{"id":1038,"date":"2014-12-07T11:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-12-07T16:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=1038"},"modified":"2019-11-05T11:53:36","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T16:53:36","slug":"the-marsh-spirit-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2014\/12\/07\/the-marsh-spirit-4\/","title":{"rendered":"The Marsh Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

To listen to the full service, click here<\/a><\/p>\n

Isaiah 40:1-11<\/a><\/p>\n

To listen to the sermon only, click here<\/a><\/p>\n

1. The Marsh Spirit is one of patience.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

To get to Bethlehem you first have to go down to the river.<\/i><\/p>\n

Patience\u2014purposeful longsuffering.\u00a0 In the dark, the dank, the misty quiet, out in the wilderness.\u00a0 We know: loss, injustice, violence, misunderstanding, miscommunication, misapprehension\u2014mistake.<\/i><\/p>\n

Sin, death, meaninglessness.\u00a0 Pride, sloth, falsehood.\u00a0 Superstition, idolatry, hypocrisy.<\/i><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 \u201cRiver Cruise:\u00a0 Change your Views\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

See the shoreline.\u00a0 Boston.\u00a0 New York. Islands.\u00a0 San Diego.\u00a0 The Charles River.<\/i><\/p>\n

All of the landscape is the same.\u00a0 Kenmore.\u00a0 CAS. West Campus.\u00a0 Commonwealth.\u00a0 Bay State.\u00a0 Esplanade (down to the river on grass).\u00a0 Our existence is the same.\u00a0 Situation.\u00a0 Location. Station. Temptation.\u00a0 It is all the same.\u00a0 Except.<\/i><\/p>\n

Except our angle of vision, our point of view, our perspective\u2014these are utterly different.\u00a0 On the river.\u00a0 We see, perhaps, as others outside see us?\u00a0 As the past and future see us?\u00a0 As heaven sees us?<\/i><\/p>\n

Every sermon is such a change in perspective, as is every service of worship.\u00a0 To re-clothe in the rightful mind.<\/i><\/p>\n

Come Sunday, every Sunday, here at Marsh Chapel:<\/i><\/p>\n

The Chapel\u2019s gothic nave, built to lift the spirit, welcomes you<\/i><\/p>\n

The Chapel\u2019s sixty year history, at the heart of Boston University, welcomes you
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

The Chapel\u2019s regard for persons and personality, both in its Connick stained glass windows and in its current ministry, welcomes you<\/i><\/p>\n

The Chapel\u2019s familiar love of music, weekday and Sunday, welcomes you<\/i><\/p>\n

The Chapel\u2019s congregation of caring, loving souls, in this sanctuary, welcomes you in spirit.<\/i><\/p>\n

Welcome today as we enhance our endowment.<\/i><\/p>\n

Endowment.<\/i><\/p>\n

It is an endowment vocal not visible, audible not audited, psychic not physical, moral not material.<\/i><\/p>\n

Listen for its echoes\u2026listen\u2026listen to the voices of Boston University and of Marsh Chapel\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

All the good you can\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

The two so long disjoined\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Heart of the city, service of the city\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Learning, virtue, piety\u2026
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

Good friends all\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Hope of the world\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Are ye able, still the Master, whispers down eternity\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Common ground\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

Content of character\u2026<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

3. Vivian Benton Skeele<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

In a personal mode, let me offer a remembrance of patience.<\/i><\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Mississippi and Hudson River Views<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

In a pastoral mode, let me offer three overtures in reflection upon the events in Ferguson, MO and New York city this past few weeks.\u00a0\u00a0 These brief thoughts follow on sermons delivered this fall at Marsh Chapel, which already have addressed the tragedy in Ferguson (8\/24, 9\/7, 10\/12, 10\/26, 11\/23, 11\/30), and on the Marsh Chapel forum held here on 9\/3, and on several other group and individual conversations.<\/i><\/p>\n

First, it may help us most, and this counter-intuitively, to place ourselves sub specie aeternitatis, under the gaze of God, and approach this particular but revelatory event from a spiritual, and theological perspective.\u00a0 In prayer.\u00a0 In thought.\u00a0 In worship. In gathering.\u00a0 In conversation.\u00a0 To remember that we and all whom we encounter are children of the living God.\u00a0 We are not economic engines, solely, nor political operatives, mainly, nor cultural agents, centrally, nor partisan players, primarily.\u00a0 We are angels in waiting.\u00a0 And those whom we greet and consider are so, too.\u00a0 As children of the living God, grounded in grace, sustained by spirit, we may have food for the work and bread for the journey.\u00a0 General calls for ongoing conversation are well meaning but misdirected without daily rations.\u00a0 Theologically then we will again brood over sin, death, meaninglessness.\u00a0 Theologically then we will confess pride, sloth, falsehood, hypocrisy, sloth and idolatry.\u00a0 Theologically then we will return to admission of evil, both banal and horrific, to admission of the enduring hardness and hardship of injustice, to admission of our complicity, hate to say so as we do, in the gone wrong part of life.\u00a0 Isaiah Berlin would agree.\u00a0 If nothing else, a spiritual, theological perspective will perhaps improve our capacity to listen.<\/i><\/p>\n

