{"id":3262,"date":"2021-12-05T11:00:09","date_gmt":"2021-12-05T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=3262"},"modified":"2021-12-05T10:07:07","modified_gmt":"2021-12-05T15:07:07","slug":"memory-and-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2021\/12\/05\/memory-and-view\/","title":{"rendered":"Memory and View"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Luke 3: 1-6<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Past and Future<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.<\/em><\/p>\n

Our beloved Aunt Jane, now of blessed memory, lived with a gladness of heart, with a spiritual gladness, with a heart strangely warmed, as a child of God, a woman happy in God.\u00a0 A singing Methodist with a warm Methodist handshake, she taught math, and helped her fifth graders to learn to sing:\u00a0 row row row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.\u00a0 <\/em>Life is but a dream.<\/p>\n

Come Advent, we ponder dreams, as did John the Baptist, wet and cold in the murky Jordan.\u00a0 Do you record your dreams?\u00a0 One advantage of a college education, four years of freedom, subsidized freedom, to study and read and learn and change, the college advantage, is now and then, at least in part, to escape the 21st<\/sup> century.\u00a0 Yours is the chance by thought and lection and dream, to get out of December 2021, and dwell elsewhere, for a time.\u00a0 Others too spoke of dreams.<\/p>\n

Take Shakespeare.\u00a0 Here is Prospero, in the Tempest, singing for all time, and all times, and our time:\u00a0 We are such stuff \/ As dreams are made on, and our little life \/ Is rounded with a sleep.\u2019 \u00a0<\/em>Rounded with a sleep. Rounded with a sleep.\u00a0 The line came to mind at the gravesite last Saturday.\u00a0 She, a positive, optimistic, possibilist, would smile to hear it:\u00a0 We are such stuff as dreams are made on.<\/em> You\u2026you are such stuff as dreams are made on.<\/p>\n

Shakespeare, for dreams and for poetry about dreams has a partner in his Spanish contemporary, Calderon de la Barca, would died at 81 in 1681.\u00a0 Of dreams\u2014your stuff, you on whom dreams are made– \u201c\u00bfQu\u00e9 es la vida? Un frenes\u00ed. \u00bfQu\u00e9 es la vida? Una ilusi\u00f3n, una sombra, una ficci\u00f3n, y el mayor bien es peque\u00f1o; que toda la vida es sue\u00f1o, y los sue\u00f1os, sue\u00f1os son\u201d\u2026y los suenos suenos son\u2026even dreams themselves are themselves dreams.<\/em><\/p>\n

You are such stuff as dreams are made on.<\/p>\n

In hours and days when we rue and mourn the senseless and needless slaughter of innocents in public school corridors, \u2018such stuff\u2019 can be hard to hear, difficult to remember, a long way off, far and far away.\u00a0 Such tragedy.\u00a0 This is a tragedy embedded in a second amendment, originally meant to provide poor farmers defense against enemies foreign and domestic, become nationwide by the willful celebration of guns, of gun rights, and of gun violence, a portal to the loss of children, now with parents in utter grief and teachers in utter sadness, and a nation drenched in sorrow, teachers, by the way, quite like our dear Aunt Jane of blessed memory.<\/p>\n

You are not meant to die by gunshot, or be assaulted, or en masse be misled, or be tethered to technology. You are the stuff on which dreams are made.\u00a0 You are.\u00a0 We are.\u00a0 So let us live so, and choose so, and vote so, and treat others so.\u00a0 Let us learn from the apostle, that our love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight <\/em>(how in our time we need this!) to help you determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ.<\/em><\/p>\n

That Thanksgiving vacation week, six of eight grandchildren, for the moment safe and secure, played in front of the fireplace in our modest cabin in the woods.\u00a0 The oldest had been there, right there, 5 weeks after birth, and the others much the same.\u00a0 The small room\u2019s windows look out over the full length of the lake, facing northwest.\u00a0 They played.\u00a0 With authority their grandmother asked, What do you most love about this place?\u00a0 <\/em>There was long silence, somewhat an embarrassed one.\u00a0 Then, quietly, the 13 year old said, The memories, I love most the memories here. <\/em>And then another long quiet, a big chill of quiet.\u00a0 Then, quietly, the 11 year old said, The view, I love most the view.<\/em><\/p>\n

