{"id":3296,"date":"2022-01-23T11:00:27","date_gmt":"2022-01-23T16:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=3296"},"modified":"2022-01-23T12:53:01","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T17:53:01","slug":"insurrection-or-resurrection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2022\/01\/23\/insurrection-or-resurrection\/","title":{"rendered":"Insurrection or Resurrection?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Luke 4: 14-21<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Hear the gospel.\u00a0 Our gift and task as people of faith is to live out the resurrection in this hour of insurrection.\u00a0 Resurrection amid insurrection.<\/p>\n

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

Our gospel this year is that of St. Luke, about more which other Sundays. Today Jesus meets us, for once, in the pulpit. He has chosen his text from Isaiah. He has read and spoken.<\/p>\n

Jesus reads and interprets, in the stylized memory of Luke 4. He meets us in the garb of interpretation. Interpretation is a very delicate art. Communication is a delicate art. Interpretation is communication squared.<\/p>\n

A vote tally is communication. Interpretation begins when the question is raised about what the tally meant. The announcement of the new evening programming is communication. Interpretation begins when the question is raised about what the change says, portends, about, say, generational communication. The body count is communication. Interpretation begins when the question is raised about what we are to make of horrendous loss.<\/p>\n

Jesus reads from the beauty of later Isaiah. Then he interprets the meaning, meaning, now, the reading is fulfilled.<\/p>\n

No other gospel records this reading from Isaiah, nor the remarkable interpretation which follows.. Mark does not record it in his writing from 70ce, nor Matthew from 85ce, nor John from 90ce. Only Luke includes Isaiah 61, only Luke has Jesus in the synagogue pulpit, only Luke devises the account of the scroll and its attendant, only Luke announces fulfillment in a dramatic conclusion. That is communication. Interpretation begins when we ask, \u2018why\u2019?<\/p>\n

By so doing, Luke announces Jesus as bearer of the word, a resurrection word. There is a word, a passage and its meaning.<\/p>\n

Luke has expanded and redesigned an account of Jesus\u2019 hometown preaching, also recorded in Matthew 13 and Mark 6. You will find those two passages largely unlike what we heard a moment ago. Luke places Jesus, as apocalyptic preacher, announcing the advent of the kingdom, right in the beginning of the gospel. Moreover, this preachment is about the jubilee year, a prophetic hope that once in a lifetime, once every fifty years, all debts would be forgiven, all indentured servants freed, and all land returned to its ancient owners. \u2018Once in a lifetime the entire economy would be given a fresh start\u2019 (Ringe, 69). We have no historical evidence that the Jubilee ever occurred, but we have Isaiah 61 to show the presence of such an imaginative hope.<\/p>\n

Edward Schillebeex, a Roman Catholic Vatican II theologian from Holland, died about ten years ago. His ninety years were spent in interpretation. He was criticized for focusing the meaning of resurrection on what it means in people\u2019s lives. He came from that school of thought that emphasized the preaching of the gospel as the experience of resurrection. Hearing in faith of the resurrection, and believing in obedient living, is the resurrection of the faith of Christ. Well, he and his form of Roman Catholic theological interpretation, are no longer the norm, in our sister church, if they ever were. But his insight lives on, raised, if you will, from the dead.<\/p>\n

\u2018Truth happens\u2019, as William James taught. Truth is spoken and heard. When in the course of human events, when in the ordinary run of one\u2019s few earthly days, one hears and heeds a renewing truth, a good word, there is resurrection. Such a moment is not less than Easter morning, and is not a substitute for Easter morning, and is not apart from Easter morning. It is saving truth, grounded and rooted in the cross of Christ, heard and lived.\u00a0 May we discover faith in God and faith in ourselves<\/p>\n

A religious community that will honor, as Jesus is remembered here to have honored, the word, will live.<\/p>\n

A traveling elder, in the tradition of our second hymn, is sent to preach. She is sent to preach the gospel of the resurrection. Renewal by word. We have many pulpits and an older pattern, which we may want to dust off, of sending the traveling preachers pulpit to pulpit. By the fourth time you preach a sermon, it can be pretty good. We are better off with one good sermon preached four times, than with four not so good, once each. Traditional liturgy is renewal in thought. Traveling elders are renewal in word.<\/p>\n

Would that all God\u2019s people were preachers and prophets! Or, as we did sing, \u2018O for a thousand tongues\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

