{"id":1485,"date":"2016-12-04T11:00:49","date_gmt":"2016-12-04T15:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=1485"},"modified":"2019-09-24T14:20:56","modified_gmt":"2019-09-24T18:20:56","slug":"sacrament-and-discourse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2016\/12\/04\/sacrament-and-discourse\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacrament and Discourse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to\u00a0the full service<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew 3: 1-12<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Click here to\u00a0listen to the meditations\u00a0only<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Cold River<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

To get to Bethlehem, each year, we have to walk at least once down by the river Jordan. \u00a0It is cold outside, down here along the banks of the roiling river of life. \u00a0It is uncomfortable outside, down here along the banks of the rushing river of truth. \u00a0It is dark outside, down here along the existential river of soul, of salvation, of all that is sacred. \u00a0And there is more.<\/span><\/p>\n

A river, especially the Jordan, is a symbol of the edge, the end, the last things, the purpose of life, the end of time. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Says Ecclesiastes, \u2018All rivers run to the sea, but the sea is not full\u2019. \u00a0Our beloved Antonio Machado, whose verse strangely comes back to me after years of my own wandering, says the same: \u201cNuestras vidas son los rios que van a dar a la mar\u201d (Campos de Castilla).<\/span><\/p>\n

For down by the river, we hear John the Baptist. \u00a0To get to Bethlehem, each year, we have to walk down by the river Jordan. \u00a0Here, lurking and skulking and sliding about in the dark recesses of the heart, here is a voice, crying in the wilderness. \u00a0It is the voice of conscience. \u00a0\u00a0The voice of him who crieth in the wilderness, \u2018Prepare ye the way of the Lord. \u00a0Make straight in the desert a highway for our God.\u2019 \u00a0\u00a0Down, down, down by the river.<\/span><\/p>\n

John rankles and offends, because he challenges us to start over. \u00a0He is dressed in camel\u2019s hair, the rudest of clothes. \u00a0He eats locusts, and wild honey. \u00a0Here is a voice. \u00a0Not pretty image, not contrived appearance, not considered attire\u2014but voice. \u00a0Not face, but voice. \u00a0John in the dark, cowering along the caves of the riverbed, crying. \u00a0\u00a0His is the voice of conscience, by which we are brought outside of ourselves and made to hear what we may not want to hear. \u00a0And there is more. \u00a0His voice reverberates today, down by the river. \u00a0Let\u2019s go outside, let\u2019s go down and listen to him, on our way to Bethlehem. <\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking through our conscience the Baptist illumines our minds, strengthens our hands and warms our hearts. \u00a0His discourse, his teaching, guides us toward today\u2019s Sacrament, and the very Sacrament of every one day.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

That is, before we lay our gifts at the manger altar, we will want the chill challenge of a thoughtful, thinking faith. \u00a0In the long run what is not true cannot be good though it may be news. \u00a0John the Baptist comes around at least once a year to remind us so.<\/span><\/p>\n

We can be thankful for those laboring at night in the lonely libraries and cubicles and offices nearby, to stretch our understanding that it might embrace our faith which is seeking that same understanding. \u00a0Theology matters. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not long ago, many of us had the joy and the privilege to listen at a faculty retreat to some of the newest, youngest adventures in thoughtful reflection on faith. \u00a0Words from the wise, words to the wise.<\/span><\/p>\n

One young biblical scholar reminded us: <\/span>The Christian Bible\u2026has never been stable; each book and collection has undergone a long process of transmission and reception that continues to this day\u2026The Bible remains a living document preserving not only a diverse body of texts but also the priorities of those who have transmitted it.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

One young psychologist of religion reminded us: <\/span>We are disposed to misunderstand. \u00a0We live in a pluri-verse, a conversation across the boundaries of different lands. \u00a0We witness the inevitable but not necessary collapse of ambiguity into certainty. \u00a0Sometimes, especially when we are trying truly distinguish cruelty from care, we need a sense of ambiguity. \u00a0We may need to return again and again to Nicholas of Cusa and the \u2018doctrine of learned ignorance\u2019.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

One young historian reminded us of the central role women have played in global missions: <\/span>empathy is like oxygen. \u00a0When you feel somebody experience you deeply, it is like air, like oxygen.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

One young philosophical theologian reminded us: <\/span>as we look at\u00a0<\/span><\/i>religious experience we have to hold ourselves accountable to empirical research.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

An older, wiser teacher, reminded this academic circle of an\u00a0<\/span>academic peril: <\/span>\u00a0We sometimes mistakenly think that if you can get it down on paper you don\u2019t have to live it.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Some of you will have had the benefit of those who showed by example how to think about faith, how faithfully to think. \u00a0We want to live in our own version of the memory Tony Judt had of Manhattan decades ago: <\/span>\u201cManhattan in those decades was the crossroads where original minds lingered<\/span><\/i>\u201d. (NYT 11\/8\/10) We could hear his sentence as ecclesiology. \u00a0So too the church: \u00a0a crossroads where original minds linger.<\/span><\/p>\n

This autumn, it may be, our learning has been on the street not in the library, in the culture, not in the school, in the meaning of what things mean\u2014our Advent 2016 fordable river. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018When I use a word\u2019, said Humpty Dumpty, in a rather scournful tone, \u2018it means just what I choose it to mean\u2014neither more nor less\u2019. \u00a0\u2018The question is\u2019, said Alice, \u2018whether you can make words mean so many different things\u2019 (Lewis Carroll, <\/span>Through the Looking Glass).<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

What you say you meant, in all sincerity, by a word, a choice, a sermon, or a <\/span>vote,<\/span><\/i> is not in any significant measure what your word, choice, sermon, or vote <\/span>means.<\/span><\/i> Its meaning is in its impact, not its intention. \u00a0Its meaning is in its effect, not in its sentiment. \u00a0It means what it <\/span>does<\/span><\/i>\u2014to others.<\/span><\/p>\n

My sister cried when I said something to her. \u2018But Mom, I didn\u2019t mean to hurt her. \u00a0I didn\u2019t mean it that way\u2019. \u00a0\u2018I\u2019m sure you didn\u2019t, Bobby\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0Now go to your room. \u00a0No supper.\u2019 \u00a0You may not have meant it to hurt (let\u2019s be generous here), but hurt it did.<\/span><\/p>\n

Words\u2014acts, deeds, <\/span>votes<\/span><\/i>\u2014have their meaning in the future they create, not in some sentiment of the heart. \u00a0We are responsible\u2014especially the preacher\u2014not for what we say but for what we are heard to say. \u00a0What you meant by that vote is not what it means. \u00a0What it means is <\/span>what it does.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

There is no way, that is, in living the Christian gospel, to \u2018normalize\u2019 demagoguery. \u00a0Not in racist dimension, not in its mistreatment of women, not in its denigration of color, difference, globe, disability or otherness. \u00a0Demagoguery, from any position, deserves and must receive nothing but condemnation, contempt and resistance. \u00a0There is no way, in announcing the gospel of grace, to \u2018normalize\u2019 such. \u00a0Or at least saith John the Baptist.<\/span><\/p>\n

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

Then too, your hands are touching and helping others.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our students for many years engaged a citywide CROP walk to combat world hunger, as the visit this week of a 2011 graduate, Tyler Sit, recalled. \u00a0Our Methodist fellowship has worked at the Cooper Mission in Roxbury. \u00a0Our partnership with the University and with Habitat for Humanity built a house. \u00a0Many have continued to prayerfully support Refugee Immigration Ministries. Some of you will be heading off for a week of Alternative Spring Break service next year. \u00a0As a congregation you continue to support the BMC food pantry. \u00a0In short, \u2018hands on\u2019 forms of service continue to thrive here at Marsh Chapel, thanks to the lay leadership offered in these many areas.<\/span><\/p>\n

What we love, we should love ardently. \u00a0Service helps us ground our faith in action, and thereby protects us from betraying the life into which we have been called. \u00a0Tragedy is to betray the life into which you have been called, or the profession into which you have been called, or the calling into which you have been called.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our current generation of students excels at participatory service ministry, and teaches its value by example.<\/span><\/p>\n

This Advent, for example, our students say: <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We invite you to consider collecting items for donation to populations in need – specifically for local food banks, homeless shelters, children’s charities, and disaster relief. \u00a0For those of you in the Boston area, we encourage you to bring your donations to Marsh Chapel at the end of each week and we will deliver them at each of the following nonprofit organizations – <\/span><\/i>Greater Boston Food Bank<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>Pine Street Inn<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>Cradles to Crayons<\/span><\/i><\/a>, and the <\/span><\/i>United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR)<\/span><\/i><\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0For those outside the Boston area, we encourage you to gather a group – maybe in your home congregation, at your workplace, or in your neighborhood – to participate in this activity together and to find locations for donation near you! Here are some websites that can help you locate nonprofit organizations that accept the kinds of donations we will be suggesting: \u00a0<\/span><\/i>Food Banks; <\/span><\/i>Homeless Shelters<\/span><\/i><\/a>; <\/span><\/i>Children’s Charities<\/span><\/i><\/a>; <\/span><\/i>UMCOR<\/span><\/i><\/a>; and, <\/span><\/i>Lutheran World Relief<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>UCC Disaster Ministries<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>Presbyterian Disaster Assistance<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>Episcopal Relief and Development<\/span><\/i><\/a>, <\/span><\/i>Red Cross<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