Memory and view.\u00a0 Hopefully good memories and beautiful views.\u00a0 These we receive from others.\u00a0 Powerfully, come Advent, we receive them again from the church.\u00a0 The church, so avoided, mocked, forgotten and underfunded today, the church gives you memory and view.\u00a0 The memory of others who have lived dream lives, and an open view of the future, open to an open future.\u00a0 Be open<\/em>, said Tillich.\u00a0\u00a0 Cold to the bone, awaiting the Messiah in the water, John the Baptist embodies the memories of all the glories of Israel and the view of the gift and promise of heaven.\u00a0 Of course, here in bread and cup, we chew on the memories and drink deeply of the hope of heaven.\u00a0 Do you know God to be a pardoning God<\/em>, intoned Wesley.\u00a0 Do you?<\/p>\n

In Conversation <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

There is a saving power, a saving grace in our Advent interest in conversation.\u00a0 It costs nothing to listen, except time and risk.\u00a0 And it costs nothing to speak, except time and risk. \u00a0Listen for what is not said or not clearly said. \u00a0Could you say that in another way?\u00a0 What I hear you to have said is just this.\u00a0 Do you really mean that, or do you mean half or double that?\u00a0 It sounds to me like you are wandering around Robin Hood\u2019s barn, and that makes me wonder why you are wandering like that.\u00a0 When you say that, who do you have in mind?\u00a0 Why do I have the feeling that you have a feeling about this?\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about this again some day.<\/em> There is a healing power, a healing grace in conversation.\u00a0 Most people can in time solve their own problems, if they just have someone to talk to about them, who will really listen to them.\u00a0 Maybe you will be that someone for someone else this week?\u00a0 Prepare ye, though, be prepared<\/p>\n

For in conversation, you are part bull fighter, part heavy weight boxer, part private detective, part spy.\u00a0 At stake, for all, is lasting health, personal salvation, individual growth, spiritual integrity, and the chance, the fleeting chance to experience being alive before we die.\u00a0 The cape ripples and the saber rattles.\u00a0 The prize fighter dodges, weaves, ducks, swings, retreats, advances.\u00a0 The PI looks through the back window, checks the mail in the mail box, notices the water still dripping from the faucet, puts two and two together.\u00a0 The one disguised behind enemy lines smiles, demurs, nods, remembers, and then will try to bring home a truth, the truth in hand, without getting caught.\u00a0 But these arts are learned, practiced, sharpened, conveyed, by one and another\u2026in conversation, come Advent, Advent conversation.<\/p>\n

Lukan Baptist<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

So, the Baptist, dressed in camel\u2019s hair, with a diet of locusts and honey (though Luke omits to dress and feed him as Mark so does), John the Baptist is the precursor to Jesus. \u00a0You cannot get to Christmas without Advent. \u00a0You cannot come to Bethlehem except by way of the Jordan. \u00a0You cannot celebrate grace without hearing first the prophetic voice (though it is also good to be reminded that the prophetic is a part of the gospel but not the heart of the gospel (repeat)). \u00a0Every year, right now, the Baptist, out in the dark cold miserable mud-soaked Jordan River, stops us. \u00a0He stops you. \u00a0He says the one prayerful word of the precursor, the prophetic word: \u2018Prepare\u2019. \u00a0Then he calls the whole people to prayer: \u00a0to repentance for pervasive sin; to acceptance of pardon as the way out of evil and hurt; to assurance of grace.<\/p>\n

Prayer is what comes before the rest, like Sunday morning is\u00a0meant to come before the rest (of the week). \u00a0Are you getting off on the right foot week by week?<\/p>\n

John the Baptist would want to know. \u00a0Look carefully at what Luke says about him. \u00a0See the Lukan Baptist, different from John the Baptist in Mark. \u00a0\u00a0Mark, 20 years before, begins his gospel with the Baptist. \u00a0The gospel opens, \u2018the voice of one\u2026\u2019 \u00a0Not Luke. \u00a0Luke wants John put in particular context, 20 years later.<\/p>\n

