{"id":1046,"date":"2014-12-21T11:00:19","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T16:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=1046"},"modified":"2019-10-29T12:10:53","modified_gmt":"2019-10-29T16:10:53","slug":"born-to-give-us-second-birth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2014\/12\/21\/born-to-give-us-second-birth\/","title":{"rendered":"Born to Give Us Second Birth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to the full service<\/a><\/p>\n

Luke 1:26-38<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to listen to the sermon only<\/a><\/p>\n

Preface <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Let the Christmas moment hold you.<\/p>\n

Look around.\u00a0\u00a0 Notice the candle.\u00a0 Touch the Bible.\u00a0\u00a0 Hear the organ.\u00a0 Sense the evergreen.\u00a0\u00a0 Taste the happiness, the joy, and the conviction that life is good.<\/p>\n

Let the Christmas moment hold you.<\/p>\n

Christmas evokes stories.\u00a0 See what you remember of the Christmas stories.\u00a0\u00a0 In those days there came from Caesar Augustus. House and lineage of David.\u00a0 Shepherds abiding in the fields.\u00a0 An angel of the Lord appeared.\u00a0 Wise Men from the east.\u00a0 Gold, frankincense, myrrh.\u00a0 They went home by another way.\u00a0 The Word was with God, was God, was in the beginning with God, all things were made through him.<\/p>\n

Let the Christmas moment hold you.<\/p>\n

You notice though that none of these stories are in our Gospel of Mark, whom we follow this year.\u00a0 In fact, we have had to retreat from the high ground of Mark for these Sundays, come Christmas, for there was no Christmas in the earliest Gospel, no room in the inn of Mark 1 for birth stories.\u00a0 Or in Paul, earlier still, who says only, \u2018born of\u00a0 a woman, born under the law\u2019 (Gal. 4).\u00a0 The stories came later than the gospel they narrate.\u00a0 Why did they come at all?\u00a0 Because people want to know about these things, and so a gift wrap of history and theology, memory and art came to pass.<\/p>\n

Let the Christmas moment hold you.<\/p>\n

This moment gives birth to stories.\u00a0 Including your favorite.\u00a0\u00a0 Leo Tolstoy\u2019s Where Love Is, God Is.\u00a0 <\/i>\u00a0Raymond Alden\u2019s Why The Chimes Rang.<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0 O Henry\u2019s The Gift of the Magi.<\/i>\u00a0 And some films too:\u00a0 Miracle on 34th<\/sup> Street, White Christmas, Home Alone (<\/i>J<\/i>).\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n

Perhaps the shock of Incarnation requires us to mask our befuddlement, to muffle our astonishment at presence, mystery, divinity here and now, by and through the telling of stories.\u00a0 That God would choose to enter our condition\u2026That God would stoop down to us, to walk about us\u2026That God would immerse Godself in our terror and horror:\u00a0 Antietam, Flanders Field, Nagasaki, Auschwitz, Dresden, Pakistan, Newtown, Boylston Street, World Trade Center.\u00a0 That God would stoop to take on our grief and loss:\u00a0 a friend moved, a relationship severed, a parent buried, a marriage ended, a job removed, a dream deferred.\u00a0 That God would decide to enter our duplicities and disguises:\u00a0 best foot forward when the other one is the real one; saint at home, devil abroad;\u00a0 suppression of our own foibles, but accentuation of others\u2019.\u00a0 That God with man is now residing, yonder shines the infant light?\u00a0 What sort of news, what sort of gospel, is this?<\/p>\n

Let the Christmas moment hold you.<\/p>\n

Exemplum Docet
\n<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

We have never been far from academia\u2014Colgate, Syracuse, Ohio Wesleyan, Cornell, McGill, Lemoyne, U of Rochester, now BU.<\/p>\n

Bob Fisk worked at Syracuse University for four decades.\u00a0\u00a0 He and his wife Connie started coming to our church out of an old family connection, on her side, and because his Boy Scout troop met in the building, on his side.\u00a0\u00a0 She was an architect, community leader, financial developer, and outgoing spirit.\u00a0\u00a0 He was quiet, kind, soulful, and real.\u00a0\u00a0 I could swap stories with him about Eagle Scout courts of honor, about trading neckerchiefs at the National Jamboree, about Philmont Scout Ranch and the Tooth of Time.<\/p>\n

Bob worked in a small office on campus.\u00a0 We will need some archaeological tools to describe his life\u2019s labor.\u00a0 He supported students who needed AV and other equipment.\u00a0 In the chaos of his little nest, he could find for you all manner of treasures:\u00a0 carbon paper, white out, typewriter ribbon, film strip projectors, carousel slide projectors, screens, amplifiers, ditto paper, pens and pencils, and virtually anything else you, dear student, might need, some decades ago, for your class presentation due in two hours, due early tomorrow morning, due in 10 minutes.\u00a0\u00a0 In the joyful freedom of pastoral ministry, as the church grew, I could go and visit Bob, and watch the nearly endless stream of orphaned students stampeding their way to his little room.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t preach at them:\u00a0 your lack of planning is not my personal crisis, proper planning prevents poor performance, be punctual and do everything at the appointed hour.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 He just helped.\u00a0 He just quietly and joyfully helped.\u00a0 One winter a middle aged former minister, working on another master\u2019s degree, came by to speak about Bob:\u00a0 \u201cI watch him.\u00a0 He is salt and light.\u00a0 He would give you the shirt off his back.\u00a0 He is there for students.\u201d<\/p>\n

