{"id":510,"date":"2012-04-29T11:00:40","date_gmt":"2012-04-29T16:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=510"},"modified":"2019-12-03T12:11:31","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T17:11:31","slug":"watch-over-one-another-in-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2012\/04\/29\/watch-over-one-another-in-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch Over One Another in Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to the full service.<\/a>
\nClick here to listen to the sermon only.<\/a>
\nJohn 10: 11-18<\/a><\/p>\n

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

The description of the faithful life, the life of the community of faith, professed by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, is our theme on this Good Shepherd Sunday, in which we hear again, for the last time this school year, the beauty of Bach, in a cantata of praise:\u00a0 \u2018watch over one another in love\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 On these Sundays we hope to hear the music speak, preach, announce the Gospel of grace.\u00a0 On these and all Sundays we also hope to hear the words sing, harmonize and beautify.\u00a0 Music that speaks and words that sing:\u00a0 for these in the enchantment of worship we do hunger and thirst.<\/p>\n

The Gospel of the beloved disciple, and the first letter in that same tradition, are themselves canticles of love.\u00a0 A new commandment we are given:\u00a0 love one another.\u00a0 Love one another says the Risen Christ, even as I have loved you.\u00a0 By this they will know who you are, if you love one another.\u00a0 There is no diminution of authority, as the Shepherd lays down his life.\u00a0 What he lays down, he has the power also to lift up.\u00a0 Our image of the good Shepherd is good enough, but not strong enough.\u00a0 His embrace embraces the globe, sheep of multiple folds, other sheep not of this fold.\u00a0 Not all faithful people are Christian, Protestant, Methodist, Boston University Marsh Chapel people.\u00a0 There are many ways of keeping faith.\u00a0 Our feeling for the good Shepherd is good enough but not powerful enough.\u00a0 He knows, he knows his own, even as he is known by God.\u00a0 Our image of the good Shepherd is good enough but not full enough.\u00a0 One flock, one shepherd:\u00a0 take away from the noise of your differences.\u00a0 When we love we are one, one flock, one Shepherd, one God who is above all and through all and in all.<\/p>\n

First John came along to sharpen up what the Gospel left open.\u00a0 The Gospel of Spirit became the Letter of commandment.\u00a0 The Gospel of community, beloved community, became the Letter of authority, ecclesiastical authority.\u00a0 The Gospel of inspiration became the Letter of instruction.\u00a0 The Gospel of freedom became the Letter of love.\u00a0 The Gospel of Incarnation became the Letter of responsibility.\u00a0 There is no mistaking the announcement of grace, a call to obedience, in 1 John.\u00a0 To love is to take responsibility.\u00a0 To love is to be responsive, responsible, to take responsibility.\u00a0 By this we know love\u2026If any one has\u2026and sees\u2026and closes his heart\u2026how does God\u2019s love abide in him?…We should believe and love one another<\/em>.\u00a0 Would you love?\u00a0 Then you will take responsibility. It is wonderful to have the Gospel.\u00a0 It is good also to have the Letter.<\/p>\n

Dr Jarrett, speaking of love and responsibility, I wish every student at our University, and every listener in earshot of our voices, could know the intimate, communal, choral, consanguinity of singing in this choir.\u00a0 I wish all could have some measure, some version, of this choral community in grace, freedom, love and responsibility.\u00a0 It is an experience of really being alive, an experience of love, an act of joyful responsive, responsibility that together we take.\u00a0 We hunger for words that sing.\u00a0 We thirst for music that speaks.\u00a0 Help us to listen in love for illuminating moments in today\u2019s music\u2026<\/p>\n

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

Though written to celebrate Pentocost Sunday, this morning\u2019s cantata has everything to do with watching over one another in love and grace, in the model of the Spirit\u2019s habitation of the soul. Cantata 172 \u2018 Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten\u2019 was written in 1714 during Bach\u2019s tenure in the town of Weimar.<\/p>\n

The themes are grace \u2013 in particular Gnadenkuss, \u2018the kiss of grace\u2019 \u2013 the reviving of the soul \u2013 listen for the word \u2018erquicken\u2019 \u2013 and the broader theme of friendship. In the 14th chapter of John, Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure from earthly life. \u2018Friends, if ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will give you another Comforter\u2019. The other Comforter \u2013 our constant friend and companion in Grace \u2013 the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

