{"id":711,"date":"2013-06-16T11:00:50","date_gmt":"2013-06-16T15:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=711"},"modified":"2019-11-19T12:34:44","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T17:34:44","slug":"a-johannine-inspiration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2013\/06\/16\/a-johannine-inspiration\/","title":{"rendered":"A Johannine Inspiration"},"content":{"rendered":"

I John 4: 7-12<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

John is the \u2018spiritual gospel\u2019. The gospel and the letters named for John, including our lesson read earlier, were given their shared name long ago.\u00a0 So named in the second century by a person whom once we termed a \u2018church father\u2019 but term such an one such no longer, rather saying an \u2018early Christian writer\u2019, the Johannine literature has long inspired poetry.<\/p>\n

From the doors just west of us on the Marsh Plaza emerge every spring a class of soon to be preachers, holding Bibles in their right hands and massive debt in their left.\u00a0 By July 1 they are in pulpits, preaching, preaching every Sunday a Sunday sermon, \u2018about God and about 20 minutes\u2019, for forty years. <\/b>Some of those sermons will come from John.<\/p>\n

Come Saturday night they will begin to write their sermons.\u00a0 They will find in the passages to be read from John various troubling, troublesome, troublous passages. It is a diachronic reading of John, one that looks at its place and time, its community of origin, its sitz im leben, or life setting, which frees, and which alone can give a measure of the promise of 8:32, \u2018you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free\u2019.\u00a0 Coming down from the STH steps, Bible in one hand and massive debt in the other, our students, one hopes, will also have acquired some pious understanding of John\u2019s history and theology.<\/p>\n

They will have learned that the phrase \u2018the Jews\u2019 does not mean \u2018the Jews\u2019, but grew up in the year 90ad out of a painful separation of Christian Jews from Jewish Christians.\u00a0 The community behind John contested with those whom they referred by this phrase, even though they, the Jews, were their own kin.\u00a0 They themselves were Jews too! These passages in John are to be understood historically and theologically as a particularly dark moment in the Christian tradition of anti-semitism. <\/i>Our students need to know this first, and more.<\/p>\n

John\u2019s Jesus makes several remarkable claims, given Philippians 2 and Matthew 5.\u00a0 Are many of them historically reliable?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 They reflect a changed understanding of the Christ, hard won and hard earned.\u00a0 The titles for Christ\u2014Messiah, Son of God, Son of Man\u2014come from different points it the community\u2019s journey, history, and theology. \u00a0Our students need to know this first, and more.<\/p>\n

John\u2019s community has suffered trauma that has caused change.\u00a0 Trauma brings change.\u00a0 They have suffered the trauma of disappointment.\u00a0 The end of the world which they expected did not come, disappointingly enough.\u00a0 They found the courage to admit it, and change.\u00a0 That is, in disappointment they discovered freedom.\u00a0 They also have suffered the trauma of dislocation.\u00a0 They have been thrown out of their religious home, de-synagogued if you will, and are wandering out in the street when they write.\u00a0 They lost their mother tongue, mother land, mother tradition, which is huge dislocation.\u00a0 They found the courage to face it, and change.\u00a0 That is, in dislocation they discovered grace.\u00a0 Paul, who did not write or know John, might well have said, see, I told you, \u2018when I am weak, then I am strong\u2019.\u00a0 And, mirable dictu,<\/i> in the cross of Christ and in the loss of John, this ancient faith community uncovered a way to love. Our students need to know this first, and more.<\/p>\n

However.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you know that life is a funny old dog?\u00a0 For six years I have along side me as teaching assistant a most brilliant, funny, young mother of two, Episcopal priest.\u00a0 She is a literary critic.\u00a0 She practices rhetorical criticism.\u00a0 She loves poetry. \u00a0Twice a term I ask her to bring her exotic medicines, the alchemic mixtures of literary criticism to bear on our text.\u00a0 I like to be magnanimous, don\u2019t you know.\u00a0 I believe in the liberal balance, don\u2019t you know.\u00a0 I honor freedom of speech in the university, don\u2019t you know.\u00a0 Plus, the students love her. The students appreciate her approach\u2014AS AN ADDITION MIND YOU TO THE MAIN WORK OF THE COURSE.\u00a0 And, I must say, I too appreciate her and love her work.\u00a0 Even teachers can learn.\u00a0 As that great Yankee Yogi Berra said, \u2018you can observe a lot just by watching\u2019.\u00a0 \u2018The old owl sits in the oak tree, the more he speaks the more he hears, the more he hears, the less he speaks, why are we not like that old owl?\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Rev., now Rev. Dr. Regina Walton every term shows our students three poems which grow out of the Fourth Gospel and illumine its meaning.\u00a0 For today\u2019s Father\u2019s Day sermon, I determined to have you hear them as well.\u00a0 They are light, joy, truth, power, meaning, and love.\u00a0 Gospel.\u00a0 They are beautiful.\u00a0 They are rhetorically beautiful religious language.\u00a0 What other than such beauty, epitomized by our lesson from 1 John, will drive out the demons of hateful religious rhetoric? And they can help us, here in Boston, here in Marsh Chapel, here today.<\/p>\n

The poet George Herbert lived from 1593 to 1633.\u00a0 The English Civil War occurred soon after his death, leading to \u2018disestablishment\u2019. <\/b> Herbert was an \u2018orator\u2019 at Cambridge, and sickly.\u00a0 From a young age he knew that he was called to write devotional poetry.\u00a0 He knew John Donne, who was a friend of his mother\u2019s.\u00a0 He employs both trochaic and iambic meters.\u00a0 He writes, among other things, of the soul\u2019s call to God, and of the claim the believer has on God.\u00a0 That is, in his work there is a Johannine courage.\u00a0 Love made me welcome, but my soul drew back\u2026You must sit down and taste my meat\u2026Herbert wrote of love.\u00a0 Here is a poem (you beautifully sang it a moment ago) that draws directly on John 14:17, John 6:6, and John 16:22:<\/p>\n

The Call<\/i><\/p>\n

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

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:<\/i><\/p>\n

Such a Way, as gives us breath:<\/i><\/p>\n

Such a Truth as ends all strife:<\/i><\/p>\n

And such a life as killeth death.<\/i><\/p>\n

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

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:<\/i><\/p>\n

Such a Light as shows a feast:<\/i><\/p>\n

Such a Feast as mends in length:<\/i><\/p>\n

Such a strength as makes his guest.<\/i><\/p>\n

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

Come my Joy, my Love, my Heart:<\/i><\/p>\n

Such a Joy as none can move:<\/i><\/p>\n

Such a Love as none can part:<\/i><\/p>\n

Such a Heart as joyes in love.<\/i><\/p>\n

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

Such a heart as joyes in love<\/i>.\u00a0 As a pastor in this community, Marsh Chapel, I have the privilege of seeing women and men struggling to live in faith, and doing so by inspiration.\u00a0\u00a0 In our community we are expecting a birth or two, fairly soon, a joy in love.\u00a0 In our community we have couples who are in the throes of making marriage work and work better, a joy in love.\u00a0 In our community we have dads and moms whose sons and daughters are in armed service, and they are praying for their safe returns, a joy in love.\u00a0 In our community we have some who struggle with the challenges, physical and personal, of aging, and are finding healing care, a joy in love.\u00a0 In our community we have students who are learning to learn what they most want to learn, not someone else\u2019s fantasy of what they might learn, a joy in love.\u00a0 In our community we have women and men, the salt of the earth, who reflect and radiate Christ\u2019s joy in love.<\/p>\n

The poet Henry Vaughn lived from 1622 to 1695.\u00a0 He fought on the Royalist side during the great war.\u00a0 Vaughn is known as one of the best followers and imitators of Herbert.\u00a0 In 1649, Charles I executed Oliver Cromwell.\u00a0 The Church of England was disestablished and the Book of Common Prayer was outlawed.\u00a0 The King was understood to be anointed by God.\u00a0 Incidentally, his brother was an alchemist.\u00a0 Vaughn lived during a dark time, and his poetry evokes his time.\u00a0 He recalls the great Pseudo-Dionysus and the Cloud of Unknowing.\u00a0 He celebrates night and the darkness of God, in way that I believe connects truly to our time as well.\u00a0\u00a0 It is no accident that he bases this poem on Nicodemus at night, John 3:2ff.\u00a0 Here some verses from this wondrous work:<\/p>\n

The Night<\/i><\/p>\n

Through that pure Virgin Shrine<\/i><\/p>\n

That sacred veil drawn o\u2019er thy glorious noon<\/i><\/p>\n

That men might look and live as glow-worms shine<\/i><\/p>\n

And face the moon:<\/i><\/p>\n

Wise Nicodemus saw such light<\/i><\/p>\n

As made him know his God by night.<\/i><\/p>\n

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

Most blest believer he!<\/i><\/p>\n

Who in that land of darkness and blind eyes<\/i><\/p>\n

Thy long expected healing wings could see,<\/i><\/p>\n

When thou didst rise,<\/i><\/p>\n

And what can nevermore be done,<\/i><\/p>\n

Did at mid-night speak with the Sun!<\/i><\/p>\n

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

O who will tell me, where<\/i><\/p>\n

He found thee at that dead and silent hour!<\/i><\/p>\n

What hallowed solitary ground did bear<\/i><\/p>\n

So rare a flower,<\/i><\/p>\n

Within whose sacred leaves did like<\/i><\/p>\n

The fullness of the Deity\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

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

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

Dear night! This world\u2019s defeat;<\/i><\/p>\n

The stop to busy fools; care\u2019s check and curb;<\/i><\/p>\n

The day of Spirits; my soul\u2019s calm retreat<\/i><\/p>\n

Which none disturb!<\/i><\/p>\n

Christ\u2019s progress and his prayer time;<\/i><\/p>\n

The hours to which high Heaven doth chime\u2026<\/i><\/p>\n

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

Were all my loud evil days<\/i><\/p>\n

Calm and unhaunted as is thy dark Tent,<\/i><\/p>\n

Whose peace but by some Angel\u2019s wing or voice<\/i><\/p>\n

Is seldom rent;<\/i><\/p>\n

Then I in Heaven all the long year<\/i><\/p>\n

Would keep, and never wander here.<\/i><\/p>\n

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

But living where the sun<\/i><\/p>\n

Doth all things wake, and where all mix and tire<\/i><\/p>\n

Themselves and others, I consent and run<\/i><\/p>\n

To every mire,<\/i><\/p>\n

And by this world\u2019s guiding light,<\/i><\/p>\n

Err more than I can do by night.<\/i><\/p>\n

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

There is in God (some say)<\/i><\/p>\n

A deep but dazzling darkness; as men here<\/i><\/p>\n

Say it is late and dusky, because they<\/i><\/p>\n

See not all clear;<\/i><\/p>\n

O for that night! Where I in him<\/i><\/p>\n

Might live invisible and dim.<\/i><\/p>\n

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

Nicodemus\u2014like the the beloved disciple, like the paraclete, like the logos, like the \u2018judeans\u2019\u2014helps form a bridge from the community of faith to the community of life, from religion to culture, from church to world.\u00a0 And back. Most blest believer he! Who in that land of darkness and blind eyes, Thy long expected healing wings could see. <\/i>At Marsh Chapel we yearn for a faith amenable to culture and a culture amenable to faith.\u00a0 We desire such not because it is immediately present or likely with ease in our time to arise.\u00a0 It is not and it will not.\u00a0 But as Vaclev Havel said, \u2018I hope for the good not because it will necessarily succeed, but because it is right and true.\u2019\u00a0 When the faith you personally cherish walks by night without fear across this whole great land, and when the culture you inhabit visits the community of faith without fear, by night or day\u2014when Jesus and Nicodemus embrace\u2014then a bit of heaven has come to earth.\u00a0\u00a0 For example, when the beauty of the people and voices of the Marsh Choir, who embody salt and light, find purchase in a great hall with a culturally iconic band, not particularly otherwise known for religious observance by the way, then you have an apocalyptic moment, a place of faith amenable to culture and culture amenable to faith.<\/p>\n

