{"id":1424,"date":"2016-08-21T11:00:20","date_gmt":"2016-08-21T15:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=1424"},"modified":"2019-09-24T14:21:57","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T18:21:57","slug":"a-lukan-horizon-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2016\/08\/21\/a-lukan-horizon-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lukan Horizon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Luke 14:1, 7-14<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to listen to the meditations\u00a0only<\/a><\/p>\n

Come summer in the north, we are closer in some ways to nature, than we are otherwise. \u00a0\u00a0You may be listening this morning, toes in the surf or sand, or high up a mountain trail, or along a lakeshore, or in the back lawn, coffee in hand. \u00a0\u00a0We need the summer to survive the winter. \u00a0You are wise to embrace it.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the evening hour, with a tenebrous cool after a long, hot day, you may have, this summer, looked out on a horizon, blue and pink and moving. \u00a0\u00a0The day has a beginning at sunrise, and an end at sunset. \u00a0To know the day you need to know both, as to know a person you need some information regarding whence and more regarding wither. \u00a0\u00a0To know people, and to know a people, the far horizon, tenebrous at dusk, is keenly, crucially meaningful. \u00a0<\/span>Quo vadis? \u00a0<\/span><\/i>Where are you headed?<\/span> \u00a0Dime a donde andas, y te dire quien eres.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

A question for those to be married: \u00a0where will you be ten years from today? \u00a0A question for those to matriculate: \u00a0to what end is your education? \u00a0A question for those entering retirement: \u00a0are there now different shores on which to land? \u00a0A question for those newly diagnosed, suddenly alone, shorn of routine, anxious about the unseen: \u00a0what is the \u2018telos\u2019, the point, the soul forming meaning of your disappointment, dislocation, or departure? \u00a0Our gospel affirms lasting meaning in life.<\/span><\/p>\n

In particular, the Gospel of Luke paints a compassionate horizon. \u00a0The third gospel has a passion for compassion. In a broad compassion Luke locates our ultimate destination.<\/span><\/p>\n

The National Preacher Series<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Today concludes the tenth year of our annual Marsh Chapel Summer National Preacher Series. \u00a0Our intention has been to bring the best preachers\u2014the best whether or not the best known\u2014to address, either in some indirect or in some more linear fashion, a shared theme. \u00a0Listen again, on the website to some of our past sermons. \u00a0Consider \u2018the Gifts of Summer\u2019 in 2007, including the missionary witness of Mark and Lynn Baker. \u00a0Hear again (now) Bishop Mike McKee on the Call to Ministry in 2008. \u00a0Pick any of the ten sermons on Darwin and Faith from 2009, say that of Wesley Wildman. \u00a0Receive the Gospel from (now) Bishop Ken Carter, on the theme of Grace in 2010. \u00a0Hear Rev. Dr. Robin Olson on student ministry in 2011, or enjoy again the venerable voice of our saintly (now)deceased friend and neighbor, Professor Peter Gomes, earlier that year. \u00a0Learn about New Testament Apocalyptic, say with Dr. David Jacobsen, in 2012. \u00a0Enjoy the Peter Falk like voice of Dean Snyder, so wise and true, on Hope in the Church, 2013. \u00a0\u00a0Reckon with Professor Jonathan Walton, summer 2014, on Emerging Adulthood. \u00a0Or reflect again on the Beloved Community, from last summer 2015, with the Rev. Dr. Regina Walton. \u00a0Our is a University Pulpit, and with your aid, support and engagement we shall continue to unite the pair so long disjoined, knowledge and vital piety.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Summer Series 2016<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Your 2016 series made some news earlier this summer. Our local reporter, Mr. Richard Barlow of BU Today wrote about the 2016 series: <\/span><\/p>\n

The series kicks off Sunday, July 3, with the first of seven sermons on <\/span><\/i>Luke\u2019s Gospel and its central theme of compassion<\/span><\/i><\/a>. The Lukan Horizon, as the series is named, seeks \u201cto remember the compassion\u2014the passion for compassion\u2014in the person of Jesus the Christ,\u201d says\u2026dean of Marsh Chapel. The Gospel stresses <\/span><\/i>humanitarianism and forgiveness<\/span><\/i><\/a>; it\u2019s the only one of the four Gospels with the stories of the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son, and it is full of sympathetic portrayals of women.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

This message\u2026 contrasts with the \u201cless than appealing and frankly appalling conditions of some parts of our culture that have been revealed in some ranges of (our recent experience).\u201d <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The compassion motif also echoes several recent Commencement addresses, Hill says, including the <\/span><\/i>Baccalaureate<\/span><\/i><\/a> talk this spring by Peace Corps director Carrie Hessler-Radelet (CAS\u201979, Hon.\u201916), who called on BU graduates to \u201cembrace the cause of humanity with optimism and enthusiasm.\u201d (BU Today, June 2016). \u00a0<\/span><\/i>(We could quickly add the magnificent speech given this spring at the Boston University Humphrey Scholars graduation program May 9, 2016 by Hubert Humphrey\u2019s niece, Dr. Ann Howard Tristani, who quoted her uncle\u2019s famous 1948 spell binding Philadelphia aspeech: \u2018<\/span>There will be no hedging, no watering down, of the instruments and the principles of the civil rights program. \u00a0My friends, to those who say that we are rushing this issue of civil rights, I say we are 172 years late\u2026To those who say this bill is an infringement on state\u2019s rights, I say the time has arrived in America. \u00a0The time has arrived for the Democratic party to get out of the shadow states rights and walk forthrightly intot he bright sunshine of human rights.\u2019 \u00a0<\/span><\/i>It is both stunning and tragic to recognize how much of what he addressed then is still with us this great, but troubled land, in today\u2019s issues of urban violence and its state level address, in affordable health care usage (or not) state by state, in the lasting not just lingering formative power of slavery in the making of American Capitalism, in the willingness or lack thereof of those who have much, to provide for others who have little, in the use of a word like \u2018liberty\u2019 to mean its opposite, its very denial to tens of millions of poor children. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Luke 13: Gospel and Tradition<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Luke was written nearly a generation later than Mark, by most estimates, Mark in or near 70, Luke in or near 90 of the common era (in fact, possible much later). \u00a0Traditionally ascribed to Luke the physician, its author and that of its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, is finally unknown to us. \u00a0We know him only through the writing itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do we find? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Luke is made up of a mixture of ingredients. \u00a0First, Luke uses most of Mark. \u00a0An example is the memory of our passage today, Luke 13. \u00a0Like Matthew, Luke knew and repeated most of the earlier gospel of Mark. \u00a0But he made changes along the way, or construed the gospel according to his own desires and emphases. \u00a0This is hopeful for us, in that it is an encouragement for us to take the gospel in hand, and interpret it according to our time, location, understanding, and need. \u00a0In fact, we are summoned and ordered to do so, and not free not to do so. \u00a0Second, Luke uses a collection of teachings, called Q, as does Matthew. \u00a0An example is our Lord\u2019s Prayer, later in the service. \u00a0Luke\u2019s version is slightly different from that in Matthew, as is his version of the beatitudes and other teachings, found in the \u2018sermon on the plain\u2019, rather than the \u2018sermon on the mount\u2019. \u00a0Third, Luke makes ample use of material that is all his own, not found in Mark or elsewhere. \u00a0The long chapters from Luke 8 or so through Luke 18 or so, where we find ourselves this morning, are all his. \u00a0Examples include some of your favorite parables, like the Good Samaritan, and like the lost sheep, and like the Prodigal Son, and like the Dishonest Steward. \u00a0We have Luke to thank for the remembrance of these great stories. \u00a0Luke brings us a unique mixture of materials, and makes his own particular use of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

What does Luke say? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This will take us the rest of the fall and more to more fully unravel. \u00a0We shall do so, on step at a time, one Sunday at a time, one parable, teaching, exhortation, miracle, or, as today, one traditional episode at a time. \u00a0Still, there are some outstanding features of the Lukan horizon, which we may simply name as we set forth. \u00a0\u00a0First, Luke displays a commitment to and interest in history, and orderly history at that. \u00a0Both Luke and Acts are cast in a distinctive historical mode. \u00a0Second, Luke employs and deploys his own theology, or theological perspective, including this emphasis upon history and the divine purpose, or better said, divine meaning, in history\u2014on this more in a moment. \u00a0\u00a0Third, Luke highlights the humanity and compassion of Jesus in a remarkable way. \u00a0The Christ of St. Luke is the Christ of magnificent compassion, embodied in the humility of a birth among shepherds. \u00a0The poor, women, the stranger, the injured, those in dire need all stand out in Luke, as the recipients and subjects of Jesus\u2019 love, mercy, grace and compassion. \u00a0Fourth, Luke carries an abiding interest in the church. \u00a0Ephesians says that \u2018through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principles and powers\u2019. \u00a0That catches the spirit of the author or the third gospel and of the Acts to follow. \u00a0\u00a0It is this feature of Luke, the Lukan Horizon, the Lukan passion for compassion, upon which our preaching has centered this summer. \u00a0So we are taught: \u00a0know history, think for yourself, love the church, have compassion.<\/span><\/p>\n

Compassion in interreligious dialogue framed and formed the sermon by Br. Lawrence Whitney on July 3: \u2018ritual restrains our tendency toward indifference and causes us to recognize one another\u2019. Compassion for those at the margins of society, including those who have suffered in this year\u2019s tragic killings of various sorts and in various places, inspired the sermon of Chaplain Jessica Chicka on July 10: \u2018the Samaritan does not allow himself to be constricted by rules or fear\u2019. \u00a0Compassion for those searching for meaning, and a direct challenge to find such in spiritual inwardness, self-discipline, and struggle gave the heart to Dean Lawrence Carter\u2019s July 17 address. \u00a0Compassion for those of \u00a0\u2018another flock\u2019 gave wings to his July 24 acclamation\u2014the witness of Ghandi, the voice of King, the advice of Thurman, the wisdom of Buddhism, the mothering of Hinduism and the stark reminder: \u00a0it is not Christian belief but its realization that finally matters. \u00a0Not belief but realization! Compassion and concern for our shared home, our natural habitat\u2014a worthy and frequent theme in this pulpit\u2014empowered Dr. Davies\u2019 homily on July 31: \u00a0dominion is not domination, both optimists and pessimists can at least be meliorists, our children\u2019s children will ask questions of or to us, about how we have cared for our environment. \u00a0Compassion of a substantial, material, physical, even financial kind\u2014\u2018forgive us our debts\u2019 carried the burden of the Communion Homily on August 7. \u00a0And last Sunday, beginning and ending with Tutu, probing the power of relational rather than authoritarian power, finding examples in hospitality near and far, the Rev. Susan Shafer, in the heat of the day, interpreted a tough passage from Luke and memorable line from our Vice President: \u00a0\u2018the world needs from us not the example of our power, but the power of our example\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0It happens, perhaps providentially, but certainly in a timely way, that our lectionary readings this year hail from Luke. \u00a0Toward what horizon are we hiking? \u00a0Onto what shore do we hope to land? \u00a0By what compass and map, what star, what conscience call, what soulful spirit shall we be guided? \u00a0\u2018Quo vadis?\u2019 \u00a0Whither? \u00a0Where are you headed? \u00a0\u00a0Is yours, at twilight, a compassionate horizon?<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Gospel, it happens, presents this theme under the cloud of smoke and pillar of fire of a familiar, pan Gospel, episode, Jesus\u2019 compassionate willingness to heal on the Sabbath, to judge the Sabbath by its human or humanizing effect, to forever trump tradition with gospel, and to make religion necessarily subject to judgment in the categories of pride, sloth, falsehood, superstition, idolatry and hypocrisy. \u00a0Is religion a good thing? \u00a0It can be. \u00a0Is the weather a good thing? \u00a0It can be. \u00a0It depends.<\/span><\/p>\n

In our passage from St. Luke chapter 13, the Gospel writer has sharply implanted his own emphasis, on compassion. \u00a0The similar Sabbath passages are in Mark 2, Matthew 12, and John 5. \u00a0\u00a0Luke explicitly heightens Jesus\u2019 authority by placing him in the synagogue, in the synagogue teaching, and in the synagogue teaching on the Sabbath. \u00a0Luke changes the gender of the afflicted person, from male to female. \u00a0Luke quantifies the hurt, to 18 years of suffering. Luke accentuates the verbal condemnation, \u2018hypocrites\u2019. \u00a0Luke connects the healed one to Abraham, and amplifies the size of Jesus\u2019 legal victory, shaming adversaries and causing rejoicing by all. \u00a0Clearly, this is a story that has developed, that has lived a while, that has been marinating in the sauce of the church\u2019s own growth, advance, and expanse. \u00a0Sadly, there is here the hint, the glimpse, the clear though far-off hymn, that hails—triumphalism. \u00a0Not Jesus the minority view rabbi, arguing uphill against a majoritarian Torah tribe, but rather Jesus the conqueror, the great debater, the winner of arguments about Torah. \u00a0We might do well to re-hear and rehearse Elie Wiesel\u2019s lecture on this from 5 years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Far Horizon<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

