Faithful Listeners

July 22, 2007 Eighth Sunday after Pentecost Sermon: Faithful Listeners Texts: Amos 8:1-12 and Luke 10: 38-42 Isaiah 40:21 "Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?" The question seems to be, are you listening? A middle school Sunday School group worked long and hard making puppets for the Palm Sunday play. The story of the life of Jesus was to be told in their own words. They had permission to "ad lib" their lines. When one of the boys brought the Jesus' puppet back to the disciples a second time, he prayed, "Asleep again! They just don't make disciples like they used to." Disciples are those people who stay awake, aware, curious, and listen! This morning we continue to ask with the help of scripture what it means to follow Jesus and be "awake" with our Lord. We've been reading the 10th chapter of Luke for three Sundays. What have we learned? First, disciples were sent near and far to spread the good news of God's invitation to be part of the Kingdom; disciples were empowered to face the powers of evil and darkness around them. Second, they were told in the parable of the Good Samaritan to be active in ministry, having compassion for the people you do not care for; give them practical assistance-for food, water, shelter, medical care. The focus was on the doing. In today's passage, the focus is on the "listening." Only in this story from Luke is there reference to Martha and Mary inviting Jesus to be their guest in their home in Bethany, about one and one-half miles east of Jerusalem. The other account of the family is from John who speaks about Mary, Martha and their brother, Lazarus. Our gospel from Luke portrays a picture of Jesus visiting the home of the two sisters, Mary and Martha. They must enjoy his visits. On this visit, it seems that Jesus wants to lift the importance of, not only work as essential as that is, but of the choice of Mary to listen and hear God's Word spoken through his teaching. Mary shows interest and, maybe, opts for quietly listening rather than doing what is expected of her as a woman in the household. Since rabbis of the day did not teach women, this text is somewhat of a revolutionary innovation. Jesus allows Mary to sit and study at his feet. In fact, he seems to indicate that men and women should be studying, not just the men. (A side bar: As in the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus continues to knock down the barrier for women or any who would be excluded from being full participants in theological reflection. Jesus affirms the gifts of women to listen and lead!) But, back to main mandate. To stop, listen, reflect on God's Words of comfort, healing and challenge. It is summer and we are outdoors more. Maybe we are busier than ever with little time to sit, ponder, read, or reflect. Since it is summer, we may be more aware than ever of the "noise" in our culture. We live in a culture fascinated with talk so we must work hard to find some time to listen deeply-to God, to others, and to the needs of our world. I had a dear colleague, when I served as pastor of the Union Congregational Church in Walpole, Massachusetts, named Pastor Yoo Cha Yi. She was pastor of the South Walpole United Methodist church near the church I served and we shared summer worship each year. She would graciously invite my congregation to be with her congregation in August so I could get a summer break to be with my family; in turn, I hosted the services at my church during July and enjoyed having the United Methodists worship with us. Yoo Cha and I also tended to our flock with the offer of pastoral care coverage when the other would be away. As I got to know Rev. Yoo Cha, I came to respect and love her for her call to ministry (not easy in a Boston suburb with a congregation where no one was South Korean or spoke Korean!). As a single Korean woman who had not been in this country for a long time, I experienced her as having a fresh, new perspective on living the Christian life in our American culture with our American ways. She loved to tell me the story of how when she moved, with only a few books and floor pillows, her congregation eagerly wanted to furnish the parsonage with all sorts of furniture. She told me how much she loved having no furniture and the simplicity of sitting on the floor on her floor pillows. She was simple and just grateful to be alive. Her personal history as a student activist in South Korea and a forced departure for her safety, gave her much experience in the realm of listening and seeking God's call. One thing I learned about Rev. Yoo Cha, was her enjoyment and devotion to hiking. She was part of two hiking clubs that went up into the White Mountains in New Hampshire and Maine for the best trails. In one her pastoral letters to the congregation she reflected on people with whom she went on hiking trips. Yoo Cha said, "They had lots of knowledge about the mountains that we were to hike and knew the trails well and learned how to quickly and safely conquer the top of mountains. But, at some point, I began to realize that not many were mountain lovers. On the trail my fellow hikers talked about business, school, computers, insurance, exercise, et cetera... But not many people in the hiking group tried to listen to the sounds of the mountains and to feel their presence." She says, "Isn't that the same way with God? We may know all about Christianity. We may be good church goers. But not many of us are God-listeners. We always talk about faith and trust in God, but our faith and trust in God usually seem confined to what we see and have in our hands." Pastor Yoo Cha offers "truthful words" this summer Sunday about what it means to be faithful listeners. She makes powerful statements that invite us to stretch ourselves into the world of the incarnate God. Perhaps Jesus is saying to us some way, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her." In other words, the "spiritual" part of Mary is essential. In some ways, I feel I need to intervene and honor our "Martha's'" - men and women who are going, doing, serving the church in numerous unnoticed ways. Martha was not wrong to do her jobs and do them well. Any honest pastor would confess to wanting a busload of Martha's. The gospel is asking us to honor the role of work and the role of listening in our spiritual lives. I've seen many church members in my years of pastoral ministry become "burned out" and drop out of the church altogether because they have not felt appreciated. More than that, they will admit, they have lost the importance of balancing their listening with their serving. What about you? How do you balance? Have you carved a space in your faith life for listening? I read recently, "Learning is not attained by chance. It must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence." This is where the second point of my sermon will be made. I want to ask about our "faithfulness" as listeners. To do this, I ask that we consider the lesson from Amos, a lesson that invites the listener to take seriously the call of God to be faithful listeners. This lesson is a pronouncement of judgment by the prophet Amos. Amos, warns of the coming of the "day of the Lord," when God will come to judge all nations. Amos has a vision of a bowl of summer fruit and interprets it as a sign of the coming judgment. Most of us have bowls of summer fruit in our homes, so we get the point, don't we? Time marches by (we see the fruit ripen) and we know that God wants us to pay attention to how we honor God's presence in our lives and this gift of faith. Perhaps we need this scripture about God as judge as well as God as merciful because it will remind us of how much God loves and cares for us. Amos pronounces some harsh words of judgment upon Israel mainly because he knows he's "had it" with God's people and believes that God has had it with God's chosen people as well. They have conducted themselves in a manner that makes them no different from any of their pagan neighbors. They are judged because of their unjust business and economic dealings. "For the God of Israel, business issues are spiritual issues...the condemnation is fierce." (Pulpit Resource, p 19, July 2007) Why would God, who loved and cherished Israel, judge them so severely? The question is in the answer. God loved Israel so much that God would not leave Israel alone. God keeps coming back. God loved them so much that God wanted them to be honest with themselves and face the facts of who they were becoming without God actively present in their lives. The message? They should not separate their faith and from their listening to God's call for how they were to treat others --- the poor, the fatherless, the widow. What do we hear again in the Scripture? Yes, to listen. Truly, God is a God of grace, compassion, and forgiveness, and God, who loves us and wants the best for us, is a God of judgment. One person put it this way: A patient goes to the doctor with a "fever of unknown origin." The doctor performs an examination and runs a few tests. When the data are all available, a diagnosis can be given and a course of medical treatment can begin. Without the examination, little can be done for the patient. Our lives have many parallels to this story. We come to be faithful listeners because we want God to examine us, to give us a course for treatment and to restore us to all we are meant to be, made in God's image. As a church, we gather in worship to take time to listen deeply-to God, to others, and to the needs of this world. How precious is the call to grow in faith and grow in the ability to listen to God. In the Bible, as we have seen, listening is often a metaphor for faithfulness. In our parting, let's be renewed in our desire to be faithful listeners. When Mary listened to Jesus call her by name and allow her to sit a his feet to learn, she no longer was bound by the world's possibilities and impossibilities. Jesus' voice broke through the ways of the world and Mary became unbound by what she could see or hold. She entered a new realm of freedom and knowing. We read hopeful that Christ will indeed call us by our names and allow us to see as we have not seen before. We pray that Christ will come to comfort us and renew us in strength and purpose. We pray that God, a God of grace and judgment, will come to us in our sorrow or whatever our need and give us courage to be witnesses to God's amazing power to sustain and create. Faithful listening? Let me close with poem by a Provincetown, MA, poet Mary Oliver. The short poem entitled "Praying." (from Thirst, pg 37) It doesn't have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don't try to make them elaborate, this isn't a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.