Words of Grace: LISTEN by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

Today we are starting a new series, on the language of God. The apostle Paul calls this language is our “mother tongue” -- the language put on our hearts since birth. He writes in his letter to the young church in Rome, “Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God.”

You see there is this language that we speak as followers of Jesus; it is the language of grace, the language of being alive in God. The language lives deep inside us in that place where God first created us. The language is in us, in our most natural, and pure state, before the ways of death and dead thinking and death creating actions of the world began to wear us down. You know that worn down place, don’t you?

The language of grace is God’s language, and in the next several weeks we are going to learn it together. Actually we are going to remember it, because you already know it. None of the words are unfamiliar to you. There are no unfamiliar words here.

The first word is LISTEN.  We can do nothing as followers of Jesus, if we do not first listen to God. Think about it. I know you are not all parents. But you were all children once. And you have probably all seen parents or teachers interact with children. A child is doing something perhaps running around at a restaurant. The adult says: “sit down.” The child sits down and as soon as the adult gets distracted with a conversation, what happens? The child gets right back up and starts wandering here, there, and everywhere, over by the drink machine and starts playing with it; or over to the buffet table where the plates are stacked this high. The child is just about to knock over the plates and create a huge mess when the adult runs over, picks up the child, sits the child down in the chair and says, “Listen, I told you to stay in your chair and I meant it.” 

Now, of course, the weary parent simply wants five more minutes of glorious adult conversation and another half cup of coffee while paying the bill, but parent is also genuinely trying to keep the child from getting hurt. There are hazards everywhere in the world, and parents have a desire to protect our children from those hazards.

Fast forward a few years. The child is twenty-one and it is the summer before her last year in college. She needs to make a decision. Does she go back to finish her degree, or does she take the job offer she just got? The job offer is with some friends who graduated last year. They have a start-up company and the money is sounds really good but they want her to come now and she won’t be able to finish her college education. As a parent, you hope your child will come to you for advice and LISTEN to you, because you do, after all, have some years of experience and wisdom. 

We know, don’t we, because we have all been children, that we don’t always listen to our parents and to the other, wise adults around us who might be ready to speak to us if we would listen. 

So imagine what it must be like for God.  You see, of course, God is like the super parent of all of us. God is like our father and mother all rolled into one. God is the creator of the universe. We read in Genesis that God breathed the breath of life into the first human beings. Imagine how much your parents have invested in you. Then multiply that by the biggest number you know. That is how much love and energy God has invested in each of us.

So, do you suppose, that when we are facing some hazards in our lives, or when we have big decisions to make, when we are hurting, or when we are lost, do you think that God might just hope that we might listen to what God has to say to us? 

So, of course, some of you are sitting there now saying, Cheri, Pastor Cheri, I like you and all, and I even trust you, but God has never spoken to me, and I don’t really think God is going to start speaking to me today. Well, if you do trust me, then hear me out.

If you have read much of the Bible at all, you know that there are stories throughout the Bible of people saying God spoke to them, burning bush ring a bell?  Big stone tablets sound familiar? Now, it is true that the world view at the time was different. In general, people had a much clearer sense that God was a part of the big picture. They had not gone through the Modern Era and our understandings of scientific principles. They did not understand things like gravity. They did not understand that the earth was round and that it rotates and many things that are basic to us now. They attributed everything to God. We might presume, then, that God spoke to them, in a way that God does not speak to us anymore. But I am not so sure. 

You see it really does not make sense that God would speak to people in one period in history and then that God would stop speaking to God’s people. You see, if God is a loving parent, as we believe, then doesn’t it that God would continue to want to speak with us through every generation? If fewer people seem to be hearing God’s voice in this Era compared to the time when the Bible was written, I don’t believe it is because God is speaking less. 