One final note about Luke today. \u00a0\u00a0The gospel itself, and its sibling book the Acts of the Apostles, written also by Luke, \u00a0make heavy use of a short, Greek verb. \u00a0The three letters, delta-epsilon-iota\u2014not a fraternity or sorority as far as I know\u2014mean simply \u2018it is necessary, it is needful, it was necessary, it was needful\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0For St. Luke there is a necessity at work in the church\u2019s expanding involvement within the culture around, and hence its need for story as legend, for leadership in unity from Peter to Paul, for organizational forms, bedrock heroes, and ways of thinking about others, and others within others. \u00a0Yet Luke\u2019s spirit is one of compassion. \u00a0His theology is determinist to some degree. \u00a0He sees purpose, necessity, even fate if you will, behind most trees, and behind many bushes. \u00a0You may not see things that way, as many in late modernity do not. \u00a0In interpretation, you will then perhaps need to hear Luke\u2019s song of necessity transposed into the key of meaning. \u00a0Purpose in the sense of meaning, not in the sense of destiny. \u00a0\u00a0Not so much \u2018God has a purpose for your life\u2019 as \u2018God has life for your purposes\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At Marsh Chapel we have the privilege to solemnize weddings on a regular basis, especially come summer. \u00a0You need summer to survive winter, here in the north. \u00a0There is grace in every wedding. \u00a0There is unspoken, volcanic power in the hearing and speaking of the vows in every wedding. \u00a0There is real change, which is real hard, heralded in every wedding. \u00a0A privilege\u2014what a privilege\u2014to be present at the creation, nay the new creation, of such a moment. \u00a0In a play otherwise precious and beautiful, Thornton Wilder had his dour New England minister say, as he prepared to marry Emily and George, speaking of his wedding experience, \u2018Once in a thousand times it is interesting.\u2019 \u00a0That is the very opposite of my experience. \u00a0Over 40 years at 20-25 weddings a year on average, I have not reached, but may be closing in on his number. \u00a0Every one in the thousand was not just interesting but unutterably so. \u00a0A while ago we married one couple, who were standouts in spirit and soul. \u00a0Their four parents rose to greet them after the vows. \u00a0Her parents, the mother from Japan and the father from England. \u00a0\u00a0His, the mother from India and the father from Italy. \u00a0\u00a0Buddhist, Methodist, Hindu, Catholic. \u00a0Sometimes it feels like the world is coming apart at the seams. \u00a0And then you go to a wedding, and, as every other time in a thousand, it is not only interesting, but unutterably so. \u00a0This world can work. \u00a0It may take a little compassion. \u00a0But it can work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which brings us back to the very beginning. \u00a0Your purposes. \u00a0Your horizon. \u00a0Your outlook, perspective, your end point and its hope. \u00a0The offer of the Third Gospel, the horizon in Luke, is the possibility of a life of faith, girded in compassion. \u00a0Will such a life be ours?<\/span><\/p>\n

My life flows on in endless song, <\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>above earth’s lamentation. <\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>I hear the clear, though far off hymn <\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>that hails a new creation. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/i>No storm can shake my inmost calm <\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>while to that Rock I’m clinging. <\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>Since love is Lord of heaven and earth, <\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>how can I keep from singing? <\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i> Through all the tumult and the strife, <\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>I hear that music ringing. <\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>It finds an echo in my soul. <\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i>How can I keep from singing? <\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

More: \u00a0Will you consider\u2014it is offered with love and care\u2014perhaps reconsider, maybe accept an invitation to lead a faithful life? \u00a0To practice\u2014nay, realize\u2014the Christian faith? \u00a0To walk steadily toward a horizon of compassion–a Lukan Horizon?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

– The Reverend Doctor, Robert Allan Hill, Dean.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to the full service Luke 14:1, 7-14 Click here to listen to the meditations\u00a0only Come summer in the north, we are closer in some ways to nature, than we are otherwise. \u00a0\u00a0You may be listening this morning, toes in the surf or sand, or high up a mountain trail, or along […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424"}],"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=1424"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1939,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions\/1939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}