The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



The Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A, 2008, April 27, 2008, St. Philip’s Church Nashville

“Because I live, you also will live” (Jo. 14:19).

Everybody knows someone who seems totally wrapped up in his or her job. So the day comes for mandatory retirement, or perhaps there are lay offs and the person loses the job, and then there are some hard issues to face, even beyond the financial ones. People report a sense of purposelessness in these situations even when there’s more to life for them than the job, even when they’re looking forward to retirement, so we can imagine how very difficult it is for folks whose identity is strongly tied to what they do. I remember commentators first remarking on this in the economic downturn of the 1970s: difficult for members of the “older generation”, who had often been doing the same thing their entire lives; and still I’m sure an issue, though perhaps youth is making progress in this area. We live in hope.

There’s a difference between identity and what we do; a difference between “being” and “doing”. Both can change over time, though who we can never be reduced to the sum of the tasks we perform. What we do has an effect on who we are, and who we are certainly has an effect on what we do. But no one wants to get caught with a life defined only by the work we do. “Get a life!”, people say, when the truth is there is always someone alive inside; there’s always a real person under all that other stuff! We don’t want to be like those who, as Jesus says elsewhere, gain the whole world but lose our own souls.

Jesus’ words in our Gospel today are all about the kind of life that we are supposed to “get”. If there is a “real person” hidden under the layers of the roles we play, under the layers created by the things we do, then the identity of that person is linked to Jesus’ own identity. We live because of him, as Jesus says in our Gospel today; he is the vine, we are the branches; he is the head, we are the body. We are “in Christ”, as St Paul says over and over again in the New Testament. The life we live we live because of the Son of God. That life is the new life of Resurrection, the life we “get” because Jesus has risen from the dead. We are the sons and daughters of God because Jesus Christ is our brother.

If we are going to sort out our “being” from our “doing”, then we are going to have to reflect a bit on who we are. So here’s the “take away” from our sermon today: spend ten minutes being quiet in the presence of God, and see what God has to say for a change. Go on a parish retreat and accept the invitation to reflect on what God is doing in your life. If all else fails, spend a hour somewhere where “they” can’t reach you, doing nothing, with no pre-set agenda. These are all ways of “being”. Tell your family the bishop told you that you need to quit “doing” and start “being”!

The “doing” is significant, with power to shape us. But our “doing” requires our “being”; our identity comes through baptism, and not through anything that we “do”. I’m conscious that I’m with an active community of faith today, full of many good works. Jesus promises us in the Gospel of John that we will do greater works than his. But it is our identity in Christ that makes it possible for us to do the works that we are called to do. Only if we first pay attention to who we are, to our identity, will we able to do the works, and bring forth the fruits.

This brings us to our baptismal candidates and confirmands, who have a special role to play in our liturgy today. They are reminding us of our identity in Christ, and our need to belong. There are many works ahead of them, much “doing” to the glory of God, but the essential truth they bring before us is that God gave us a life in baptism, and that identity is rooted in the very being of Christ. They are owning that identity today and reminding us of the identity we share in Christ. The life we “get” is God’s gift to us.

The Rt. Rev’d John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee

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