Sermon: "When Jesus saw their faith"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

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

One of the blessings - and challenges - for many clergy families through the years is that we move around a lot. That certainly was true of my own experience … and that of my family. And, as we moved about, we discovered certain idiosyncrasies in each particular place. For instance, I remember well the menhaden factory that processed fish in Beaufort, North Carolina, and the awful smell when the wind blew the wrong direction. The first time I asked a native about that terrible odor, he said simply, "That's money." And I remember in Greenwood, South Carolina, people often gave me directions from the railroad track that once ran in front of the church and through town, even though the tracks had been removed before our arrival there. Then, in Wilmington, North Carolina, a prominent aspect of life involved reactions to the storms that roared through, as our area became known as "hurricane alley" during the years we were there.

Life in Knoxville has its own idiosyncrasy. That is, everybody gets up in the morning and reads the paper - not to catch up on the news but to find out where the traffic bottlenecks will be that day! And then we plot our daily travels in the often-vain attempt to avoid the congestion. Indeed, most of us will go to great lengths to bypass all those people and cars out on the highways.

But in our Gospel reading today, we heard a different reaction to the crowds … a different idiosyncrasy in the town we read about. In fact, the folks in the reading seemed to seek out the place where others were congregated. The people were crowded all around Jesus at home - so much so that there was no room even at the door of the house. Still more people came, nevertheless, in spite of the crowds.

Then, we read about a particular group that came to Jesus' home - a group of five people, including four friends and their paralyzed buddy they carried on a mat. However, they had arrived too late to gain access to the room where Jesus was. But this group was undaunted by the apparent roadblock to their plans. We read that they climbed onto the roof, with the paralyzed friend in tow, and opened a hole in the rooftop. And through that hole, they lowered their friend into Jesus' presence.

Their hope was that Jesus would heal their friend. And Jesus responded by forgiving the man's sins and, then, by healing his infirmity. We read that the man "stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them."

But Jesus' initial reaction is particularly significant, and I want to emphasize it, even though we usually skip over it. When we read that the group opened the roof and lowered their friend, we next read words often overlooked because of the drama that follows … words that provide the basis for everything else. Listen now to those words: "When Jesus saw their faith." "When Jesus saw their faith." That is, when Jesus observed the faith of the friends, then he proceeded to forgive and to heal the paralyzed man. Therefore, the faith of the four friends provided the basis for the healing that followed.

What I want to suggest to you today relates to something that has meant a great deal to me - and to my spiritual life - through the years. Today's Gospel reading provides for us an image of intercessory prayer. That is, in making intercession for another person - in offering prayers for someone else - we symbolically take the person up to the rooftop, open a hole, and place the person in Jesus' presence. And, then, Jesus responds - because of our faith.

Therefore, when we pray for other people, we are like those friends in today's reading. When we pray, "Have compassion on those who suffer from any grief or trouble," or "We pray for those who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world" or any other prayer we offer for another person, then we are symbolically opening the roof and putting the person in Jesus' presence. When we stand at the bedside of a friend, helpless in our own sense of inadequacy, then in prayer we can visualize opening the roof above Jesus' head. When we fear for the safety of a loved one far away, we can lower that person into the arms of our Lord in our prayers.

In our grief, in our joy, in our uncertainty, we may know that Jesus is accessible, nevertheless. All we must do is climb onto the rooftop, open a hole, and lower the person or other object of our concern into the nearer presence of Jesus the Christ. Then, because of our faith, the prayer will be heard.

In a few minutes we will pray for our candidates for baptism, confirmation and reception. As we pray, I suggest to you the thought that we are on the roof over Jesus' head. And, in our prayers, we are opening a hole in that roof and lowering each of these candidates into the presence of our Lord.

I commend to you this image of intercessory prayer this morning. Such prayer relates to our own faith, for Jesus responds to such acts of faith as opening a hole in a rooftop. Sometimes it may seem that we can do very little, but allied with the response of our Lord, the world may change as a result of our prayers.

Copyright © 2006 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee