{"id":688,"date":"2013-04-21T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2013-04-21T16:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=688"},"modified":"2019-11-19T13:05:29","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T18:05:29","slug":"the-shepherd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2013\/04\/21\/the-shepherd\/","title":{"rendered":"The Shepherd"},"content":{"rendered":"

John 10: 11-18, 27-30<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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

<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Preface<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The Shepherd is present and loving and good.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But today we are city, and a world around, drenched in sorrow.\u00a0 Some of that sorrow lies at the feet of those killed, Martin and Lingzi and Krystle and Sean.\u00a0 Some of that sorrow arises from the thought of those physically injured.\u00a0 Some of that sorrow dimly recognizes the many others, near and far, harmed in other less visible ways.\u00a0 Some of that sorrow kindles anger at the video image of assassins who lingered to view the potential effects of unspeakable actions on fellow humans.\u00a0 This weekend we are a people drenched in sorrow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are also a University working through sorrow.\u00a0 Monday began with brunch and celebration, and ended with terror.\u00a0 Our staff opened the chapel later for the throngs walking, T-less, by.\u00a0 Water, refreshment, prayer, counsel, they gave.\u00a0 One runner came very cold and was shrouded with a clergy gown, all we had to offer, a shepherd\u2019s outfit.\u00a0 Tuesday brought us to the plaza, come evening, \u00a0in vigil, to honor and reflect.\u00a0 Wednesday, in this chapel, and also at other hours in other settings, gathered us for ordered worship, prayer, music, liturgy, Eucharist and sermon.\u00a0 Thursday we heard the President, on a familiar theme, \u2018running the race set before us\u2019.\u00a0 Friday at home we watched televised news.\u00a0 Saturday we listened for the musical succor of Handel\u2019s beautiful Messiah<\/i>, right here.\u00a0 Tomorrow we will again gather for a memorial service, for our deceased BU student, Lu Lingzi.\u00a0 But today is Sunday, when we come to church, to pray, sing, and hear the Word.\u00a0\u00a0 Quietly, now, as a visible congregation in the pews and as a virtual congregation in the region, we might want to allow our Gospel to help us, to speak a pastoral word to us, to live in us, in three ways.<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Here<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The Gospel of John, more than any other ancient Christian writing, and in odd contrast to its prevalent misunderstanding across the continent today, knew the necessity of nimble engagement of current experience, and the saving capacity to change, in the face of new circumstances.\u00a0\u00a0 The community of this Gospel could do so because they had experienced the Shepherd, present, \u2018here\u2019, hic et nunc.\u00a0 In distress,\u00a0 we hold onto divine presence, on word, the Shepherd– here<\/i>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Two BU students were maimed on Monday.\u00a0 One survived, in part because an Iraqi war veteran ran to her, held her, acknowledged her shock, staunched her bleeding, kept her from focusing on the carnage at hand, and made it his business to be present to her, on Boylston street.\u00a0 His experienced prediction later that evening, that she would \u201cmake it\u201d, proved true.\u00a0 The Shepherd is here, present, in the shepherding acts of people like him who put on the equivalent of a pastor\u2019s robe, to aid others.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is not trite and not redundant repeatedly to honor the first responders, those first present.\u00a0 It is faith, good faith, and theology, good theology.\u00a0 God has no hands but yours.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In quieter hours, we may simple say, \u201cGod is here\u201d, \u201cthe Shepherd is here\u201d, referring only to the brute, undeniable experience of breathing, of life, of something, of something not nothing.\u00a0 But in sorrow, and in the distress causing sorrow, we know presence through the Shepherd.\u00a0 Next to us, it may be, we hear a voice: \u201cHold my hand.\u00a0 Look down not out.\u00a0 Focus on my eyes.\u00a0 That pain in your leg is a good sign.\u00a0 Breathe in and out.\u00a0 I am here\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are a community devoted in witness to the One in the stained glass behind you, the Shepherd.\u00a0\u00a0 It is a good and healthy thing to enter a gothic nave whose form is a thousand years old, an Indiana limestone chapel built to last another thousand years, with a form of worship as ancient and historic as it is beautiful and true, and music from the ages, and readings 2000 years in use, all in a place of graceful space.\u00a0 A physical recollection that we are not the first, nor will we be the last, to face inexplicable horror. I do not know of a week when one does not need that, but this week, in particular, we do.\u00a0 John\u2019s community had none of that in Ephesus in 90ad.\u00a0 They had only voice.\u00a0 Speaking, and hearing.\u00a0 They found that in speaking of the Shepherd: \u00a0\u2018he is here\u2019.\u00a0 \u2018I am\u2026\u2019\u00a0 That is all, still, we have, the voice.\u00a0 Utterance.\u00a0 \u2018I am\u2026\u2019\u00a0 The \u2018here\u2019 is in the hearing.\u00a0 Can you hear that?\u00a0 It begs to be heard, here.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is an old word.\u00a0 The Shepherd is here.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Love<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/i>The Gospel brings a second old word.\u00a0\u00a0 One writer said he used the old short words.\u00a0 \u2018I know the other ones, the big words, but the short ones say it better.\u2019\u00a0 Love.\u00a0 God so loved the world, to give God\u2019s only Son.\u00a0 I try to remember that when a boy who looks like my son did at age 8 is taken.\u00a0 It is as if God walked over, and put a hand on my shoulder, and said, \u2018You know, I do understand.\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 I had a son once, too.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 The reason the community of faith, John\u2019s church, could hear the \u2018here\u2019 of the Shepherd is that they had experienced his love. \u00a0\u00a0With them, I am a Christian more for the cross than for the empty tomb. The Gospel of John knew the reality of love, and called love God.\u00a0 Love is God, said the later letter bearing the name of John.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But it is a strange, somewhat unfamiliar kind of love. (The gospel makes the familiar strange, and the strange familiar.) Not the love of family or kindred, those with whom you watched TV on Friday.\u00a0 Not the love of lover and beloved, to whom you rightly repaired on Monday.\u00a0 Not even the religiously frequent reference, across the globe, to a principle, idea or virtue.\u00a0 Ours today is rather a love that gives, and gives of self, <\/i>which they knew in Ephesus, and we know today, in loving hands.\u00a0 God has no hands, none, but yours.\u00a0 We all need loving hands.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To recall love, when you see others, in brutality, shredded by insidious evil, you will need to pronounce love in life.\u00a0\u00a0 It is also repeatedly said, not tritely, that the only thing evil needs to succeed is the inattention and inaction of good people.\u00a0 This passage, \u2018the Father and I are one\u2019, created a new religion–in love.\u00a0 The verse is usually thought to convey a heightened Christology, the raising of Jesus to divine status.\u00a0 But for the first century Christians it arguably may have meant the very opposite, the lowering of God to human status. \u00a0It meant the lowering of the Father, not the raising of the Son.\u00a0 It meant, well, love.\u00a0\u00a0 The Shepherd loves, is loving, is love.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Love is God.\u00a0 That is all we have of God, as we breathe and listen and live. \u00a0Love means love of self, family, kin, but also of neighbor, other, friend, but also, remarkably, of enemy.\u00a0 Now John does not get quite that far.\u00a0 I am not sure that I have.\u00a0 But the Christian Gospel as a whole does, and more. \u00a0I will try to remember that when I feel my anger welling up, or when I am tempted to disparage groups for the behavior of individuals, or when I want a faster solution to a thorny problem.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

That is why you come to church every week, to be prepared for love.\u00a0 You cannot develop a worldview, a religious perspective, a depth of faith, or a disciplined life, in the 3 minutes following a bombing.\u00a0 You have to get started a lot earlier in order to have, in crisis, the nourishment, the power, you will need, really to live.\u00a0 Love means taking responsibility.\u00a0 Love means taking responsibility.\u00a0 And taking responsibility means finding, soon, <\/i>a community wherein you can know and show meaning, belonging, empowerment, where you can learn from others to pray, to tithe, to keep faith.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I encourage you to continue in ways many have already begun, to find effective modes of help for those well beyond our community who have been hurt, one way or another. \u00a0A card, a note, a check, a gift, a prayer\u2014we all have things we can do to lean forward and help those harmed. \u00a0One of our students is active in bringing a blood bank to campus in the next few days. \u00a0It is healthy and it is helpful, in many directions, to find one thing or two things creatively to do, to bring some good to bear in the face of tragic violence.\u00a0 So you will don a shepherd\u2019s gown, hoist a shepherd\u2019s crook, live a shepherd\u2019s life, for the moment, in love.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is an old word.\u00a0 The Shepherd is love.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Good<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here is one other old word.\u00a0 Good.\u00a0 The Shepherd is good.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But, let us be frank.\u00a0 There is a kind of nihilism abroad today, which is not good.\u00a0 You can hear it, in the word \u2018whatever\u2019: and see it in inebriation, in amoral sexual practice, in materialism, in incapacity for human communication, in incapacity for moral discernment. These features of current life, exploding all about us on a daily basis, are just not good.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As our fellow preacher the Rev. John Holt, of Osterville, wrote two weeks ago:<\/p>\n

I\u2019m troubled. Really troubled. Disturbed because compassion is scarce. Too often, we live in a \u201cwhat\u2019s in it for me\u201d world. <\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You remember, from last Sunday, my friend describing life, in one word as \u2018good\u2019, and in two words as \u2018not good\u2019.\u00a0 Well, no early Christian document surpasses John in plumbing the depths of that duality.\u00a0\u00a0 A bright Monday, bombs.\u00a0 A sunny Patriots Day, carnage.\u00a0 A glorious marathon, death. \u00a0As my teacher Robert McAfee Brown said, \u2018This is God\u2019s world.\u00a0 But is a crummy one.\u00a0 We have to live with both realities.\u2019\u00a0 I remember Anglican Bishop Hapgood, circa 1975, facing a group of idealists and saying, \u2018Go ahead, keep your dreams, be dreamers.\u00a0 Just remember that others dream, too, of gulags, and genocide, and terror.\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From this pulpit four years ago, (Nov 29, 2009), we tried to be alert to the probability that, at some point, another nineleven would befall us.\u00a0 How little we knew how close it would be, both in time and in space.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The best of days, the highest of moments, the most charmingly gracious of cityscapes, the culmination of the American experiment on Patriots Day–trashed by hateful, killing violence.\u00a0 When another takes what you hold dear, count precious, think lovely, and bombs it, you cannot avoid anger, and the sorrow at the heart of anger.<\/p>\n

Some may wonder whether anything religiously cast, any preachment, can carry any truth, any good.\u00a0 Religion, like the weather, is just so mixed–good and bad and other.<\/p>\n

One response:\u00a0 Do you have good religion, or bad, asked the spiritual?\u00a0 Are you putting on that shepherding robe, that pastoral gown, to fend off the cold?<\/p>\n

Unamuno wrote, \u201c Warmth, warmth, warmth.\u00a0 We are dying of cold, not of darkness.\u00a0 It is the night that kills, it is the frost.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Religion that brings good relationships can bring much good.\u00a0 You can see and hear that right here in the pews of Marsh Chapel.\u00a0 Come and join us!<\/p>\n

Our passage about the Shepherd shepherded into experience something new, over time, the relational community of God.\u00a0 Yes, we are monotheists, but not really fully so.\u00a0 God is not One, for us.\u00a0 God is Three, or, at least, Three in One.\u00a0 That is, the good Shepherd, is good– in relationship<\/i>.\u00a0 God is in relationship,<\/i> with God.\u00a0 We might want to think about that, as we measure our relationships into the future.\u00a0 \u2018The Father and I are One\u2019 was step toward Chapter 14 and the Spirit, and beyond that to Nicaea.\u00a0 Ours are the hands with which to touch, hold, greet and honor.<\/p>\n

By the way.\u00a0 I do not believe in a God who wills that some are hurt and others spared. Who would worship such a God? I see rather random chance in life, both freedom to will and the freeing of the will, to be present, to love, and to do the good.<\/i> Jan and I did not turn left on Boylston, Monday at 2:30, we went around the back way.\u00a0 Not because we are more beloved, smarter, or more faithful. \u00a0No, random, just random. Rain falls on the just and unjust.\u00a0\u00a0 But through it all:\u00a0 There is good, there is good, there is good in every day.\u00a0 Part of that good is found in relationship, blessed by the relational God of John 10.\u00a0 Some of that good is right here in Boston, \u00a0\u2018the Hub\u2019–in relationship.\u00a0 Hugs in cold of First Night, cheers for the music come July 4, waves to the rowers come Head of the Charles, and, yes, next year, celebration come Patriots Day.\u00a0 Connected in relationship.<\/p>\n