(We want to hear the gospel in the gospels<\/em>. \u00a0Luke says something different from what he borrowed out of Mark. \u00a0That should give us confidence, as we preach, to take the gospel in hand, and apply it to our own condition, our own time, as, well, the first gospel writers all did.)<\/p>\n

So, Luke has a history that precedes the precursor. \u00a0This history, an orderly one, tells of the conjoint mysterious births of John and Jesus. \u00a0This history, an orderly one, gives singing voice to Zechariah (whose psalm we used today) and Mary (two weeks hence). \u00a0This history, an orderly one, acknowledges the days of Caesar Augustus and Quirinius. \u00a0This history, an orderly one, honors Joseph, and paints like El Greco shepherds in the firelight of the \u2018smoking cradle\u2019 (Barth). \u00a0This history, an orderly one, makes a little space for the childhood of Jesus, in woe and weal both, circumcision, presentation, growth in wisdom, and temple teaching. \u00a0Then, only, does Luke allow the Baptist to appear. \u00a0But even here, it is the orderly history that prevails: 15 years, Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate, Herod and Philip, unpronounceable regions, eminently forgettable tetrarchs and priesthoods (\u2018a six-fold synchronism\u2019, as Bultmann wryly remarks (HST, 362)). \u00a0\u00a0Luke is making sure Jesus has his feet firmly planted in history, both of secular Empire and sacred Temple and an orderly history at that. \u00a0\u00a0So, for us, our engagement with history, under the influence of the Gospel of Luke, matters, counts, lasts, is lastingly real.<\/p>\n

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

An idea arrives.\u00a0 Whence an idea?\u00a0 Whence a thought? One interest in ministry is \u2018conversation\u2019.\u00a0 Two books by our MIT neighbor Sherry Turkle, Alone Together and Reclaiming Conversation<\/em>, have guided some of our thought in the past.\u00a0 Her voice is a crucial one, regarding students, in this conversation about conversation.\u00a0 \u00a0Our work on conversation benefits from good ideas, like hers.\u00a0 Musing, an idea, maybe a good idea, has arrived, as the green sea fields of young corn roll by.<\/p>\n

Where did that idea, that imaginative possibility come from?\u00a0 Whence such an idea?\u00a0 How does a new prospect\u2014here, the possibility of books read–come to life?\u00a0 The moment of insight, of new thought, the arrival of an idea comes on its own without our choice really, 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

There is no full answer, at least this morning.\u00a0 Today, perhaps, we simply want to pause before the mystery, one of life\u2019s great mysteries, the birth of an idea, in this case quite a modest one, but an idea nonetheless.\u00a0 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength\u2014and mind.\u00a0 And you love your neighbor as yourself.\u00a0 Whence an idea?<\/p>\n

Here is an idea, more daydream than dream. As we head into a winter better than last years\u2019s but not probably as good as next year\u2019s or as good as we had hoped, maybe some memory and some view will help us. Pardon this more pastoral word. A winter advisory if you will. Carry the memory of what you learned in endurance and creativity last year. And carry the wide angle view behind pandemic, the promise one day of post pandemic play, a hope fir next year. Memory and view. We need the two.<\/p>\n

The gift of memory.\u00a0 The gift of view.\u00a0 Life is but a dream.\u00a0 Rounded with a sleep.\u00a0 Suenos suenos son.\u00a0 <\/em>So, another\u2019s imagination, another\u2019s Advent season, winter epoch imagination, north of Boston, a hundred years ago.\u00a0 Robert Frost:<\/p>\n

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,<\/em><\/p>\n

But I have promises to keep,<\/em><\/p>\n

And miles to go before I sleep,<\/em><\/p>\n

And miles to go before I sleep.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>We await in the season of promise and expectation, of memory and view, \u00a0the coming of a new day, in which all flesh shall see the salvation of God. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.<\/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 Luke 3: 1-6 Click here to hear just the sermon Past and Future And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. Our beloved Aunt Jane, now of blessed memory, lived with a gladness of heart, with a spiritual gladness, with a heart strangely warmed, as a child […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3262"}],"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=3262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3263,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3262\/revisions\/3263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}