3-4-18 “Finding a Word: Listening to the Texts”

3-4-18    “Finding a Word: Listening to the Texts”

   Ten years ago, after I returned from my first trip to 

El Salvador in 2008, I bought the Rosetta Stone language learning program in order to learn to speak Spanish. I knew I would likely return to El Salvador and I was also involved in Hispanic ministry through the church I served on the east side, so I thought it would be helpful to learn the language. And for a while I made progress. I learned some basic phrases, and even with a wobbly foundation in the language I was able to figure out the meanings of other words and build simple sentences. But at some point, I quit working on it. I don’t know why, I just got busy with other things and stopped using the program. And of course, without the practice, that new learning faded away. So to this day, I cannot speak Spanish. Since that time, new language learning programs have come out, and with the advent of smart phones there are now language learning apps that weren’t available ten years ago. And that’s all well and good, but I suspect that any app I tried would meet the same fate as those now dusty Rosetta Stone CDs in my desk at home.

   This past week, though, I saw an ad on Facebook for a device called a Pilot Translator. And the Pilot is a small device, about the same size as one of the ear buds that comes with smart phones, that fits in your ear and instantaneously translates any language you hear into the language that you speak - right into your ear. 

   Now, if you’re a Star Trek geek like I am, then you recognize this as being the same concept as the Universal Translator technology used in all iterations of Star Trek over the years that allowed humans to communicate with untold numbers of intergalactic aliens. But Trekkie or not, I think we can all recognize the value of a device like this that would enable communication between two people who don’t speak the same language. If you’ve ever tried to communicate with a person who speaks a different language than you, then you know how difficult, confusing, and even frustrating it can be. We often resort to the use of hand signals or some kind of pseudo sign language, maybe grunting or pantomiming, and perhaps even drawing pictures in order to get our message across. Finding a communications bridge is vital; without being able to communicate it’s really impossible to get to know someone.

   I mean think about it. When we go to a dinner or a party or some such event where there are people present we don’t know or haven’t met before, we have to engage in some degree of small talk in order to navigate that situation. And as an introvert, let me tell you, having to make small talk is introvert HELL! 

Most introverts would rather have dental work done! But in order to get to know someone, or to be known by someone, we have to be able to communicate. When we’re honest in our speech we reveal something about who we are. 

We can’t know or get to know someone who won’t speak to us, and we can’t be known by a person we won’t speak to.

   As part of premarital counseling I’m doing for two couples whose weddings I’ll be performing in May we’re all reading the book, The Five Love Languages. 

The premise of this book is that we all speak one of five specific love languages, and that like any verbal language, if we don’t speak the love language of our partner, then we can’t communicate our love for the other in a way that they will understand. And I think we all understand how important communication is in any relationship we’re part of, but especially in committed, long-term relationships like a marriage.

   Similarly, we have faith languages that we use as well. And I think some of the same principles apply to how we talk about faith - if we aren’t speaking in the same faith language as another person then we might not be communicating our understanding of faith in a way that they can understand.

   In fact, the late theologian Marcus Borg, in his book Speaking Christian, says that “for many, Christianity has become an unfamiliar language. Even for those who think they speak “Christian” fluently, the faith itself is often misunderstood and distorted. They think they are speaking the language like it has always been understood, but what they mean by the words and concepts is very different from what these things meant originally.” And he goes on to suggest that, “Modern Christians are steeped in a language so distorted that it has become a stumbling block to the religion.”

   So how are we to “listen to the texts,” as our title suggests, if we don’t know the difference between what these words mean now and what they meant when they were written? How do we communicate with one another, how are we to commune with God through scripture, if we’re not speaking the same language?

   Well, biblical scholars and theologians like Borg and many others across the theological spectrum of mainline Christianity would offer many ideas about how to do that, but one that would be consistent among most of them is the idea of how we view Scripture, how we read Scripture. 

For example, John’s gospel begins with that beautiful prologue, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” and so on. And as we’ve discussed both here and in our two bible studies on John, the word translated as Word - capital W - is logos - a Greek word meaning logic, reason, wisdom, revelation, or even plan of God.  And we don’t understand Word with a capital W to mean the same as words with a lowercase w, as in the letters on a page that make up the words that we read or speak. There is a metaphorical meaning attached to capital W Word. And we know this because the passage goes on to say that the Word, capital W, became flesh and we know that refers to Jesus as God’s plan incarnate, not to words from a book.

   So, when we think of Scripture as the Word of God, capital W, we also understand that in the same metaphorical way that we understand Jesus as Word - that is as logos, as the reason, wisdom, logic, the plan of God. We say Word of God, not words of God, because we know that Scripture, while inspired by God was written by humans, within a specific time and place, within certain contexts - both historical and cultural. And we recognize that those writers brought their own cultural, and often patriarchal, influences into their writing. 

   So, what do we mean by Word of God? Well, Word as a metaphor - we know Jesus is not literally a collection of letters of the alphabet - is a means of communicating an idea about God, or of communing with God. 

