Sunday
December 8
The Bach Experience
By Marsh Chapel
Click here to hear the full service.
Click here to hear the sermon only.
Dean Hill:
Before Jesus there was John, before the Christ there was the Baptist. Jesus was a disciple of John. John prepared the way for Jesus. As we listen with word and music, perhaps we can ponder the power of precursors.
Before Christmas there is Advent, before the incarnation is the anticipation. The feast of Christmas comes after the penitence of Advent. The joy of birth comes after the anxiety of expectation. As we listen with word and music, today let us ponder the power of precursors.
Before tradition there is event, before understanding there is experience. The rolling voice of the Baptist is the event through which we each year pass in order to come to our understanding of Christmas. The joy of the feast comes after the murky dark water of the Jordan river, and the towering ferocity of John, in camel’s hair eating locusts.
Before Matthew there was Mark, before teaching there was preaching, before catechesis there was kerygma. Matthew is an interpreter of Mark. Mark is the model for Matthew. As we listen with word and music, perhaps we can ponder the power of precursors.
We might want to pause a moment to greet Matthew in a personal way. He will be our gospel guide for 51 weeks, walking alongside us as we climb the mountain of existence. He is not eating locusts and honey nor wearing camel’s hair and sandals, though his attire is both strange and ancient.
His is a difficult introduction to make. “The difficulty is rather the character of the Gospel itself—a Greek Gospel, using Greek sources, written for a predominantly Gentile church, at a time when the tradition had become mixed with legend, and when the ethical teaching of Jesus was being reinterpreted to apply to new situations and codified into a new law…It cannot have been written by an eye witness. It is a compendium of church tradition, artistically edited, not the personal observations of a participant” (IBD 242)
The outline of Jesus’ life in Matthew is like that in Mark. Galilee. Jerusalem. Country. City. Small. Large. (A good pattern for the trajectory of much ministry).
Matthew has added a collection of teachings to Mark (but just added it to situations already known to Mark). He also adds legendary material (infancy narratives).
As in Mark, Jesus is a teacher and healer. Geography and scenery are the same. Are there two sibling gospels and three synoptics?
He combines Mark’s chronological and geographical outline, with lots of new material, so that we have a real catechism, sometimes seen as five different sections. Matthew likes the number 7. He exhibits a lot of ecclesiastical piety.
Matthew comes from Jewish rabbinic circles. And a Christianizing of the portrait of the disciples. ‘The reference to the fulfillment of prophecy which pervades the whole book and derives from the author’s theological as well as his apologetic anti-Jewish interest’. (R Bultmann, HSG, 381) He raises the stature of Jesus into the divine.
“His prose differs from that of Plato to approximately the extent that the English in the news columns of a well written daily differs from that of Shakespeare and the King James Version” (IBD, op cit, 239).
Our passage prepares us for worship, for the singing of God’s praises, for glory to God in the highest. Is this not, Dr Jarrett, our reason for hearing this Bach this Sunday?
(Dr. Scott Jarrett speaks)
Dean Hill:
We ponder the power of precursors, in days during which around the globe we ponder the influence of Nelson Mandela.
You will at some point sense a nudge to join in this parade. Some will do so by listening on the internet. Some will do so by tuning in via radio. Some will do so by coming to 735 Commonwealth Avenue. Next Sunday with Lessons and Carols would be a good one to do so, and to bring a friend.
It is a privilege and weekly joy to see this community of faith gathering at 11am on Sunday. A student, bagel in hand, trundles up the stairs. A couple who have driven from an hour to the west find an aisle seat, then following worship have lunch and do one city thing each week. A husband and wife, catholic and protestant, join us for two services, this one at 11am—then a break—and catholic mass at 12:30. A young couple with tiny tots finds the energy and discipline to bring the family for worship and study. An older man, alone some of the week, becomes a part of an empowering community.
The world does not lack for wonders but only for a sense of wonder. Sunday at 11am, one way or another, is the way back to wonder. To hear something that is beautiful. To see someone who is good. To hear some word which is true. These are the seeds of wonder.
Then, from here on Sunday, you may find your way elsewhere during the week. To audit a class on Lincoln on Monday. To hear a panel of 12 interfaith students on Tuesday. To watch the basketball team on Wednesday. To hear a lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls on Thursday. To attend the Shakespeare Project on Friday. To take in a concert on Saturday. Friends, your life of faith in worship can be centered at Marsh Chapel at Boston University, and for your fellowship, education and service you may swim through the whole University! I do not know—anywhere—a better way to unite the pair so long disjoined, knowledge and vital piety. I do not know a better way to nurture the soul and so to grow great hearted future leaders. And we do need such…
– The Reverend Doctor, Robert Allan Hill, Dean. & Dr. Scott Jarrett, Director of Music
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