Word brings renewal to culture, religion, denomination, ministry and life.\u00a0 Word brings resurrection.\u00a0 That, there, here, now is good news, a resurrection word, resurrection amid insurrection.<\/p>\n

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

But there are particular weeks and months when we most need to hear and re-hear the gospel. There are some weeks and months when good news seems hard to come by.\u00a0 November 1963.\u00a0 August 1968. \u00a0December 1988. September 2001.\u00a0 April 2013.\u00a0 November 2016.\u00a0 January 2021. Yet these serial reminders of dark days, weeks and months past are meant, as you rightly surmise, to recall that we did make it through them, and we will get through this, too<\/em>. \u00a0We did make it through them, and we will get through this, too. <\/em>Not unscathed, and hopefully not unchanged, but together, we will make it through.\u00a0 Some weeks, like that of January 6, one year ago.<\/p>\n

At some preconscious level, somewhere down in the declivities of the country\u2019s psyche, we had a sense that this was coming.\u00a0 We did not want to admit it.\u00a0 We hoped against hope to be wrong in that premonition.\u00a0 We hoped to whistle past the graveyard for another few days.\u00a0 Yet we remembered, dimly, our upbringing, \u2018don\u2019t play with fire if you don\u2019t want to get burned\u2019.<\/p>\n

I pray for my own people, my own congregation, our University, our listenership, you and your loved ones, near or far or very far away.\u00a0 It must be admitted, that there are some weeks when good news seems pretty hard to come by.\u00a0 This is one.\u00a0 A week in a month that includes the affrontery, the remembered predatory mendacity of a year and fortnight ago, January 6, 2021.<\/p>\n

Today, following Jesus\u2019 example in Luke 4, we announce the gospel in interpretation of and accord with the Scriptures. Scripture gives us the chance for the long view.\u00a0 Scripture gives us a deep grounding, with heaven a little higher and earth a little wider. Thank goodness we have the Holy Scripture to which to turn, from which to\u00a0 learn, with which to listen, pray and prepare.<\/p>\n

Resurrection Amid Insurrection<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen.\u00a0 The Gospel of Luke was written for listening.\u00a0 It emerged over long time, with the earliest Christians reciting and recalling their Lord, his love, and their shared shaping by that love, in faith, beginning in baptism.\u00a0 They listened, morning and evening, Sunday by Sunday, and over time, in direct response to weeks both empty and full, they began to write down for future generations what they had heard.\u00a0 Today we have such a lesson, the hearing of a voice.\u00a0 Today we start again into an unknown future.\u00a0 For all our failure, for all manner of sin and death and meaninglessness, for all that is wrong, and there is much, especially just now, there is a voice, ringing out and calling to us.\u00a0 Especially in weeks when good news is scarce.\u00a0 And in our time, into dimensions of common ground that may cause us work and make us uncertain, we will want to learn to listen, and listen again. Voices from this past week reverberate.\u00a0 On MKL Sunday, after worship, and following our memorial service for Ed Mann, echoes of voices from this weekend in years past came along to encourage.\u00a0 Dale Andrews, Walter Fluker, Peter Paris, Gil Caldwell, Liz Douglass, Lawrence Carter, Jennifer Quigley, Karen Coleman, Christopher Edwards, Cornell William Brooks, Deval Patrick. Particularly in these years on MLK Sunday, a resurrection word has been spoken and heard, here, for which we are grateful, lastingly so.\u00a0 Then, through this week, the reverberations resounded.\u00a0 Tuesday, Cornell William Brooks engaged an 11 day hunger strike this last week, he who spoke here on April 4, 2018.\u00a0 Resurrection voice.\u00a0 Wednesday, Governor Deval Patrick implored us, we need an unrest of the heart, not unrest in the streets, but in the heart, unrest of the heart<\/em>, he who spoke here on April 8, 2018. \u00a0<\/em>Resurrection voice. Senator Rafael Warnock, student of Lawrence Carter who also preached here in 2018, spoke bluntly:\u00a0 Some people<\/em> don\u2019t want some people<\/em> to vote. Resurrection voice. Listen.\u00a0 Listen.\u00a0 Listen.<\/p>\n