Scripture reveals the nature of God to us as that nature has been understood over the centuries by the human beings who wrote the books that make up the Bible. Jesus, however, the Word in flesh, is the ultimate revelation, the last word, if you will, about who and how God is. When there is conflict between the nature of God as described in a biblical text and how the nature of God is described by or modeled by Jesus, Jesus wins. To echo language from the Reformer Martin Luther, the Bible is the manger in which we find Christ. But we don’t follow the manger, we follow Christ. 

   So when John speaks of the Word being with God and in fact being God, he’s saying that God is speaking to us - God is revealing God’s self to us in Jesus Christ. What God has always been is now being offered to us so that we can know who God is and how God relates to us. Jesus’ words and actions reveal God’s nature, just as our speech and actions reveals our nature.

   God does not use the kind of speech we think of when we think of one human talking with another. God’s Word, God’s reason or logic, in order to be understood by us mortals, becomes human: a form we can understand, a form with which we can interact. 

John writes, “The Word [that is, the self-expression, the self-revelation of God] became flesh and made his home among us.” 

   Many Christians, though, get hung up on the words, on the words in the Bible as the revelation of God and forget that Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God’s Word, God’s plan, God’s desire. For example, did you see the new comedy on CBS that debuted this past week, Living Biblically? It’s based loosely on a book that I have referenced to you before, The Year of Living Biblically by author A.J. Jacobs, and its premise is that a man who had been agnostic at best, after the death of an old friend and then hearing the news that his wife was pregnant, decides that he needs to do something to be better person. He decides he wants to try to live strictly and completely according to the Bible, attempting to follow every rule, every law in the Bible literally. He consults both a priest and a rabbi, who tell him - as I have suggested to you before - his task is impossible because adhering to some laws causes you to be in violation of others. Nevertheless, he persists in his quest to make himself a better person in this way. Having read the book, and having seen the opening episode of the show, I look forward to seeing how all of this is portrayed.

   But it points to a bigger issue. Trying to read and understand the scripture in order to deepen your own journey with Christ is a wonderful thing to do - we offer Bible studies on a regular basis in order to help people do that very thing. The bible requires some study, it requires some interpretation, in order to truly hear what it has to say for us. But many Christians don’t try to listen to what the text is saying to them, saying to us. Rather, some will pick a particular passage that, taken out of context, seems to support some religious or political agenda they have, and rather than trying to improve themselves, use that passage as a weapon to browbeat (or worse) those who don’t have that same religious or political point of view. So, rather than listening to what Scripture is saying to us - what in theological talk we call exegesis - they read into Scripture what they want to hear it say - what is called eisegesis. 

   That is, in part, what Jesus accuses the Pharisees of doing in how they interpret the laws in Scripture. Earlier in the book, in chapter 8, Jesus tells the Pharisees that there is no room in them for Jesus’ word. Why? He suggests that they have become enslaved to a very literal way of interpreting scripture. Rather than reading it in such a way as to bring life to the people, they’ve turned it into a tool for enslaving them. Their strict adherence to trying to live out every detail of the law, and insisting that everyone else do the same, thinking that that was the only way to be saved, had actually enslaved them, had hardened their hearts toward the very people and the very God that they claimed to serve. 

   Carol Miller, the author of our Wednesday morning Bible study guide on John’s gospel, pursues this line in our study, asking, 

“What are the things that truly enslave you, things from which you need to be set free? It could be some addiction or compulsion. It could be a dark sense of guilt or unworthiness. It might be a desire for acceptance from someone who cannot give it. It might be enslavement to money and possessions - things people sometimes use to convince themselves that they deserve a place on the planet. It could be control over others or power to get your way.” She asks good questions of us.

   The Pharisees were so convinced that the only way to free Israel from the oppressive thumb of the Romans, the only way that a Messiah would rise up to save them, was if Israel was righteous in the eyes of God. 

And the only way they understood that could happen was if every person in the nation of Israel, followed every dot and tittle of the law as interpreted and reinterpreted by religious leaders like them over the centuries. 

This understanding, this zealously literal interpretation had enslaved them in such a way that they failed to recognize the long-awaited Messiah when he stood before them. The words had become their master, rather than the living Word of God.

   We shouldn’t be too quick to condemn the Pharisees though. As Miller suggests, “Everyone serves a master. It may be that your master is acceptance or control or any of a thousand things. All false masters are cruel masters. You can never be free; you can never do enough - unless you serve the one master who is able to make you whole…” 

   So why did Jesus say back in chapter 8 that there was no room for his word in the hearts of the Pharisees and religious leaders? What is taking up the space? 