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

Head and hands finally rely on the heart. \u00a0In the winter we learn to stay warm. <\/span>Warmth, warmth, warmth. \u00a0We are dying of cold, not of darkness. \u00a0It is not the night that kills, but the frost (Unamuno).<\/span><\/i> At night our eyes are sharpened to see shapes in the shadows. \u00a0When we experience diminishment we also hold more closely those things which mean most to us. \u00a0\u00a0With age comes wisdom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of ministry, these years, has been in snow. \u00a0\u00a0In smaller assignments, the snow fell often on afternoons given over to sharing the gospel, one by one. \u00a0What a privilege! \u00a0Would that more, and better, and sooner, would heed the invitation to ministry. \u00a0At the kitchen table. \u00a0Over coffee. \u00a0In a parking lot. Within a small office. \u00a0At the hospital. \u00a0At school. \u00a0With lunch. \u00a0In a nursing home. \u00a0In the barn, at dusk, milking time. \u00a0In the sugar house. \u00a0On a tractor. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Or in a pastoral visit, of the following sort.<\/span><\/p>\n

Snow swirled that day, as the Nursing Home hove into view. \u00a0Gladys deserved a call, on the line between life and death, and the preacher came prepared, or so he thought.<\/span><\/p>\n

Would you like me to pray with you, Gladys? <\/span>\u00a0Oh, it is not necessary. \u00a0Of course I love all the prayers of the great church, particularly, now that I see little, those I carry in memory from our old liturgy. \u00a0But I am fine.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Perhaps you would like to hear the Psalms? \u00a0My grandmother appreciated them read as she, uh\u2026 <\/span>You mean as she lay dying?<\/span><\/i>…Yes. \u00a0<\/span>Oh, it is not necessary. \u00a0I mean I do love the Psalms, and was lucky to have them taught rote to me at church camp so that they rest on my memory, like goodness and mercy, all the days of my life. \u00a0But I am fine.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I know that you sang in our choir. \u00a0Would you like some of the hymns recited for you?<\/span> \u00a0Oh that is not necessary. \u00a0I do so love music! I can sing the hymns from memory to myself at night! \u00a0\u00a0I found my faith singing, you know. \u00a0It just seemed so real when we would sing, when we were younger, around the piano, around the campfire, around the church. \u00a0I knew in my heart, I knew Whom I could trust. \u00a0But I am fine.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

I brought communion for you in this old traveling kit. \u00a0<\/span>Oh, that is not necessary. \u00a0We can have communion if you like. \u00a0It is so meaningful to me. \u00a0I can feel my husband right at my side, knee to knee. \u00a0After he died, I could not hear anything that was said in your fine sermons for so long, my heart hurt so loudly. \u00a0But I still could get grace in communion. \u00a0But I am fine.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

So the snow was falling, as it does in ministry in our region, the north, that blanket of snow, blanket of proximate mortality, blanket of grace. \u00a0Snow on snow\u2026flake on flake\u2026Just like a preacher, he thought, nothing to offer, but to stand and wait and wring the hands\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

Gladys, is there anything that I could bring you today?<\/span> \u00a0As a matter of fact, there is\u2026Tell me about our church\u2026I have been out of worship for so long\u2026 How is the church doing this Christmas?…Are the children coming and being taught to give their money to others? \u00a0And what of the youth? \u00a0Are they in church and skating and sledding and hayriding and falling in love? \u00a0Tell me about the UMW and their mission goal. Did they make it? \u00a0A dollar means so little to us and so much in Honduras and China. \u00a0And tell me about the building\u2026 Are the Trustees preparing for another generation? \u00a0It is so easy to defer maintenance\u2026What about the choir\u2014are they singing from faith to faith?…Tell me about your preaching, and the DS, and our Bishop\u2026What is going to happen with our little church \u2026Tell me, please, tell me about our church\u2026It is where I find meaning and depth and love\u2026That is what you can bring me today. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Speaking through our conscience the Baptist illumines our minds, strengthens our hands and warms our hearts. \u00a0His discourse, his teaching, guides us toward today\u2019s Sacrament, and the very Sacrament of every one day.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Howard Thurman wrote,<\/span><\/p>\n

When the song of the angels is stilled,\u00a0<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span>When the star in the sky is gone,<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span>When the kings and the princes are home,<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span>When the shepherds are back with their flocks,<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span>The work of Christmas begins:<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span>To find the lost,<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span>To heal the broken,<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span>To feed the hungry,<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span>To release the prisoner,<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span>To rebuild the nations,<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span>To bring peace among brothers,<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/span>To make music in the heart.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

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

Click here to listen to\u00a0the full service Matthew 3: 1-12 Click here to\u00a0listen to the meditations\u00a0only Cold River To get to Bethlehem, each year, we have to walk at least once down by the river Jordan. \u00a0It is cold outside, down here along the banks of the roiling river of life. \u00a0It is uncomfortable outside, […]<\/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\/1485"}],"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=1485"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2001,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions\/2001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}