I invite you to look up. Study this ceiling and its great beams and trusses. Notice the keel-shape of the vaulting. The term nave—the space we are inhabiting— derives from the Latin, navis, meaning “ship”. Since the first century the ship at sea, underway and under sail, has been used as a symbol of the Christian Church.
I. OH MY GOD
Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. That was the cry that day. In the immediate aftermath of the explosions. At the Finish Line. On the sidewalk. Amongst the blood and severed limbs.
In the presence of carnage, slippery blood and grievous pain, human beings don’t curse. Have you noticed this? No one, I mean no one, says the F word.
Introduction
One by one, Job’s fortunes turn to misfortune, his joys turn to agony. Yet, with an outsized determination he cries: When God has tried me, I shall come forth like gold. He was one plucky guy, Job.
Let us pray.
First Seizure
Every arrival portends a leave-taking. Every birth portends its own death.
Mary knows it. Did you hear it in her song? Her song is triumphant. It is exultant. God bless her, she’s pregnant! She’s going to have a baby! Yet, even as she celebrates and anticipates birth, she cannot help but foresee, dying. Hers. Her unborn child’s.
Every arrival portends a leave-taking. Every birth—even Jesus’ birth—portends its own death.
This church, Old South Church, was born 345 years ago. But here’s the thing: it was born in a storm. It was born in an argument, a dispute over water. It was born in a storm of controversy over baptism . . . the waters of baptism.
It is hard for us to imagine, but here in Boston in the 1600’s people argued about baptism. They argued about baptism over beers in the pubs. They argued about baptism at suppertime in their kitchens. They argued about baptism at the mercantile while examining bolts of cloth,
One hundred and thirty years ago, our forebears erected and installed in the sanctuary four memorial tablets. Tablets inscribed with some of those names most conspicuous in our annals.
Two of these tablets are affixed on the south wall. These are of red marble, polished, enclosed by molded arches of Caen stone, carried on columns of Mexican onyx, and surmounted by gables with pinnacles. These tablets bear the names of the ministers, who, in long succession, filled the pastorate from 1670 to 2002, with the dates of installation, resignation, and death.