{"id":2940,"date":"2021-01-31T11:01:28","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T16:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=2940"},"modified":"2021-01-31T09:35:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T14:35:49","slug":"the-bach-experience-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2021\/01\/31\/the-bach-experience-27\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bach Experience, Imago Dei: Bach and the Golden Rule"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Click here to hear just The Bach Experience<\/a><\/p>\n

Dr. Scott Allen Jarrett, Director of Music:<\/strong><\/p>\n

As we turn again to our regular musical conversation partner, Johann Sebastian Bach, the tri-partite\u00a0 rhythm of Tradition, Confrontation, and Response<\/strong> echoes in the works of Bach, a fifth Gospel transforming thought, word, and deed into a sacred song of praise, inspiration and aspiration.<\/p>\n

Today, we feature five movements from five cantatas heard over the past two decades here at Marsh Chapel in our Sunday morning liturgy. As with Bach, we begin and end with hymns of praise and adoration, before confronting the challenges of our earthly predicament. Bach seems to acknowledge the difficulty we have in loving our neighbor, but he challenges us to embrace the transformative experience of a daily opportunity to extend God\u2019s grace, Loving into freedom and freeing into greater Love.<\/p>\n

We begin in joyful adoration with the opening movement of Cantata 69: Bless the Lord, O My Soul and forget not all His benefits.<\/p>\n

BWV 69a.1| Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 August 15, 1723<\/strong><\/p>\n

Psalm\u00a0 103:2<\/p>\n

Lobe den Herrn, meine Seele, und vergi\u00df nicht, was er dir Gutes getan hat!<\/em><\/p>\n

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits!<\/p>\n

The Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill, Dean of Marsh Chapel:<\/strong><\/p>\n

And now, a pivot, a challenge, a confrontation, an opportunity for contrition perhaps:<\/p>\n

Ecclesiasticus 1:28 \u2014 \u201cSee to it that thy fear of God be not hypocrisy, and do not serve God with a double heart\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Dr. Scott Allen Jarrett<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Ah yes, the Apple of Sodom. Did you ever hear of this mystical fruit?? Bright and shiny on the outside, but so rotten inside, that it instantly dissolves into ash when plucked. For Bach and the librettist of Cantata 179, the Apple of Sodom represented a dire warning for the faithful: see to it that your inner and outer piety are of equal sincerity. The idea of reflection and mirroring the image of the creator is seared into the very counterpoint of the movement we\u2019re about to hear. Written as a fugue, notice how successive entrances are cast in mirror inversion of the main theme \u2014 a paradigm for the purity faith requires, inside and out. One can hear the strain and stress of a false or double heart in the descending chromatics sung on the word Falsche or False. See to it, that your fear of God be not hypocrisy. Serve God with a pure heart, reflecting and mirroring God\u2019s infinite grace and mercy.\u00a0 Jaunty, didactic, even admonishing, Bach readily flexes his contrapuntal muscles with zeal and ardor, inviting the faithful to seek the high ground, survey the common ground, but not before we\u2019ve scoured the background.<\/p>\n

BWV 179.1 \u2014 Siehe zu, dass deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 August 8, 1723<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ecclesiasticus 1:28<\/p>\n

Siehe zu, da\u00df deine Gottesfurcht nicht Heuchelei sei, und diene Gott nicht mit falschem Herzen!<\/em><\/p>\n

See to it that thy fear of God be not hypocrisy, and do not serve God with a double heart.<\/p>\n

Dr. Scott Allen Jarrett<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Hear these words from the prophet Isaiah:<\/p>\n

\u201cDeal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the poor\u00a0 that are cast out to thy house. When thou seest the naked, cover him; and hide not thyself from thine own flesh. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thy health shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee, the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

The idea of reflecting the image of the creator is the creative spark at the heart of the golden rule. For to love your neighbor, extending grace, is indeed the image of God\u2019s grace so freely and readily given to each of us. What begins as social justice for Isaiah \u2013 feed the hungry, clothe the naked, house the unhoused, becomes the animus for our own transformation.<\/p>\n

Dr. Scott Allen Jarrett<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Like Jesus in today\u2019s lesson from Mark 1, Bach teaches us with remarkable understanding and authority. What begins as hollow, even disembodied \u201cdry bones\u201d music, more resembling those who most need our help, little by little takes on sinews until fully clothed in the garb of a joyful dance.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Love and serve your neighbor, and do so with the understanding that this above all rejoices God\u2019s heart, transforming us with the brightness of the morning sun.<\/p>\n

