Sunday
November 17
The Bach Experience
By Marsh Chapel
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Bach November 17 2024
Mark 13: 1-8
November 17, 2024
Marsh Chapel
Drs Jarrett and Hill
RAH:
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
Forgive our foolish ways
Reclothe us in our rightful mind
In purer lives thy service find
In deeper reverence, praise
Beloved, we come again to Bach Sunday, wherein twice or so a term we offer a word and music duet, sermon and cantata together. Research and experiment are central to the work and to the strategic plan of the University, and find their echo and reflection here at Marsh Chapel, particularly in this unique, novel order in worship.
How often making music we have found
A new dimension in the world of sound
As worship moves us to a more profound
Alleluia!
Today our gospel of Mark continues with a sober directness to identify our need for Christ. In his time, it is related in part to the Roman destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, ‘predicted’ here in Mark 13. But every age, including our own, carries challenges, both expected and unexpected. We then hear again the good news.
God brings good out of evil. God brings good from evil, life from death, hope from cynicism, new from old. In faith, we shall need to rely upon the goodness of God, as we face an uncertain future. In a personal, pastoral and proclamatory word, we bring you this morning the Gospel of Mark, chapter 13. In a word, a word of Faith. Faith makes you well. It is the reliance upon that faith, the trust in that faith, the faithful memory that in a miraculous brilliance the Lord Christ gave faith, the faith that over long time God brings good even out of evil, it is faith that will see us through. In that spirit today we speak and hear good news.
You have lived your faith. So, now: plan for the worst, hope for the best, then do your most, and leave all the rest. Into the future, we are learning the hard way that we have work to do, if ever we are to return home to truth, goodness and beauty…learning, virtue and piety…knowing, doing and being…curiosity, challenge and care.
Dr. Jarrett, as we listen with care to our morning’s cantata, to what shall we attend, and what shall we especially apprehend today?
SAJ:
God brings good out of evil. Hope from cynicism. A light in our darkness. Peace in our time.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee. (Isaiah 26:3, adapted)
The darkness is no darkness with thee, but the night is as clear as the day.
The darkness and the light to thee are both alike. (Psalm 139:11–12, adapted)
God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (John 1:5, adapted)
O let my soul live, and it shall praise thee. (Psalm 119:175)
Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, That ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. (1 Peter 2:9)
O Jesus, keep us in thy sight, and guard us through the coming night.
O prince of peace, Grant us thy Peace.
This morning’s cantata teaches us and reminds us that it is our faith in Christ Jesus, the prince of peace, that will see us safely through the night, the coming storm, whatever wars against us. Indeed, when we go before the throne of grace, Christ is our intercessor, our soul’s preserver, offered to pay the debt of our unspeakable sin.
Based on Jakob Ebert’s 1601 hymn, “Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ”, Cantata 116 reveals the path of forgiveness and deliverance from all dangers, particularly the threat of war. Bach quotes Ebert’s hymn in text and tune directly in the opening and closing movements, and paraphrases the inner verses in the aria, recitatives, and trio within.
The alto aria is called “Ach, unaussprechlich ist die Not” or “Ah, unspeakable or unutterable is our Need or Woe”. Here Bach finds compositional inspiration in the word “unaussprechlich”. After the oboe player’s introduction, the alto soloist attempts to take up the tune, finding herself suddenly mute for “unspeakable” – quite literally, unspeakable. The heaviness of despair renders us mute before the throne of grace, unable to advocate for ourselves.
But the cellist reminds us gently, tenderly, that Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and it is Christ Jesus who will save us, our advocate.
Our faith once again fortified by Christ’s immeasurable Love, with confidence we acknowledge our sin, and our redemption, able to be the light of Christ in the world. Our hands, God’s work.
O Jesus, keep us in thy sight, and guard us through the coming night.
O prince of peace, Grant us thy Peace
RAH:
To conclude and to remember: The Bible is largely about failure and defeat.
Its stories and letters and teachings record ways people have lived with defeat. This makes the Bible difficult for us to understand. For we as a people have run and swatted and laughed our way past learning the language of failure. We don’t want to admit to it. We won’t accept it. We do not countenance it. So, sermons, this one and others, which are fumbling footnotes to the Scripture, hit us from the side if they hit us at all.
But by grace, it is the resurrected Christ who addresses us in the preaching of the church, in the announcement of the gospel. The passages of the Gospel allow us safe passage to the Gospel–because Jesus is present to us. For once we cite Bultmann: “In all the sayings of Jesus which were reported, he speaks who is recognized in faith and worship as Messiah and Lord, and who, as the proclamation makes known his works and hands on his sayings, is actually present for the church.” (Bultmann, HST, 348).
To call on Jesus is to remember…failure…to remember…difficulty…to remember warnings, to prepare ourselves for times of challenge as well as times of rest.
Let every instrument be tuned for praise
Let all rejoice who have a voice to raise
And may God give us faith always
Alleluia
Sursum Corda! Hear the good news of faith and her many handmaidens. God brings good out of evil. It is the reliance upon that faith, the trust in that faith, the faith that in a miraculous brilliance the Lord Christ gives, that faith in the goodness of God, the faith that over long time God brings good even out of evil, it is faith that will see us through. O Lord we pray:
Breathe through the heats of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm.
