{"id":533,"date":"2012-06-03T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2012-06-03T16:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=533"},"modified":"2019-12-03T12:07:22","modified_gmt":"2019-12-03T17:07:22","slug":"sanctifying-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2012\/06\/03\/sanctifying-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Sanctifying Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

Three weeks ago, Katie Matthews was awake at 2am. \u00a0Her good friend, she learned hours earlier, had died in New Zealand, one of three Boston University students lost in a car accident. \u00a0Katie wondered what to do. \u00a0She could hardly believe Austin was dead.<\/p>\n

Katie was about to graduate: an education major, a future teacher, a native of Albany NY, a parishioner at BU Marsh Chapel, a leader, a person of faith. \u00a0She felt something needed doing. \u00a0Could she do something?<\/p>\n

Katie thought maybe 20 or 30 of her closest friends could get together on the plaza of Marsh Chapel, Boston University, a space centered on the monument to Martin Luther King, Jr., to honor her friend. The Chapel website has a page about vigils.\u00a0 She made some notes.\u00a0 She froze for a moment.\u00a0 Could she carry this off? \u00a0She began to reach out on Facebook in the wee hours of the morning. \u00a0Could she do something? \u00a0She decided she would try to do something. One of the chaplains at BU saw her positing and pledged support.<\/p>\n

At 10am the next morning, unbeknownst to Katie, 20 BU administrators met to consider the dreadful tragedy of 3 deaths a half a world away, and just a week before Commencement. \u00a0They began to plan for various responses. Could we do something, they wondered? \u00a0The chaplain reported that a student group was planning a vigil that night at 8pm. \u00a0Would they like some help?<\/p>\n

By 8pm not 20 but 300 students, faculty, and staff were gathered with candles on Marsh Plaza. \u00a0The President spoke. \u00a0The Provost spoke. \u00a0The Dean of the Chapel spoke.\u00a0 \u00a0Students spoke.\u00a0 Live streaming carried the moment around the globe, especially arranged for those other students studying in so many places around the world.\u00a0And for their parents. Katie spoke too. ‘I knew I had to do something’ she said. \u00a0Here are some other things said at the vigil:<\/p>\n

Tonight we are One BU in mourning.<\/em><\/p>\n

We lift the names of those who died:\u00a0 Austin, Roch, Daniela.<\/em><\/p>\n

May we help one another find our way to some solace.<\/em><\/p>\n

Our hearts go out to their parents and families.<\/em><\/p>\n

We want to face loss with love, grief with grace, disappointment with honesty, and death with dignity.<\/em><\/p>\n

May we find the power and faith to withstand what we cannot understand.<\/em><\/p>\n

Standing beside the monument to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., let us remember him not only as a prophetic national leader, but also as a wise and caring pastor, who said in a similar time of tragedy and loss. \u2018when it gets dark enough you can see the stars\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n

Against a dark backdrop, brightness stands out. The brightness of friendship, relationship, youth, hope, dreams, faith, and love\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

It is important to speak. \u00a0But as the dusk settled in the Cradle of Liberty, Boston MA, and as the stars came out in the dark, and as the candles flickered in the gentle breeze, speech gave way to presence. \u00a0Speech is important.\u00a0 Presence is more important. The vigil lasted 40 minutes, the gathering around candles lasted 2 more hours. \u00a0Stories. Hugs. Tears. Hugs. Stories. Will somebody light my candle?… I wish we had Southern California weather, we could use this plaza like this all year long, this way…Do you remember that time we were in Rhode Island and\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

Dusk comes. \u00a0When dusk comes it is good to gather together, to grieve, to remember, to accept, to affirm.\u00a0 Our limited tenure walking on this green earth\u2014our mortality, our fragility\u2014is not easy to face, especially if we try to do so alone.\u00a0 That may be what Katie Matthews felt at 2am.\u00a0 So she found a way, just before Commencement, at a time of great joy, to help to gather our community in grief, in a time of great sorrow.\u00a0 Maybe she remembered the Apostle, \u2018rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep\u2019 (Rom. 12:15).\u00a0 Maybe she recalled the psalmist, \u2018weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning\u2019 (Psalm 30:5).\u00a0 Or maybe she was thinking of her fellow Bostonian Robert F. Kennedy, \u2018one person can always make a difference\u2019.<\/p>\n

At Commencement on Sunday May 20, Boston University tried to strike this same spiritual balance of celebration and mourning, in opening words, in invocation, and in benediction.\u00a0 Katie Matthews had led the way.<\/p>\n

She leaned forward into grace, sanctified, made a bit more whole, or holy, by grace.\u00a0 Maybe some of the history and memory of her University, of this place and plaza and pulpit, was active and at work with her.<\/p>\n

\u2018My grace is sufficient for thee\u2019, wrote the Apostle Paul, \u2018for my power is made manifest in weakness\u2019. (2 Cor 12: 29)<\/p>\n

By the grace of God, we are gathered this morning, a divine grace working to make us whole, holy.\u00a0 A sanctifying grace.<\/p>\n

