{"id":3693,"date":"2024-08-04T11:00:15","date_gmt":"2024-08-04T15:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=3693"},"modified":"2024-09-17T21:48:32","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T01:48:32","slug":"a-communion-meditation-the-food-that-endures-for-eternal-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2024\/08\/04\/a-communion-meditation-the-food-that-endures-for-eternal-life\/","title":{"rendered":"A Communion Meditation – The Food That Endures For Eternal Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

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John 6:24\u201335<\/a>
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Click here to hear just the sermon<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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Communion Meditation:\u00a0 The Food That Endures For Eternal Life<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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John 6: 24-35<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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August 4, 2024<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Marsh Chapel<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Robert Allan Hill<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He reposes in the immediate as if it were infinity\u2014which it is.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That is religion, and the duck has it.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Donna<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Coming to communion you come with a yearning to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Among the powers that drew us here to Boston, was the chance to labor in the shadow of Howard Thurman and to preach from the pulpit he once filled. Thurman was the Dean of Marsh Chapel, 1953-1965. \u00a0This summer, read his autobiography, With Head and Heart. \u00a0<\/i>In the work of grieving and departing from one setting, Rochester, and entering another, Boston, I was telephoned by a friend and parishioner. \u00a0She wanted to set an appointment to talk, before we left Rochester. A saintly woman, Donna Adcock, made an appointment, a good formal appointment, to see me. \u00a0\u2018A chat after church won\u2019t do for this\u2019, she averred. That Wednesday she brought in a poem which she had typed out from an original handscript. \u00a0Typing is an ancient technology, no longer in use, but some years ago, even, still around. \u00a0(I do not linger to define keystroke, white out, ribbon, carbon paper, or Smith Corona). \u00a0\u2018This poem Howard Thurman your predecessor at Marsh Chapel recited in a sermon in Kansas City, my home, in 1950\u2019, she said. \u00a0\u2018I was twenty years or so old, 56 years younger than I am today when that sermon changed my life. \u00a0I spent the next 50 years in \u2018full time Christian service\u2019, through the YWCA. \u00a0I heard something that summer day, in Kansas City, in 1950, that changed my life. \u00a0I want you to have this poem. \u00a0You do not need to live in New England to love it, but it does help. The fact that I heard it through Howard Thurman\u2019s beautiful voice adds to it for me\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The \u2018little duck\u2019 is a poem about the freedom of a duck floating on the waves, written in 1947 by Donald Babcock. Here are verses from that poem\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There is a big heaving in the Atlantic<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And he is part of it<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He can rest while the Atlantic heaves, because he rests in the Atlantic<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Probably he doesn\u2019t know how large the ocean is<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And neither do you<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But he realizes it<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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And what does he do, I ask you? He sits down in it<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He reposes in the immediate as if it were infinity\u2014which it is.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That is religion, and the duck has it.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He has made himself part of the boundless, by easing himself into it just where it touches him.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I like the little duck.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He doesn\u2019t know much.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But he has religion.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You come to communion yearning to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Charlie<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Coming to communion you come with your lost loved ones in mind and heart. \u00a0Pause and honor in memory one such.\u00a0 This week it came to mind again, the day one winter we bade farewell to a father in law, Charlie. When we receive the Lord\u2019s Supper we do so with the communion of saints all around us. \u00a0Like Charlie.\u00a0 Like your beloved in memory. Coming to communion you come with your lost loved ones in mind and heart. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Charlie was a lover.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He loved nature. \u00a0<\/i>Garden. \u00a0Seed time. Harvest. Planting. Weeding. \u00a0Watering. \u00a0Like the parables of Jesus. \u00a0He had a green thumb. \u00a0Most plants benefitted by the touch of his hand.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He loved work.<\/i> \u00a0With his hands. \u00a0Carpentry. \u00a0He had some good company in carpentry, if I remember the Bible that they had us memorize at church camp. \u00a0I think of him on summer days. 14 features of our cottage have known the touch of his hand.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He loved the poor and the other.<\/i> \u00a0In his study group. In work with Abraham House, Retired Teachers, and Habitat for Humanity and various churches and causes. \u00a0He loved others, and I mean others. \u00a0Of other religions, other places, other races, other backgrounds, other orientations. \u00a0He loved. \u00a0Others, and they felt the touch of his hand.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He loved his country.<\/i> \u00a0He was not a member of any organized political party. \u00a0His patriotism, his love of country was not only liberty and justice, but liberty and justice FOR ALL. \u00a0And with his own hands he lived that.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He loved his church.