BWV 39.1 \u2014 Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 June 23, 1726<\/strong><\/p>\n

Isaiah 58: 7\u20138<\/p>\n

Brich dem Hungrigen dein Brot und die, so im Elend sind, f\u00fchre ins Haus! So du eienen nacket siehest, so kleide ihn und entzeuch dich nicht von deinem Fleisch. Alsdenn wird dein Licht herf\u00fcrbrechen wie die Morgenr\u00f6te, und diene Besserung wird schnell wachsen, und deine Gerechtigkeit wird f\u00fcr dir hergehen, und die Herrlichkiet des Herrn wird dich zu sich nehmen.<\/em><\/p>\n

Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the poor\u00a0 that are cast out to thy house. When thou seest the naked, cover him; and hide not thyself from thine own flesh. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning and thy health shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee, the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

The Golden Rule. Seems so easy, so straightforward. The Law \u2013 to love the Lord your God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself<\/em>. Jesus offers simply and directly, \u201cLove one another.\u201d No other qualifications or exemptions, but Jesus\u2019s Lucan parable of the Good Samaritan acknowledges our human failings.\u00a0 In so doing, Jesus reveals a sublime dialectic \u2013 Law and Grace, inextricably connected, inviting us daily to acknowledge our sin, claim God\u2019s redeeming grace, and freely share that same Grace.<\/p>\n

Dr. Scott Allen Jarrett<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

In recent years, our survey of Bach\u2019s cantatas has drawn inspiration and focus from those cantatas Bach wrote in his first months in Leipzig: July, August, and September of 1723. These works reveal an astonishing and radiant understanding of the scripture, far beyond mere text setting. The grand and bold opening movement of Cantata 77 unfolds with tender, unassuming lines, that ultimately gather to the most extraordinary musical essay on the great dialectic of the Law and Grace. The highest and lowest instrumental voices play the familiar Ten Commandments chorale tune in grand canonic imitation. But these lines attain new meaning and height when we realize that the inner lines sung by the chorus are that same melody sung backwards and upside down. Grace is inextricably derived from the creative stuff of the Law, in perfect equilibrium, the most noble expression of contrite, sincere love of God \u2014 a pure reflection of inner and outer piety. Bach\u2019s musical expression of Imago Dei<\/em> \u2013 the Image of God.<\/p>\n

BWV 77.1 \u2014 Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 August 22, 1723<\/strong><\/p>\n

Luke 10:27<\/p>\n

Du sollt Gott, deinen Herren, lieben von ganzem Herzen, von ganzer Seele, von allen Kr\u00e4ften und von ganzem Gem\u00fcte und deinen N\u00e4chsten als dich selbst.<\/em><\/p>\n

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.<\/p>\n

The Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Well beloved, today\u2019s journey with Bach celebrates that perfect state of grace attained when we \u2014 each of us \u2014 imparts grace, kindness, patience \u2014 persistent<\/em> patience \u2014 all without quid pro quo.<\/p>\n

Dr. Scott Allen Jarrett<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Imago Dei. The mirror of the divine: freeing into love, and loving into freedom. Freide \u00fcber Israel! Peace upon Israel. Bach\u2019s song to you, God\u2019s abiding peace to you.\u00a0 Peace upon Israel.<\/p>\n

BWV 34.5 \u2014 O ewiges Feuer, o Ursprung der Liebe \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1740s<\/strong><\/p>\n

John 14: 23 and 27<\/p>\n

Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.<\/p>\n

Friede \u00fcber Israel. Dankt den h\u00f6chsten Wunderh\u00e4nden, Dankt, Gott hat an euch gedacht. Ja, sein Segen wirkt mit Macht, Friede \u00fcber Israel, Friede \u00fcber euch zu senden. <\/em><\/p>\n

Peace upon Israel! Give thanks to the Almighty\u2019s wondrous hands, Give thanks that God has been mindful of you. Yea, the might of His blessing casts peace upon Israel, and peace upon you.<\/p>\n

-Compiled and written by Dr. Scott Allen Jarrett, Director of Music<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to hear the full service Click here to hear just The Bach Experience Dr. Scott Allen Jarrett, Director of Music: As we turn again to our regular musical conversation partner, Johann Sebastian Bach, the tri-partite\u00a0 rhythm of Tradition, Confrontation, and Response echoes in the works of Bach, a fifth Gospel transforming thought, word, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25,36,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2940"}],"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=2940"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2945,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2940\/revisions\/2945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}