Isaiah acclaims holiness, the ancient apprehension of holiness enshrined in our ancient Scripture.\u00a0 The heavens are telling the glory of God. \u00a0Creation.\u00a0 Holy, holy, holy\u2026The mysterium tremendum et fascinans, the mystery in which we live.\u00a0 The fingers of a child in the first day of life\u2014mysterium tremendum.\u00a0 The sudden sense of awe at daybreak\u2014mysterium tremendum.\u00a0 The uncanny arrival of a thought or image, just as it is needed\u2014mysterium tremendum.\u00a0 Parents placing shoulder boards, epaulets, on their sons and daughters in the hour of commissioning\u2014mysterium tremendum.\u00a0 The gifts of the table, bread and cup and thanksgiving and memory and presence\u2014mysterium tremendum.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As we watch the celebrations in London this weekend, we recall the rainy night, the strange dark night in late May 1738, in which a troubled cleric, John Wesley, found himself nearly alone in a Sunday evening vesper.\u00a0 Quiet readings from Romans 8\u2014our chapter today\u2014and from Martin Luther.\u00a0 A hymn and the London fog to follow.\u00a0 But then, there, strangely, he found his heart strangely warmed, and had awakened in his soul a sense of personal faith, the prevenient first step on the path of grace.\u00a0 \u2018I felt my heart strangely warmed\u2019, he later wrote.\u00a0\u00a0 Will we open our hearts to a personal nudge this morning?<\/p>\n

John acclaims such a nighttime encounter, a birth from above.\u00a0 The baptism of water is a place to start.\u00a0 But the encounter with spirit, holy spirit, is the doorway to the divine.\u00a0 Nicodemus moves out of the shadows, one in a long train of several persons in this gospel.\u00a0 For all the universal power of John, his gospel is a catenae of personal encounters.\u00a0 Mary at the wedding.\u00a0 Nicodemus at night.\u00a0 The woman at the well.\u00a0 A healing personally delivered.\u00a0 A man born blind.\u00a0 Lazarus scratching his way up and out.\u00a0 We are meant, in this gospel, to picture our own encounter, our own moment.\u00a0 Holy Communion is the altar call of sanctifying grace.\u00a0 Step and step.\u00a0 Hand and cup.\u00a0 Hand and bread.\u00a0 Step and step.\u00a0 A reporter called recently to ask if in Methodism, the historic root of Marsh Chapel, one who has greatly strayed can be forgiven?\u00a0 A current news story raised the issue.\u00a0 Hear the gospel:\u00a0 God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.\u00a0 The marrow of the divine is loving and giving.\u00a0 The effects of our sin remain, often incalculable and unexpected.\u00a0 Sin remains\u2014but does not reign.\u00a0 Yes, one who has greatly strayed may be forgiven.\u00a0 In fact Mr. Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, made his signature question to be:\u00a0 \u2018Do you know God to be a pardoning God?\u2019\u00a0 So you say yes?\u00a0 And God forgives you.\u00a0 And your neighbor forgives you.\u00a0 Now comes the hard part:\u00a0 you will need to forgive yourself.\u00a0 Can you forgive yourself? For being that thoughtless, that unheeding, that overweening, that unsuspecting?\u00a0 The spirit blows where it wills, free and loving and gracious.\u00a0 Are you ready to have done with lesser things, to take up the cross and follow?\u00a0 Here is a just and justifying place to start:\u00a0 Do you know God to be a pardoning God?<\/p>\n

Paul acclaims a leading spirit, making children of earth into children of God.\u00a0 A shout shall lead them!\u00a0 Abba! A spirit bearing witness with our own best selves, our ownmost selves, that we are children of God.\u00a0 We have the capacity\u2014immersed in grace prevenient, absolved in grace rightwising\u2014to be clothed in sanctifying grace.\u00a0 Ours is an apocalypse, a cosmic grace, grace as divine freedom to choose, to change, to take a chance.\u00a0 John Wesley asked his preachers:\u00a0 \u2018are you going on to perfection, and do you expect to be made perfect in love in this lifetime?\u2019\u00a0 Perfection meaning wholeness, holiness of heart and life.\u00a0 Completion, a roundedness of heart and life.\u00a0 And he would add:\u00a0 if you are not going on to perfection what you are going on to?\u00a0 Imperfection?\u00a0 We are not finally perfectible, but we can go on, grow on, learn and grow.\u00a0 Start with the ten commandments (no other God, no graven image, no taking of the name of God in vain, remember the Sabbath day, honor father and mother, do not kill, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness or covet).\u00a0 Start there.\u00a0 Step up to the beatitudes (happy are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the hungry for justice, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted for righteousness\u2014and you when falsely condemned).\u00a0 Step up there.\u00a0 So day by day learn to:\u00a0 Love God and love your neighbor.\u00a0 It is not that we lack direction.\u00a0 We lack desire and stamina and willpower and persistence, yes, but not direction.\u00a0 We know the way, back toward One who is loving us into love and freeing us into freedom, by means of a sanctifying grace.\u00a0 Are you going on to wholeness?<\/p>\n

Katie Matthews said, \u2018I just knew I had to do something.\u2019\u00a0 You will come forward to the table of grace in a moment.\u00a0 What do you need to do this week?\u00a0 Come to receive, but come with a response, too.\u00a0 What do you need to do this week to sense the holy, to feel forgiveness, to grow in grace?\u00a0 Come to eat and drink, knowing, though, with Katie, that this week you will want to do something.<\/p>\n

Breathe or breathe thy loving spirit<\/em><\/p>\n

Into every troubled breast<\/em><\/p>\n

Let us all in thee inherit<\/em><\/p>\n

Let us find that second rest<\/em><\/p>\n

Take away our bent to sinning<\/em><\/p>\n

Alpha and Omega be<\/em><\/p>\n

End of faith as its beginning<\/em><\/p>\n

Set our hearts at liberty<\/em><\/p>\n

~The Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill, Dean of Marsh Chapel<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to hear the full service. Click here to hear the sermon only. Three weeks ago, Katie Matthews was awake at 2am. \u00a0Her good friend, she learned hours earlier, had died in New Zealand, one of three Boston University students lost in a car accident. \u00a0Katie wondered what to do. \u00a0She could hardly believe […]<\/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\/533"}],"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=533"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2547,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions\/2547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}