Second, it surely will help us, and this more obviously, to read some history, some good, probing history.\u00a0 Ferguson comes 200 years or so after much of our American economy, politics, culture and struggle were forged in cotton.\u00a0 You can read Edward Baptist\u2019s The Half Has Never Been Told:\u00a0 Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism.\u00a0 But the calculation is closer to home.\u00a0 30% or 40% of slavery is still with us today\u2014in economy, culture, politics, and struggle.\u00a0 From 1810 to 1860 a\u00a0 quarter-million slaves from the Old South were re-sold into the New South (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, and, yes, Missouri).\u00a0 Mothers had their babies torn from their arms on the now beautiful Baltimore harbor.\u00a0 Husbands were whipped away from wives, and marched to Birmingham.\u00a0 Children were held up like pumpkins and sold to the highest bidder, then sailed down to New Orleans.\u00a0 They were herded into what had been Indian land (the Native Americans having been either slaughtered or \u2018re-located\u2019 to Oklahoma).\u00a0 With cost free land and cost free labor trees were cut, fields were plowed, cotton was planted and harvested, mills in the north were set to work, all or almost all funded by a tsunami of credit, legitimated by the US government and various banks.\u00a0\u00a0 You know, you, even you, I, even I, can make money if you pay nothing for land and pay nothing for labor.\u00a0 But the bills do accrue into the future, not just for the enslaved, but also for the enslaver, and for all those, both north and south of the Mason Dixon line, who benefitted from slavery and the torture it took to keep people chained. If nothing else, a historical perspective will perhaps improve our capacity to lament.<\/i><\/p>\n

Third, we need to act.\u00a0 I do not mean re-act.\u00a0 To act we need a moral compass.\u00a0 To find a moral compass you need a community of faithful women and some men, acquainted with wonder, vulnerability, and self-mockery, with mystery, generosity, and, yes, morality.\u00a0 You need a church.\u00a0 I am glad to host a vigil, as we did Tuesday night. But my interest in your presence will be quickened, made real, if I see you in church, praying, tithing, teaching children, visiting the sick, studying the Gospels, singing hymns, living a life in which you are really alive before you die.\u00a0 Go somewhere once a week to gather with others, admit your mortality and fragility, and grow up, Sunday by Sunday.\u00a0 The kinds of labor that it will take in this country for us to live down chattel slavery will require a moral compass rooted in ancient faithfulness.\u00a0 Over time, then, you with others, over much time, will gain the footing, find the leverage, provide the strength to make real change in real time.<\/i><\/p>\n

How should you respond to Ferguson?\u00a0 Spiritually, historically, and morally.<\/i><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Marsh Geist<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

In a preaching mode let me invite you to breathe in the Marsh Spirit of patience.<\/i><\/p>\n

Particular.\u00a0 Different.\u00a0 University.\u00a0 Protestant.\u00a0 Interdenominational.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

Worship:\u00a0 1\/14 of your week (1\/2 of one of seven days).<\/i><\/p>\n

Discipleship.\u00a0 Hill or Wiesel?<\/i><\/p>\n

Fellowship.\u00a0 Yes, Sunday (Open House, regular meal, other).\u00a0 But otherwise?\u00a0 Basketball, Brittain War Requiem, Interfaith Evening, Hockey, GSU.<\/i><\/p>\n

Stewardship.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

If the music of Marsh Chapel has touched you<\/i><\/p>\n

If the preaching of Marsh Chapel has helped you<\/i><\/p>\n

If the liturgy of Marsh Chapel has encouraged you<\/i><\/p>\n

Please consider making a donation to support our work<\/i><\/p>\n

This could be a first time gift of $40, for cushions or ministry<\/i><\/p>\n

Or a lifetime gift of $4M, to finish endowing our deanship<\/i><\/p>\n

Or anything in between<\/i><\/p>\n

This Thanksgiving, please consider a thoughtful gift<\/i><\/p>\n

In support of music that touches, preaching that helps, and liturgy that encourages<\/i><\/p>\n

So that what has been meaningful to you may continue to be meaningful to others<\/i><\/p>\n

Give on line or mail a check to 735 Commonwealth.
\n<\/i><\/p>\n

As we prepare to receive the morning offering, we especially encourage our radio and internet listeners to take this moment to go to the Marsh Chapel website (bu.edu\\chapel), click on the giving link, and make a generous contribution to support our ministry.\u00a0 You may also simply send a check to Marsh Chapel, 735 Commonwealth Avenue.\u00a0 Your tithes and generous gifts will strengthen our Marsh Chapel ministry, a heart in the heart of the city and a service in the service of the city.<\/i><\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 The Beginning of the Gospel<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Ye that do truly and earnestly repent of your sin<\/i><\/p>\n

Ring the bell, sing the song, tell the tale<\/i><\/p>\n

The beginning of the good newsa<\/sup> of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.b<\/sup><\/i><\/p>\n

2\u00a0<\/sup><\/i>As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,c<\/sup><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cSee, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,d<\/sup><\/i><\/p>\n

who will prepare your way;<\/i><\/p>\n

3<\/sup><\/i> the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:<\/i><\/p>\n

\u2018Prepare the way of the Lord,<\/i><\/p>\n

make his paths straight,\u2019 \u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

4\u00a0<\/sup><\/i>John the baptizer appearede<\/sup> in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5\u00a0<\/sup>And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6\u00a0<\/sup>Now John was clothed with camel\u2019s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7\u00a0<\/sup>He proclaimed, \u201cThe one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8\u00a0<\/sup>I have baptized you withf<\/sup> water; but he will baptize you withg<\/sup> the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n

-The Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill, Dean of Marsh Chapel<\/a><\/p>\n

For more information about Marsh Chapel at Boston University, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For information about donating to the Chapel, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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To listen to the full service, click here Isaiah 40:1-11 To listen to the sermon only, click here 1. The Marsh Spirit is one of patience. To get to Bethlehem you first have to go down to the river. Patience\u2014purposeful longsuffering.\u00a0 In the dark, the dank, the misty quiet, out in the wilderness.\u00a0 We know: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1038"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1043,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038\/revisions\/1043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}