For them, it may have been pride and judgmentalism and all those rules and laws they had memorized. For us, it may be a preoccupation with work, an overly busy life that measures importance by how desperately it’s over-scheduled. Perhaps it’s an obsession with striving to be good enough to win God’s favor or a burden of guilt over past failures. As Miller suggests, “when there is no place for Jesus’ word, there is a desire to be done with him: ‘You look for an opportunity to kill me,’ Jesus told them, ‘because there is no place in you for my word’ (John 8:37, NRSV).” Jesus was bringing them what he had seen ‘in God’s presence,’ what he had heard from God. What more could we possibly need? And still Jesus instructed his opponents, still holding open to them the freedom of life lived in God: ‘As for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father’ (John 8:38, NRSV). There was still time for them, he offered; they only needed to listen to God, to hear God’s message, [God’s Word] that is Jesus. It is possible to be free from every cruel, misery-making master and to serve God. One only has to hear Christ’s invitation. Keeping every letter of the law cannot save us because ‘being saved’ has to do with a living relationship, not with performing certain works in certain ways. It has to do with embodying the love of God in your life, not keeping score of how many laws you [or anyone else] keeps [or breaks].’ And Miller suggests, “Keeping the law without God’s love and compassion is worthless. 

It means exactly nothing.”

   In our passage today, what Jesus had said of his opponents, that the lack of room for him in their hearts had led them to seek ways to kill him, was coming to fruition. Charged with blasphemy, he would be tried for violating the very laws that they worshiped as their master and that Jesus had come to fulfill, to conclude, to replace with what he called the Greatest Commandment, to love God and to love neighbor. That was how Jesus said we should live our lives. That, he said, was the nature of God.

   Miller invites us to “Look seriously at the way [we] are living [our lives.] What is its driving force? Why do you get up in the morning? When all is said and done, who is your master? Many ‘church people’ are rule-keepers,” she observes. “They see keeping rules and laws as a way of knowing whether they are following God or not. 

That presents a huge danger. We have seen that the Pharisees and scribes were great rule-keepers, but that didn’t necessarily make them close to God.

   Life with God is not about keeping laws. Life with God, now and in the life to come, is a matter of embracing who God is, celebrating God’s nature revealed to us in Jesus, becoming more and more like him as we live joined to him - branches on a vine, vessels for living water. It’s not in the rote keeping of laws that life is found; it’s in knowing God, the God we see [ultimately and most fully revealed] in Jesus. 

   Are you trying to be ‘good enough’ for God to love you? Are you trying to keep as many laws as you can so that you will know you are following God? Do you pride yourself on being just a bit better than some others you could name,  [thinking, ‘Well, at least I’ve never done THAT!’]? How well are you listening to Jesus’ description of God? Jesus had a warning: Your law-keeping won’t work. And he has an invitation: ‘All who are thirsty should come to me.’  -  (Carol Miller, Immersion Bible Study: John, pg 40)

   That’s why Bible Study, and Lectio Divina, and Bible meditation, and a good study bible, are all important ways of listening to the text - no one way will help us understand what it is God is trying to say to us. If we only bring one tool to the task, it’s like trying to drain the ocean one teaspoonful at a time. You might eventually get the job done, but it’s highly unlikely.  

PAUSE

   Sometimes, I could use one of those in-ear translators in order to decipher what our 3 year old grandson is saying. If you ask him his name, which is William, he’ll tell you “Bil bum.” That’s what he hears and how he can say what he hears at this age when you call him by name. When he tries to ask you or tell you something, you have to listen not just to the words he says, but you also have to place them in context. What was he just doing before he said that? Who was he with? What is he reaching for? Context is important when he’s telling you what was just on the TV in the other room, what he had for lunch that day, or when he’s asking if you have any more blue suckers. He’s very confident in what he’s saying, whether we can understand him or not, so without listening for context, we might as well be a translator-less Captain Kirk trying to speak to a Klingon.

   We don’t have to wonder or worry about the nature of God. Jesus reveals God’s nature to us. Despite those places in the Old Testament that portray God has as angry, judgmental, and even vengeful, Jesus Christ, the Word of God reveals to us what is the true nature of God: God is love. That is the overarching message in Scripture of who God is, from beginning to end, and that’s the word Jesus wants us to hear, the God he wants us to know through him. That is the lesson he wants us to listen for in Scripture. And then he wants to know from us, do we have room in our hearts for his word? 

In the silence, Christ listens for our response. Amen. 

2-25-18 “Finding Your Breath: Listening to Our Bodies”

2-25-18  “Finding Your Breath: Listening to Our Bodies”

   Breathing is one of those things that our bodies do without our having to think about it. It just happens. Until, of course, we begin thinking about it and then we become aware of every breath we take, we feel as though if we don’t think about it that we won’t breathe, and then we worry about how we’re ever going to get our minds off of breathing so that it can become automatic again and we don’t have to think about it any more….

   We take breathing for granted, until it become difficult. When we battle a cold or flu, or struggle with COPD or emphysema, when we’ve worked our entire lives in a coal mine and develop black lung or some other disease, that which we took for granted is suddenly top of mind for us - each breath becomes a struggle.

   But even as breathing seems like a personal thing, something that happens only within our own body, it is more than that. Breathing is a shared activity in more ways than you may realize. Certainly, we know that we can spread disease, cold and flu germs and other things, through breathing, but it goes beyond that. I shared with you once before an idea about the universality and eternal nature of our breath that I was told by some at the time, many didn’t really understand. So I want to revisit or try to breathe some new life, if you will, into that idea today.

