does not exist for its own sake - nor has it ever done so. That which happens here has another focus - an intention that lies outside these walls. We are called to be lights to the world - to carry beyond this place that strength, power, and sustenance that are give to us here. And we do so for the cause of Jesus Christ and for his sake.

Therefore, we give thanks today for St. Paul's Church - for its life, witness, and work, accomplished for the cause of Christ, during these hundred and fifty years. We give thanks for the countless saints who have preceded us on our spiritual journeys and who, in their day, drew strength, power, and sustenance from the life of this community, this body. And we pray God's grace for the future of St. Paul's Church - that Christ's way will be the light that guides our path, and that of many others, to do the work that we have yet to do, in the world for which our Lord gave his life. Amen.

Copyright © 2004 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee