Listen…

Exodus 24:12-18

Matthew 17:1-9

There are just a few times in our daily living where we get the chance to be like God.  One of my campus ministers in college was fond of saying that we are most like God when we are creating.  I love that.  God is indeed an artist and we glimpse God’s marvelous dance each time we engage in the act of creating anything, food, art, furniture, flower arrangements, whatever it is that is our unique mark on the art of creation.  But there is another time when we are able to join God- it is an act that is perhaps one of the most difficult and yet essential to our shared Christian life and that is listening.  Listening is a profound act that very few of us are able to do well.  It is mostly not our fault.  We don’t have excellent examples for how to listen well.  You will notice that most television sitcoms illustrate beautifully how we talk over one another and interrupt or how we only hear what applies to us.  Many of the news broadcasts demonstrate a total lack of listening as well; the questions never seem to come as a result of really hearing what the other person was saying.  Most of us are excellent at listening to respond or listening to jump in.  We listen primarily for ourselves, just waiting for the right moment to share our super thought.  I know that I often find myself so excited and enthusiastic about what others are saying that my brain begins to scan for my next great response.  Sometimes I get so excited that I try to anticipate what the other person is going to say.  This is actually quite rude and it drives Jeremy crazy.  I know I am not alone.  While God is the master of listening, most of us aren’t that great at listening. In part because true listening requires that we disengage our own egos.  Really listening means letting go of trying to get our own ideas in and making space for the other.  And perhaps many of us fall short, in part because we are all caught in a wild cycle fraught with failed listening.  Few of us have experiences of really being heard, so we fully live out that experience by failing to serve as faithful listening ears to others.  Most of us aren’t listened to and so we aren’t fully able to listen to others.

I don’t mean to say that any of us are especially unfriendly; in fact my experiences here have shown me the genuine compassionate people who walk together in this community.  Rather, it seems to me that as Christians, listening should be at the core of our faith.  Being Christians should mean that we are real listeners- holy listeners.

We live in a culture where we engage in conversations and ask questions that we really don’t want the answer to.  Have you noticed that?  Many of our interactions don’t even allow for good listening.  Upon greeting one another, we ask, “How are you?” to which we all reply, “fine” or “doing great” or “alright.”  It’s one of those fake questions- a question whose answer gets us out of having to listen.  This cultural norm of evading listening was illustrated to me in seminary.  One of my dear friends there was a wonderful man from Korea.  Jay is one of those people that simply exudes the Holy Spirit.  He loved to get out his guitar and belt out praise songs and he so clearly loved God.  In the first weeks of seminary, Jay was overwhelmed.  He was learning English, learning to navigate graduate level academia and he was homesick.  Jay was so loved by all and he was always willing to engage in conversation.  On one post-meal occasion I overheard one of our classmates ask Jay the oh-so-American question, “How are you?”  And Jay poured out his heart sharing pieces of his deepest yearnings, his fears, his exhaustion, and his frustrations.  The person asking had no idea such a response was coming.  Jay had not yet been incorporated into the American task of disingenuous questions that leave no space for real speaking or real listening.  Jay had no idea that when asked, “How are you?” he was supposed to say, “fine” and end with that.  I never forgot that.  It reminds me how most of us are not equipped to really listen. 

Jesus’ disciples weren’t great listeners either.  They always seemed to have their own interests in mind and were often unable to really take in what it was Jesus was trying to say to them.  I bet that’s why Jesus hauled them up a mountain.  Maybe he was tired of the fact that they just wouldn’t listen.  He needed a place with few distractions- a place where they might still their souls and listen.  Maybe he gave up on words and so the scripture tells us that Jesus “was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white.”  Jesus stood there glowing, he was transfigured before them and still the disciples keep on blabbing away.  Peter says, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”  What?  Jesus is probably so irritated he doesn’t know what to do next.  He drags Peter and James all the way up the mountain to help them understand what God wants them to do, to show them God’s vision, to give them a chance to listen… and they still don’t get it.  Peter keeps on talking, but maybe sensing Jesus’ exasperation God breaks in and says, “Listen!”  God was probably irritated at this point too.  God was running out of things to try.  God transfigured Jesus, made him all aglow and still Peter talked on.  So God comes in a bright cloud in the middle of Peter’s monologue and says, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”  Silence fell over the mountain.  God says, “Listen!”  Of course this burst from the Holy One comes as a huge shock to Peter and James.  They have been so into themselves that they freak out and they fall to the ground.  Jesus, probably relieved that finally God broke through to them, comforts them and promises to be with them.  He tells them not to fear.  And I bet he wanted to say, “So, did you get it now?  Listen.” 

Even the earliest followers had trouble with this seemingly simple request.  “This is my Son, the Beloved…listen to him.”  Listening, as hard as it is, is a part of following Jesus.  One of the oldest practices of our Congregationalist forbears is listening.  Quakers do it the best.  Listening is absolutely central to their life together.  Listening is the place from which all decisions flow.  Listening, holy listening is an act of faith and I believe listening, really listening is the way that we will follow God faithfully and fully together as a congregation.  Listening is a way to extend a blessing to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  It is a way of valuing each other and it is a way to hear God. 

Let me say that again, listening to one another is a way to hear God.  For some reason, God decided to use human beings, to use each of us to share God’s hopes and dreams, to share possibilities we have not yet seen.  Despite all of our human flaws and inadequacies, God chooses to speak through us.  And I wonder what it might look like for us to live as if we really believed this.  What would it look like for us to make holy listening one of our core practices?  What might God be trying to say to us through those who have yet to be heard?  As we stand on the precipice of Lent, on our mountaintop wherever we are, God says, “Listen!” As we follow God boldly in our visioning process, I believe we must be a listening church.  One of my Lenten practices is going to be praying my way into a new kind of listening.  And as we stand on the precipice of this holy season, I invite you to join me.  Make space in this holy season to listen to God.  Listen for God in silence by yourself.  Listen for God in fellowship hour and in committee meetings.  Listen for God in the longings you feel.  Listen for God in conversation with someone you hardly know.  God says to us wherever we are; “Listen…” and I pray we might respond with open ears.  Amen.