{"id":1449,"date":"2016-10-02T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2016-10-02T15:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=1449"},"modified":"2019-09-24T14:21:31","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T18:21:31","slug":"the-sacrament-of-conversation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2016\/10\/02\/the-sacrament-of-conversation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sacrament of Conversation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Luke 17:5-10<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to listen to the\u00a0meditations\u00a0only<\/a><\/p>\n

Sacrament:\u00a0 Conversation<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Our theme at Marsh this year is Conversation.\u00a0 Sacrament means mystery.\u00a0 2 Sacraments and 5 sacramental rites shape our life of faith.\u00a0 John Wesley named 5 means of grace including conversation (Scripture, Prayer, Eucharist\\Baptism, Fasting, Conversation).\u00a0\u00a0 Vancouver 1983, WCC, \u2018in Christ there is no East or West\u2019.<\/p>\n

Conversation:\u00a0 Sacrament<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Iva.\u00a0 A Winter Sunday.\u00a0 So angry.\u00a0 (Janitor).\u00a0 My PhD that year.\u00a0 \u2018Of course, you know, they have PhD\u2019s.\u00a0 I should be more understanding.\u00a0 They have PhD\u2019s.\u00a0 You really can\u2019t expect much. (J).\u00a0\u00a0 Learning is no substitute for meaning.\u00a0 Making of living is no substitute for leading a life.\u00a0 Your field work is no substitute for your domestic duties.\u00a0 Learning is good and very good, but it will not alone lead you to meaning.\u00a0 Our business at Marsh Chapel is not talent but grace.\u00a0 We would rather have untalented grace than graceless talent.\u00a0 As Wesley, \u2018we would rather throw over all the libraries in the world than lose one soul\u2019.<\/p>\n

Lamentations<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Jeremiah may or may not have written this. Catharsis of grief and despair is the aim of the poems (we can use this).\u00a0 They are all acrostics (facilitates memorization).\u00a0 \u2018The pent up emotion\u00a0 of a people who had lost practically everything that belonged to their former way of life IBD\u2019.\u00a0 Historical faith vs. historical actuality. \u2018What is the meaning of the terrible calamities that have overtaken us?\u2019\u00a0 A new, firmer faith emerges, dominated by strong convictions:\u00a0 responsibility for sin; the disciplinary value of suffering; the absolute justice and abiding love of God; the inscrutability of God\u2019s ways; the unconquerable trust of the believer; the necessity of patience.<\/p>\n

Luke<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Your field work is no substitute for your domestic duties.\u00a0 Men and parenting.\u00a0 Students and parents.\u00a0 Adults and mature parents.\u00a0 Civil Society including church and worship.<\/p>\n

Slavery is here used as a positive analogy.\u00a0 It is Biblical and dominical, \u2018Jesus says\u2026\u2019 Should we then affirm slavery? \u00a0This is the hermeneutic of the evangelical Christians who use 6 verses in all of Scripture to support bigotry against gays.\u00a0 The Bible has a history, too, as do you.<\/p>\n

You are not finished once you have recited the conjugations, written out the periodic table, aced introduction to computer science, memorized the ten presidents of BU and the 44 of the USA, and defined the teleological suspension of the ethical.<\/p>\n

Faith as a mustard seed.\u00a0 \u2018Faith that mountains can move\u2019.\u00a0 Hyperbole (eye, pluck it out, etc).\u00a0 The way of discipleship:\u00a0 worship, prayer, study, tithing, faithfulness, charity, hospitality.\u00a0 \u2018Service!\u2019\u00a0 At your service.\u00a0 At your disposal.\u00a0 Ministry is service. Ministry is to put yourself at another\u2019s disposal.<\/p>\n

Condition according to fact (even if you only had faith the size of a seed it would be enough, but you have a whole lot more than that!)<\/p>\n

Spirit<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Spirit:\u00a0 The church as the bride of Christ: conversation, divine and human.<\/p>\n

We are here with you because we are here for you (repeat).\u00a0 We have come from many regions of the world and many ranges of your past experience in order to be present here, to share your presence, and our presence with you.\u00a0 Here with you, we are here for you.<\/p>\n