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

You will not be surprised, many of you, by the choice for our third poet.\u00a0 The poet T.S. Eliot was born in America, yet lived most of his life in England until his death in 1965.\u00a0 He was the greatest poet of his age, and one of the greatest of any age.\u00a0 While our generation does not cling to him as did an earlier one, and this itself is a pity, nonetheless he touches us too.\u00a0 To him we owe the rediscovery of the metaphysical poets.\u00a0 Eliot found God\u2019s presence in God\u2019s absence.\u00a0 Like Herbert\u2019s mature claim upon God, like Vaughn\u2019s love of night, Eliot\u2019s presence in absence seems strikingly close to the spirit of our own age.\u00a0 I dedicate this reading to my dear dad who died three years ago, an authentic lover of the word.\u00a0 The following poem owes much to John 1:1 ff:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent<\/i><\/p>\n

If the unheard, unspoken<\/i><\/p>\n

Word is unspoken, unheard;<\/i><\/p>\n

Still is the unspoken word, the Word, unheard,<\/i><\/p>\n

The Word without a word, the Word within<\/i><\/p>\n

The world and for the world;<\/i><\/p>\n

And the light shone in the darkness and<\/i><\/p>\n

Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled<\/i><\/p>\n

About the centre of the silent Word.<\/i><\/p>\n

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

O my people, what have I done unto thee.<\/i><\/p>\n

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

Where shall the word be found, where will the word<\/i><\/p>\n

Resound? <\/i><\/p>\n

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

The Word within the world and for the world. <\/i>This summer, starting next week with Ms. Jessica Cheeka, you will hear voices from our strongest sister pulpits in the north, Asbury First in Rochester NY, Christ Church in NYC, Foundry Church Washington, and ours from Marsh Chapel in Boston.\u00a0\u00a0 Of all the seven national preacher summer series we have now offered I am most glad for this one, for many reasons, but let me mention just one.\u00a0\u00a0 In Methodism our pulpits historically, since Wesley, Asbury, Cartwright, Shaw, Sockman, Tittle and all, have led the way.\u00a0 Now, in our time of ecclesiological fragmentation, much farther advanced than most realize, we shall need to rely not so heavily, certainly not exclusively, on the superintending voices, important as they are, but on the deeper streams of mercy still fed by the healthy communities of faith, and by their pulpits.\u00a0 Wesley loved the Easter Orthodox traditions, those of the patriarchies, not of the bishops of Rome and elsewhere, not a bad memory for a Father\u2019s Day.\u00a0 The communities, in the East, led and lead\u2014Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople.\u00a0 We need to look East, in this sense, to listen first to the remaining vibrant pulpits.\u00a0 In the next decade, we shall need these four arrows together in a quiver\u2014Marsh, Christ, Foundry, Asbury\u2014as we minister the Word within the world and for the world.\u00a0 The superintending is rooted in 1 John, but the vocal leadership, the spiritual leadership, the Spirit, is rooted in John.\u00a0 Have a great summer!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here are three poems, three moments\u00a0 of Johannine inspiration, Herbert, and Vaughn and Eliot.\u00a0 One for those in need, celebrating the One who joyes in love.\u00a0 One for those at night, celebrating the one who marries faith and life.\u00a0 One for those troubled by absence, celebrating the coming, the return of voice and word.\u00a0 Amen. Amen. Amen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beloved let us love one another!<\/p>\n

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

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