On weekends he took his scout troop to be enveloped in the natural world, usually deep into the Adirondacks.\u00a0 There he taught a love of the created order, a respect for the history of places, and the rudiments of leadership:\u00a0 \u2018affirm in public, criticize in private\u2019, and other lasting truths.\u00a0 Big eyes covered by big glasses, a big smile, and silent except for laughter\u2014I can see Bob right now.\u00a0 He never bought a thing on credit.\u00a0 Not his house, not his car, not his camping gear.\u00a0 He taught his four children that same frugality.<\/p>\n

Connie predeceased him by some years, but until Bob died last winter I knew and smiled to think that at least one Christian walked the earth.<\/p>\n

A Christmas Story<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

As we trying to get that urban churching rolling, we one year arranged a dish to pass dinner.\u00a0 We sang some carols, maybe 100 of us or so.\u00a0 I had asked three of our people just to tell a Christmas story, as our fairly humble program that snow covered evening.\u00a0 Bob\u2019s was the last.<\/p>\n

As a 20 year old he had gone to England, as part of a bomber crew in 1941.\u00a0\u00a0 He told us, simply, about being away from home for the first time.\u00a0 About having a photo of his girlfriend, Connie.\u00a0 About his mom and dad and two sisters.\u00a0\u00a0 He said that his only thought was to hope that he would see them all once more.\u00a0 Connie.\u00a0 His Mom.\u00a0 His Dad.\u00a0 His sisters.\u00a0 \u201cI would like to get home alive\u201d.\u00a0 This was his prayer, as it is for many today.\u00a0 Christmas came, but the service men were not allowed any decorations.\u00a0 No candles that might be lit and so shine and so guide enemy bombers.\u00a0 Bob noticed that their rations came in cardboard boxes with a coating of paraffin on them.\u00a0 So, when he had time, he would sit in front of Connie\u2019s picture, that December, and using his scout knife he would peel off the paraffin, storing it in a number 10 can.\u00a0 By Christmas Eve Bob had enough for three candles, each with a short wick made of shoestring in the middle.\u00a0\u00a0 That night as the plane after the plane took off, he set up a little table in the rear of fuselage.\u00a0 When they leveled off, he and the crew, except for the pilot, gathered at the little table.\u00a0 He was afraid maybe the paraffin wouldn\u2019t work.\u00a0 But after a while, all three candles were lit, burning now in the dark sky over the cliffs of Dover and over the English channel.\u00a0 After a long silence, one of the men recited a psalm.\u00a0 Then they said the Lord\u2019s prayer.\u00a0 Bob prayed his hope to get home.\u00a0 Then together, without much singing talent and without any practice, they sang two verses of Silent Night.\u00a0 \u201cI would like to get home alive\u201d, Bob said, as the candles dimmed, flickered and went out.<\/p>\n

From that personal Christmas remembrance, I caught a glimpse of the origins of Bob\u2019s humility, kindness, and integrity.<\/p>\n

Redeemer Judge
\n<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

As the years in ministry roll on, the Christmas season becomes heavily populated with such narratives.\u00a0 I find my worship time with you\u2014lovely the music, exquisite the spirit\u2014haunted by ghosts of Christmases past, like that of Bob Fisk.\u00a0 At Lessons and Carols, the opening prayer states, Let us remember before God them who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light, that multitude which no one can number, whose hope was in the word made flesh, and with whom, in this Lord Jesus, we for evermore are one.<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0 This year I thought of Bob\u2019s recent death, and of his Christmas memory, as we prayed so.\u00a0 But the Lessons and Carols service also has a closing prayer, O God, you make us glad by the yearly festival of the birth of your only Son Jesus Christ:\u00a0 Grant that we, who joyfully receive him as our Redeemer, may with sure confidence behold him when he comes to be our Judge.\u00a0 <\/i>This year I thought of Bob\u2019s faithful life, as we prayed so.\u00a0 And I wondered:\u00a0 how will I be judged? And by what measure, and in what way, and for what account, and to what end?\u00a0 Our Redeemer, that is Christmas.\u00a0 Our Judge, that is Easter.\u00a0\u00a0 By grace we are assured Who will judge us, the same Lord Jesus who by faith has redeemed us.\u00a0 But by what measure, standard, purpose, or metric?<\/p>\n

That is, just what is the just point of life?<\/p>\n

We should simply state, come Christmas, what, by grace, we judge to be the point of life.<\/p>\n

What is the point of all this birth, death, activity, trauma, tragedy, success, failure, health, disease in the span of three score and ten years, or if by reason of strength, four score?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Theme<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The purpose of life is to love God and love neighbor.<\/p>\n

The point of life is to learn to love to learn love to know Love, love divine and love human.\u00a0 If that is not the point, then what is?\u00a0 All the rest\u2014achievement, successes, earnings, power, education, family, legacy, all (and these and other things are of course quite important in their own right) are meant to help us to learn to love, and have meaning if they help us to learn to love.\u00a0 Are we lovers?\u00a0 Are you loving?\u00a0 Are we lovers any more?<\/p>\n

To see and live such a purpose in life requires a second birth.\u00a0 Not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man but of God, to become children of God.<\/i>\u00a0 It requires a new birth, which may take 9 decades of life, or 9 months of gestation or 9 minutes of a sermon.\u00a0 One way or another, faith comes by hearing.\u00a0 Christmas forces you to make a choice.\u00a0 What is the point of your life?\u00a0 Is it to love your God and love your neighbor?\u00a0 To such an end the Redeemer is born.\u00a0 By such a measure the Judge is raised.\u00a0 Are you going to wholeness?\u00a0 Do you expect to made whole in love in this life?\u00a0 <\/i>If not, just what are you going on to?\u00a0 9 minutes is plenty of time for that question to be posed in the pulpit and answered in the heart.\u00a0 Are you here on earth to love?\u00a0 If not, what are you are here for?<\/p>\n

Three Magnificat Thoughts
\n<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Our Holy Scripture surrounds the nativity with a memory of God\u2019s care for David, and with a single sentence summary in Romans, and with the announcement of a great portent from the angel\\messenger Gabriel.\u00a0 But mainly the Holy Scripture impregnates the birth of Jesus with the voice of Mary, in the Magnificat, following 1 Samuel 1 and 2, almost to the letter.\u00a0 A soul that magnifies the Lord, and spirit that rejoices in God.\u00a0 Mary sings of the lowly, for the lowly, to the lowly.\u00a0 She has her eye on the next generation.\u00a0 She has her mind on those now left out.\u00a0 She has her heart on the fallible, the tardy, the hasty, and the self-occupied.\u00a0 Her hope is in the ancient God of Holy Writ, the God of Jonah, the God of Hannah, the God of Deborah, the God of Sarah, the God of Moses, the God of the poor.\u00a0 Just like there are many ways to be rich, so there are many ways to be poor.<\/p>\n

The Gospel bears a regard for those of low estate.\u00a0 The Gospel lifts up those of low degree.\u00a0 The Gospel spreads a blanket of mercy.\u00a0 The Gospel feeds the hungry.\u00a0 A regular birth, no less or more miraculous than any other (see S Ringe, LUKE, 32-33).<\/p>\n

To connect with a Greek culture, the Christian scribes found birth stories befitting the miraculous arrival of the divine.\u00a0 But the songs are old and Jewish, the psalms here are eschatological and Hebrew.\u00a0 They portend the arrival of the Messiah, and await the advent of that Day.<\/p>\n

Humble among tardy students, Bob Fisk loved God and neighbor.<\/p>\n

Kind among hasty students, Bob Fisk loved God and neighbor.<\/p>\n

Self-giving among self-occupied students, able to crucify his own projects in order to resurrect theirs, Bob Fisk loved God and neighbor.<\/p>\n

He did aim at humility, kindness and integrity.<\/p>\n

And you? And I?\u00a0 I could sure use your help, your example, your companionship and your good humor along the way.<\/p>\n

Thurman Christmas
\n<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Christmas returns, as it always does, with its assurance that life is good.<\/i><\/p>\n

It is the time of lift to the spirit,<\/i><\/p>\n

When the mind feels its way into the commonplace,<\/i><\/p>\n

And senses the wonder of simple things: an evergreen tree,<\/i><\/p>\n

Familiar carols, merry laughter.<\/i><\/p>\n

It is the time of illumination,<\/i><\/p>\n

When candles burn, and old dreams<\/i><\/p>\n

Find their youth again.<\/i><\/p>\n

It is the time of pause,<\/i><\/p>\n

When forgotten joys come back to mind, and past<\/i><\/p>\n

Dedications renew their claim.<\/i><\/p>\n

It is the time of harvest for the heart,<\/i><\/p>\n

When faith reaches out to mantle all high endeavor,<\/i><\/p>\n

And love whispers its magic word to everything that breathes.<\/i><\/p>\n

Christmas returns, as it always does, with its assurance that life is good.<\/i><\/p>\n

(Howard Thurman, THE MOOD OF CHRISTMAS)<\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to the full service Luke 1:26-38 Click here to listen to the sermon only Preface Let the Christmas moment hold you. Look around.\u00a0\u00a0 Notice the candle.\u00a0 Touch the Bible.\u00a0\u00a0 Hear the organ.\u00a0 Sense the evergreen.\u00a0\u00a0 Taste the happiness, the joy, and the conviction that life is good. Let the Christmas moment […]<\/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\/1046"}],"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=1046"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1049,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1046\/revisions\/1049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}