{"id":2603,"date":"2020-01-19T11:00:27","date_gmt":"2020-01-19T16:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=2603"},"modified":"2021-02-26T10:19:16","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T15:19:16","slug":"a-natural-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2020\/01\/19\/a-natural-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"A Natural Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Isaiah <\/span>49:1<\/span>\u2013<\/span>7<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

1 <\/span>Corinthians 1:1<\/span>\u2013<\/span>9<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

John 1:29<\/span>\u2013<\/span>42<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to hear just the sermon<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove\u2019<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Scripture<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

O <\/span>Lord<\/span>, thou hast searched me and known me!<\/span>
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>Thou knowest when I sit down and when I rise up;<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>thou discernest my thoughts from afar.<\/span>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>Thou searchest out my path and my lying down,<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and art acquainted with all my ways.<\/span>
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>Even before a word is on my tongue,<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>lo, O <\/span>Lord<\/span>, thou knowest it altogether.<\/span>
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>Thou dost beset me behind and before,<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and layest thy hand upon me.<\/span>
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>it is high, I cannot attain it.<\/span><\/p>\n

7\u00a0<\/sup><\/span>Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?<\/span>
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>If I ascend to heaven, thou art there!<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there!<\/span>
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>If I take the wings of the morning<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,<\/span>
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>even there thy hand shall lead me,<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and thy right hand shall hold me.<\/span>
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>If I say, \u201cLet only darkness cover me,<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>and the light about me be night,\u201d<\/span>
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>even the darkness is not dark to thee,<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>the night is bright as the day;<\/span>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>for darkness is as light with thee.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spirit in Scripture, Tradition, Reason and Experience.<\/p>\n

In this, the 139th<\/sup> Psalm, a very favorite of Dean Howard Thurman\u2019s, you hear two, or perhaps the two, central features of his teaching on Spirit, nature and grace. <\/em>\u00a0And they come together so smoothly, so seamlessly, that you might just speak of them together, as a natural grace.\u00a0 Today as we welcome our beloved and esteemed guests,<\/em> today as we recognize and honor Martin Luther King <\/em>Jr., today as we step even further to recognize the shaping mentorship and influence on King of Thurman,<\/em> and today as we recognize and celebrate the inaugural of Boston University\u2019s fine new Howard Thurman Center<\/em>, we might just do so with\u2026Spirit.<\/p>\n

Scripture dazzles us, if we are alive to it.\u00a0 Notice here that Jesus needs no introduction to Peter:<\/em>\u00a0 he knows his name already, without being told, like he knows yours.\u00a0\u00a0 Notice here the closeness of the Gospel writer to the Baptists\u2014not American or Southern or Old Regular Baptists–but those who were disciples of John the Baptist, but came over to follow Jesus.\u00a0 Was the Gospel writer a Baptist <\/em>before he became a Christian? Notice what does not happen.\u00a0 In every other Gospel, Jesus is baptized by John, but not here.\u00a0 Notice the dog that does not bark.\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Jesus steps away, dry as a bone.\u00a0 Spirit ever trumps sacrament, and gospel ever trumps church in John.\u00a0 Jesus is not baptized<\/em> in John (the Gospel) by John (the Baptist), unlike in the other three gospels.\u00a0 The Baptist knows and honors Him\u2014bears witness to him (martyr in Greek) but Jesus does not stoop, deign, or allow himself to be baptized.\u00a0 Here is inheritance, but inheritance with innovation at its heart.\u00a0 Here is religion, but religion with grace, a natural grace, at its heart.<\/p>\n

