Campus happenings
A place to find grace
The St. George’s Chapel can
provide sanctuary—and strength
Whatever else may be said about it, the Christian religion is about reality.
L
UCEY
—Ephesians 6:10-20
HITNEY
W
Following is a sermon delivered
YN
Consider: The classrooms on the campus of Virginia
on April 22, 2008, the evening
THR Tech. Or, look within, to the struggles within your
K
A
before the 80th anniversary of the
B
Y
own heart, the confusions in your head. There is a
O
consecration of the St. George’s
PHOT
Chapel.
kind of warfare inside of us such that even that pious
old saint who was the apostle Paul could cry out,
The Rt. Rev. Dr.
Hays H. Rockwell,
N
ot everyone believes that, of course. Karl “The good that I want to do, I fail to do; but what I do
a former chaplain
Marx said about Christianity and all reli- is the wrong which is against my will.” (Romans 7)
and current trustee,
gion that it was like dope, a narcotic that From all of that warfare this serene chapel is a
presided over kept people from reality. And the bible: If you read refuge. Maybe you have experienced it in that way,
services marking
the Bible as though it were literally true, it comes off coming in out of some competition which left you feel-
the 80
th
anniversary
as fantastic, as far from reality as can be imagined: ing undone, sitting under these arches, these windows,
of the chapel.
Seas parting at the wave of a hand, the sun standing listening to that majestic organ, to what is surely the
still in the sky, miraculous healing of deadly diseases, best school choir and orchestra in the country. Maybe
risings from the dead. Taken literally the Bible seems you have experienced all of that and been restored, res-
profoundly unreal. cued from whatever battle was yours on a given day.
But if you read the Bible for its underlying All of that is well and good and surely it was
meanings, looking through it instead of at it, you some part of the intention of Mr. John Nicholas
will find something deeply and profoundly real. Brown ’18, the donor of who made this chapel pos-
Consider one of the pieces we heard read tonight. sible, to supply students and their teachers with a
It comes from an ancient and anonymous hand and it place in which to be restored.
purports to be a letter to early Christ followers in the But this chapel is not a hiding place, nor a kind of
port city of Ephesus. It was read on the day when this spiritual spa. Being restored here includes being armed
chapel was consecrated and dedicated, 80 years ago. here, armed to take on the forces alive in this world
The principle figure in the passage is a soldier. He is that go by the name of evil. Those are the forces that
clad as an infantryman in the Roman army. He wears diminish life and promote death, the forces of deceit
full body armor, carries an impressive shield and a and cruelty and every kind of greed. This chapel is a
heavy sword, wears a helmet. He is ready for battle. place to find the grace and the will to do battle against
Except that there wasn’t any warfare in Ephesus at those forces, to stand up in your life for kindness and
that time, at least not in any literal sense. So how is forgiveness and selflessness, to stand up for the truth
this reality, this figure of a man ready for battle? that every single human being matters, and infinitely,
It’s reality because the writer of this letter under- because we are, each of us and all, children of God.
stands that the world—the world of the second cen-
tury and the world of the 21st century—is a kind of The Right Reverend Dr. Hays H. Rockwell, a
battleground. Consider: Iraq, Darfur, Kenya, Nepal, retired bishop of Missouri, was the chaplain at
the Gaza Strip. Consider: South Central Los Angeles, St. George’s from 1961-1969. He can be reached at
the South Bronx, South Boston, South Providence.
retbish@aol.com.
68 ST. GEORGE’S 2008 SUMMER BULLETIN
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