{"id":3338,"date":"2022-04-10T11:00:05","date_gmt":"2022-04-10T15:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=3338"},"modified":"2022-04-13T10:03:43","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T14:03:43","slug":"the-bach-experience-sunday-april-10-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2022\/04\/10\/the-bach-experience-sunday-april-10-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bach Experience- Sunday, April 10, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Luke 19:28-40<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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

It is not so long ago that we greeting Jesus at his nativity, singing carols and lighting candles of hope.\u00a0 It is not so long ago that we witnessed his growth in wisdom and stature, in the knowledge and love of God, while as a teenager he taught in the temple.\u00a0 It is not so long ago that this mighty young man Jesus stooped, fully human, for baptism in the surging river Jordan, the river of death and life.\u00a0 It is not so long ago that we saw him take up his ministry among us, preaching and teaching and healing.\u00a0 It is not so long ago that with Peter and James and John we saw him ascend the Mountain of the Transfiguration.\u00a0 With him have we walked this Lent, step by step.<\/p>\n

And now it is time to take the full measure of this Man, and to have the courage to let Him take our full measure, too.\u00a0 The crisp air and vistas of the mountain pass have fed our souls.\u00a0 But now it is time to head home, and turn our face to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

The road down the Mount of Olives, or down any mountain, can tax the traveler.\u00a0 It reminds us all of earlier homecomings.<\/p>\n

Odysseus walking the last few miles to Thebes.\u00a0 Socrates walking to the center of Athens and the cup of hemlock.\u00a0 Richard the Lionhearted sailing the English Channel, heading home.\u00a0 A prodigal son, scuffling up the last mile of country road toward a dreaded homecoming, as we heard two weeks ago.\u00a0 You, returning at last to whatever you have long avoided, wandering as you have in the Galilee of the rest of life.\u00a0 At last, there is the Emerald City, and the road home.<\/p>\n

Today, I raise just one question.\u00a0 What was Jesus\u2019 state of mind, what was on his mind and heart, as he entered the Holy City?<\/p>\n

It is perilous, even arrogant, at this late date and from this great distance, to try to imagine Jesus\u2019 state of mind as he descends the Mountain and enters the City.<\/p>\n

Albert Schweitzer, before he went of to heal the jungle sick, showed convincingly how inevitably errant are most such attempts.\u00a0 We paint our own inner lives into the life of Jesus, when so we try to see what cannot be seen in Scripture.\u00a0 And yet, particularly at this point in his journey, at the entrance into the Holy City, and on the threshold of his own death, we are haunted\u2014are we not?\u2014by the desire to see what Jesus saw and feel what he felt and sense what he did sense, coming home.<\/p>\n

Now Jesus is walking down into the city, down off the mountain, and down into the heart of his destiny.\u00a0 He is going to his grave.<\/p>\n

Some of the Gospel today, as Jesus heads home, is too true to be good.\u00a0 He is not at home, not at home, in a world of injustice, abuse, violence, and death.\u00a0 For him, in such a benighted world, there is no place like home.\u00a0 He is not at home under the rubble of Ukraine.\u00a0 And need to recall and recover our own tragic sense of life, and our own use of biblical terms like sin, like death, like the threat of meaninglessness.<\/p>\n

As are we all, though it seems sometimes to be a conspiratorially well-kept secret.\u00a0 We all are walking down the lenten mountain and into our lasting, our last future.\u00a0 Every one of us is going to die.\u00a0 We are going home.<\/p>\n

Here is a possible sentiment in Jesus\u2019 heart and mind as he descends the Mount of Olives.<\/p>\n

He looks back upon his ministry and feels that there is no place like home.\u00a0 <\/em>\u00a0He has found no lasting nest on earth, no lasting crib, no lasting domicile.\u00a0\u00a0 He has found opposition and rejection.\u00a0 He has encountered misunderstanding and criticism.\u00a0 To a harsh world he has brought a gentle manner.\u00a0 To a wolfish world he has brought the labor of love.\u00a0 To a selfish community he has brought the summons to service.\u00a0 To an inconsistent dozen disciples, he has brought the steady presence of peace.\u00a0\u00a0 He has not found a home, not here.\u00a0\u00a0 There is no place like home<\/em>, for Jesus, descending the Mount of Olives.\u00a0\u00a0 He has even said of himself, \u201cfoxes have their holes, and birds of the air their nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of greatest sentences ever written in English are devoted to a similar ennui, a similar existential vagrancy, Hamlet\u2019s soliloquy, \u2018to be or not to be\u2019<\/p>\n