Spirit in Scripture.<\/p>\n

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

So too, Spirit in Tradition.<\/p>\n

And we have our traditions here, one of which is the observance of this special Sunday, in this particular space, with its particular Marsh history, across six deanships.\u00a0 With Franklin Littell, the first Marsh dean, 1951, and one of the founders of Holocaust studies in the USA, we share an uncompromising willingness to challenge national government and leadership, for the sake of the gospel.\u00a0 With Howard Thurman, 1953, our most famous dean, we share a confidence in universal truth, a search for common ground, and a delight in natural grace.\u00a0 With Robert Hamill, 1965, we share a fierce commitment to human, to civil rights.\u00a0 With Robert Thornburg, 1978, we share a nuanced appreciation for the intricacies and wanderings of Methodist church bureaucracy.\u00a0 With Robert Neville, and his emphasis on Go the Creator.\u00a0 With Robert Hill, the current dean, we share a regard for biblical theology, Paul Tillich, common hope, and hymn singing in four-part harmony. \u00a0\u00a0All together, our tradition is one of a common hope. We have seen hope come alive, moving from chapel to university to community:\u00a0 Community Service Program, LGBTQ L Douglass, ISGC, Howard Thurman Center, Global Ministry, and others.<\/p>\n

A tradition in hope buoyed by many voices.<\/p>\n

The voice of John Wesley.\u00a0 Methodists are like everyone else, only more so, the saying goes\u2014a wide and diffuse denomination, committed to a handshake and a song, and that shared \u2018creed\u2019 of \u2018that which has been believed, always, everywhere, and by everyone<\/em> (so, John Wesley).<\/p>\n

The voice of Mahatmas Ghandi, walking and singing \u2018Lead Kindly Light\u2019, embodied this common hope.\u00a0 Ghandi wrote:\u00a0 \u201cI am part and parcel of the whole, and cannot find God apart from the rest of humanity\u201d<\/em>. Ghandi inspired and taught the earlier Dean of Marsh Chapel, Howard Thurman.<\/p>\n

Today especially the voice of Howard Thurman, hands raised in silence, later wrote:\u00a0 \u201cthere is always lurking close at had the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

The voice of Martin Luther King.\u00a0 Thurman taught King, whose stentorian voice fills our memory and whose sculpture adorns our Plaza.\u00a0 King wrote: \u201cI believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality<\/em>\u201d. Martin Luther King inspired a whole generation of ministers, including the current Dean of this Chapel.<\/p>\n

He (Robert Allan Hill) wrote:\u00a0 \u201cWe are all more human and more alike than we regularly affirm, all of us on this great globe. We all survive the birth canal, and so have a native survivors\u2019 guilt. All seven and a half billion. We all need daily two things, bread and a name. (One does not live by bread alone). All seven and a half \u00a0billion. We all grow to a point of separation, a leaving home, a second identity. All seven and a half billion. We all love our families, love our children, love our homes, love our grandchildren. All seven and a half \u00a0billion. We all age, and after fifty, its maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. All seven and a half billion. We all shuffle off this mortal coil en route to that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns. All seven and a half billion.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Spirit in Tradition.<\/p>\n

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

So too, Spirit in Reason.<\/p>\n

Reason can have the deepest range in Spirit.\u00a0 Think of Robert Francis Kennedy, late a night, in the rain, at the Indianapolis airport, April 4 1968, speaking from memory and from the heart.\u00a0 Looking back this week, what is striking is his reliance on spirited reason.\u00a0 Reason in the rain.<\/p>\n

Robert Francis Kennedy, Indianapolis, April 4 1968:<\/em><\/p>\n

I have bad news for you\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to<\/em><\/strong> justice\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

In this difficult day\u2026we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, <\/em><\/strong>and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

For those of you<\/em><\/strong> who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act<\/strong>, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed,<\/strong> but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: \u201cIn our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another,<\/em><\/strong> and a<\/em><\/p>\n

But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world\u2026<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people<\/em><\/strong>\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

And so also Thurman.\u00a0 Read or re-read this winter The Search for Common Ground, With Head and Heart, and Jesus and the Disinherited.<\/em>It is the spirited reason, the life of the spiritual mind of Howard Thurman that still invigorates us:<\/p>\n

Crown: <\/em><\/strong>\u201cThis is how Jesus demonstrated reverence for personality\u2026He placed a crown over her head which for the rest of her life she would keep trying to grow tall enough to wear.\u201d\u00a0 (<\/strong>Disinherited 106).<\/em><\/p>\n