Pray.\u00a0 What a tremendous spiritual gift is our Psalter.\u00a0 Remember Samuel Terrien teaching us: :\u00a0 Here are 700 years of psalms, 1000-400bce.\u00a0 For the psalmists, Yahweh\u2019s presence was not only made manifest in Zion.\u00a0 It reached men and women over the entire earth.\u00a0 The sense of Yahweh\u2019s presence survived the annihilation of the temple and the fall of the state 587bc.\u00a0 Elusive but real, it feared no geographical uprooting and no historical disruption.\u00a0 Having faced the void in history and in their personal lives, they knew the absence of God even within the temple.\u00a0 The inwardness of their spirituality, bred by the temple, rendered the temple superfluous. (279)<\/em> \u00a0In other words, they knew how to live through and out through godless weeks.\u00a0 Our psalm today, Psalm 19, ancient and redolent with glory, recalls for us how to pray.\u00a0 From your youth you have known.\u00a0 Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication.\u00a0 The ACTS forms of prayer.\u00a0 Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication.\u00a0 Pray.\u00a0 Pray.\u00a0 Pray.<\/p>\n

Prepare.\u00a0 The whole of Scripture begins with the divine preparation, in creation, and in speech.\u00a0 \u2018Let there be\u2026\u2019\u00a0 And what might that be, let there be?\u00a0 Light.<\/em>\u00a0 Watch for the rays of light in the dark.\u00a0 Watch for the rays of light in the darkWeeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning<\/em>, he was reminded.\u00a0 Yes, but that\u2019s the thing about the morning<\/em>, he responded, it begins in the full dark, it begins at dawn, before daybreak. <\/em>\u00a0Light.\u00a0 <\/em>Watch for the coming rays of light. \u00a0Nor does light shine only in the heart, but also, even moreso, in the heart of the community.\u00a0 Individuals need to prepare, but so do communities. \u00a0That\u2019s the thing about the morning.\u00a0 It begins in the dark, in preparation, awaiting the word\u2026 LET THERE BE LIGHT.\u00a0 So, friend, you have the task and gift to face the time we are in.\u00a0 To choose a way to support leadership you affirm, check by\u00a0 check.\u00a0 To influence the health of culture, meeting by meeting.\u00a0 To live your franchise, vote by vote.\u00a0 Give, go, vote. Prepare.\u00a0 Prepare.\u00a0 Prepare.<\/p>\n

Now is the time.\u00a0 In the halcyon, bucolic spring of high school senior year, a few years ago, Mrs. Bartels confronted your preacher.\u00a0 Mr. Hill, you are failing my typing class.\u00a0 You will get an F.\u00a0 (But, why an F, I asked?)\u00a0 Because she said it is the lowest grade I have on offer.\u00a0 If I had a lower one I would give you that.\u00a0 You do not want an F on your final grade sheet.\u00a0 I see you talking to that talented pianist who accompanies the choir.\u00a0 She got a typing A three years ago.\u00a0 Maybe she could help you.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

In fact, that talented pianist and typist did, and I came through with a C-, a gentleman\u2019s C-.\u00a0 But this sermonic spoonful of sugar is told to help the fateful medicine go down.\u00a0 For Mrs. Bartels began each class, if memory serves, having us type the following sentence:\u00a0 Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country.\u00a0 Now is the time for all good folk to come to the aid of their country.\u00a0 Now.\u00a0 Not later, now.\u00a0 Without a functioning democracy we will never be able to address climate change, face race, outrun pandemic, keep peace on the globe, work for a just, participatory and sustainable culture, or live with hope.\u00a0 So now is the time.\u00a0 Send a check, attend a meeting, go and vote, especially younger folks, hear that last: vote, vote, vote.\u00a0 It\u2019s later than you think.<\/em><\/p>\n

People of God.\u00a0 Listen!\u00a0 Pray!\u00a0 Prepare!\u00a0 And hear again the gospel, that of resurrection not of insurrection.<\/p>\n

We conclude with a poem from the Lone Star State, and our theopoetical radio congregant, Milton Jordan.<\/p>\n

Coda:\u00a0 Creating Community<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

after Howard Thurman *<\/p>\n

When the song of the marchers is silent<\/p>\n

and annual memory of the Dream reshelved,<\/p>\n

When Senators turn back to obstruction<\/p>\n

and justice hard won is reversed,<\/p>\n

When despair seems to cloud every vision<\/p>\n

then the work of the people begins.<\/p>\n

To call forth our shared hopes<\/p>\n

and reclaim shattered trust<\/p>\n

To bind up the broken<\/p>\n

let the prisoner be free<\/p>\n

To leave no neighbor hungry<\/p>\n

nor any people at war,<\/p>\n

To recreate community<\/p>\n

and join all creation in song.<\/p>\n