No orthodox Bostonian
\nIs lonely or dejected,
\nFor everyone in Boston
\nWith everyone\u2019s connected.
\nFor Boston\u2019s not a capital,
\nAnd Boston\u2019s not a place;
\nRather I feel that Boston is
\nThe perfect state of grace.<\/i><\/p>\n

(EBWhite)<\/i> <\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

It is an old word.\u00a0 The Shepherd is good.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Coda<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How then will you live?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Will you find your way, through the crowd and the rubble, to the Shepherd\u2014who is here, who is love, who is good?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We will want to live with presence, love and goodness. \u00a0Thankfully, from Monday itself, we have a shining example of people modeling dimensions of healthy spirituality, of the runners and the race (a metaphor not unknown to the biblical mind by the way\u2014Psalm 19, 1 Cor 9, Hebrews 12). \u00a0\u00a0I picture all the runners practicing months and weeks. \u00a0I see the lacing of the running shoes. \u00a0I hear the starting whistle and the throng surging forward. \u00a0We saw at Kenmore, the brightly attired elderly man, the young guy with blue hair, the student running in a tuxedo, the troop from a nearby college ROTC program, the woman running\u2014as so many\u2014in memory, the folks in wheel chairs, the straining forward, by mile 25, of striving, disciplined energy. \u00a0They all are models for us of running the spiritual race and finishing the spiritual course. We can lace up and run, too, in our own ways. \u00a0God\u2019s goodness, love and presence beckon us onward.<\/p>\n

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

Text from Prayers of the People:<\/em><\/p>\n

Good Shepherd,<\/p>\n

Hear our voices:<\/p>\n

The voices that are hoarse from shouting,<\/p>\n

The voices that are unsteady from weeping,<\/p>\n

The voices that are sharp with anger,<\/p>\n

The voices that are quivering with fear,<\/p>\n

The voices that are dull with weariness,<\/p>\n

The voices that are quiet with uncertaintiy,<\/p>\n

And the voices that have fallen silent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You, Good Shepherd, you know all of us and call us each by name. We have come to know the names of some of our flock, our community, our city, who have been taken from us by violence this week:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Martin, Lingzi, Krystle, and Sean<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We mourn their loss and we pray for all those around the world who are victims of violence, for those whose names we do not know, but who are known by you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

While violence can tear people from our arms all too soon, we are confident Lord, that nothing, nothing and no one can snatch them from your loving hand.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We are all called to follow you, and this morning we give thanks for those who \u00a0follow your call by embodying your shepherding, those first responders who run into danger to rescue the injured, those nurses and doctors who knit wounds and bring healing, and those members of law enforcement who help to keep us safe from the dangers that surround us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Good Shepherd, this week our thoughts turn to the green pastures of the Common and the Public Garden, the still waters of the Charles river, this city of Boston which we love so deeply. This week our beloved city has also felt like the\u00a0 valley of the shadow of death. Good Shepherd, restore our souls so that we again may feel rest, safety, and delight in this our beloved city.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And Good Shepherd, even though it is difficult, even though it is so difficult, we ask for your grace this morning to be able to pray for the lost sheep, for those who have wandered far from us, for those who have perpetrated violence against us. We know that you pursue every lost sheep with your grace, love, and mercy. Give us the strength to follow you so that we may do the same, so that we may forgive those who trespass against us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And when our words fail, when we lose our voice, we are grateful that you, Jesus Christ, have given us familiar words which we can fall back upon to pray:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our Father\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n

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

John 10: 11-18, 27-30 Click here to hear the full service. Click here to hear the sermon only. Preface The Shepherd is present and loving and good.   But today we are city, and a world around, drenched in sorrow.\u00a0 Some of that sorrow lies at the feet of those killed, Martin and Lingzi and […]<\/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\/688"}],"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=688"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2472,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688\/revisions\/2472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}