The story is told of Franklin Roosevelt, our 32nd president, who often endured long receiving lines at the White House. He complained that no one really paid any attention to what was said. One day, during a reception, he decided to try an experiment. To each person who passed down the line and shook his hand, he murmured, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” The guests responded with phrases like, “Marvelous! Keep up the good work. We are proud of you. God bless you, sir.” It was not till the end of the line, while greeting the ambassador from Bolivia, that his words were actually heard. Nonplussed, the ambassador leaned over and whispered, “I’m sure she had it coming.”
We are not a people who like to listen. We already form our responses before our conversational partners even finish their thoughts. We pride ourselves on knowing what someone says before they say it, what perspective a TV news station will present before they offer it, how a book will end before we finish it. Rarely, do we let someone share their full thought, contemplate the thought, then respond. Rarely, do we fully – LISTEN!
Two psychiatrists meet at their 20th college reunion. One is vibrant, while the other looks withered and worried. “So what’s your secret?” the older looking psychiatrist asks. “Listening to other people’s problems every day, all day long, for years on end, has made an old man of me.” “So,” replies the younger looking one, “who listens?”
Really, fully listening takes a lot from us, but also offers a lot to us. While we often believe this is a new predicament, the challenge of not listening fully to one another is an old one. Often, the biblical prophets call the people of Israel to listen to them or to listen to God. These imperatives are often followed by a recounting of how they have NOT listened, how they have strayed from God, how they have suffered. After telling the story of the turning away of the people, they are often given punishments and directives, chastisements and discipline. Here it is different. This portion of second Isaiah is a comfort and welcome change. Written in the sixth century, the prophet is speaking to the people of Israel who have been exiled from their homeland and feel abandoned by God.
In the midst of their despondency and sadness, the prophet offers God’s hope. The prophet reminds us that those who listen for God are rewarded by God’s presence and fruitfulness in our lives. God says listen to me! Not all the noise, not all the chatter – me! Don’t already anticipate what I am going to say, because I may just surprise you.
Remember what I did with Abraham and Sarah? They thought they had their lives all figured out in their old age. But I, God, had much more in mind for them! They were still going to travel across the land and have children, descendants as numerous as the stars. For nothing is impossible with God! We are hewn from the same rock as Abraham and Sarah – that is to say, God can surprise us with an even better future than we imagined, just like Abraham and Sarah.
Listen! God says – Listen to me and I will fill the dry places in your life, all of the places that seem like stagnant wastewater. There will be life again for you – unexpected blessings and infusion of God’s presence if you only listen to me, God, and learn my ways.
So, what gets in our way of listening? God is offering us presence and blessing, abundance of life and fullness of peace.
Perhaps, sometimes we are not interested. Other times, we feel self-protective or self-focused. Yet, other times, we allow the busy-ness of life to overwhelm us with distractions and are seemingly unable to push them aside to hear the still same voice of God. There are times when we can only hear our own sadness, bitterness, anger, grief, focus, and needs. It can be hard to hear beyond the anxiety of our heartbeat to presence of God.
In his book Directions, author James Hamilton shares this insight about listening to God: “Before refrigerators, people used icehouses to preserve their food. Icehouses had thick walls, no windows and a tightly fitted door. In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut, hauled to the icehouses and covered with sawdust. Often the ice would last well into the summer.
One man lost a valuable watch while working in an icehouse. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but didn’t find it. His fellow workers also looked, but their efforts, too, proved futile. A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the icehouse during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch.
Amazed, the men asked him how he found it.
“I closed the door,” the boy replied, “lay down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking.”
The young boy needed silence to discover the watch. The watch ticked for the original man who lost it as well as the fellow workers who sought to help him. However, without silence, they could not hear the steady tick tock of the watch.
We often ask the question of whether or not God is speaking or if God is present, but these questions miss the point. God, like the steady rhythm of the watch, is always speaking, and always present. However, it is hard for you and I to quiet ourselves enough to, as the psalmist say, “Be still and know I am God”
Alfred Brendel, the famous pianist, is credited with the etymological discovery that listen and silent contain the same letters. If you and I want to listen to God and quite frankly, to one another, we must find times of silence. We must quiet our minds and hearts, as well as the noise and the chatter around us, in order to truly hear what God is saying to us and the fullness of what others are saying.
Some of us will be going back to school this week, as teachers, as students, as staff. Returning to school is a return to a routine and a focus, but also a return to listening. All of us can take the challenge to listen more closely, cultivate silence, and hear the full story with anticipating the ending.
There is an old story: One day an old man was casually walking along a country lane with his dog and his mule. Suddenly a speeding pick-up truck careened around the corner, knocking the man, his mule, and his dog into the ditch.
The old man decided to sue the driver of the truck, seeking to recoup the cost of the damages. While the old man was on the stand, the counsel for the defense cross-examined the man by asking a simple question: “I want you to answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the following question: Did you or did you not say at the time of the accident that you were ‘perfectly fine'”?
And the man said, “Well, me and my dog and my mule were walking along the road … ” And the counsel for defense said, “Stop, stop, I asked you, tell me ‘yes’ or ‘no’, did you say you were ‘perfectly fine’ at the time of the accident?”
“Well, me and my dog and my mule were walking along the road and … ” The defense attorney appealed to the judge. “Your honor,” he said, “the man is not answering the question. Would you please insist that he answer the question?” The judge said, “Well, he obviously wants to tell us something. Let him speak.”
So the man said, “Well, me and my dog and my mule were walking along the road and this truck came around the corner far too fast, knocked us into the ditch. The driver stopped, got out of his truck, saw my dog was badly injured, went back to his truck, got his rifle, and he shot it. Then he saw that my mule had broken his leg so he shot it. Then he said, ‘How are you?’ And I said, ‘I’m perfectly fine.'”
Listening to the full story, spending time with God, being silent of mouth and mind – these are the ways we come to listen and to learn God’s ways. God’s ways are full of life and abundance of God’s presence. We offered blessings to those returning to school tomorrow through backpacks and book bags. Let us offer blessings to all who seek to return to listening to God, seeking God’s way, and being rewarded by God’s very presence.
Receive this blessing from Paul: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus, thanks be to God, Amen.
American Health, quoted in Reader’s Digest.
Psalm 46:1.
http://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2013/december/4123013.html.