{"id":1183,"date":"2015-08-23T11:00:39","date_gmt":"2015-08-23T15:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=1183"},"modified":"2019-10-08T12:37:18","modified_gmt":"2019-10-08T16:37:18","slug":"chariot-of-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2015\/08\/23\/chariot-of-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Chariot of Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

John 6:56-69<\/a><\/p>\n

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

For a year we have embraced spirit. \u00a0Listen again to the prayer response in a moment. \u00a0Spirit. Presence. Awareness. \u00a0Conscious embrace. \u00a0St. Mark revealed Spirit. \u00a0Jonathan Edwards preached Spirit. \u00a0The Beloved Community awaits Spirit. \u00a0The Gospel of John adores, prioritizes, lifts the Spirit. \u00a0Our word 2015 has been Spirit. <\/span><\/p>\n

Today, to conclude, we bring a familiar story and a spiritual question. \u00a0The story is that of Elijah. \u00a0The question is that of your legacy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The story.<\/span><\/p>\n

In (or near) the year 850 bc, Elijah, the prophet, stood against the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. \u00a0He alone stood against 450. \u00a0The enemy prophets called on Baal to bring fire. \u00a0Baal did not. \u00a0But Yahweh did, at Elijah\u2019s imprecation. \u00a0<\/span>Cry aloud, for he is a god. \u00a0Either he is musing. \u00a0Or he is inside. \u00a0Or he is on a journey. \u00a0Or he is asleep\u2014he needs to wake up. \u00a0Maybe he does not hear well. \u00a0Try again.<\/span><\/i> \u00a0Elijah also announced the end of a great drought. \u00a0On the way to the river Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the year 820, Elijah went up a high mountain, not unlike that on which Jesus stood some weeks ago in Mark, and listened for God. \u00a0He heard God. \u00a0Not in fire, or smoke, or whirlwind, or techno wizardry, or techno frenzy. \u00a0For God was not there. \u00a0But in a still small voice. \u00a0In silence, the silence before hearing and speech. In conscience. \u00a0In mind and will. <\/span>The Lord passed by, and a great strong wind rent the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire\u2014a still, small voice. \u00a0<\/span><\/i>\u00a0On the way to the river Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the year 800bc Elijah, the troubler of Israel, saw King Ahab, through his wife, Jezebel, take the garden of a poor man, Naboth, and kill Naboth in the process. \u00a0<\/span>I will give you a better vineyard for it. <\/span><\/i>\u00a0\u00a0But Naboth did not want another, but his own. \u00a0<\/span>And Ahab sulked, vexed and sullen, and lay down on his bed, and turned his face, and would eat no food. \u00a0<\/span><\/i>But Naboth held onto his vineyard. \u00a0<\/span>But Jezebel said, \u2018Do you govern Israel? \u00a0Arise and eat bread and let your heart be cheerful. \u00a0I will get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite. \u00a0<\/span><\/i>But Naboth resisted her, too. \u00a0<\/span>So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death. \u00a0And Jezebel said, go and take Naboth\u2019s vineyard, for he is dead. \u00a0<\/span><\/i>But Elijah confronted the king. \u00a0<\/span>Have you killed and taken? \u00a0Then I tell you\u2014In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood. \u00a0<\/span><\/i>Elijah, the troubler of Israel. \u00a0It is one thing to desire another\u2019s property, and another to take it by force. \u00a0Elijah held a mirror before the country that wanted such a king, and the influence of such a queen. \u00a0On the way to the river Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the year 30ad, we saw this winter, Elijah\u2019s spirit awakened Peter, who went up a high mountain, with Jesus, to see Him changed. \u00a0Elijah brought reason and morality to the religion Moses founded. \u00a0Lent is meant to remind us of the priority of worship. \u00a0Find a way to get to worship. \u00a0Worship brings the insight of personal need, lifted in prayer. \u00a0Worship brings the insight of another\u2019s hurt, lifted in communal, singing, four part harmonic hymns. \u00a0Worship brings the insight of clarity, a word fitly spoken, lifted in the sermon. \u00a0Worship brings the insight of choosing, the choice of faith, not thrill but will, lifted in the invitations, to devotion, discipline, dedication. \u00a0Worship brings the insight of loyalty, of heart, lifted every Sunday in the offering of gifts and tithes. \u00a0Elijah brought hope, prophetic hope, into the tradition and minds of his people. \u00a0On the way from the river Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the year 90ad, our Gospel today acclaimed Spirit. \u00a0\u00a0Notice the theme of ascent in the Fourth Gospel, through and through. \u00a0You notice here that John turns the tables on flesh. \u00a0All chapter 6, you are expected to recall, accounted for feeding, the feeding of 5,000. \u00a02 fish and five loaves and all satisfied. \u00a0Or was it five fish and two loaves and all satisfied? \u00a0Then ancient discourse upon the food that perishes, and the One who is the bread of life. \u00a0Then, too, more traditional language, in chapter 6, we are expected to remember, about \u2018the last day\u2019, about bread of life, about flesh given for the life of the world, about \u2018munching\u2019 the flesh of the Son of Man, and then our passage, starting, \u2018my flesh is food indeed\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0And then? \u00a0All, come John 6: 56-69, all the above is set aside, abrogated, trumped. \u00a0By\u2026Spirit. \u00a0No not flesh, no not bread, no not eating, no not muching, no not tradition, no not table, no not eucharist. \u00a0\u2018See the Son of Man ascending\u2019, LIKE ELIJAH LIKE ELIJAH LIKE ELIJAH. \u00a0\u2018It is the Spirit that giveth life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.\u2019 \u00a0There is no last supper in John. \u00a0Yes, 1 Cor. 11. \u00a0Yes, the pastoral epistles, TTT. \u00a0Yes, the Synoptics MML. \u00a0But not John. \u00a0He prefers the actual service of foot-washing, and eliminates the Eucharistic meal, supplanting it with\u2014Spirit. \u00a0There is no last supper in John because for John the supper does not last (repeat). \u00a0Your words will long outlive your deeds. What you say and the way you say it have much longer life than what you do. \u00a0Odd as that may seem. \u00a0What lasts? \u00a0Spirit. \u00a0What ascends? \u00a0Spirit. \u00a0Elijah, on the way from the river Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the year 1735, we saw this winter, the spirit of Elijah rested on the New England community of North Hampton, and the ministry of a Puritan divine, Jonathan Edwards, our Calvinist interlocutor this Lent. \u00a0Edwards saw the divine light shining in the human soul. \u00a0Edwards saw that the material universe exists in God\u2019s mind. \u00a0Edwards saw faith in the willingness of saints to be damned for the glory of God. \u00a0Edwards saw religious affections, inclinations, dispositions, all gifts of God in faith, the love of God that kindles joy, hope, trust, peace and \u2018a sense of the heart\u2019. \u00a0Edwards saw the centrality of the experience of faith: a person may know that honey is sweet, but no one can know what sweet means until they taste the honey. \u00a0Edwards saw that \u2018God delights properly in the devotions, graces, and good works of his saints.\u2019 \u00a0Jonathan Elijah Edwards, our New England precursor, walked along the Connecticut River, on the way from the river Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the year 1865, in our nation\u2019s capital, the spirit of Elijah touched the tongue of Abraham Lincoln. \u00a0Months and days before Lincoln died, Lincoln cried out, <\/span>with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work that we are in. <\/span><\/i>\u00a0Real cost, real costs, occasion our very freedom to gather in community for worship this morning. \u00a0\u00a0The same spirit, of 850bc, that presence, that quickened consciousness, that affection, that devotion, that inclination were present with Lincoln, and are with us today. \u00a0You have the brute fact of the brute creation. \u00a0You have too the spirit.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the year 1951, the spirit of Elijah rested in the mind of Ray Bradbury. \u00a0He wrote a book, <\/span>Fahrenheit 451<\/span><\/i> (this is the temperature at which paper burns), an eschatological prophecy about the end of books, the end of reading, the end of memory. \u00a0The novel ends along a river. \u00a0Montag finds himself with hoboes around a campfire, along the river bank. \u00a0He is surprised to find that fire, the mode of book destruction he has resisted, can \u2018give as well as take, warm and well as burn\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0He waits in the shadows. \u00a0The men around the fire summon him out of the dark, and take him in. \u00a0He learns that each one of them has committed some book to memory. \u00a0One is living Plato\u2019s Republic. \u00a0One is the work of Thomas Hardy. \u00a0One has memorized several of the plays of Shakespeare. \u00a0Byron, Machiavelli, Tom Paine, and the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John\u2014all these are carried in the minds of hoboes, walking libraries, the remaining memory of the art of the race. \u00a0\u201cWhat have you to offer?\u201d they ask Montag. \u00a0\u201cParts of Ecclesiastes and of the Revelation to St. John\u201d, he replies. \u00a0In 2015, an age that has eschewed reading for scanning, books for blogs, google for memory, and earning for knowing, Elijah Bradbury\u2019s word resonates. \u00a0On the way out from the river Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the year 1965, we recalled this year, \u00a0in early March, 50 years later, the spirit of Elijah walked across the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma, Alabama. \u00a0John Lewis was there, \u2018<\/span>not angry, but full of righteous indignation\u2019<\/span><\/i>, as he said. \u00a0Through the history, offices and gifts of Boston University we sat next to him over dinner three years ago. \u00a0He wanted to be a preacher, growing up: <\/span>I would come home and preach to the chickens<\/span><\/i>, he remembered. If nothing else, perhaps 50 years hence we could remember that real change is real hard but comes in real time when people really work at it, on the ground, in personal conversation, then in small groups, with gifted leadership. \u00a0Down on the way from the River Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the winter of the year 2015, Elijah, the spirit of Elijah brooded over the face of New England snow fields. \u00a0The sore muscles of a shoveling people, the tired torsos of a commuting community, the undaunted willingness still to help a neighbor, the gritty determination to get through the blizzard, the awareness of needs for investment in the communal forms of transport, the gladness of children and the extra time of adults, the same spirit visited. \u00a0\u00a0But also. \u00a0The sore memory muscles wrestling with the horror and mayhem\u2014needless and cruel\u2014of \u00a0Marathon 2013. \u00a0The blizzard of feeling and thought inevitably brought by a current courtroom trial to the surface. \u00a0The rush of anger alongside the search for the better angels of one\u2019s nature. \u00a0You may not daily recognize Elijah. \u00a0But he is present. \u00a0Morning in reading. \u00a0Mealtime in prayer. \u00a0Evening in quiet. \u00a0Sunday in worship. \u00a0(People have such odd reasons for avoiding worship.) \u00a0On the way forward from the river Jordan. \u00a0Elijah: elusive spirit, mysterious ghost, the divine present absence, personified.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>In the year of spirit, 2015, the spirit of prophet Elijah hovered in the nave of Marsh Chapel, Boston University. \u00a0\u00a0The chapel has given, to you and others, over many decades\u2014beauty, grace, preachment, music, recollection. \u00a0Some here have found God, and some here have been found by God. \u00a0Marsh\u2014a gift. \u00a0And so you have responded. \u00a0By listening on the radio\u2014good. \u00a0By joining us one Sunday\u2014good. \u00a0By giving to and through this ministry\u2014good. \u00a0By inviting someone to listen, too. \u00a0By inviting someone to come with you. \u00a0Good. \u00a0By dreaming of an even more permanent place, and even stronger witness, and even more vibrant voice at Marsh. \u00a0One of you may choose to endow the deanship of this chapel. \u00a0Good. \u00a0Elijah awaits us. \u00a0On the way from the river Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the summer of 2015, the spirit and voice of the prophet Elijah echoed here. \u00a0\u00a0We together ruminated about \u2018beloved community\u2019, whose root is the Gospel of John, whose trunk is Bostonian Josiah Royce, and whose branches include the hope of Martin Luther King. \u00a0\u00a0David Romanik had some homiletical advice: \u00a0Larry Whitney gave some ecclesiastical advice: the beloved community is not easy. \u00a0\u00a0Chapin Garner added a warning, not \u2018your God is too small\u2019, but \u2018your God is too tame\u2019. \u00a0Bob Hill added footnotes on intimations in social history and influences of personal faith. \u00a0Regina Walton taught us to \u2018abide\u2019, and pointed out that we are branches, tangled, not potted plants, aloof. \u00a0And Brittany Longsdorf ended with a poetic hymn to love. \u00a0In a phrase, what shall we hold from this summer? \u00a0<\/span>Beloved Community. \u00a0<\/span><\/i>On the way from the river Jordan.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the year 20??, I apologize, I have mislaid the exact date, the prophet Elijah will be on my doorstep, and knocking on your door. \u00a0Perhaps at midnight. \u00a0Maybe at noon day. \u00a0Possibly at dawn. \u00a0Or in the wee hours of the morning. \u00a0\u00a0The eschatological prophet, the prophet of the last things, the one invited by Peter to a booth with Jesus, Elijah, the prophet of God, will make a pastoral visit. \u00a0In the last hour of my life, and yours. \u00a0There will be the river Jordan. \u00a0There will be a mantel slapped on the water. \u00a0There will be a parting of the ways. \u00a0There will be a step forward. \u00a0There will be a chariot, a sweet chariot, a swinging sweet chariot, a firey, swinging, sweet chariot. \u00a0There will be a presence. \u00a0Could it be that the weeks of cascade, the days of Nevada, the snow and snow and snow of our 2015 New England winter of discontent should carry an evocation, a query, a reminder, a call, premonition, a measuring, a warning, a promise? \u00a0Most of what we spend our time on, and our money, doesn\u2019t matter at all. \u00a0It is the spirit that giveth life. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the summer of 2015, going back a half step, an Elijah spirit \u00a0ushered us toward a new book of Harper Lee, a surprise and an adventure. \u00a0In this newly discovered book, I understand, Scout is grown up, and Atticus Finch is old, and the setting is not the depression but the early civil rights movement. \u00a0We know whence Scout emerged. \u00a0Maybe we will re-read \u2018Mockingbird\u2019, including its spiritual conculsion. \u00a0TL Butts preached:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNear the end of Nelle Harper Lee\u2019s wonderful novel, <\/span><\/i>To Kill a Mockingbird<\/i><\/b>, there is a touching and unforgettable scene. \u00a0Jean Louise (Scout), young daughter of the courageous Atticus Finch, has persuaded her father to let her come to the courtroom to hear the verdict in the controversial case in which he is defending a black man. \u00a0She chose to sit in the balcony with the black people. \u00a0The inevitable \u201cguilty\u201d verdict is rendered. \u00a0It is over. \u00a0Atticus Finch gathers his papers, places them in his briefcase, and begins a sad and lonely walk down the center aisle to the back door. \u00a0Scout hears someone call her name, \u201cMiss Jean Louise?\u201d \u00a0She looks behind her and sees that all of the black people are standing ups as her father walks down the aisle. \u00a0Then she heard the voice of the black minister, Rev. Sykes: \u00a0\u201cMiss Jean Louise, stand up, stand up, your father\u2019s passin\u2019.\u201d \u00a0Can you hear that? \u00a0It begs to be heard.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Here is one way to live. \u00a0In Spirit. \u00a0Elijah\u2019s way. \u00a0The spirit way. \u00a0The way of confidence born of obedience. \u00a0The way of the journey of faith, the obedience of faith. \u00a0In this way, we live with the trust to see things through. \u00a0To cross over. \u00a0To cross the river. \u00a0To trust our past. \u00a0To \u00a0trust our experience. \u00a0To trust the spirit. \u00a0To trust our Elisha\u2019s, our friends and successors. \u00a0To trust that in some way spiritually similar to Elijah at Jordan, a sweet chariot awaits. \u00a0So, Elijah\u2019s story.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, the question.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, to end, we promised a question. \u00a0A story, Elijah\u2019s. \u00a0A question, \u00a0yours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elijah leaves Elisha a double portion of his spirit? \u00a0What do you hope to pass on? \u00a0What do you hope to leave behind? \u00a0What legacy is yours? \u00a0You are 22 and you have been to college and you have 15 year old sister heading that way? \u00a0Any advice? \u00a0You are a young parent watching your toddlers toddle. \u00a0What do you want to give them that they will never lose? \u00a0You are a grandparent, and you have some things you would like to bequethe. \u00a0What are they, and what will you give in management, money and material to make it happen? \u00a0It is the spirit question, the Elijah question, the community question, and it is yours. \u00a0For me, the answer is simple. \u00a0I want to pass on the possibility of preaching, of a word fitly spoken, of a saving intervening word, \u00a0Spirit in speech, for the next generations. \u00a0As the chariot approaches, what do you want to leave behind?<\/span><\/p>\n

And here it comes\u2026A chariot of promise. \u00a0A chariot of freedom. \u00a0A chariot of hope. \u00a0A chariot of deliverance. \u00a0A chariot of salvation. \u00a0A chariot of heaven. \u00a0A chariot to carry us home.<\/span><\/p>\n

And did those feet in ancient time walk upon England\u2019s mountains green<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

And was the Holy of Lamb of God on England\u2019s pleasant pastures seen\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I shall not cease from mental fight, Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Till we have built Jerusalem in England\u2019s green and pleasant land<\/span><\/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,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For information about donating to the Chapel,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to the full service John 6:56-69 Click here to listen to the sermon only For a year we have embraced spirit. \u00a0Listen again to the prayer response in a moment. \u00a0Spirit. Presence. Awareness. \u00a0Conscious embrace. \u00a0St. Mark revealed Spirit. \u00a0Jonathan Edwards preached Spirit. \u00a0The Beloved Community awaits Spirit. \u00a0The Gospel of […]<\/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\/1183"}],"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=1183"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1192,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions\/1192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}