Harmony: <\/em><\/strong>As Thurman wrote in the Search for Common Ground, \u201cThe Hopi Indian myth carries still, in its thematic emphasis on \u201cthe memory of a lost harmony<\/strong>\u201d\u201d.\u00a0 (CG, 40)<\/em><\/p>\n

Unity: There is a unity of living structures\u2026that includes rocks, plants, animals, and humans.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 Antibodies and antigens.\u00a0 And the arrangement of a cell in a human child (CG, 40).<\/em><\/p>\n

Wisdom: <\/em><\/strong>Thurman cites Plato: \u2018Until philosophers are kings\u2026and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, <\/strong>and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside\u2026cities will never have rest from their evils\u2019.\u00a0 (CG, 53)\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Mind: <\/em><\/strong>\u2018Jesus rejected hatred.\u00a0 It was not because he lacked the vitality or the strength.\u00a0 It was not because he lacked the incentive.\u00a0 Jesus rejected hatred because he saw that hatred meant death to the mind, <\/strong>death to the spirit, death to communion with his Father.\u00a0 He affirmed life, and hatred was the great denial\u2019 (JATD, 88)<\/em><\/p>\n

Child: \u2018There is something more to be said about the inner equipment growing out of the great affirmation of Jesus that a man is a child of God<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 (JATD, 53).<\/em><\/p>\n

Spirit in Reason.<\/p>\n

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

Spirit in Experience, and we mean here spiritual experience.\u00a0 Whence ideas and imagination?<\/p>\n

We are driving along a blue highway, Route 20.\u00a0 Conversation pauses.\u00a0 The rolling hillsides, now sprouting corn, alfalfa, beans, wheat, and hay, are like their own tidal waves, their own sea scape, in green not blue.<\/p>\n

An idea <\/em>arrives, related to \u2018conversation\u2019.\u00a0 Two books by our MIT neighbor Sherry Turkle, Alone Together and Reclaiming Conversation<\/em>, have guided some of my thought about this.\u00a0 We hope to meet her in person sometime.\u00a0 Her voice is a crucial one in this conversation about conversation, and she is only the span of the river away.\u00a0 A thought:\u00a0 why not invite her, Dr. Turkle, to come to Marsh Chapel and engage in a dialogue sermon?\u00a0 The conversational form of the sermon would itself accent our emphasis upon conversation, as would her voice, presence, and knowledge.\u00a0 The work on conversation could include a pulpit conversation with perhaps the current intellectual leader in thought about conversation.\u00a0 An idea, maybe a good idea, has arrived, as the green sea fields of young corn roll by.\u00a0 But no body has done anything about it.\u00a0 Yet.<\/p>\n

Where did that idea come from?\u00a0 Non liquet:\u00a0 it is not clear.\u00a0 Whence such an idea?\u00a0 How does a new prospect\u2014here, the possibility of a pulpit dialogue\u2014come to life?\u00a0 The leisure<\/em> to drive and be bathed in silence, along with the occasional personal conversation, certainly allows space and time for such a thought to land in the mind.\u00a0 The further distance<\/em> from daily, office or campus routine and rhythm, so important to the work of sermon development and any other composition, adds a further support.\u00a0 Perhaps the familiarity <\/em>of the route, the drive itself\u2014a road the car could meander on its own, so regular are the trips\u2014gave a lulling quietude that became the womb of gestation for thought.\u00a0 \u2018My best sermon ideas come while I am shaving\u2019<\/em> once said James Forbes.\u00a0\u00a0 Yet the moment of insight, of new thought, the arrival of an idea comes on its own with our without a well-manicured airport, runway or landing strip.\u00a0 Whence an idea?\u00a0 What is going on when we think?\u00a0 Or when we think we are thinking?\u00a0 Or when we think about our thinking?\u00a0 Whence an idea?<\/p>\n

Or whence imagination<\/em>?\u00a0 How, of a recent evening, did a current political campaign unearth the memory of 1 Samuel 16: 1-13 (here slightly updated), in the mind of a Boston preacher?<\/p>\n

