{"id":697,"date":"2013-05-05T11:00:43","date_gmt":"2013-05-05T16:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=697"},"modified":"2019-11-19T13:12:47","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T18:12:47","slug":"living-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2013\/05\/05\/living-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Living Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"

John 14: 23-29<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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

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

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

Come with me for a moment, if you will, and by the mind\u2019s eye, by the imagination, as we walk a little bit across our beloved city.<\/p>\n

We can leave Marsh Chapel and head to the left, due east.\u00a0 The trees and flowers are fragrant and in bloom.\u00a0 We will saunter and wander down the Commonwealth Mall, past the statues and benches and people enjoying a free Sunday.\u00a0\u00a0 At Dartmouth we will turn right, due south.\u00a0 Now you will want to pause at Copley Square.\u00a0 Take a moment with me to stop by the office of our sister congregation at Trinity Church.\u00a0 We will leave a calling card and say a prayerful word of greeting.\u00a0\u00a0 Take a moment with me to stop by the office of our brother congregation at Old South church.\u00a0 We will leave a calling card and say a prayerful word of greeting.\u00a0 Take a moment with me to read the cards and notes, see the flowers and gifts, in the people\u2019s memorial, there, across from the library.\u00a0\u00a0 Remembrance, thanksgiving, presence\u2014you feel them all, these emotions of living grace, these sacramental emotions of living grace.\u00a0 I want to give us a moment to pause here.\u00a0 By the living grace of God we can face grief with grace, hatred with honesty, and death with dignity.\u00a0 There is a spirit of truth loose in the universe, to guide us on our walk this morning.\u00a0\u00a0 Many of us have already, personally or individually, made this same hike, but we have done so together, until now, and now we do so, together, by the mind\u2019s eye, by the imagination.\u00a0 There are some things we need to face, again.\u00a0 Here.<\/p>\n

Now we will head back to Marsh Plaza, walking west on Boylston.\u00a0 These blocks have become brick to brick familiar to the whole globe, not just to those of us in the \u2018hub\u2019.\u00a0 It is important for us to take this walk, and it is important for us to take this walk together.\u00a0 You may want to look at some running shoes in Marathon Sports.\u00a0 Or if you like the gracious narthex of the Lennox Hotel, we could rest there a moment.\u00a0 We will stand for a moment in front of the Forum Restaurant, and there, look for a moment, at another makeshift memorial. \u00a0By the living grace of God we can together make our way into the past, in memory, and into the future, in imagination.\u00a0\u00a0 We see ourselves being filmed from the camera atop Lord and Taylor.\u00a0 We greet a friend who is seated in a nearby restaurant.\u00a0 The eyes film over, somehow.\u00a0 But we are walking together, and we can walk on.\u00a0 You can walk fast, or, like me, walk slowly.\u00a0 It is after all your own imagination.\u00a0 Take things at your own pace.\u00a0 Coming back, up Boylston, across Hereford, left on Commonwealth, and on to the Chapel, there are some things we need to face, again.\u00a0 Here.<\/p>\n

Two young men of limited abilities, armed with the Internet, $100, and some kitchen utensils, brought the fifth largest metropolitan region in the country to a many day standstill.\u00a0 Coffin:\u00a0 God gives us minimum protection and maximum support.\u00a0 In our neighborhood.\u00a0\u00a0 Loss of life and limb, of property and security.\u00a0 Here.\u00a0 Present together to receive the living grace of God in Eucharist, present together across the airwaves to receive the living grace of God in the spoken word, we face together all the potentials of an open future and the extent of human freedom.\u00a0 This is our shared situation.\u00a0 We need to level with each other about this.<\/p>\n

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

Our Scripture, today in particular and every day in general, promises the presence of the spirit of truth, loose in the universe.\u00a0 The potential for harm is, like death itself, ever present.\u00a0 The potential for living grace, like life itself, is ever present.\u00a0 The psalmist sings of a living grace.\u00a0 Lydia embraced such a living grace.\u00a0 John, ever unique, names this grace with a new name, the paraklete,<\/i> the counselor, the advocate, the holy spirit, who abides in the experience of peace.<\/p>\n

For all the familiarity of these lines from John 14, the actual meaning, in history and theology, is darkly or obscurely understood.\u00a0 In particular the novel figure of the paraclete, related in some manner to the holy spirit, to this day is a source of wonder and perplexity for those who study these passages.\u00a0 We are standing on high precipice, ice beneath our feet, wind swirling about our temples, as we receive the promise of the counselor.\u00a0 The living grace of the living God we know in living.\u00a0 Our scripture assumes that we shall be in need of some counseling, some advocacy, some aid.\u00a0 We are.<\/p>\n

Today such sustenance is given in a living grace, a lively grace that teaches and reminds.\u00a0 Let me show you.\u00a0 Let me remind you.\u00a0 We need to learn and remember, though, the clear statement here.\u00a0 You will be taught, reminded.\u00a0 This is you plural, friends.\u00a0\u00a0 You all.\u00a0 The gift of the living grace is made to the gathering, the community, the whole.\u00a0 Not to you but to YOU.\u00a0 These things I have spoken to YOU (plural).\u00a0 While I am still with YOU (plural).\u00a0 The spirit sent will teach YOU (plural).\u00a0 Reminding of all that I have said to YOU (plural).\u00a0 Peace I leave with YOU (plural).\u00a0 My peace I give to YOU (plural).\u00a0 Not as the world gives do I give to YOU (plural).<\/p>\n

Living grace makes of us a community by making of us an addressable community, speaking to us together:\u00a0 speaking us together.<\/i> We may deconstruct the Scripture, but Scripture reconstructs US.\u00a0 The gospel, spoken and heard, reshapes us into a living grace.\u00a0 Reclothes us in our rightful minds\u2026That is, in our situation, our SHARED situation, we are promised something, but the promise is to the plural YOU.\u00a0 YOU, YOU ALL, ALL YOU ALL.\u00a0 Our way forward, that is, on the strength of this Gospel, lies in forms of partnership\u2014meaning is found in community, belonging is found in fellowship, empowerment is found in friendship.\u00a0 Each one\u2019s death diminishes me for I am a part of humankind.\u00a0 The dark mystery of the Counselor remains, but there is nothing unclear about the spirit\u2019s attention\u2014focused on the common, the commonwealth, the common good.<\/p>\n

The far too familiar lines of this strange moonscape of a passage come to a crashing conclusion.\u00a0 \u2018Let not your hearts be troubled\u2019.\u00a0 Heart-S.\u00a0 We are, at heart, gifts of one another to one another, hearts whose heartbeats are felt by one another, souls whose soul is born in soulful connection to one another, meant to live for one another.<\/p>\n

On television sometimes I hear some commentator say, \u2018Let not your heart by troubled\u2019.\u00a0 I want to write in the S at the end.\u00a0 It changes everything.\u00a0 Heart-S.<\/p>\n

Living grace is the grace to live together, which takes wisdom, power and goodness.\u00a0 This is why, may I gently say, connecting with a community of faith is so primary, so irreplaceably important.\u00a0 We worship TOGETHER come Sunday.\u00a0 Together we search for wisdom, power, goodness.<\/p>\n

Wisdom forms design, power allows action, goodness does good.\u00a0 Research, policy, practice.\u00a0 Teaching, deaning, pastoring.\u00a0 Preaching is over all.\u00a0 Eucharist is over all.\u00a0 Grace is over all.<\/p>\n

Let us receive some wisdom about anger.\u00a0 Our anger is real, and needs to be felt, seen, heard, understood and processed as real.\u00a0 I refer you to the sermon of April 21.\u00a0 You will not get away from the marathon bombing without facing your anger, your hatred, even, for those who did this.\u00a0 Be angry, the Bible says, but let not the sun go down on your anger.\u00a0 Hate what is evil, the Bible says, but overcome evil with good. We need to acknowledge that anger, even confess it, even speak it, so that we do not repress it.\u00a0 Beware, my friend, beware the return of the repressed.\u00a0 You have reason to be angry. Oklahoma, Nineleven, Columbine, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Boston. \u00a0But you also have resources with which to deal with it.<\/p>\n

Let us receive some power regarding hatred.\u00a0 Romans 12: 9 I get\u2026It is the later verse, 20, \u2018feed your enemy\u2026and so pour burning coals on him\u2019 that is harder to interpret.\u00a0\u00a0 We may in part finally understand, at a gut level, Paul\u2019s admonition.\u00a0 Is there any other way to channel the anger and honest hatred of evil that we feel?\u00a0 What a wise leverage, a Syracusan, a Archemedian leverage of anger for good, of hatred for love.\u00a0 Let us together try it.\u00a0 We have the possibility of regeneration right here, a living grace.\u00a0 Shmuel Eisenstadt distinguishes irreversible collapse from \u2018collapse with a possibility of regeneration or renewal\u2019 (eg UMC)\u2026\u2019ability to reflect on themselves\u2026reference to shared, lofty visions\u2026allows reshaping\u2026allows continuity\u2026eg Roman Empire and Han Dynasty\u2019 This is why, may I gently say, connecting with a community of faith is so primary, so irreplaceably important.\u00a0 We worship TOGETHER come Sunday.<\/p>\n

Let us receive some goodness for the journey.<\/p>\n

One wrote: We just wanted to thank you all for your kindness and hospitality.\u00a0 On Marathon Monday, when our race came to an end at Mile 25, we were so disoriented about what was going on.\u00a0 Without any cell phones or money, we wandered the streets a while confused about what to do and worried about our loved ones at the finish line.\u00a0 We met wonderful people that day,.\u00a0 Some gave us money to get a taxi, but there were none to be found, others told us to go to the chapel and walked us to your doorsteps.\u00a0 Everyone at the Chapel was so nice and helpful, bringing us food, hot tea, and letting us use your phones.\u00a0 We felt safe!\u00a0 You helped us to reunite with our families.\u00a0 Thank God that they were OK and thank God for all the wonderful and kind people who we met that day at Marsh Chapel.\u00a0 With love\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i>Another wrote: I want to express my gratitude and that of my entire family for the comfort and care provided to us on 4\/15.\u00a0 We sought refuge and we received that and more\u2026Your staff was wonderful and their comfort was most appreciated.\u00a0 It is hard to understand how someone can cause so much pain.\u00a0 The benefit of being reminded in tangible ways of the goodness and kindness of others helps to create a sense of balance\u2014thank you for that.\u00a0 Sincerely\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

It will take the wisdom, power and goodness of another generation to design, build and desire a better world.\u00a0 Here is our prayer for them, the class of \u201913, but it is truly a prayer for us all: <\/b><\/p>\n

Seniors:\u00a0 \u201c13 prayers for the class of \u201813\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

May you finish your papers, wake up for your finals, and pass your courses<\/i><\/p>\n

May you find a job when you are hunting for one, and be found by a calling when you are not (hunting for one)<\/i><\/p>\n

May you remember your mom on Mothers\u2019 Day, seven days from today<\/i><\/p>\n

May our recall that there are two ways to be wealthy:\u00a0 have a lot of money, or, have\u00a0 very few needs.<\/i><\/p>\n

May you honestly face death, as we have done this spring, and so discover the precious value of every breath, as we also have done this spring.<\/i><\/p>\n

May you, with the Greeks, see in tragedy the seedbed of nobility.<\/i><\/p>\n

May you bring a sense of purpose to days and events which lack both (sense and purpose).<\/i><\/p>\n

May your return your overdue library books.\u00a0 May you find your overdue library books.<\/i><\/p>\n

May you with Samuel Johnson keep your friendships in good repair, with John Wesley and Mother Theresa remember the poor, with Lord Baden Powell do a good turn daily, and with Bill Coffin take yourself lightly so that you may fly, like the angels.<\/i><\/p>\n

May you have a life long, rapturous, torrid love affair\u2014with Boston, dear old Boston, the home of the bean and the cod, and take your first born to Fenway Park, and remember the radiant, sun-dappled happiness of this morning all your days.<\/i><\/p>\n

May life be good to you, and may you be good to life.<\/i><\/p>\n

My dear ones, my dear friends, who so resemble my own dear children, may you be safe, may you be well, may you be happy.<\/i><\/p>\n

May you as a generation find the wisdom to design a better world, acquire the power to build a better world, and have the goodness to want a better world.<\/i><\/p>\n

May it be so.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

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