Sermon: "Several Perspectives on Holy Week"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

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

Today begins the shortest season of the church year - Holy Week. And, ironically, today's Gospel is surely the longest one we read all year. So, to be fair, I suppose the sermon should be short - like the season - rather than long, like the Gospel. I will try to be appropriately brief, therefore.

In addition to being the shortest season, Holy Week holds several other distinctions. For instance, we know far more about Jesus' life during these days than at any other point in his lifetime. The biblical record of Jesus' actions and encounters is most complete during the time beginning with his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and concluding with his death on the cross. We also gain the greatest insight into Jesus' thoughts and motivations in Holy Week - more than at any other point. In that regard, Holy Week represents a time of great intensity in Jesus' life - indeed, unique intensity - in terms of his relationships with his disciples and with other people as well. Thus today is known as "The Sunday of the Passion," as well as "Palm Sunday." And, for similar reasons, Holy Week is sometimes called "Passion Week." This week certainly encompasses the time of our Lord's greatest intensity and passion. In fact, it is during Holy Week that Jesus himself becomes most immediately personal for us, in many ways.

As a means to gain access into this unique period of Jesus' life, I want to offer a couple of perspectives for you to consider this morning. They may help us understand something of this most important time in the life of our faith.

Several days ago, I returned from the annual spring meeting of the House of Bishops. As I hope you know, The Episcopal Church includes dioceses throughout all of this country and in several others as well - including Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Europe, Haiti, Micronesia, the Virgin Islands, and Taiwan. We are surely more than a national church. Bishops from most all of our domestic and foreign dioceses were present for this meeting.

One difficult matter that we considered involved deposing two retired bishops - that is, removing their rights and privileges as bishops. One senior bishop in the House reminded us that our ministry as bishops sometimes involves "exquisite pain" … and this conversation and action certainly was one of those times. The two bishops under consideration were, after all, colleagues and friends of many in the House. However, those bishops have violated their ordination vows - in particular, their vows to uphold the doctrine and discipline of The Episcopal Church. We all prayed about this matter; we considered carefully other possible ways to respond. Ultimately, though, we proceeded with the discipline indicated by our rules as found in the church canons. We had to hold our brother bishops accountable, and by so doing, we fulfilled part of our responsibility as bishops.

Now, in sharing this perspective with you, I hope to connect the experience of discipline with the responsibility of being true to our identity. That is, as the House of Bishops, we had to do what we did, if we were to be faithful to our own responsibilities.

Here is another perspective to consider. Those of us who are parents also know something about the responsibility of discipline. For parents, too, the task of discipline can be a difficult one indeed. However, it is a responsibility that we have, nevertheless, simply because of our identity as parents. Thus, I suggest that here again there is a clear connection between discipline and identity, in a couple of ways. Discipline is a parent's responsibility, and further, appropriate discipline becomes a means to enable the child to grow into who he or she is meant to be. Again, then, discipline and identity.

These two perspectives, it seems to me, can be helpful as we consider Jesus' walk through Holy Week. In the Gospel we experienced today, Jesus surely engages in remarkable self-discipline. He walks the way of Holy Week, in obedience to the call he is to follow … and, of course, that way leads him ultimately to the cross. And, I would maintain, Jesus exercises this self-discipline, in the service of his identity … as the One sent by God to be the Savior of the world.

Interestingly, we read an entirely different Gospel passage back on the First Sunday of Lent … but the meaning from today's reading is much the same. The earlier reading dealt with Jesus' temptations. Remember that Satan's proposals were quite attractive indeed - bread for a hungry world, opportunity to demonstrate the care of angels, and Jesus' sovereignty over all the nations. However, even though these prospects were indeed tempting - for they did represent good things - nevertheless, Jesus resisted them, in the exercise of self-discipline. Thus, it seems to me, there at the beginning of Lent as now, at Lent's conclusion, Jesus practiced self-discipline, in the faithful service of his identity … of who he truly was.

My friends, the call for us as Christians is to imitate our Lord, so that we may become one with him. When we begin the Christian journey at baptism, we are "sealed by the Holy Spirit … and marked as Christ's own for ever." Our journey is nourished in Holy Eucharist, when we pray that Christ "may dwell in us and we, in him." That journey, of course, brings us now to the beginning of Holy Week.

Thus, we need to take seriously union with Christ as the destination of our Christian journey. We do not need to go to the cross, for Jesus has done that already, once for all. However, in this Holy Week and always, I commend us to the task of self-discipline, in obedience to our Lord, so that we may indeed be the people that God intends for us to be. That is my prayer for each of us this Holy Week. May we be faithful and disciplined in walking with our Lord, for he calls us into our true identity, in union with him. Amen.

Copyright © 2008 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee