Sermon: "The Truth that Sets Us Free"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

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

Our Bible readings today are pretty heavy ones. Indeed, we might feel the weight of the world on our shoulders as we listen to them. First, we heard the story of Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, and the serpent. Then, from Romans, the association of Adam with sin was continued, but the parallel association of Jesus with grace was presented as well. Finally, Matthew's Gospel reading told of Jesus' experience of temptation and his encounter with the devil. Pretty heavy stuff, indeed. But, then, this is the season of Lent.

In addition to being heavy, the content of these readings contains enough material for at least several sermons. I cringe to think of some of the messages I have offered congregations through the years - messages that somehow were associated with our readings today. However, as I reflected on these readings this year, I was led to a more general point of reference. That is, each of today's readings refers to a truth that is objective … a truth this is greater than our particular experience … a truth that transcends individuality.

As we encounter such a perspective in our day, though, we do so as people accustomed to truths that are radically individualistic. That is, we tend to believe that if something is not true for me, then it has no meaning at all. Truth is overwhelmingly personal and individual for us. However, it may just be that our readings today - and, indeed, the season of Lent itself - stand in stark contrast to the world in which we live.

Now, lest this sermon become heavier than the readings themselves, let me try to explain what I mean. In the Garden of Eden story from Genesis, the Lord God was quite clear about prohibiting Adam from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thus God placed limits on Adam's behavior, and further, God was very clear also about the consequence of ignoring those limits.

Yet, if you read what scholars and preachers write about this story, it seems that we like the idea of limits and consequences of behavior just about as much as old Adam did. We will analyze and preach our way around the idea of objective truth, so that we end up sounding a lot like Adam blaming Eve when he ate the apple.

Can it be - just maybe - that this story is about right and wrong … about the blessings of choosing the right way and the consequences of choosing the wrong one? Might this biblical episode be less about the desire of people in power to abuse and control the fulfillment of individual expression … and, instead, might it be more about God's ability to define right and wrong because God is God?

The message here might be that there is an objective truth, a truth whose source is God, a truth that I in my finite individuality simply cannot grasp. But the fact that I cannot grasp it does not make it any less true. Rather, as the Ash Wednesday liturgy makes graphically clear, we are called to a life of continual repentance - of turning back to God, again and again - for the majesty and the magnificence of God simply overwhelms our minute individuality and our limited perception of truth.

In the Letter to the Romans, St. Paul wrote of objective truth as it became known in two examples - Adam and Jesus. One point revealed here is the connection of Adam to sin and death. For St. Paul, Adam is a type of human being - a person, that is, who will choose behavior on the basis of individual benefits rather than objective, God-given truth. Jesus, though, represents another, contrasting type - that is, one who will make choices according to God's perspective on the world … the perspective of truth that applies to everyone. Our reading expresses the contrast this way: "Just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all" (5:18). There we see clearly the contrast between these two types of men.

Finally, in the Gospel encounter between Jesus and the devil, we are presented the classic confrontation between the ethics of a moment in time and the truth that abides. The devil offers bread for the hungry, the opportunity for immediate angelic assistance, and the means to enforce the power of righteousness on the world. But Jesus responds with truths that transcend individual application, for God's view is longer, God's will is greater, and God's love is broader than any measure of any person's mind.

Now, I know that we live most of our lives not in black and white, but in shades of gray. Believe me when I say that I realize that our ethical dilemmas are radically influenced by the situations and the circumstances of life. I do indeed know that most of our choices are between differing grades of good or between a lesser or greater evil. After all, we cannot remove ourselves from our particularity and our individual experience. That experience, that particularity, informs - and limits - the part of universal truth that we are able to perceive.

Yet, I do believe that our call in Lent is to encounter the One who is holy, the One who is other, the One in whom there is objective, universal truth. In that Lenten encounter, my prayer is that we may sense the source of knowledge beyond our understanding and may perceive a bit of the truth of God … for, indeed, that truth alone will set us free!

Copyright © 2005 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee