{"id":7,"date":"2011-09-25T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-25T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2011\/09\/25\/a-change-of-heart\/"},"modified":"2020-02-18T17:15:26","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T22:15:26","slug":"a-change-of-heart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2011\/09\/25\/a-change-of-heart\/","title":{"rendered":"A Change of Heart"},"content":{"rendered":"
Click here to hear the sermon only.<\/a>
\nMatthew 21: 23-32<\/a><\/p>\n
\n
Bob<\/div>\n

This Sunday we are confronted by one of the most endearing, and most alluring little parables in all of Scripture, maybe in all of literature.<\/p>\n

How it fits with the rest of the lesson is not entirely clear, at least to me. Nor is it clear how the lesson in Matthew fits with the other assigned readings for the day, Philippians and our Psalm and so on. Dark sayings from of old, indeed.<\/p>\n

But the collision of order and answer, of beckoning and response, has to haunt.<\/p>\n

A man has two sons. Already, the plot is thickened, with rivalry, with competition, with family intrigue.<\/p>\n

Then the preaching of the gospel occurs. The vintner\u2014I prefer vintner to father here\u2014tells something, it is a statement that beckons, not formally a question nor even an invitation. Simply a command. Go.<\/p>\n

He commands. Schweitzer would be pleased.<\/p>\n

Go and live, go and work, go and love, go and prune, go and pluck, go and tend your garden. Go. Up and Go!<\/p>\n

Every day and every Lord\u2019s Day, the word arises to us, singeing our nostrils. Go. The day accosts us with a challenge to the good, to a choice if Dewey is right between goods.<\/p>\n

You know, I have a feeling about a feeling abroad.<\/p>\n

I think some of us sometimes have the sinking feeling that things are not going so well, that things are drifting or worse.<\/p>\n

We see war wounds that do not heal.<\/p>\n

We see environmental gashes that we rue, ice melting, melting melting<\/p>\n

We watch another attempt to bring expanding gambling to the commonwealth and wonder, is this the best we can do, the our selves at our best?<\/p>\n

We see an economy that leaves out, as James Walters said this week, 14 million people, the equivalent of the total population of New England. Maybe twice that when you get everybody counted.<\/p>\n

We see a beloved country and respected government that cant seem to organize a two car funeral.<\/p>\n

And on top of it all, the Red Sox are not always winning.<\/p>\n

You know, I think there is an ennui abroad, a languishing in doldrums of pervasive malaise.<\/p>\n

So when the word comes. Come Sunday: Up! Go! You! Work! Vineyard! Today!<\/p>\n

We pull up the covers and sleep in, or call in sick, or drive in late, or just are not really sure we can do anything about all these irremediable driftings.<\/p>\n

What difference does it make what I do?<\/p>\n

So, says son one, I will not go. Son two doesn\u2019t go, he just evades, the compliant not the defiant one. He says Yes Mrs Cleaver, but he doesn\u2019t go. He never meant to. He just doesn\u2019t like conflict. Well who does?<\/p>\n

But the first son has a change of heart.<\/p>\n

Now I find this so encouraging, heartening, lovely. Up front, he says, no way, no way Jose. He is defiant, and willing to say it. I don\u2019t think so, Mr. Vintner, Mr Father, Mr Voice, Mr Life, Mr. Daytime. I think I will just turn in my ticket. Thanks but no thanks.<\/p>\n

But he has a change of heart.<\/p>\n

Will you notice with me that the main thing we want to know is not told to us?<\/p>\n

We want to know, what changed the heart? What did the trick? What sealed the deal? What moved the lever?<\/p>\n

And the Bible says, \u2018Address Not Known\u2019. In other words, it is shrouded in mystery.<\/p>\n

So we are a little free to speculate, and I plan to take that freedom in full today. We do not know what brought the change of heart.<\/p>\n

But I know what can be a change of heart.<\/p>\n

Beauty.<\/p>\n

An experience of the beautiful can change the heart. A thank you note. A sunrise. A poem. A violin sonata. A student writing on our memory board, \u2018I saw the planes hit from my fourth grade window\u2019\u2014there is a beauty in that memory of innocence lost.<\/p>\n

When you come to church on Sunday, you may be saying no. NO I WILL NOT. You may be not willing to have any change, let alone a change of heart. It is in that very condition that John Wesley went in the rain to Aldersgate Street. NO I WILL NOT GO TO THE VINEYARD, not today baby.<\/p>\n

But\u2026<\/p>\n

You get to church and\u2026<\/p>\n

Beauty.<\/p>\n

Sun through stained glass. Organ meditation. Word fitly spoken. Bach.<\/p>\n

Music can say things that words never can.<\/p>\n

Beauty is like that.<\/p>\n

Scott<\/div>\n

Actually, Dean Hill, Bach suggests his own answer for the source of Son Number One\u2019s change of heart. With the spirit of beauty, perhaps it was indeed \u2018a spirit\u2019 of Beauty \u2013 the angels encamped about Son Number One. Angels \u2013 the very picture of beauty!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s cantata celebrates these spirits of Beauty and Light \u2013 the Angels. Originally written for the Festival of St. Michael, celebrated on September 29th, our cantata today commemorates the victory of Michael, the arch-angel, over Satan as depicted in Revelation. The first movement brims with joyful celebration complete with trumpets and timpani, in a light dance style. Any jagged depictions of the battle are replaced by the brilliance of the celebration. Here, there are no fugues or demanding complexities \u2013 we hear the voice of Bach\u2019s finest expressions of jubilation.<\/p>\n

As the cantata proceeds, Bach\u2019s takes the turns we now anticipate \u2013 \u2018We acknowledge and celebrate the great things the Lord has brought to pass\u2019, and we now mark the ways in which the Lord continues to work on our behalf in our living, in our working, in our sleeping, in our loving, and, yes, in our departing. The central aria of the cantata \u2013 \u2018Gottes Engel weichen nie\u2019 \/ God\u2019s Angels never retreat \u2013 depicts these airy beings as they watch over our every need, preventing us from danger and temptation. Notice the lightness of the string writing, and the angelic voice of soprano Margot Rood. The second half of the cantata reminds us that in our departing, God\u2019s angels will usher us to Abraham\u2019s bosom, just as he did with Elijah and his fiery chariot. Bach is always teaching us a Bible lesson! Our dependence on the angels becomes clearer in the final duet, \u2018Seid wachsam ihr heiligen W\u00e4chter\u2019\/ \u2018Be vigilant, you holy watchman\u2019. The bassoon takes the role of the lonely watchman in his nightly rounds, protecting us from Satan\u2019s snare. The Cantata concludes with the famous chorale, Herzlich lieb, which some Marsh Chapel congregants will recognize as the chorale that concludes the St John Passion. In the Chorale, God\u2019s angels usher us to Heaven when we meet our end \u2013 ever present, and ever vigilant.<\/p>\n

Who can tell the source of beauty behind Son Number One\u2019s change of heart? Perhaps God\u2019s Angels, or perhaps as Lincoln said, \u2018the better angels of our nature.\u2019 Or perhaps it\u2019s all the same \u2013 a shared and common beauty, ready and available.<\/p>\n

Bob<\/div>\n

You know, sometimes, we come saying no and leave saying yes.<\/p>\n

What changes the heart?<\/p>\n

What pierces, transforms, moves the heart?<\/p>\n

Beauty does.<\/p>\n

It does.<\/p>\n

It says, whispers, reminds:<\/p>\n

There are a lot of things wrong. But there are a lot of things right. Somebody wrote this cantata\u2014sheer beauty. Someone practiced and taught it—sheer beauty. Someone sang it and played it\u2014sheer beauty. And here I am. I heard it. I heard it.<\/p>\n

Music can say things that words never can.<\/p>\n

Maybe number one son huffed no. Then he saw moonlight on Tiberias. Or his wife was singing as the children went to sleep. Or he remembered a part of a Psalm. Or he remembered the loving and lovely self giving of a loved one\u2014maybe th
\nat of his father. Or a friend came by or came through.<\/p>\n

Then he thought\u2026<\/p>\n

Well, maybe, well, maybe<\/p>\n

Maybe things are bad, but maybe they can get better, and maybe better is the only good there is.<\/p>\n

Maybe that is what you will think, leaving today.<\/p>\n

Beauty stands beside me<\/p>\n

Beauty stands beside me<\/p>\n

I hear, I hear, I hear<\/p>\n

Maybe I will say yes after all<\/p>\n

~ The Reverend Dr. Robert Allan Hill, Dean of Marsh Chapel
\nDr. Scott Allen Jarrett, Director of Music, Marsh Chapel Choir<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to hear the sermon only. Matthew 21: 23-32 Bob This Sunday we are confronted by one of the most endearing, and most alluring little parables in all of Scripture, maybe in all of literature. How it fits with the rest of the lesson is not entirely clear, at least to me. Nor is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[25,36,22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7"}],"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=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2678,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions\/2678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}