{"id":3299,"date":"2022-01-30T11:00:51","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T16:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=3299"},"modified":"2022-02-15T12:54:14","modified_gmt":"2022-02-15T17:54:14","slug":"the-bach-experience-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2022\/01\/30\/the-bach-experience-33\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bach Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Luke 4: 21-30<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to hear just the sermon<\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Consider us with Your love, enclose us within Your mercy!<\/em><\/p>\n

So, in word and song, we bow before God this morning.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In word, this year, the word as given through the Gospel According to St. Luke.<\/p>\n

What meets us in St. Luke this year?<\/p>\n

Luke was written nearly a generation later than Mark, by most estimates, Mark in or near 70, Luke in or near 90 of the common era. \u00a0Traditionally ascribed to Luke the physician, its author and that of its sequel, the Acts of the Apostles, is finally unknown to us. \u00a0We know him only through the writing itself.<\/p>\n

What do we find? \u00a0Or what shall we find in prayerful conversation with Luke across the next year, and beginning today amid Cantata and Liturgy?<\/p>\n

Luke is made up of a mixture of ingredients. \u00a0First, Luke uses most of Mark. An example is our passage today, the depiction of Jesus rejection by his own home town. \u00a0Like Matthew, Luke knew and repeated most of the earlier gospel of Mark. But he made changes along the way, or construed the gospel according to his own desires and emphases. \u00a0This is hopeful for us, in that it is an encouragement for us to take the gospel in hand, and interpret it according to our time, location, understanding, and need. Second, Luke uses a collection of teachings, called Q, as does Matthew. \u00a0An example is our Lord\u2019s Prayer.\u00a0 Luke\u2019s version is slightly different from that in Matthew, as is his version of the beatitudes and other teachings, found in the \u2018sermon on the plain\u2019, rather than the \u2018sermon on the mount\u2019. \u00a0Third, Luke makes ample use of material that is all his own, not found in Mark or elsewhere. The long chapters from Luke 8 or so through Luke 18 or so, are all his. Examples include some of your favorite parables, like the Good Samaritan, and like the lost sheep, and like the Prodigal Son, and like the Dishonest Steward. \u00a0We have Luke to thank for the remembrance of these great stories. Luke brings us a unique mixture of materials, and makes his own particular use of them.<\/p>\n

But regarding Word, what does Luke say, and how does he say it?<\/p>\n

This will take us the year and more to unravel. \u00a0We shall do so, one step at a time, one Sunday at a time, one parable, teaching, exhortation, miracle, or, as today, one narrative at a time. \u00a0Still, there are some outstanding features of the Lukan horizon, which we may simply name as we set forth, a sort of map for the journey ahead. First, Luke displays a commitment to and interest in history, and orderly history at that. \u00a0Both Luke and Acts are cast in a distinctive historical mode. In fact, Luke has his own schemata for sacred history, in three parts: Israel, Jesus, Church: the time of Israel, concluding with John the Baptist; the time of Jesus, concluding with the Ascension; the time of the church, concluding with the parousia<\/em>, the coming of the Lord on the clouds of heaven, at the end of time. \u00a0Second, Luke employs and deploys his own theology, or theological perspective, including this emphasis upon history and the divine purpose in history. \u00a0\u00a0Third, Luke highlights the humanity and compassion of Jesus in a remarkable way. The Christ of St. Luke is the Christ of magnificent compassion, embodied in the humility of a birth among shepherds. \u00a0The Lukan Christ bring this word:\u00a0 a passion for compassion. The poor, women, the stranger, the injured, those in dire need all stand out in Luke, as the recipients and subjects of Jesus\u2019 love, mercy, grace and compassion. Fourth, Luke carries an abiding interest in the church. \u00a0Ephesians says that \u2018through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the principles and powers\u2019. That catches the spirit of the author or the third gospel and of the Acts to follow.<\/p>\n

Hold most closely the compassion in Luke. \u00a0<\/em>At every turn, there is a return to the least, the last, the lost; those at the dawn of life, those at the twilight of life, those in the shadows of life.\u00a0 Those who decry preaching that engages life, culture, politics, economy and the cry of need about us have not read Luke, not even a bit.<\/p>\n

Notice, record, the way Luke puts it, beginning, middle and end: \u00a0\u00a0He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree, he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away\u2026The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor\u2026Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God\u2026What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?\u2026Sell your possessions and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old\u2026When you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind\u2026You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just\u2026Said Zacchaeus, \u2018behold Lord the half of my goods I give to the poor\u2019\u2026They contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr Jarrett, what grace, and sung beauty does our Cantata bring us today, alongside the compassion of St. Luke?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Jarrett’s response text is unavailable at this time.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Dean Hill:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

What shall bring to application of Scripture and Cantata?<\/p>\n

First, forbearance.\u00a0 \u201cLet your forbearance be known by all men.\u201d\u00a0 Forbearance is a patient power to bear with others and their needs.\u00a0 To help others get things right.\u00a0 To guide by presence and voice.\u00a0 Forbearance is a kind of prevenient forgiveness, a gift ahead of time.\u00a0 We look for and lean on people who bear one another\u2019s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, like mothers bear children and fathers bear with children.\u00a0 Institutions depend upon forbearance, and discern their leadership there.\u00a0 It is this grace to bear with that helps us in tight places, helps us through tense meetings, helps us manage tough interviews.\u00a0 It takes faith to show forbearance, and it takes something else, too.\u00a0 It takes a peace, like a river, down deep in the soul, a freedom from anxiety.\u00a0 \u201cHave no anxiety about anything, but in all things through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving bring your entreaties to God\u201d.\u00a0 It makes me anxious to read the sentence, because I can scarcely live it, in full, for a whole day.\u00a0 Yet as we grow in faith we find, over time, the peace to be forbearing, to be present but not anxious.\u00a0 We affirm forbearance in Cantata and in Scripture.<\/p>\n

Second, joy.\u00a0 Our passage is best known, perhaps, for its triumphant affirmation of faithful joy.\u00a0 \u201cRejoice in the Lord, always, again I say, Rejoice!\u201d\u00a0 It is startling for us to hear this sincere word, written in prison.\u00a0 It is one thing to be joyful in the summer, another in the winter.\u00a0 One thing in the meadow, another behind bars.\u00a0 Joy is more than happiness.\u00a0 Joy is bone happiness, or happiness put to music.\u00a0 Sometimes it is expressed in humor.\u00a0 One winter in our church there was a high moment, when our youth performed Godspell.\u00a0 It makes us older people very happy to see a stage full of handsome, talented 17 year olds.\u00a0 Since his grandson played Jesus, and very well, I said to the three generations:\u00a0 \u201cSon and Father I understand in the Trinity, along with Spirit, so Daniel and Al, my theology can comprehend you two, but Albert I have no way to comprehend the role of the Grandfather of Jesus\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Joy also a playful musing (musing is a crucial spiritual term), and he carried the thought along.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We affirm faithful joy in Scripture and Cantata.<\/p>\n

Consider us with Your love, enclose us within Your mercy!<\/em><\/p>\n

So, in word and song, we bow before God this morning.<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Click here to hear the full service Luke 4: 21-30 Click here to hear just the sermon\u00a0 Consider us with Your love, enclose us within Your mercy! So, in word and song, we bow before God this morning.   In word, this year, the word as given through the Gospel According to St. Luke. What […]<\/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\/3299"}],"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=3299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3310,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3299\/revisions\/3310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}