The cantata opens in celebration, complete with festival trumpets and timpani. They continue in the bass aria, heralding the presence of the triune God and the fulfillment of Jesus\u2019 promise in John chapter 14. The nature of the spirit among us is explored in the fluid, breezy lines of the tenor aria which follows. The companionship of the Holy Spirit is revealed in the duet for Soprano and Alto. Here, the Soprano gives voice to the human Soul, and the Alto sings as the voice of the Sprit. Note the text sung by the Alto \u2013 I will refresh you, my Child \u2013 erquicken \u2013 Take the Kiss of Grace from me \u2013 GnadenKuss \u2013 and finally, and perhaps most beautifully, I am yours, and you are mine! Interwoven in this texture, listen for the solo oboe unfolding in intricate ornamentation the famous chorale. \u2018Komm Heilige Geist, Herre Gott\u2019. The chorale which follows is fast becoming a personal favorite for me. The intimacy and life-refreshing presence of the Spirit is detailed in this, the fourth stanza of Phillip Nicolai\u2019s Wie sch\u00f6n leuchtet\u201d<\/p>\n

Take me with friendship in your arms, that I might become warmed by your grace!<\/p>\n

The cantata concludes with a reprise of the opening movement in full celebration of the Spirit\u2019s Kiss of Grace, and the possibility of life\u2019s fulfillment with the Spirit in, around, through, and among us.<\/p>\n

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

We shall go forth together.\u00a0 We shall live together the commandment of belief and love.\u00a0 We shall trust the shelter of the Shepherd.\u00a0 We shall bring salt to the meal of life.\u00a0 We shall bring light to the dwellings of life. \u00a0We shall be sheep in another\u2019s fold, little children who love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.\u00a0 With God\u2019s help, we shall so order our lives that we learn, better and better, day by day to watch over one another in love.\u00a0 Of us, pointing to us, here and now, over time, we shall hope, others will see and say, they do watch over one another in love.<\/em><\/p>\n

You, you Marsh Chapel, you are leading the way.\u00a0 You are taking responsibility.\u00a0 Others will follow.\u00a0 You are leading the way in the affirmation of the full humanity of gay people.\u00a0 Others will follow.\u00a0 Not for you the earlier habits of treating some as 5\/5ths and others as 3\/5ths human.\u00a0\u00a0 Not just baptism, confirmation, eucharist, penance and unction for all, but marriage and ordination for all, too.\u00a0 You are leading.\u00a0 Others will follow. You are leading the way in heavenly worship.\u00a0 Not for you a contemporary worship which is neither contemporary nor worship. Not for you the substitution of entertainment for enchantment.\u00a0 Not for you the occupation of pulpits by unordained, untrained, uneducated, unconnected ministers.\u00a0 Not for you the elaborated expenditures of denominations and church leaders who lose their grounding in the basic ministry of the church:\u00a0 the Word of God, the Sacraments of Grace, the service of neighbor.\u00a0 You are leading the way.\u00a0 Others will follow.\u00a0 Why, your example and its shadow will be felt as far into the future as a truly open church, as far down into the trembling depths of every phobia that every closed a heart, or a mind, or a door, as far out into the globe as every poor child.\u00a0 Today I add: as far away, in every way, as a United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Florida.\u00a0 You are leading the way.\u00a0 Others will follow.<\/p>\n

May God give us a mind for words that sing. \u00a0May God give us a tongue for songs that speak.\u00a0\u00a0 So fed, may we watch over one another in love.<\/p>\n

Come Almighty to deliver, let us all thy life receive<\/em><\/p>\n

Suddenly return and never, nevermore thy temples leave<\/em><\/p>\n

Thee we would\u00a0 be always blessing, serve thee as thy hosts above<\/em><\/p>\n

Pray and praise thee without ceasing , glory in thy perfect love<\/em><\/p>\n

~The Reverend Dr. Robert Allan Hill,
\nDean of Marsh Chapel<\/em><\/p>\n

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

Click here to listen to the full service. Click here to listen to the sermon only. John 10: 11-18 Dean Hill The description of the faithful life, the life of the community of faith, professed by John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, is our theme on this Good Shepherd Sunday, in which we hear again, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","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\/510"}],"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=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2553,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions\/2553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}