   What I shared in that earlier message is the idea that among the molecules that make up every breath we take in, and every breath that we exhale, is argon. It’s a simple molecule that has been part of every breath ever taken by every person and animal that has ever lived. 

But unlike the oxygen and carbon dioxide in our breath that is lighter in weight and floats up into the atmosphere when we exhale, argon is heavier and stays here at ground level. When we walk around, in fact, we are in effect, wading and sloshing through a swamp of argon molecules. And another interesting thing about argon is that, like many molecules, it doesn’t break down - it doesn’t die. The same argon molecules that are in existence today were around when you were a child. The same argon molecules that hover nearby now were hovering during the American Revolution and the Protestant Reformation. In fact, some of the same argon molecules that you will breathe in during the next inhale you take…..yes, that one…were likely exhaled by Jesus, perhaps even as he sat with a towel around his waist, preparing to wash the feet of his disciples. 

When we think about breath and breathing in that way, then our song “Breathe on Me, Breath of God” assumes a much deeper meaning for us.

   In the Bible, the words translated as Spirit, pneuma in Greek and ruach in Hebrew, also have the dual meaning of breath. Breath and Spirit - the same words in both languages. And we might recognize that Greek root ‘pneuma’ in terms of the word pneumonia, which we know as a disease associated with breathing and with our lungs. So, when we read Scripture and read of the presence or work of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Pneuma, we’re being invited to think about the spirit as breath, as air, as wind. And Scripture supports those images - the Spirit hovered over the waters in the Creation story; God breathed life and Spirit into Adam; Jesus breathed the Spirit onto the Disciples; at Pentecost the Spirit came like a great wind. So, much like the silence that April shared in last week’s message that is necessary to be able to hear God speak to us, an awareness of our breath and our breathing is important to us in experiencing the Spirit of God in our bodies and in our lives. And with each breath that we take in, amidst that timeless and eternal argon that God created in the beginning, is the breath of God, the Spirit of God, that hovered over the waters, that crossed the lips of our Savior, and that fills us with life; eternal life, abundant life.

    In ancient Israel, among some, it was considered blasphemy to speak the name of God. So the name Yahweh came into being to refer to God. Now, you may be aware that the Hebrew language has no vowels, so the letters of the name - in English the consonants YHWH, in Hebrew were Yod, Heh, Vah, Heh. 

Say that with with me: Yod - Heh - Vah - Heh. And if you listen carefully to the sound of those letters, you can hear in them the sound of breath. Yod -Heh - Vah - Heh. The name of God is the sound of breath; the name of God is the sound of Spirit. And so, as we reflect more deeply we realize that with every breath we take, we speak the name of God. And Rob Bell points out that when we are born, the first thing we must do to embrace life is to breathe, that is to speak the name of God. And when the close of our life comes, the last thing we do before we die is to speak the name of God.  Thought of another way, when we can no longer breathe, that is, when we can no longer speak the name of God, life passes from us as that final argon-filled breath exits our lungs. 

   And in a bit irony, Rob Bell also points out that even when we encounter someone who claims to be an atheist, as they sit across the table from us and speak the words, “THERE IS NO GOD,” with each breath they take to say those words, they speak the name of the very God - “Yod - Heh - Vah - Heh” who breathed life into them.

   And so our passage from Romans today says, “in the same way, the Spirit comes to help our weakness.” 

In the same way, it says. Breathe on me, breath of God. In the breath we take in the midst of our prayer, God “inspires” us, that is, God breathes spirit or life into us, we are filled with God’s Spirit. 

And Paul says, “We don’t know what we should pray, but the Spirit pleads our case with unexpressed groans.” 

We’ve all probably found ourselves at one time or another, unsure of what to pray, or unable to find or speak the words of prayer that we know are needed. Sometimes it’s because the pain we bear is so excruciating that all that emerges from our core being are groans. Paul assures us that the Holy Spirit is present in those groans that come from deep within us. 

And sometimes, the simplest, most effective prayer we can make is the one expressed in a mere breath. 

Breath prayer is a simple form of prayer that is spoken or thought in two parts, on the inhale and the exhale of a single breath. A common form of breath prayer that many like to use is built around what is called the Jesus prayer, and it’s done in this way: Inhale - Lord, Jesus Christ, Exhale - have mercy on me a sinner.

   Can you try that? Inhale - Lord Jesus Christ - Exhale - have mercy on me a sinner.

   Others find it helpful or comforting to pray or meditate on a line from a hymn in this way:

   Inhale - Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound - Exhale - that saved a wretch like me.

   And still others take a short passage of scripture for us in their breath prayer:

   Inhale - nothing can separate us from God’s love - Exhale - in Jesus Christ our Lord.

   So, I invite you now to take a moment, and let’s each of us just think about a line of scripture or music, or if you prefer, try the Jesus prayer, and let’s quietly speak the name of God in the form of breath prayers for a minute. 

