Listen Up

Sometimes, the hardest thing about writing is listening, and the hardest thing about listening is hearing, and the hardest thing about hearing is perceiving, and the hardest thing about perceiving is learning, and the hardest thing about learning is adapting, and the hardest thing about adapting is owning, and the hardest thing about owning is living, and the hardest thing about living is being, and the hardest thing about being is . . . . .

And it goes on and on. "The greatest risk of being ecumenical," said Rev. Dr. Allen Miller from Eden Seminary, "is that of being converted. For once you fully, truthfully, enter into a conversation with a person of another tradition, you risk being changed. And any change, no matter how minor, is in some small manner, a conversion, because your being can no longer live as once you did." I have never forgotten that lesson from the World Religions Class which Dr. Miller taught and he was probably one of the first 'ecu-maniacs' of which I became aware. He believed folks from every tradition, every religion, should always sit at table together and learn from each other. Dr. Miller believed, and I have come to firmly hold that, in so doing, the world would find its way to peace and justice, for the greatest schisms in peace and many of the greatest injustices throughout history have been inflicted upon humanity and justified in the courts of public opinion for the sake of religion, whatever its ilk or name. Listening, and all of its various manifestations and extensions, is the hardest task any one of us will undertake, for active listening requires the one with ears to fully hear the words, context, and feeling behind the words spoken by the other. Maybe that is why Jesus said that so often, "Let the one who has ears to hear, listen."

I was in Barnes and Nobles the other day and, as nearly always happens, started paging through the volumes upon volumes of 'best sellers' which were on the front tables. So many words being written, so many books being bought and sold, so many thoughts being presented, but what difference do self-help books really make if the person reading the words is seeking only someone else's opinion of how to make their life better? What ever happened to listening to the Word talk about how life is 'good' from the very beginning of creation? Or does that thought scare us, for it might mean that there is no one else to blame for our bad attitude and behaviors other than ourselves, and we certainly don't want to hear those words, do we?!

Jesus prays out loud that we might intimately understand that God prays for our welfare, for our understanding, and for our very lives. Maybe we would be well served to listen for a while, that in listening, we might hear the meaning of our name spoken on the lips of the God of all creation. Who knows, maybe the swords will become plowshares and the spears become pruning hooks? What will it cost us to listen? What will it cost us if we don't?

Only God knows.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Don