Sermon: "The Lord Is There"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

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

What a wonderful time in the history of Thankful Memorial Parish - the centennial celebration! You have much to be grateful for and much to be proud of. This moment provides the opportunity to remember and give thanks for what has happened in the past … and to anticipate and begin to experience the future. Thus, this moment - like any other moment in time - is a kind of intersection. As we remember the past and anticipate the future, we live in the present … and the present moment represents an intersection in time.

The intersection that marks one hundred years of history for a church needs to be celebrated and acknowledged. I commend you in doing so, therefore, on behalf of all the people who have been involved in the life of this parish through the past ten decades and on behalf of those who will follow you here as well.

I also commend your attention to our Gospel reading today, a timely account describing another moment in time whose past and future seemed quite real in the intersection of the present. This reading offers us a chance to engage the post-resurrection life of Jesus and that of his disciples in a particular setting. After all, the present moment for the disciples in their day seemed to be quite a dangerous intersection indeed - involving, as it did, both the past and the future in vivid ways.

In the past, the disciples had grown accustomed to having Jesus around. He was their source of direction, of support, and of strength. But now - after Good Friday and Easter - he was gone. What would they do? Where would they go? What would the future look like? The disciples were lost in the unfamiliar. They were overwhelmed by new demands and by uncertain expectations. The world was closing in, and there seemed to be no room to breathe in this new place that they had not even chosen to visit.

Several of them gathered together. They were puzzled at the complexity of the world and the threats represented by the future. They were lost in a new, unfamiliar, unfriendly situation. They were scared. And, as they stood there - huddled against the world - Simon Peter made a rather surprising statement: "I am going fishing." And the others replied, "We will go with you." Their place of retreat and escape from the dangerous intersection of the present was a boat. They longed for something familiar and safe.

Remember that these were men who had been fishing before. In fact, they had left their nets and their boats and their fisherman father to follow Jesus three years earlier. And so, they were returning to the familiar. They were choosing to go back to circumstances and situations that were known to them, in the midst of a world that had become unknown. They went fishing.

Our Gospel reading affirms, therefore, the security and comfort of the familiar as we experience an unfamiliar world. I have known that reaction and experience. I suspect that you have known it, too, as have many others through the years at Thankful. And the disciples share such a reaction and experience as well.

But the Gospel reading tells us more - much more - than a simple affirmation of this human reaction to an unfamiliar world … the moment of the intersection of past and future in an often-uncertain present. The Gospel says that Jesus himself seeks us out in those times and places that are comfortable and familiar to us.

As the disciples were fishing, they encountered the risen Lord. Later, when they cooked a meal on the beach, Jesus was with them. In doing the familiar things of life - those things that are comfortable and secure - it is precisely there that we may find Jesus.

In our collect today, we prayed, "O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work." And those eyes of faith need to be open in our everyday lives … in the familiar and secure places of our lives.

There was a time in my own life - in college - when I wandered away from participation in church activities of any kind. Worship itself seemed inappropriate and irrelevant to the great concerns of the world … and, to me. That attitude lasted several years. And then, I began to sense a growing loneliness and a feeling of being adrift in unfamiliar waters. I had lost my way.

After months of dealing with those unfamiliar waters and of following charts that did not lead me to safe and secure ports, I decided to go to church one Sunday morning. And I found the Lord there … or, more accurately, the Lord found me.

Now, this particular church really is not very impressive. The rector at that time was not someone I agreed with about much at all - certainly not about the social issues of the day that raised conflicts in the church. But in that place on Sunday morning, there was a sense of safety and security and familiarity for me. And the Lord was there.

Since then, I have had wonderfully powerful moments of spiritual insight … mountaintop experiences of profound significance. Those special moments of wonder and of awe provide significant landmarks on my journey of faith. I am thankful for them all. But no spiritual experience has ever been more important to me than the sense of coming home to that familiar place of safety and security. The Lord was indeed there, waiting for me.

I wonder how many people have found the Lord - or, been found by him - here at Thankful through the years. We give thanks for their journeys of faith at this time of celebration.

Jesus "made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread." And he makes himself known to us at such times, too. Not just the breaking of communion bread at the altar - but also at other holy moments of communion, like at a family dinner table. May we never underestimate the power of safe and secure familiar times with family and with friends. The Lord himself is there.

Some of you today have made the decision to affirm your faith in public ways through confirmation and reception. You are saying, in effect, "This is home for me. I meet the Lord here." I welcome you. In this place and with these people, may the Lord always be present.

The Lord has been present in celebration, in crisis, in happiness, and in turmoil during the history of Thankful Parish. And the Lord also has been here in the familiar, everyday lives of everyday people, for one hundred years.

The Lord chooses to be with us in familiar life experiences, as well as in the unknown; in those times and places of safety and security, as well as in the moments of crisis; and in the very center of our lives, as well as on the edges. Pray that we may have eyes to see Jesus at all times in our lives; and pray, therefore, that we may not overlook our Lord in the midst of people and places that we know best.

For the presence of Christ following his resurrection, for the companionship of our Lord in the familiar places of life, for the history of God working with the people of Thankful, and for the assurance that Christ will be known to us also in the breaking of bread, thanks be to God! Amen.

Copyright © 2004 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee