View the Council Luncheon speech delivered by the Rt. Rev. John Bauerschmidt, bishop of the Diocese of Tennessee
A Report on the Council Luncheon
By Marjorie George
Council delegates and clergy welcomed the Rt. Rev. John Bauerschmidt, bishop of the Diocese of Tennessee, as the speaker at the Council luncheon on Friday, Feb. 17. Bauerschmidt carried the Council theme in his talk, “Hoping Against Hope.”
As an example of hope, Bauerschmidt reminded the luncheon guests of the story of Abraham, whom God said would be the father of many nations although he had no heirs. After the birth of Isaac, when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Abraham acted in hope, said Bauerschmidt. “Hope,” said the bishop, “is when one cannot visualize the route from the way things are to the way they might be.”
That is what hope is about, said Bauerschmidt, “when you can’t see the way forward.” He spoke of hope being a belief that we will arrive, an expectation that we will arrive, though we do not know the road that will take us there. “It is being unable to see what the future will look like but believing in a future goodness anyway.”
In the church, said Bauerschmidt, we see that the old is passing away, yet we have hope that God will make a new way. We need to hope, not knowing the path but sure of the destination. Though we are tempted to accept, cope, and manage with the way things are, hope breaks that open and we see things we did not think possible.
