Sermon: "A Time and a Call to Trust"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

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

On our journey through the church year, we have arrived at a crucial moment in the story of salvation. This is a very significant Sunday in the Easter season - the Sunday prior to Ascension Day. At this point in the story of our salvation history, Jesus has died; Jesus has been raised; and Jesus has appeared to his followers in his resurrection body. But now the time approaches for his Ascension, his departure from earth. And we may perceive the poignancy of the moment in the way that he addresses his close followers: "Peace I leave with you…Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid…I am going away…I am going to the Father…I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe." This is indeed a crucial moment in the salvation story … a moment that calls for belief … a moment that calls forth trust.

In this regard, I think about those leave-taking times in life … the times that we say "good-bye." Emotions accumulate at such times - often, strongly conflicting emotions. For instance, the anticipation of death surely identifies one time of leave-taking. Sometimes death come suddenly and leaves us all - as the Prayer Book says - "unprepared." However, most often the leave-taking of death comes more gradually, as we experience the double - and conflicting - anticipations of peace for the dying and of painful separation for the living. Then, occasionally, we have some remarkable experience at the point of death. Indeed, I will never forget the experience I had with a woman who had been in a coma for weeks and whose family had just gone through the agonizing decision to remove her from life support systems. After being with the family as they struggled with their decision, I visited the patient alone in her hospital room. I explained the circumstances to this comatose woman as best I could. Then I said a prayer and told her, "Good bye." She opened her eyes, smiled at me, and responded, for the last time, "Good-bye."

While that was surely a dramatic moment of leave-taking at death's door, there are other examples that we know. Indeed, our Gospel offers us another type, for Jesus has died already. He prepares at this point for his Ascension to the Father.

Among those other types of leave-takings, I think of occasions of moving … of leaving friends and jobs and places that are well known, in exchange for others that are unknown. There is loss involved in such experience - and we do well to acknowledge the loss. Also, we might point to an older person - or a couple - moving from home into an assisted living facility. Everyone involved in any way in those circumstances experiences feelings of loss at the prospect of such a change. Then, other examples of saying "good-bye" might include a young person preparing to leave one school this spring to begin another one in the fall; or, later on, going off to college; or, a few years later still, leaving college or home for a first job. On this Mothers' Day, we might think, also, of the perspective of parents during those times of "good-bye." Thus, parents as well as students experience a sense of loss in these occasions of saying "good-bye."

Anticipation, trauma, and loss all are involved in saying "good-bye" to that which has been, in anticipation of that which will be. And involved here, too, is trust … for we must have a certain amount of trust in these circumstances simply to go on.

At this point in the story of salvation, Jesus faces his Ascension, his departure from the earth, his final "good-bye." And, he assures his friends, "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid." His words intend to convey assurance and to encourage trust, even in his own absence: "I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you."

Jesus calls on his followers, therefore, to trust in the presence of God, even in spite of his own absence. At the point of his earthly departure - at that time of anticipated loss - Jesus promises the presence of God in a different form … the person of the Holy Spirit.

Thus, the time following Jesus' departure from earth - the time, that is, during which we also live - this time is marked by a call from our Lord to trust … especially to trust in the presence of God that we call the Holy Spirit. Early in today's service we prayed, "O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding." Such is the work of God the Holy Spirit. And that is the God in whom we may trust … the God who has "prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding."

Ours, therefore, is a time to trust. Ours is the call to trust. As we may read in Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, so also is his observation true for us today: "Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known"(13:12).

So, in particular, those candidates who appear before us today for confirmation all will step forward as an indication of trust … and with a commitment to live a life of trust. The rest of us will join them in affirming our Baptismal Covenant, which is a promise to live trusting in God. That God, we believe - we trust - has prepared for us "such good things as surpass our understanding."

Ours is indeed a time to trust. Ours also is the call to trust. May we be faithful to our time, and may we be trusting of our call. Amen.

Copyright © 2007 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee