August 29, 2021
First Lesson: Psalm 15
O Lord, who may abide in your tent?
Who may dwell on your holy hill?
2 Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right,
and speak the truth from their heart;
3 who do not slander with their tongue,
and do no evil to their friends,
nor take up a reproach against their neighbors;
4 in whose eyes the wicked are despised,
but who honor those who fear the Lord;
who stand by their oath even to their hurt;
5 who do not lend money at interest,
and do not take a bribe against the innocent.
Those who do these things shall never be moved.
Second Lesson: James 1:17-27
17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
I have asked groups divide up into pairs and practice listening to each other. I give one person the prompt to share a time you have been proud of yourself, or a time when you have felt vulnerable. Then as that person shares, the other strives to give their undivided attention. While one talks, the other is instructed to listen carefully, without interrupting and without making any kind of noise until the person has finished sharing. I encourage them to listen without thinking of their next question, or their response, or their own related story. Often people are surprised how hard it is to truly listen, giving your full attention. The exercise leads us to discuss how difficult it is to listen and be truly present with another person, yet also how valuable. In just a few minutes of focused, active listening, we learn a lot about each other.
Paul encourages us to be quick to listen and slow to speak. It reminds me of the old adage, “We have two ears but only one mouth, that we may listen more and speak less” (James, William Barclay, p. 55). If we played that out, we should listen twice as much as we speak. How are you doing on that score?
It can be hard to really listen, but it is one of the best gifts we can give to another person. The gift of being truly present and attentive to them, their feelings, and ideas. Yet have you noticed how we often filter our listening to hear the parts that support what we believe. If someone says something against your point of view we often disregard or ignore. The year our congregation was chartered, 1965, offers a good case in point. Teri McDowell Ott writes, “Listening is a skill we should spend time developing, especially because there are people among us who are dying to be heard.
“’White man, hear me!’ James Baldwin wrote in August of 1965, an explosive time in America. In February, Malcolm X was assassinated. In March, John Lewis led 600 peaceful protestors over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where, to the nation’s horror, they were brutally attacked and beaten by state troopers. On August 11, the Los Angeles Watts neighborhood exploded in response to police abuse. Baldwin’s essay “The White Man’s Guilt” calls on white people to be honest with ourselves — to stop claiming we do not see what we see or hear what we hear. The continued relevancy of Baldwin’s words reveals a nation stuck in a cycle of systemic abuse — a nation full of powerful, privileged people who expect to be heard when we speak, but fail to listen when confronted with truths that require us to change.”
Ott continues, “A meme recently went viral on social media revealing how white society dismisses Black voices no matter how they are expressed. Centered on a photo of a mob gathered around a burning car, the photo’s caption reads, ‘Why can’t you protest peacefully?’ Then it showed a photo of a peaceful Black Lives Matter march with the caption, ‘No, not like that’; a picture of NFL players taking a knee, ‘No, not like that’; and a picture of NBA players wearing black T-shirts with ‘I Can’t Breathe’ across their chests, ‘No, not like that”” (Presbyterian Outlook, 8/29/21).
It is hard to listen, especially when the truth we are hearing demands us to change. Humility is key to faithful listening. But we are to be doers of the word and not just hearers. This requires that we look in the mirror and see the ways we might change, the ways we must change, the ways we have not been listening to those around us. To those disenfranchised by the powers that be and silenced over the years. We are to be slow to anger when the voices we are not used to hearing get louder. When our nation is becoming a truly multicultural place, not a “melting pot” in name, with white people in charge.
California is in the middle of a recall election right now. I pray you will vote and have your voice be heard. Return your ballot by Sept. 14. Be doers in this election, vote!
Paul asks us to be doers of the word and not just hears. Yet as hearers of the Word, we must be ready to confess how we have failed, the mistakes we have made and the bad habits of not listening we have developed. Ott suggests avoiding these bad habits of not listening.
“Listening with an agenda. ‘I hear what you’re saying and I’m going to apply the parts of it I understand to my goals, my plans, my idea of what is right. I will shape your narrative to fit my own.’
Listening for a counterattack. ‘I heard what you were saying. Now listen to me tell you why you are wrong’” (Presbyterian Outlook).
We get to unlearn our bad habits of not listening. Habits that have protected us from painful truths, truths that might have led to much needed growth and change. Today is a new day to listen more attentively, to hear what we have failed to hear, to do what needs to be done, to be the people of faith God calls us to be.
Before you think well “I can’t do it,” let’s remember where this passage starts. It starts with God and generous acts of giving. Every gift God sends is good. So before you think this is all up to you, know God is in this with you. God is with you when you get to listen to your daughter say it might be time to move closer to me, or into a senior living facility. God is with you when you get to listen to your spouse say that hurt my feelings when you did that again after you said you would stop. God is with you when you simply strive to listen more than you speak, even when you are a chatty Kathy. Listening is a generous act. It is selfless and honest. It builds relationships and community. It also says to the person you are listening to, you matter, and you have value. Your words make a difference. Listening is a generous act.
Paul writes, “Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above.” We can see this in three ways. First the constant and unchanging nature of God even when our world keeps changing. Especially right now with Covid rules changing again, conflicts in the Middle East as we leave Afghanistan, reassessing how much we should do with the Delta variant on the rise, it is a comfort to know that God is steady, the Creator of lights. Yes, the moon waxes and wanes, the stars vary in their brightness, but God is the constant, the Creator, the one who is the giver of all that is good. The giver of truth. But we can only hear the truth when we listen. Open our hearts up to God in prayer. Listen when God challenges us to make a change.
Secondly, first fruits are generous acts. We talk about first fruits in our monetary gifts to God, but WE can also be first fruits. In the ancient world, all first fruits were sacred to God. They were offered to God because they belonged to God. The result of our listening and change is that we will become first fruits of creation. That is a lovely term. It takes us back to God’s intention for us from the beginning. When we listen to the word of truth, we are aligning ourselves with God’s purpose and moving rightly in the world.
Finally, as I have already said, listening is a generous act. Paul writes, God “gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.” The word of truth is found through listening. Listening to God and Jesus’ teaching, listening to those long silenced and lending our voices to their concerns, listening to our spouses, children, family, coworkers, and friends. But listening is not easy, it can be a struggle like birthing. But once we allow God to birth the truth in us, once we embrace the generous act of listening, God will create in us a desire to do the work of the church to care for the widows and orphans. When we are quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; when we focus on God’s truth not our own desires, then we will be sharing our generous acts of giving with our community. Amen.