   As he washed the disciples feet, Jesus told them that they didn’t understand what he was doing, but that they would understand later. What Jesus was doing was trying to help them understand that they needed to think differently about what it meant to be his disciple. 

Being a follower of Jesus meant to be a servant, yes, 

but it was about more than that even. 

In this story, Jesus took off his robes. 

That is, he was naked -  totally vulnerable before them. And he wrapped a towel around his waist and he took the position of a servant. And in doing so he attempted to connect with them at an intimate, spiritual level that they had never before experienced. His disciples were not the crown princes of great families, they weren’t priests or business leaders or politicians - they were the working poor. They were the least, the last, and the lost. 

And before them, the Son of God stripped down to nothing and took the position of a servant in order to connect totally, intimately with them. 

And as he did this, as they spoke among themselves and as Peter questioned, on behalf of all of them, what it was Jesus was doing, Jesus - having loved them fully, the passage says - connected with them in body, mind, and spirit in a way that they didn’t yet understand, but that they would later. 

   In Jesus’ message and action, in every breath that he took and with every God-naming word he spoke,  he modeled what Paul would later write, “We know that God works all things together for good for the ones who love God…” 

Two thousand years ago, the disciples who gathered around the table with Jesus heard the name of God in every word he spoke, they shared the breath of God in every breath they took. Two thousand years later, with every breath we take in, with every breath we breathe out, the breath of God inspires, that is breathes into us, the Spirit of God in Jesus Christ. When Paul tells us that nothing - neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor present things or future things, nor powers or height or depth - can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ, he speaks some of the most profound words of grace and eternal blessing that we find in all of Scripture. 

There is nothing that you can do, nothing you can say, nothing at all that will separate you from the love of God because the love of God, the Spirit of God, is within you. It is in who you are and in how you are made. 

It is in every breath you take and every breath you’ve ever taken. It is in every word you speak; even the angry words, the judgmental words, even the most hate-filled words, are surrounded by the Spirit of God - the Yod - Heh- Vah - Heh - of every breath you speak, because that is who you truly are in the eyes of God, created in the image of God. And with every breath we take God seeks to inspire us to live in the likeness of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.

    Nothing, can separate you from the love of God. Nothing. And if we question that, if we somehow doubt that, all I can offer to you are the words of hope that Jesus offered to his disciples - “You don’t understand now, but you will understand later.” 

Thanks be to God. Amen. 

2-18-18 “Finding Your Cave: Listening Spaces”

2-18-18   “Finding Your Cave: Listening Spaces” 

Message written by Rev. Jay Anderson and presented by Rev. April Casperson

   Two Caves - one in which Elijah hides in fear, one out of which Lazarus emerges alive.

   In one, a prophet encounters God directly. In the other, God is encountered through the work of a prophet.

   In the first story, Elijah is running to escape from the evil queen Jezebel. He just defeated and destroyed all of her priests of Baal and she’s not happy about that, so she has threatened to do away with Elijah. So Elijah heads for the hills, seeking refuge in the wilderness. And it is there that God provides food and water for him. And it is there that God is revealed to Elijah through the world around him.

   In the second story, life, or as it were, death has caught up to Jesus’ dear friend, Lazarus. Word had come to Jesus that Lazarus was ill, and according to John, Jesus knew that Lazarus would die. That Jesus delays his departure, ensuring that he will arrive too late to prevent this death seems heartless; the pain it causes seems unnecessary. But Jesus knows that it is in showing the power of God over death that God will be revealed to the world around him.

   These two amazing stories help us to better understand how God makes God’s self known to those who seek God out. Like Elijah, we often think that a God as powerful as Yahweh will be revealed in the power of the world around us, or in some great Exodus-like “crossing-the-Red-Sea” miracle. So when an earthquake occurred Elijah assumed the voice of God would be heard in the earthquake, but that didn’t happen. And when a fire appeared Elijah thought that God’s voice would be heard in the midst of the raging conflagration, but that’s not how it worked either. Elijah needed to hear from God, he needed God’s assurance that God would care for him in the midst of this threat to his very survival. 

   Mary and Martha trusted that if Jesus were there, he could save Lazarus - they knew he had that kind of power. But when Jesus didn’t come, when Lazarus died, their faith died with him. 

“If only Jesus had been there…” they lamented, “he could have been saved.” If only, we lament with them, if only. If only I could get that job… If only I had more time… If only he/she loved me…If only I could win the lottery. If only everybody believed  like we believe… If only everybody saw the world the way I do… If only…THEN everything would be okay we pray. If only…

   If you’ve experienced worship in other Protestant churches you might have noticed that, regardless of the worship style, worship services are often pretty noisy. Words and liturgy are sometimes spoken, sometimes sung, prayers in some are shared quietly and in other churches spoken aloud by everyone in worship all at the same time. Music, whether from an organ or praise band, might rock the rafters, or might softly sooth the souls of those seeking peace. During rare moments of silence, we hear muffled coughing, not-so-quiet whispering, paper rustling, and the occasional stray hymnal hitting the floor. Rarely is a moment of pure silence found in most Protestant worship service.

