Listening

Listening

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

July 21, 2019

Lectionary Texts:

Amos 8:1-12

This is what the Lord God showed me– a basket of summer fruit. He said, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to me,

“The end has come upon my people Israel;
I will never again pass them by.

The songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,”
says the Lord God;

“the dead bodies shall be many,
cast out in every place. Be silent!”

Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
and bring to ruin the poor of the land,

saying, “When will the new moon be over
so that we may sell grain;

and the Sabbath,
so that we may offer wheat for sale?

We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
and practice deceit with false balances,

buying the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals, 
and selling the sweepings of the wheat.”

The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:

Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.

Shall not the land tremble on this account,
and everyone mourn who lives in it,

and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?

On that day, says the Lord God,
I will make the sun go down at noon, 
and darken the earth in broad daylight.

I will turn your feasts into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation;

I will bring sackcloth on all loins,
and baldness on every head;

I will make it like the mourning for an only son,
and the end of it like a bitter day.

The time is surely coming, says the Lord God,
when I will send a famine on the land;

not a famine of bread, or a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord.

They shall wander from sea to sea,
and from north to east;

they shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,
but they shall not find it.

Luke 10:38-42

As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Sermon Text

It is lovely to be back from Maine and to be with you here this morning.  I have to tell you this summer in Maine has been glorious.  There has been some rain and a few cool days but mostly it has been warm and lovely and to be honest – sometimes hot and sticky too.  In our cottage in Maine the only way to keep the rooms cool in the searing heat is to run fans.  And I love fans, they are great except in one regard.  One of the things that I love most about the night time in Maine is hearing the loon – that haunting cry that sounds as old as time.  It is the sound I most associate with summer in Maine by the lake.  Unfortunately, you cannot hear the loons when the fans are running.  The loons never stop calling.  You just can’t hear them over the whir of the fans.

And I raise this because it seems to me that these two readings we have just heard this morning are all about hearing, about listening.  In our Old Testament lesson Amos highlights the hypocrisy of the Israelites who have heard the call of God to keep of the ritual law – neither selling wheat on the Sabbath, nor selling grain until the new moon passes

But what Amos is accusing the Israelites of is selective hearing.  Their following of the law does not keep them from exploiting the poor – in Amos’ words they make the ephah small and the shekel great – meaning when the poor go to buy goods, the merchants decrease the measure, and increase the price.

Our Gospel lesson for this morning is also about listening.  Jesus is in no way disparaging Martha for her hospitality.  We know from other parts of the gospels that Jesus values hospitality very highly – highlighted most clearly by the woman who washed Jesus’ feet and anointed him with oil at the last supper.  So what is Jesus trying to tell Martha?  What Jesus seems to be saying to Martha is this: at this point in time, the better part, the more important part, is sitting at his feet, learning from him, listening to him, hearing him – the lesser part is being distracted by many tasks. As my Godmother said to me just a few days ago when I was visiting with her in Maine, if Martha only knew about paper plates, this story could have gone very differently.  If she only could have taken out the Chinet.

These two lessons invite us to think about where in our lives are we not listening to God – where have we become deaf to God’s call.  And I want to give you an example of when I heard God’s voice in a brand new way back in June.

A few weeks ago, I was in Alexandria, Virginia, for a week’s residency to mark the end of the preaching fellowship I participated in over the last program year at Virginia Theological Seminary.  We ended our week with the Eucharist.  And that was wonderful. Very fitting. Right? So I settled into my seat in the beautiful chapel, opened the bulletin, and I discovered that we were using Prayer D.  How many of you know Prayer D? How many of you know it well?  Exactly – we hardly ever use it because it is so long.  We generally pull out prayer D for special occasions – sort of like taking out the good china for dinner.  The china we store in the back of the cupboard, and has to be hand washed.  There has to be a really special reason to pull out Eucharistic Prayer D – like Holy Week.  And at this point at 11 AM on Firday, I was starting to think about the long drive home from Alexandria Virginia up 95 and Eucharistic Prayer D standing in my way of progress.

And so we arrived at the point of the service where the Eucharistic Prayer was to begin – and the celebrant started saying each of the phrases of the Eucharistic prayer slowly and deliberately.  At this point, I’m thinking to myself – take a deep breath.  We’re going to be here for a while.  And then the most amazing thing happened. 

But before I tell you, I need to tell you that along with the 50 or so Episcopalians attending the course, the seminary decided to expand its programming to include Baptist pastors.  So twelve Baptist preachers joined us for the week. 

And so when the priest started saying the Eucharistic prayer – it became a Eucharistic prayer of Baptist call and response.

The priest said: We acclaim you, holy Lord, glorious in power. Your mighty
works reveal your wisdom and love.

One of the Baptist nodded her head and said “u-huh, that’s right”

The priest said: You formed us in your own image, giving the whole world into our care, so that, in obedience to you, our Creator, we might rule and serve all your creatures.

Then a number of Baptists responded: yes, amen, u-huh.

The priest said: When our disobedience took us far from you,
you did not abandon us to the power of death. In your mercy
you came to our help, so that in seeking you we might find
you.

And another Baptist said: Yes, Lord

And it went on and on.  And through their call and response I heard Eucharistic Prayer D as one of the most beautiful testaments of faith I had ever heard.

God is trying to speak to us in so many ways.  Through the inklings of our hearts, through our gut feelings, through the words of friends and strangers, in our prayers, through the scriptures, and not least of all through the ancient liturgies of the church.

But just like not hearing the cry of the loon on a hot and humid summer night over the whir of the fans, there are many ways we make it hard to hear God.  The Old Testament and New Testament are full of stories of how we and our forebears have been deaf to God’s call to us, and how we have been distracted from hearing God’s voice. In Amos – the distraction was greed; in our Gospel lesson this morning – the distraction was just working so hard trying to do the right thing, it was fretting and busy-ness.  But the good news is, the very good news is, that the stories of the scriptures, in the Old and New Testaments, is that God never gives up on us – God calls us over and over and over again, calling us home into relationship with God.  God never abandons us.  

And so in this week ahead, I invite you to observe the world and your life. For a few minutes each day, try to eliminate the noise, and the chatter, or the laundry list of oh-so-many-important-tasks-to-do. Just for a few minutes, observe what the Lord wants you to see and hear. What does God want you to see, and hear, and believe, so much that you just want to say out loud “amen”, “yes, Lord,” or “u-huh that’s right” ?

And if you need a more concrete task – I invite you to look at the Eucharistic Prayers – there are six of them in our Book of Common Prayer – two in Rite I, which is our service in Elizabethan language, and four in Rite II, our service in contemporary English.  Maybe take one Eucharistic prayer each day for six days – and see if you notice anything new. Is there something that you did not notice before?  See if God is calling you to a new thing, new action, or to a new way of being or new understanding. Do you see anew the depth of God’s love for you and your neighbor? For a few minutes a day, choose the better part – Mary’s part, and be confident that all the rest can wait a few minutes.

Amen.