{"id":806,"date":"2013-12-08T11:00:28","date_gmt":"2013-12-08T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=806"},"modified":"2020-02-11T16:17:50","modified_gmt":"2020-02-11T21:17:50","slug":"the-bach-experience-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2013\/12\/08\/the-bach-experience-3\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bach Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Matthew 3: 1-13<\/a><\/p>\n

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

<\/i><\/b>Dean Hill:<\/p>\n

Before Jesus there was John, before the Christ there was the Baptist.\u00a0 Jesus was a disciple of John.\u00a0 John prepared the way for Jesus.\u00a0 As we listen with word and music, perhaps we can ponder the power of precursors.<\/p>\n

Before Christmas there is Advent, before the incarnation is the anticipation.\u00a0 The feast of Christmas comes after the penitence of Advent.\u00a0 The joy of birth comes after the anxiety of expectation.\u00a0 As we listen with word and music, today let us ponder the power of precursors.<\/p>\n

Before tradition there is event, before understanding there is experience.\u00a0\u00a0 The rolling voice of the Baptist is the event through which we each year pass in order to come to our understanding of Christmas.\u00a0 The joy of the feast comes after the murky dark water of the Jordan river, and the towering ferocity of John, in camel\u2019s hair eating locusts.<\/p>\n

Before Matthew there was Mark, before teaching there was preaching, before catechesis there was kerygma.\u00a0 Matthew is an interpreter of Mark.\u00a0 Mark is the model for Matthew.\u00a0 As we listen with word and music, perhaps we can ponder the power of precursors.<\/p>\n

We might want to pause a moment to greet Matthew in a personal way.\u00a0 He will be our gospel guide for 51 weeks, walking alongside us as we climb the mountain of existence.\u00a0\u00a0 He is not eating locusts and honey nor wearing camel\u2019s hair and sandals, though his attire is both strange and ancient.<\/p>\n

His is a difficult introduction to make.\u00a0 \u201cThe difficulty is rather the character of the Gospel itself\u2014a Greek Gospel, using Greek sources, written for a predominantly Gentile church, at a time when the tradition had become mixed with legend, and when the ethical teaching of Jesus was being reinterpreted to apply to new situations and codified into a new law\u2026It cannot have been written by an eye witness.\u00a0 It is a compendium of church tradition, artistically edited, not the personal observations of a participant\u201d (IBD 242)<\/p>\n

The outline of Jesus\u2019 life in Matthew is like that in Mark.\u00a0 Galilee.\u00a0 Jerusalem. \u00a0Country. City.\u00a0 Small. Large. (A good pattern for the trajectory of much ministry).<\/p>\n

Matthew has added a collection of teachings to Mark (but just added it to situations already known to Mark).\u00a0 He also adds legendary material (infancy narratives).<\/p>\n

As in Mark, Jesus is a teacher and healer. Geography and scenery are the same.\u00a0 Are there two sibling gospels and three synoptics?<\/p>\n

He combines Mark\u2019s chronological and geographical outline, with lots of new material, so that we have a real catechism, sometimes seen as five different sections.\u00a0 Matthew likes the number 7.\u00a0 He exhibits a lot of ecclesiastical piety.<\/p>\n

Matthew comes from Jewish rabbinic circles.\u00a0 And a Christianizing of the portrait of the disciples. \u2018The reference to the fulfillment of prophecy which pervades the whole book and derives from the author\u2019s theological as well as his apologetic anti-Jewish interest\u2019. (R Bultmann, HSG, 381) He raises the stature of Jesus into the divine.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis prose differs from that of Plato to approximately the extent that the English in the news columns of a well written daily differs from that of Shakespeare and the King James Version\u201d (IBD, op cit, 239).<\/p>\n

Our passage prepares us for worship, for the singing of God\u2019s praises, for glory to God in the highest.\u00a0 Is this not, Dr Jarrett, our reason for hearing this Bach this Sunday?<\/p>\n

(Dr. Scott Jarrett speaks)<\/em><\/p>\n

Dean Hill:<\/p>\n

We ponder the power of precursors, in days during which around the globe we ponder the influence of Nelson Mandela. <\/i><\/p>\n

You will at some point sense a nudge to join in this parade.\u00a0 Some will do so by listening on the internet.\u00a0 Some will do so by tuning in via radio.\u00a0 Some will do so by coming to 735 Commonwealth Avenue.\u00a0 Next Sunday with Lessons and Carols would be a good one to do so, and to bring a friend.<\/p>\n

It is a privilege and weekly joy to see this community of faith gathering at 11am on Sunday.\u00a0 A student, bagel in hand, trundles up the stairs.\u00a0 A couple who have driven from an hour to the west find an aisle seat, then following worship have lunch and do one city thing each week.\u00a0 A husband and wife, catholic and protestant, join us for two services, this one at 11am\u2014then a break\u2014and catholic mass at 12:30.\u00a0 A young couple with tiny tots finds the energy and discipline to bring the family for worship and study.\u00a0 An older man, alone some of the week, becomes a part of an empowering community.<\/p>\n

The world does not lack for wonders but only for a sense of wonder.\u00a0 Sunday at 11am, one way or another, is the way back to wonder.\u00a0 To hear something that is beautiful.\u00a0 To see someone who is good.\u00a0 To hear some word which is true.\u00a0 These are the seeds of wonder.<\/p>\n

Then, from here on Sunday, you may find your way elsewhere during the week.\u00a0 To audit a class on Lincoln on Monday.\u00a0 To hear a panel of 12 interfaith students on Tuesday.\u00a0 To watch the basketball team on Wednesday.\u00a0 To hear a lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls on Thursday.\u00a0 To attend\u00a0 the Shakespeare Project on Friday.\u00a0 To take in a concert on Saturday.\u00a0\u00a0 Friends, your life of faith in worship can be centered at Marsh Chapel at Boston University, and for your fellowship, education and service you may swim through the whole University!\u00a0\u00a0 I do not know\u2014anywhere\u2014a better way to unite the pair so long disjoined, knowledge and vital piety.\u00a0 I do not know a better way to nurture the soul and so to grow great hearted future leaders.\u00a0 And we do need such\u2026<\/p>\n

\u00a0 <\/span>– The Reverend Doctor, Robert Allan Hill, Dean. & Dr. Scott Jarrett,\u00a0Director of Music<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to hear the full service. Matthew 3: 1-13 Click here to hear the sermon only. Dean Hill: Before Jesus there was John, before the Christ there was the Baptist.\u00a0 Jesus was a disciple of John.\u00a0 John prepared the way for Jesus.\u00a0 As we listen with word and music, perhaps we can ponder the […]<\/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":[11,6,10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806"}],"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=806"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2037,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions\/2037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}