   But silence is essential for the spiritual life. Learning to experience silence is one of the first steps toward a deeper relationship with God. The Desert Fathers were early Christian disciples who sought silence and separation for their faith growth by moving and living in the desert, away from society. There is a story that is told of the Desert Father, Abbot Arsenius, who, when seeking salvation, prayed to the Lord, “Lead me to salvation.” A voice answered him, “Be silent.” Silence is a critical, though often ignored component of contemporary Christian spiritual practice.

   Samantha Tidball shares the story of “a 16-year-old Indian-American, Mukund Venkatakrishnan, created a hearing device that aims to help those with mild to moderate hearing loss and costs only $60. When Mukund visited his grandparents in India, he began setting up appointments for his grandfather who suffered from hearing loss. After his family spent over $2,000 on appointments and hearing aids, Mukund realized hearing was a luxury that most people in developing countries cannot afford. For two years Mukund worked diligently at developing a device that tests a person’s hearing and serves as a hearing aid. It can be used with even the cheapest set of headphones. There are roughly 360 million people around the world who suffer from hearing loss, so Mukund’s device will help many people hear who cannot afford it otherwise.”

   And relaying that story prompted Tidball to ask, “How’s your hearing?” We don’t often think about hearing as a luxury - or at least most of us don’t. If you are one of the 360 million who suffer from some sort of hearing loss, maybe you do. Regardless, thinking of it that way, would, I hope, remind us to appreciate our ability to hear the sounds God has created in the world around us. Our cars are so soundproof any more that the sound of a wailing siren coming up from behind us, that twenty years ago we could hear over our car radios, don’t get our attention until the ambulance or fire truck are right on our tails. So many of us are so busy, so distracted by technology and lost in our personal worries that we don’t take time to listen to what’s going on around us. But God is constantly trying to get our attention. Certainly God could “yell,” as it were, louder, God could be dropping earthquakes and monsoons all over the place to cry out, “Listen to me!” but that would only add to the cacophony of noise that already drowns out God’s still small voice. It’s hard to hear the voice of our Creator when we are never still, or quiet.

   We all go through times of loneliness and despair.  Perhaps it is because of our ill health or due to circumstances that are beyond our control and we think that no one cares or understands what we are enduring.  We may even think that God doesn’t care for us because we have not recognized God around us in a long time. We may think that God only speaks through something dramatic in our lives and expect it to happen in a thunderstorm as the lightning flashes or when the skies are threatening.  Those circumstances could speak to us but more often God speaks to us in the quiet moments of life when we have the time to really listen for God's voice.

   God's voice is often heard in the quiet working out of history such as when the wall of Communism fell in 1989 and suddenly people who had been held captive by an oppressive society experienced personal freedom for the first time in many years.

   God's voice is often heard in the daily lives of ordinary people as we are around them.  People quietly doing their jobs in the world often have something to say that encourages us and lifts our spirits, perhaps in the way they smile at us or say something cheerful to us. 

   God's voice may be heard in the birth of a child or a wedding or even at a funeral.  God is present in joy and in sorrow and there at times that those events make us slow down enough to listen for God to speak to us. 

   God is still speaking, even in the midst of tragedy. In the case of Lazarus, we may wonder, though, to whom God was speaking. See what you think. When Martha questions Jesus about his delayed arrival and Jesus assures her, in turn, that her brother will rise again, Martha answers with an assertion about the resurrection at the last day. And in that, she is absolutely correct.

   But Jesus pushes her to go deeper, to think differently, so that her understanding reaches not only forward into the distant future but backward into the immediate and concrete present. “I am the resurrection,” Jesus says, “and the life.” Not, I “will be’ in the future. The import and consequences of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension have immediate implications.

So also the promises of God we announce are not only about life eternal with God in the sweet by and by, or even about God’s forgiveness at the last day. Rather, the Gospel should make a tangible difference now, make things possible now, open up opportunities and options now, transform relationships now. The promises of God are present tense, not just future. So in this moment, Mary and Martha must quiet themselves and what they think they know in order to listen to what Jesus is actually saying to them.

   It’s also significant in hearing this story to recognize that after Jesus calls Lazarus by name to come out, and even after Lazarus, a dead man, mind you, does indeed hear Jesus’ voice and come out, this sign is not over. For after commanding Lazarus to come out of the tomb, Jesus then turns and issues a command to the waiting crowd as well: “unbind him and let him go.” The community, in other words, is commanded to participate in God’s action, to bring it to its desired end and outcome, to join in completing God’s redemptive act.

   Isn’t that astounding when you think about it? That the community of faith gathered around Lazarus is invited to participate in God’s redemptive work? Yes, the raising of Lazarus from death to new life is entirely Jesus’ work, and yet Jesus invites the community to participate; that is, to do something, something essential and meaningful and important.

   So in the first story, Elijah must listen in order to hear the voice of God in the silence. In this story, Mary and Martha need to listen to Jesus to understand what he’s talking about. Lazarus, a dead man, must listens to Jesus in order to come out of the cave to literally have new life. The people who witness all of this must also listen to Jesus and engage in the “unbinding” of Lazarus or his resurrection is for nothing.

   Sometimes, we have to go into caves of our own, our listening spaces, in order to be able to hear Jesus calling to us, but he also calls us out of our caves to “unbind” others, even in small ways.

   God chose to speak to people in the Bible in some crazy ways. The Lord spoke through a burning bush, an audible voice from the sky, a talking donkey, written law, the prophets, angels and so on. God still speaks to us today in a variety of ways, but mostly through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit whispers God’s words of truth to our hearts, nudging us towards Christ. God also speaks to us through Scripture, nature, other people, books, sermons, music, poetry, silence, metaphors/analogies and so on. As Christians, it’s important to tune into God’s voice by tuning out other distractions. We need to learn to recognize God’s voice, believe the truth it speaks, and follow God’s direction.

   So, if finding silence in order to hear God speak into our lives is so important, why do we make so little time for corporate silence in worship? And when we do, why do so many struggle with it?

   Sometimes we forget that worship is not about us, it is about God. In our forgetfulness, we tend to fill the silence with our creations, our words, our music, and our needs. Perhaps another reason we do not include the practice of silence in worship is because silence feels much like doing nothing, and we are a culture of “doers.” Like the prophet Elijah, we are unaccustomed to inactivity. In our media-savvy culture, there is increasing pressure for worship to entertain, and silence is sometimes viewed as empty airtime. Nothing could be further from the truth. Silence is pregnant with the living presence of God, but we must be taught to recognize the divine presence.

   Silence is not easy; it is not part of contemporary culture. Attempting to minimize environmental sounds quickly reveals the difficulty of this practice. We live in a world crammed with noise. From mp3 players to airplanes, from elevator music to car stereos that rattle window, our lives are filled to the brim with noise that alienates us from the deep refreshment found in silence. If we are successful at silencing the external sounds, we soon learn how much babble occurs in our minds.

   How can we hear God’s Word to us amidst the noise of our lives? Hearing requires silence. Some of us may be afraid of what we will hear if we become still. Silence has the ability to reveal to us our deeper selves, warts, wrinkles, and all. For this reason we may avoid silence, not wanting to hear our deeper cries and longings. However, it is precisely our deeper selves (our true selves) with whom God desires to be in relationship. God loves us as we are and yearns to relate to us at the core of our being. God waits patiently for us to hear and respond to the invitation to move deeper into relationship with the one who created us. God wants our whole self to show up for worship.

   But how can we expect to hear God speak to us if we don’t listen? How can we dream God’s dreams and live into God’s plans if we don’t quiet ourselves enough to hear God’s still small voice. In little ways and big, God is inviting us to make a difference in this world right here, right now. God, in other words, is beckoning us to claim Christ’s resurrection power now by participating in and completing the fantastic work God is doing all over the place. 

   So what if we spend a few moments looking at the week to come - both the challenges and opportunities -- and think about where we might claim God’s resurrection promise and power now, making a difference in someone’s life now, giving ourselves to a worthy cause or purpose now. It doesn’t have to be huge (though it might be). It doesn’t have to take a long time (although it could). It doesn’t have to be spectacular (though, who knows, maybe it will be). Opportunities to unbind and let go abound, but we need to first listen, and then look for them so that we might hear Jesus calling us by name to make a difference to those around us.

   So I invite you to find the silence of your own cave, that you might hear Jesus calling to you. And then claim your faith as a present-tense invitation to live the promised salvation now. Why? Because Jesus is still talking, God is still talking, and they’re trying to tell us that the resurrection and the life God has promised to give us, is not just more life later on, but life in all its abundance, here and now. Amen..

2-14-18 Homily Ash Wednesday - “Finding Your Life: Listening Deeply”

2-14-18 Homily Ash Wednesday - “Finding Your Life: Listening Deeply”

   We don’t listen any more… 

   We live in a world of talk and we’ve lost the ability to truly listen… 

   Our lives have become so cluttered with things to do, things to see, or screens to look at that we’ve forgotten how to just listen…

   Our world is full of noise - visual noise, physical noise, emotional noise, audible noise.

   How do we expect to hear the still small voice of God over all that noise?

   Do we even want to hear God over the noise?

   I think sometimes we don’t, fearing God will tell us something we don’t want to hear.

   If we just keep the TV going in the background, if we just keep our earbuds in or our headphones on we can control what gets in and what doesn’t, we can manage what we hear without risking hearing something that might make us think twice, that might make us pause, that might make us change…something…anything

   Jesus warns in this passage that there are what he calls “thieves and outlaws” out there who will try to get us to listen to them. And often we quickly dump into that “thieves and outlaws” category those people we already don’t want to listen to: the people speaking a message that we don’t think we want or need to hear. And in doing that, by putting our proverbial fingers in our ears and singing “la-la-la-la-la” to ourselves rather than opening ourselves to hearing another viewpoint, another position, another theology, we may be turning a deaf ear to God.

   We often stop listening when we’ve heard what we want to hear. We live in a world where many inhabit what are called “echo chambers;” that is, we mostly surround ourselves with people who agree with us. We get our news from sources that reinforce what we already think rather than challenge us to look more broadly. And I think social networking encourages this, aiding and abetting in this conspiracy with algorithms that detect what we like and gives us more of that, while it understands what we don’t like and shields us from that. 

   But we do it in our faith as well. We read the same version of the Bible because it makes us feel good. We read a few select scriptures, if we read them at all, because like getting our news only from Fox News or MSNBC, they reinforce what we already believe. And as we discussed a couple of weeks ago, we’re even selective in how we hear the scripture we do like. In John chapter 3 we tend to stop reading at the end of verse 16 because for many, it reinforces a point of view we like, whereas the next verse pushes back against that view, against what we have been told to think is the “truth” of the Christian faith.

   The same happens in our passage tonight, we tend to listen until we hear verse 9, “I am the gate. Whoever enters through me will be saved.” And after that we stop because we feel like we’ve heard all that we need, or want, to hear - namely that only Christians will be saved. Even though Jesus keeps talking we often aren’t listening any more because he said what we came to hear. 

Or we think that’s what he said. (Pause)

   Have you noticed how many of the musical acts of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s are out touring these days? That is the music of the Baby Boomer generation and the marketers and promoters know that it is the Boomer generation that has the disposable income to go out and buy overpriced concert tickets. So they tour around - these 60, 70, and sometimes 80 year old rockers - singing the songs that made them famous decades ago, because they know that’s what the people want to hear. A high school friend posted on Facebook that she was going to see the band “Three Dog Night” at a venue near our hometown next month. I Googled the band and found that only two of the original members of that 9 or 10 member band were still with them - and only one of the three original lead singers -  and that over the nearly fifty years they’ve been together there have been 29 members all together. And that makes me wonder, is that band really “Three Dog Night,” or do they just play the band’s music that the people want to hear?

   When we only hear our favorite parts of Jesus’ message, or to think of it another way, when we stop listening when the band plays their new music rather than the golden oldies we came to hear, are we really listening to Jesus, or are we listening to something else? Because Jesus keeps talking and sometimes he says things, he “plays songs,” to further the metaphor, that some Christians don’t want to hear. Like verse 16, where he says, “I have other sheep that don’t belong to this pen. I must lead them too.” Okay, we begrudgingly think, he means other Christians, like Baptists or Presbyterians - certainly not the Episcopalians or Catholics - shudder at that thought! 

   And you’re right, he didn’t mean the Episcopalians and Catholics. Nor did he mean the Baptists, Presbyterians, or even Methodists. He didn’t even mean Christians, because there were no Christians when Jesus said this. There were people who practiced the Jewish faith, of which Jesus was a part, and there was everyone else - the Gentiles, which included all of the pagan religions of the day. So, when Jesus says he has other flocks other than that one, well…..a lot of Christians start reaching for their earbuds about then.

   I saw a story on the news not long ago about someone who saved a person’s life when they grabbed them out of the way of an oncoming bus they had stepped in front of while walking down the street with their earbuds in and their eyes glued to their phone. I’ve also heard too many times of stories where there wasn’t a Good Samaritan nearby to make that save and persons were killed in that same scenario.

 Sometimes, when we bury ourselves too deeply in our own echo chamber, when we don’t try to listen, we block out what could be a life-saving or life-changing message for us or someone else.

   So do you see how we can get stuck when we only listen for what we want to hear, or when we don’t listen at all? When we drown out the “noise” of the other stuff that Jesus says, that maybe doesn’t go along with what our culture, our politics, or our own hermeneutic tell us we should believe, then we may find ourselves stepping in front of the proverbial bus. But that doesn’t have to be the case.

   Our series for Lent invites us, for 40 days, to be aware of all the things in our life that drown out what God is trying to say to us, what God wants us to hear above the din of daily life. It invites us to listen. Our worship will look different than it usually does in order to help us with that. We’ll explore different prayer styles, spiritual disciplines, and practices that will create opportunities for listening throughout the day for all the ways in which God is trying to connect with us. We’ll begin each worship service in prayer, opening our minds and our ears to the presence of God, not only in our worship space and time, but in our daily lives.

   In addition, through Lent we will continue our exploration of John’s Gospel with Adam Hamilton’s study of John for six Wednesday evenings at 6pm in place of our evening prayer gatherings. Rev. Danny Dahl and I will be working together on this study and I hope you’ll consider being a part of it as well.

   Jesus tells us in this passage that he is the Good Shepherd, the one who gives his life for the sheep. Clearly, we are among the sheep about which he speaks, not the only sheep, but sheep nonetheless. And his call to us as sheep is clear - listen. Listen for his voice, Listen to his call. And then follow where he leads. 

Amen.