Perhaps they were just better listeners. And, maybe we could learn from them. Now, of course, we have people every day who say, “God told me _____,” like, “God told me to jump off a bridge” or “God told me to wear purple and that people who do not wear purple are evil.” I think most of us would probably agree that folks saying those things probably have some sort of mental illness.  But again, I don’t think a reasonable person would say, “God does not speak to us” just because a few people in mental distress get mixed up about God’s messages.

The other argument people give for not being able to hear God is this one: “How do I know it is not just me?” If I listen for God, and I think something is God, how do I know I am not just hearing the message that I want to hear?”  That I am not just hearing my own voice?

That is the trickiest part of listening for God.   So, here is what we have to do. In order to hear God, we have to practice. We have to train. If you want to be the best golfer in the world, what do you do? You play golf every day. My brother in law, now deceased, was a professional saxophone player. Do you know what he did during one season of life? He played the same song in every key every day. Talk about boring, but that is what he did to practice. People who are a success at something, are tireless in their practice and they love it.

People who hear God, pray and LISTEN for God in silence on a regular basis. They go on retreats. They sit in silence as a ritual. They wait for God to speak. If we want to hear God speak, we have to STOP, turn off our computers and our cell phones and LISTEN. 

In our scripture for today (I Kings 19:7-14 for those following along at home), the prophet Elijah, is on the run. He has been working his heart out for God. It says “he walked forty days and nights, all the way to the mountain of God, to Horeb. When he got there, he crawled into a cave and went to sleep.”

Then it says, the word of God came to him and asked what he was doing there and he said: “The people of Israel have abandoned your covenant, destroyed the places of worship, and murdered your prophets. I’m the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me.”

“And he was told to go stand on the mountain and God would pass by.  “A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God, but God wasn’t to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but God wasn’t in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn’t in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper.”    

God came to Elijah in a gentle and quite whisper. Elijah was stuck, in that crook of the mountain, feeling all alone, certain that the people had all fallen away from God and they were trying to kill him. He was paralyzed with fear and doubt. But God spoke to him and told him to go anoint a new king and to anoint and to call a new prophet to work with him. 

Elijah heard God speak to him in that quite and gentle whisper. Elijah walked out of that cave, out of his fear. God gave him a new purpose in life, and Elisha to work with him. Everything started to look better once he listened to God and heard God’s message.

Now, I know that sometimes we listen, and the message does not come right away. Or the message we get is not the one we want. (That happens when we listen to our parents and other trusted friends too.) But the alternative is to try to walk through this life alone.  I don’t recommend that. And you are here today, so I think you are looking for some help.

I believe you want to hear God. I know I do.  This is how I have a pretty good idea that I hear God, and not just my own thoughts in my head: when I am silent, and I clear my head as best I can, and something comes to me that was not there before. When it is something new, I trust that it might just be from God. You see, it’s not just the same old thing I have been churning over and over in my head. I clear my mind. I still my heart, and I listen. And sometimes, in that gentle and quiet whisper, God speaks to me.

Now, the messages do not always come to me. Sometimes I sit for 10 minutes in the morning and listen, and nothing comes. Or I sit and I just can’t quiet my mind enough, and I just have to give up for that day. But, I can be sure of this, I will never hear what God has to say to me, if I do not stop long enough to listen. 

So today, let’s try together, shall we?  I’d like to teach you a simple technique for clearing your mind so you might listen for God. This comes from a wonderful teacher named Thich Nhat Hanh. He is a Buddhist monk who teaches meditation or what we call mindfulness, or being in the present moment. Most of us spend much of our time living in the past or the future, but in order to listen to God it is important to be in this moment and to let go of the past and the future.

Breathe in peace (Breathe in )

Breathe out chaos (Breathe out)

This moment (Breath in)

Wonderful moment (Breathe out)

Did you feel anything?  Did you hear a voice?  The worst experience anyone had was a feeling of peace.  Give it a try from time to time.  

          Do you a place where you can practice listening to and reaching out for God?  Go find one.  There are many out there.   If you’re near the corner of Conant Street & The Trail in Maumee, come check us out some Sunday, We’re there every Sunday and out in the world the rest of the week.