“Speak, O Lord, Your servant listens.”  1 Samuel 3:9

“In the beginning was the Word.”  1 John 1:1

“God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason; so that we could listen twice as much as we speak.” Jean Patrick

“Pastor, what should I say?”  I wish I had a nickel for every time I was asked that question.  It’s a natural human inclination to want to say the right thing to another person when they are suffering or grieving.  We want to help.  We want to make things better.  It’s a well-intentioned sentiment, but usually unhelpful and unwelcomed.  Saying something is simply a way to help us feel better, perhaps less uncomfortable with what we see as an awkward situation.  Truth is there’s nothing we can or should say to attempt to alleviate the sacred space and time another spends in suffering or sorrow.  Except to listen.

To be listened to is what most people want and need, not only in times of crisis or catastrophe, but in normal every day life.  I believe that’s what God wants as well; to be listened to.   For all the time I spent talking ABOUT God, I wish I would’ve listened more TO God. 

Both the Old and the New Testaments begin with reference to God speaking.  Genesis begins with nothing, except God, darkness, stillness and silence.  The Spirit of God is hovering over the infinite nothingness.  And then God speaks creation into being.  And creation listens.  And responds.  Like the buried seed that responds to the whisper of water wetting the ground and the gentle rays of sunshine speaking softly on the surface of the earth, so too all of creation became alive and began to grow. Life.  Followed by death. Not, as we’ve been led to believe, from disobedience, but instead from not listening. Not listening to God.

The Gospel of John begins by speaking about God’s Word.  The Word of God that takes on human flesh so that we can not only hear about God’s grace, truth and glory, but see and experience it as well.  The enfleshed Word of God speaks, and the Father says in the water, “This is my beloved Son, Listen to Him.”  And again the Father says on the mountain, “Listen to Him.”  And The Word speaks Life.  After His first Sermon on the Mount the response to the Word by His listeners was that He speaks with authority, not like the other yammering and stammering teachers of the Law.  Throughout His life The Word continues to speak. Many heard.  Few listened.  Eventually the voices of the deaf called out for His crucifixion.  Those voices silenced His, but only for a time.  For it was there, in that silent darkness of Friday, that God spoke coherently and compassionately the clear message of Love.

God continues to speak that message today in many and various ways.  Through The Word, brought to Life, and to us, by the Spirit.  That Living Word comes to us in obvious ways like The Bible, Holy Writings, Tradition, Prophets, Apostles, Teachers, and The Church.  But God also speaks the Word in not so obvious ways that we are far too infrequently unaware of and oblivious to; The flora and fauna found in Nature (which as St. Francis said, was God’s first Bible), Music, Mystical Experience, Historical and Modern-Day Inspired Writings; other people we meet and even and especially in our everyday life.  As one writer said, “God comes to us disguised as our life.”  Sometimes God speaks in really loud and obvious ways and sometimes in a small whisper.  But be assured God is speaking.  The question:  “Are we listening?”  And what is God saying?