Listening is the fruit of love

A Sermon for February 10, 2013 (Last Epiphany, RCL C)

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for The Church of Saint Mary

Texts:             2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2; Psalm 99; Luke 9:28-36

Primary Message:              listen to Jesus, the smartest person who ever lived

Call to Action:          take up spiritual disciples, learn to love and listen

Title:               Listening is the Fruit of Love

“Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!’” (Luke 9:35).

My dear friends: Who has your attention? To whose voice are you listening?

Have you noticed precisely what it is that the voice of God said at this crucial moment for Jesus and the disciples? At this moment when the full beauty and majesty of the Messiah, the Incarnate One, is on display for his friends to see, as a preparation for the very difficult days just ahead of them, what is it that the divine voice said?

Did God say, This is my Son, my Chosen; worship him? Or follow him? Or keep the commandments? Or be a good person? Or do your duty?

No. That voice emanating out of the cloud was precise and specific: listen to him.

Let’s talk about listening to Jesus. First we’ll talk about the “why”, and then we’ll move on to the “how”.

A book was published a few years ago which chronicled some of the most poignant stories of everyday, ordinary American citizens collected by the StoryCorps project (see www.storycorps.org).  

This project is still on-going, and the book is titled “Listening is an Act of Love.”

Did you hear that? Listening is an Act of Love!

Think about people in your life with whom you just enjoyed sitting and listening to them tell their stories, even if you had heard the same ones time and time again.

Listening is an act of love. From the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, the Chosen; listen to him.”

On Thursday, the Falmouth Ecumenical Clergy group met for our monthly breakfast meeting. I am still new to this group, but it seems mostly to be a social affair. A chance to talk together, to catch up with one another. As the newbie, however, I am eager to talk about new ministry ideas that we might do together. On Thursday, I asked them to consider joining me in supporting the creation of a new Young Life group here at the Falmouth High School.

For those of you who do not know, Young Life is a non-denominational, international outreach ministry to youth. It is highly effective, very specific in its goal, and it relies upon broad, ecumenical support in the community.

I am quite excited about the potential for Young Life here in Falmouth, but a few of the other clergy were not. They shared their frustration about simply trying to get teenagers to show up for confirmation meetings, or to be involved in the church, or to attend Sunday worship. Now, someone asked, are you suggesting that we try to get them out TWICE a week? Once for our own youth group, and then another time for Young Life club!

I understand the frustration, but this, my friends, is flawed thinking. This is getting the cart before the horse.

Let’s step back and reconsider: what is God’s dream for our lives? That we might love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and love all people as ourselves.  Right?

If you truly love someone, is it a struggle finding the desire to spend time with that person? When teenagers falls in love, do they or do they not want to spend all of their time together? Do I, as a parent, need to tell my son, “You know, you really should go out tonight and spend some time with your girlfriend. It’s the right thing to do.”

Is that how it works? Of course not! We all know better.

The task for us church leaders, whether we are dealing with youth or children or adults, is not to find creative ways of convincing people to attend all of our wonderful programs and small groups and worship services. It is not to cajole or manipulate or guilt people into showing up.

Our task is to help people fall in love with Jesus.

If listening is an act of love, then we might also say that listening is the fruit of love.

Who here today listens to musicians and speakers and radio stations which you enjoy? Of course you do! You love this style of music, this band, this radio host, this station – whatever it is – you love it, and so you listen.

St. Paul speaks of that fact that we, with unveiled faces, see the glory of the Lord and this leads to our transformation into that very same image.

Think about beholding. We commonly say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. To behold signifies deliberate intention, purposeful choosing, a maintained and delighted gaze.

For who, I ask you, chooses to gaze upon and to behold things which they find distasteful? Who? Do we not – all of us – choose to spend our days looking at things that we love to look at?

As far as it is within our control, do we not focus our eyes upon those things which we find delightful? And do we not focus our ears, our oral attention, upon those voices which we find delightful?

So consider this, my friends: who, I ask you, will choose to gaze upon the Lord Jesus Christ, to behold him, to contemplate him regularly in the depths of the heart, if they do not love him? Who will choose to listen to him, to chew upon him words, to savor them and digest them, if they do not love him?

“This is my Son, the Chosen; listen to him.” To listen is the fruit of love.

But we need also to talk briefly about the “how” of listening to Jesus. We are not in the same position as Peter and James and John. We do not have the living and breathing Messiah right in front of us, but we can listen to him.

Now in fact is an especially proper time to discuss this. In 3 days, on Ash Wednesday, we begin our journey known as Lent. And Lent is a time of focused spiritual practice in order to prepare ourselves as a community for the great celebrations of Holy Week and our Paschal Feast.  

Over the last two millennia, a wide range of tried-and-true spiritual practices have developed within the Church which provide each one of us with clear and simple ways to listen to Jesus.

These disciplines include daily Bible reading, meditation, various forms and times of prayer, practicing silence, speaking with a spiritual guide, self-evaluations, taking retreats, fasting, regular giving to those in need, meeting weekly with a small group for support and accountability.

These and all spiritual disciplines are means by which regular Christ-followers have been able to listen to Jesus and to apply his words to their lives.

There is no great mystery here; these are well-worn paths toward spiritual growth, and the wise ones in every generation have walked upon them.

As you know, it is common for folks to think of Lent as a time to “give something up”, to abstain from something as a small act of sacrifice.

May I suggest that - this year - all of us instead consider taking up something new, trying out a spiritual discipline which will enable us to listen deeply and intently to the words of Christ.

After all, these practices are the primary ways in which we behold him, gaze upon him, and so learn to love him.  And this is the goal: in all things, to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

“From the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, the Chosen; listen to him.’”  May we be counted among those who love and who listen. Amen.

Consider your own call

A Sermon for the 4th Sunday after the Epiphany (RCL A) 1-30-2011

Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: Micah 6:1-8; Psalm 15; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Matthew 5:1-12
Title: Consider your own call

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ: I spoke with you last week about the dangerous place in which we find ourselves today as a Christian community. Our continuation as a distinct community is at risk. We will be discussing this fact, and its implications, later on today at our Annual Meeting.

Make no mistake about it: we are standing at a crossroads. To think of our situation in biblical terms, we could say that we are standing now on the shore of the red sea. The forces which seek to end our existence as a distinct community, like the armies of Pharaoh, are fast on our heels. Before us lies the sea, and here we find ourselves between the forces of destruction on one side and the seemingly impossible decision to walk out into the sea, supported only by our trust in the promise of God.

My friends, this will be our singular focus in worship over the next few months, and perhaps longer. I feel clearly that the Holy Spirit is preparing us to walk out into the waves, through the red sea, over to a new and different place. There is a major transition ahead of us, and it will do no good to simply ignore it or to be surprised when it comes.

We know what the trouble is. We need more people engaged and involved in our church, particularly more youth and young adults. Can I get an “amen”?

There are many different factors that have caused this shortcoming and brought about our situation. But I am convinced that one of the reasons that our witness to the gospel is ineffectual and so often ignored by our younger people is due to the lack of personal testimony to the grace of God among us.

Think about the world we live in. In our everyday lives, we swim in a sea of advertising, and many young people are skeptical about what others are selling to them. How can we convince them that this gospel message is real and true and life-changing if we ourselves are unwilling or unable to speak clearly about what Christ has done in our own lives? If we have walked this Christian journey for years now and we have not yet experienced God working and moving in our lives, then why will our young people be inspired to make this journey for themselves? But if God has moved powerfully in your life, and changed you in crucial ways, how will they know unless you share your story with us?

Look back at what the apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth, the passage which we heard read today. “Consider your own call, brothers and sisters.” Consider, he says, when God touched you. Remember what God has done in your life. Hark back to the time when Jesus entered into your life in a conscious and conspicuous way.

Our own experience of the grace of God in our real lives must always a touchstone, a signpost, a marker on the journey. It is one of the primary sources of authority for each of us, one key way to discern our way into the future.

While meditating on this last week, I realized that most of you do not know my own testimony. That’s unfortunate and it must be remedied. So, here is the “cliff notes” version.

I was nominally raised in the Episcopal Church, here in the Diocese of NJ, but we rarely attended. We were typical Christmas and Easter folks. I probably attended Sunday School only 4 or 5 times in my life. I was baptized, of course, and I remember my confirmation when I was thirteen, but these sacramental events did not seem to change the place that I or my family gave to God in our lives. In high school, I became a seeker. I’ll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that I tried to find joy and happiness in a lot of different ways, many of which are not good for one’s health.

I explored different spiritual ideas as well. I spoke with Hare Krishna devotees over on South Street. I listened to a lot of Bob Marley and read about Rastafarianism. I attended Shabat prayers with Jewish friends. I was on a journey, seeking after truth on which I could build my life. During my senior year in high school, I remember going to the midnight mass on Christmas Eve at our little Episcopal church over in Vincentown. All of the 75 or so people who were there were hugging each other and singing, and I remember thinking, “wow – if I really am searching for peace and love, then there seems to be a whole lot of it in this place!”

All my family became more involved in church that year. My dad and I joined the choir (that shows how inclusive they were!), we participated in a wonderful Faith Alive weekend, I delivered the youth sermon on Mother’s Day that year. But I was still searching, unable to find clarity in my mind and heart. That is, until my cousin invited me to join him at a Young Life camp in New York state just two weeks before I was to leave for college.

What an amazing week! There at camp, for the first time in my life, I heard a clear and direct and personal invitation for me to make a decision to follow Jesus. I made that decision one night at camp, and it was like someone turned on the light switch inside of me. I had never really understood the Bible before. I had read it, but it never had made sense to me. But there at Young Life camp, I picked up a New Testament in modern English, found a boulder in a stream where I could sit and be alone, and I sat and read through the whole thing. The whole New Testament! And it made sense! I didn’t understand all the details of course, but I could see what was happening – the story, the message. All of a sudden, they made sense to me, and I could identify with that story. It was my story. And since that week, my life has never been the same.

Praise God that this happened before I went off to college at one of the best party schools in America! Thankfully, I entered college in an intentional, daily relationship with Jesus Christ and he has since guided me continually ever since. I have no idea where my searching would have taken me, and where I would be today, if I had not made that decision to follow Jesus.

“Consider your own call, my brothers and sisters.” Everyone’s story is different. Each person is unique, and God’s interactions with each person is unique. But it is vital for you that you know your story. Consider how God called you, and how the grace of God has impacted your life. And then tell that story to someone else. It doesn’t have to be like mine. It is your story of God’s work in your particular life.

Now, I know that many of you may feel inadequate for this task or that you have nothing really to say. But make no mistake about it: God has been at work in your life. You would not be in this place of worship here today if God were not actively at work in your life. Learn to recognize it, to name it, to piece it all together until you can see the coherent whole story of God’s work within you.

It is good for your soul to know your testimony, to be able to see what God has done in your story and to speak about it. But it is even better for the future of our church! If we are to reach a larger section of our younger people, we need to become a safe community where people tell their God-stories. If we are to inspire our youth to live their lives in relationship with Jesus Christ, then we must become a community where we share openly and honestly with each other about what Jesus has done in our lives.

Young people can smell a fake, and they will not invest themselves in something that is not real and important and authentic and true. I believe that your faith is all of these things, but how will others know unless we learn to share our stories?

May God give us all the grace to see what Christ has done within us, and the boldness to tell our stories for all to hear. Amen.