And yet, quite soon, we will not be present, at least most of us.\u00a0 You will go off on your own for another week. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We will need to give you over, and to give over to\u2026Another Presence,\u00a0 God\u2019s Presence.\u00a0 God\u2019s presence, spirit, or, as the reading for today names it, God\u2019s Abiding in us.\u00a0 As will you, day by day, so will we need to trust in\u2026Another Presence.<\/p>\n

You will sense the warm breeze, the sunlit horizon, the abiding grace of God\u2019s Presence by its fruit (Galatians 5:23).\u00a0 Another Presence, of which you become aware, in your daily life together, by sensing the fruit of this presence.\u00a0 God\u2019s love abides in us and is made whole in us, through these marks, these footprints, these touches of grace.<\/p>\n

In Love.\u00a0 Love is the attentive gift of time, as in the course of a lifetime of faithfulness\u2014in family, in friendship, in work, in marriage. \u00a0\u00a0In Love.<\/p>\n

In Joy.\u00a0 Joy is happy embrace\u2014physical, mental, spiritual, soulful\u2014morning and evening.\u00a0 In Joy.<\/p>\n

In Peace.\u00a0 Peace is the gift\u2014all these are pure gifts of God\u2014of real listening, listening with a full smile and a glad heart.\u00a0 In Peace.<\/p>\n

In Patience. You need persistence, the accelerator, and patience, the break, to make it over the mountains and through the deserts, and across the great plains of life.\u00a0 Said the Buddha:\u00a0 patience is self-compassion which gives you equanimity.\u00a0 In Patience.<\/p>\n

In Kindness.\u00a0 Kindness is the long distance run, the gift of a gracious long distance perspective, known in part in the openness to forgiveness.\u00a0 In Kindness.<\/p>\n

In Goodness.\u00a0 Real Goodness bursts forth in generosity.\u00a0 You only have what you give away, and you only truly possess what you have the grace and freedom to offer to someone else.\u00a0 What you give is what you have.\u00a0 In Goodness.<\/p>\n

In Faith.\u00a0 Faith is a gift, like all other signs of abiding love.\u00a0 Faith is the capacity to withstand what and when we cannot understand (repeat).\u00a0 When you face struggle, challenge, difficulty, may this gift be yours by divine grace.\u00a0 In Faith.<\/p>\n

In Gentleness.\u00a0 Tea, sunset, backrub, quiet, handholding, prayer, worship.\u00a0 In Gentleness.<\/p>\n

In Self-Control.\u00a0 Self-Control, a gift of God\u2019s Presence, guides you to work through any and all labors:\u00a0 in care for family and extended family;\u00a0 in stewardship of precious material wealth, never plentiful but always sufficient; in sensitivity in intimacy, sexuality, in preparing for an unforeseen future;\u00a0 in the building of community\u2014yes religious community, but also neighborhood, town, school, city, and a culture gradually amenable to faith.\u00a0 In Self-Control.<\/p>\n

You will sense the warm breeze, the sunlit horizon, the abiding grace of God\u2019s Presence by its fruit (Galatians 5:23).\u00a0 Another Presence, of which you become aware, in your daily life together, by sensing the fruit of this presence.\u00a0 God\u2019s love abides in us and is made whole in us, through these marks, these footprints, these touches of grace.<\/p>\n

Into \u00a0Another Presence, into Another\u2019s Presence, we send you, for another week.\u00a0 With Ruth may you say: \u2018Wither thou goest I will go, wither thou lodgest I will lodge, they people shall be my people, and thy God my God.\u2019
\n<\/em><\/p>\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 17:5-10 Click here to listen to the\u00a0meditations\u00a0only Sacrament:\u00a0 Conversation Our theme at Marsh this year is Conversation.\u00a0 Sacrament means mystery.\u00a0 2 Sacraments and 5 sacramental rites shape our life of faith.\u00a0 John Wesley named 5 means of grace including conversation (Scripture, Prayer, Eucharist\\Baptism, Fasting, Conversation).\u00a0\u00a0 Vancouver […]<\/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\/1449"}],"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=1449"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1931,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1449\/revisions\/1931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}