This week during the Time for the Young at Heart we will talk a bit about Christian Unity
The Scripture Readings this week are:
- 1 Samuel 3:1-10
- Jonah 3:1-5
- Mark 1:14-20
The Sermon title is Open Ears
Early Thoughts: There is a song, #272 in Voices United, which says:
Open your ears, O faithful people, open your ears and hear God's word.
Open your hearts, O royal priesthood, God now speaks to you.
God has spoken to the people, Hallelujah!
And those words are words of wisdom, Hallelujah!
They who have ears to hear this message, they who have ears, then let them hear.
They who would learn the way of wisdom, let them hear Gods word.
God has spoken to the people, Hallelujah!
And those words are words of wisdom, Hallelujah!
This week we have three very different stories about people who make a choice to hear. One is a story of someone who takes a while to recognize what is happening. One may well be the most effective call to repentance one finds in Scripture. The third is the familiar story of fishermen leaving their nets behind to follow this Jesus fellow.
There is an interesting line at the beginning of the Samuel story: "The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread". I always wonder if God had gone silent for a time or if the people just were not listening carefully enough. Maybe it is a variation on the old conundrum "if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around does it make a sound?". If God is speaking but nobody has open ears to listen/is tuned in to the right frequency (to use a radio image) is God really speaking? Of course the tree in the forest DOES make a sound, even if nobody is there to hear it, but how useful is an unheard sound?
That story of young Samuel resonates with me. Do we recognize when God might be calling out to us, whispering in our ears? Are we ready to say "Speak, for your servant is listening"? Who will be our Eli, eventually helping us to recognize what is happening?
Or there is the story from Jonah. Having finally arrived in Nineveh, where he never wanted to go in the first place, Jonah shares the message that God has given him. He warns the people to change their ways or the city will be destroyed. To his surprise (and possibly to his dismay) the people of Nineveh listen. They hear the message clearly and respond. [It appears Jonah was all excited that he might get to watch them be destroyed and is very disappointed that this does not come to pass. Sometimes we get listened to when we don't really want to.] For some reason the people of Nineveh had ears that were open and ready to hear.
Then there is our third story this week, one many of us have heard before. Jesus shows up along the shore of the sea of Galilee and calls four fishermen to join him. Immediately they get up, leave their nets behind, and follow him. What made them so open to hear the call? Or what was it about the call-er (Jesus) that made the message so compelling that they responded so immediately? What might make us respond that quickly to an invitation?
Several years ago the United Church of Christ in the US reminded us that God is still speaking. Judging from the ads I saw that used that phrase, in large part this was a call to "not put a period where God has put a comma", to remember that the world and our understanding of who God calls us to be is not fixed and unchanging. God is calling us to new understandings. But I also think it is a reminder that we need to stop, unplug our ears, tune in to a different frequency, and listen for God.
Doing that might change life completely...
--Gord
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