<\/i> \u00a0Its committees, its pastors, its building needs, its study groups, its quirks and oddities. \u00a0Especially he loved the reading he did with others.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He loved his family<\/i>, and expressed that love in rocking horses and tools given and evergreens planted and windows replaced and sincere, repeated words of love.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He touched us in the most touching of ways.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He loved God by loving the things of God, the creation of God, the tasks of God, the people of God, the church of God.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He was our \u2018dad\u2019 and we learned from him. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We all need models of personal faith, people who can show us by example the dimensions of spirituality we so desire.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We are in time when there seem to be so many things going wrong, off kilter, problems without solutions.\u00a0 But those who came before us had such times, maybe even worse ones, and they came through it all.\u00a0 At communion, in communion with them, with Charlie and the Charlies of your life, we gain some strength.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Congregation<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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You come to communion yearning to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.\u00a0 This is especially and keenly true this morning at Marsh Chapel:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *In the observation of two Sacraments.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *In the Baptism today.\u00a0 Beautiful child, part of the community, connected to this University, and to the Chapel, and to the choir, and to the life and leadership of the University, and to the congregation, the congregation of Marsh Chapel.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *In community.\u00a0 Come Sunday. Here is where life engages life, and heart, heart.\u00a0 Where you can learn a name.\u00a0 Where you can hear a voice.\u00a0 Where you can make a friend.\u00a0 Where you can share a need.\u00a0 Where you can listen to another\u2019s heart.\u00a0 Where you can know and be known, from Baptism, through Eucharist, all the way to that last morning, and Unction. Where one receives the food that endures for eternal life.\u00a0 Where one may offer another a path toward where both can find bread.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *In lighthearted joy and a touch of humor. Hear voices touch home, like Dr. Amerson\u2019s humorous reference to his long ago parishioner, who said, \u2018You know, every sermon is better than your next one.\u2019\u00a0 She meant better than your last one, but said better than your next one.\u00a0 We will have to check in with Dr Freud about that Freudian slip. (It reminds me of Soren Hessler on Palm Sunday).\u00a0 That touch of humor happens in community.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 *In the walk up the sawdust trail, down the center aisle, in just a few minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Charlayne<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ten years ago we hosted the memorial service for Dr. Ken Edelin, a medical doctor graduated from BU and one of early, pioneering physicians affirming women, women\u2019s rights, women\u2019s rights to reproductive health care, women\u2019s rights when needed to surgical abortion.\u00a0 Cecile Richards, Jeh Johnson and others spoke in eulogy. \u00a0Marsh Chapel was full. \u00a0At one point we asked the congregation to recite together the 23 Psalm. \u00a0Family and friends in the first pew did so. \u00a0Colleagues and physicians across the nave did so. \u00a0Leaders of national organizations near and far did so. \u00a0In the balcony, twenty white coated medical students together did so. \u00a0Either at that point or another in the service they stood silently together, to honor the life and faith of the deceased. \u00a0That day I met a man, a friend and the personal physician of Arthur Ashe, whose life, prowess, faithfulness and service have always so inspired me. \u00a0Read again this summer his autobiography, Days of Grace. \u00a0<\/i>\u201cYea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the collation following the service, Charlayne Hunter Gault introduced herself. \u00a0Some will remember her, as we did, from her many and fine contributions to the News Hour, with Jim Lehrer. \u00a0She said, \u2018I need to talk to you later about the 23 Psalm\u2019. \u00a0I was so pleased to meet her, and then so worried that I had somehow offended her, that the collation time passed anxiously. \u00a0It needn\u2019t have done. \u00a0She wanted to recall a memory. \u00a0A memory of her younger self. \u00a0At 18. \u00a0One of two African Americans first to integrate the University of Georgia. \u00a0The daughter of a minister. \u00a0Alone in a big place, a strange place, a new place. \u00a0Walking home the third night, there were taunts and threats. \u00a0The University that day had suggested she might want to go home, at least for a while. \u00a0\u00a0She went into her room. \u00a0She closed the door. \u00a0She turned out the lights. \u00a0And she waited, until quiet came. \u00a0And then\u2014it was the only thing that came to her mind\u2014the prayer of David in Psalm 23 came to her. \u00a0And she spoke the psalm, alone, afraid, uncertain, at night. \u00a0\u00a0\u2018Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord, forever.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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To lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, like that little duck bouncing along on the waves of the Atlantic\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He reposes in the immediate as if it were infinity\u2014which it is.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That is religion, and the duck has it.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Lord is my shepherd\u2026<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to hear the full service Click here to watch the full service John 6:24\u201335 Click here to hear just the sermon   Communion Meditation:\u00a0 The Food That Endures For Eternal Life John 6: 24-35 August 4, 2024 Marsh Chapel Robert Allan Hill \u00a0 He reposes in the immediate as if it were infinity\u2014which […]<\/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\/3693"}],"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=3693"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3695,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3693\/revisions\/3695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}