And those of you who have been shot out of the saddle, riding for a righteous cause, as you dust yourselves off and bind your wounds, do so in the best of company, in the company of the crucified, for whom, on this green earth, as yet, there is no place like home.\u00a0\u00a0 But let me ask you something.\u00a0 What other saddle would have rather ridden?\u00a0 Some losing causes are worth support even in defeat.\u00a0 I would rather be shot out of the right saddle than to canter comfortably all the live long day in the wrong saddle.\u00a0 So dust off, bind the wound, and get ready to ride again.\u00a0 We have not a person, dollar, idea or dream to spare, locally, nationally, or globally.\u00a0 Not one.\u00a0 And it is, let us confess it, an uphill pull.\u00a0 But there is no other saddle you would ride in, for all the risk.\u00a0 This is the place to be!<\/p>\n

This hunger for home, this is what Paul meant:\u00a0 this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. <\/em><\/p>\n

Our beautiful Palm Sunday Bach Cantata may arouse again this hunger for home.\u00a0 Dr. Jarrett, how best shall we listen this morning?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Scott Jarrett<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. <\/em>A slight momentary affliction. One could be forgiven for thinking it a little churlish of Paul to categorize the human condition as a momentary affliction. Especially if our only solace is acceptance of a future heavenly home that can only be verified by faith. That\u2019s a tough one.<\/p>\n

With our loud hosannas and palm branches waving, we commemorate Christ\u2019s triumphal entry to the city of Jerusalem, riding on a lowly donkey. In a few days, we\u2019ll recall the events of the upper room, a dear friend\u2019s betrayal, another\u2019s denial and recusal. We\u2019ll observe the manipulation of a populace through lies and falsehoods \u2013 alternative facts, perhaps? We\u2019ll observe the original washing of hands \u2013 an abdication of responsibility \u2013 moral ambivalence, a giving up and giving in when the fight becomes too difficult.<\/p>\n

Today we offer Bach\u2019s Palm Sunday cantata Himmelsk\u00f6nig sei Wilkommen. Beyond enjoining ourselves to those who shouted Hosanna in Jerusalem centuries ago, Jerusalem is in our hearts, and the Salem of joy, our eternal rest. Cantata 182 is a triumph of charm, sweetness, humility, mercy, and fortitude, a joyful dance. Listen for Bach\u2019s interpretation of a royal French overture \u2013 no trumpets or drums here. Christ\u2019s entry on a humble donkey represented by solo recorder and violin with pizzicato strings. Utterly charming and affecting. A Lutheran theology, a Bachian melody, an invitation to acknowledge our need for salvation, a joyful acceptance and confidence of the redeemer\u2019s grace and mercy, all that we might take up the Banner of Christ\u2019s Cross and Passion to be <\/em>Christ for and with one another throughout all our momentary afflictions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

Whittier\u2019s poem:<\/p>\n

I know not what the future hath of marvel or surprise<\/em><\/p>\n

Assured alone that life and death God\u2019s mercy underlies<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>And so beside the silent sea<\/em><\/p>\n

I wait the muffled oar<\/em><\/p>\n

No harm from Him can come to me<\/em><\/p>\n

On ocean or on shore<\/em><\/p>\n

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

I know not where His islands lift<\/em><\/p>\n

Their fronded palms in air<\/em><\/p>\n

I only know I cannot drift<\/em><\/p>\n

Beyond His love and care<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to hear the full service Luke 19:28-40 Click here to hear just the sermon Dean Hill: It is not so long ago that we greeting Jesus at his nativity, singing carols and lighting candles of hope.\u00a0 It is not so long ago that we witnessed his growth in wisdom and stature, in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[36,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3338"}],"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=3338"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3339,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3338\/revisions\/3339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}