The Lord said to them:\u00a0 You need another leader, and I have provided one for you.\u00a0 Go to Bethlehem (or was it Iowa?) and see.<\/p>\n

So, they went together as a party.\u00a0 And along the way they held many and great debates. And they saw Eliab,<\/em> also named Joe, but the Lord had not chosen him.\u00a0 And then they saw Abinadab,<\/em> a good Jewish fellow also known as Bernie, but they heard the Lord had not chosen him.\u00a0 Then they saw Shammah,<\/em> also known as Elizabeth, but their guide said the Lord had not chosen her either.\u00a0 And then there seven others:\u00a0 Klobachar, Steyer, Buttegieg, Booker, Harris, O\u2019Rourke, and Bloomberg.\u00a0 But these were not what they needed either. I look not on appearance but on the heart, said the Lord. \u00a0And that was the end of the list.\u00a0 There were no more candidates.\u00a0 And they sat down by the olive tree, or was it a New Hampshire maple tree, or was it a Georgia peach tree, and they sighed, and they murmured, and they groaned, and they sorrowed, and they gave in to melancholy.<\/p>\n

But then someone said:\u00a0 Are they all here?\u00a0 Well, said someone else, I think that\u2019s all of them.\u00a0 Then one said, is that right?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t there anybody else.\u00a0 And the reply came, well, I mean, there is one other, but he is really young compared to all these, and he has been busy taking care of his family and flock.\u00a0 He is a good shepherd, a good governor, in that way.<\/p>\n

And the party said, after yet another debate, Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down until he comes here, or we at least see him on TV. \u00a0And so, they went and fetched him.\u00a0 Now he was ruddy.\u00a0 And he had beautiful eyes, and was handsome.\u00a0 And the Lord said: Arise, pick him, for this is he.\u00a0 His name is David, <\/em>also known as Deval.\u00a0\u00a0 So, they thanked Joe, Bernie, Elizabeth, Klobachar, Steyer, Buttegieg, Booker, Harris, O\u2019Rourke and Bloomberg, and, in a big party meeting, they picked Deval.\u00a0 And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David, also known as Deval, from that day forward.<\/p>\n

Whence such whimsical imagination?\u00a0 Who knows.\u00a0 We know this, though, as my son the basketball coach repeats and repeats:\u00a0 It is not how you start that counts.\u00a0 It is how you finish.\u00a0 <\/em>Life is full of surprises.<\/p>\n

That is spirit in experience.<\/p>\n

Spirit in Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience.\u00a0 All of them will take you closer to Howard Thurman, to Jesus, and to your own most self.<\/p>\n

Close To You<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You can get close to Howard Thurman through <\/em><\/p>\n

Prayer<\/em><\/p>\n

Song <\/em><\/p>\n

Hymns<\/em><\/p>\n

Spirituals<\/em><\/p>\n

Psalms<\/em><\/p>\n

Meditation<\/em><\/p>\n

Candles <\/em><\/p>\n

Study<\/em><\/p>\n

Scripture <\/em><\/p>\n

Gathering, Meaning, Belonging<\/em><\/p>\n

Empowerment<\/em><\/p>\n

Community<\/em><\/p>\n

Preaching<\/em><\/p>\n

Ritual<\/em><\/p>\n

Praise<\/em><\/p>\n

Worship<\/em><\/p>\n

Religion<\/em><\/p>\n

My friends, the doors of the church are open!\u00a0 Thurman wrote: \u201cThe ocean and the night surrounded my little life with a reassurance that could not be affronted by any human behavior.\u00a0 The ocean at night gave me a sense of timelessness, of existing beyond the ebb and flow of circumstance.\u00a0 Death would be a small thing I felt in the sweep of that natural embrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

-The Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill, Dean of Marsh Chapel<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to hear the full service Isaiah 49:1\u20137 1 Corinthians 1:1\u20139 John 1:29\u201342 Click here to hear just the sermon \u2018I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove\u2019 Scripture O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me! 2\u00a0Thou knowest when I sit down and when I rise up; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0thou discernest my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[54,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603"}],"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=2603"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2607,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2603\/revisions\/2607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}