Sermon: "Come to me"
The Right Reverend Charles G. vonRosenberg
Third Bishop of East Tennessee

In the Sunday readings and collect, most often we find a common theme - an idea that runs through the parts of the service that are appointed for that particular day. However, in the lessons and prayer for today, I could not find one such theme or idea. Rather, it seems to me, we may see a kind of series of thoughts in our readings and collect today.

Of course, in our considerations, we need to keep in mind our particularity as Americans this weekend, this Fourth of July weekend. And this is not just any Fourth of July, either. It is the Fourth that follows September 11. I suspect that we as Americans are particularly patriotic, especially aware of our self-identity as Americans, this year.

And so, we read our lessons and collect for today in a special way this year, within a certain framework. I suggest to you that the Bible readings and the prayer for today offer us a series of concerns … warnings that seem especially appropriate at this point in the history of the United States … concerns to us, as Christians who are also Americans. For the next couple of minutes, therefore, I want to mention the themes that I see for today. I will do this slowly and ask you to consider the ideas presented and to decide if you perceive any special concern or warning or perspective presented in them.

First, the collect, the prayer for today. In it, we remember that God in Christ has called us to follow the Great Commandment - to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. And remember, the biblical concept of "neighbor" indicates someone different from ourselves … a person, for instance, of a different ethnic or racial background, like a Samaritan was to a Jew. In fact, the wonderful Parable of the Good Samaritan was told in response to the question, "Who is my neighbor?" (Lk 10:29). And today's collect, this prayer, petitions God that we may be devoted to God and united to our fellow human beings, our neighbors.

The Old Testament reading from Zechariah anticipates Palm Sunday - Christ's entry into Jerusalem. According to the prophet, the king of Zion and of Jerusalem will come. And he will be both triumphant and humble. He will be acclaimed as leader and king, but he will arrive on a donkey … and not just a donkey but a colt, a young donkey. The one who is king will also be humble.

Then we come to St. Paul's rather wordy way of stating a very profound and important human tendency. That is, at one level, St. Paul - along with the rest of us - knows what is right. But he, and we, find that we actually do things that are not in line with what we know is right. In St. Paul's terms, what we know to be right is actually what we want, in the deepest sense of wanting. Earlier in this chapter of Romans, St. Paul puts it into one sentence: "For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate" (7:15).

Finally, in the Gospel reading, St. Matthew records for us Jesus' partiality towards the infant, the child, the powerless, the unknowing. The biblical witness is that Jesus had an inclination, a leaning, toward those who are over-burdened in this world. Those are the ones to whom he revealed the secrets of the Kingdom and for whom he offered comfort.

That, then, is the rather random series of thoughts and themes that I see in our readings and collect for today. As we consider them, may we also remember who we are as Americans - Americans for whom the flag and our country have a strong and special meaning at this time in our history.

As a way to summarize these various impressions, it seems best to me to look at the words of our Lord. That is, we as human beings have so many differences. We are called to love God and to love our neighbors. We do this imperfectly, for even if we know what is right, we sometimes choose a different response. We know that the figure of Jesus - the one we believe was anticipated by Old Testament prophets - this Jesus lived a humble life, even though we proclaim him as king. And we recognize that Jesus had a special place in his heart for the child, the powerless, and the downtrodden. Yet, all of us are called to take our places in God's Kingdom, in a place prepared for us by Jesus whom we know as Christ. And so, in this life, we certainly are quite different from each other, even though our call from Jesus is the same.

To us, in our circumstances, and to everyone else, in their own, Jesus says, "All things have been handed over to me by my Father … Come to me … Take my yoke upon you." That is, "Take my identity. Take who I am, and make me your own, as I have made you my own." In all our differences, with all our imperfections, for all of us, Jesus continues to be the way and the truth and life itself. He it is who says, "All things have been handed over to me by my Father" And he invites us all, "Come to me … Take my yoke upon you." Amen.

Copyright © 2002 The Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee