Listen

Today's the second Sunday of Lent, and to celebrate this season, we are offering a message series that we're calling Attitude Adjustment.  And we're looking at a particular attitude adjustment that every single one of us needs to make. In fact, the less you think you need this adjustment, the more you probably do. This attitude is actually a virtue. A virtue is an habitual and firm disposition to do the good.  And the virtue we are discussing is the most important virtue of all. We're talking, of course, about humility.

Humility is vitally critical to a Christian life but is often misunderstood. There are some people who think that humility is weakness, low self-esteem, lack of ambition. Some think humility is a conscious effort to minimize or downplay our accomplishments, a low opinion of yourself, maybe even a bad opinion of yourself.  That's not humility, that's not virtue, neither is it a sign of spiritual maturity, it's a mark of insecurity. And when we find ourselves acting in that way, it must be overcome.  Humility is not a low opinion of yourself, it's a clear opinion of yourself. Humility is knowledge of yourself as you really are. People who are truly humble are grounded in reality. To look more closely at this subject today , we're going to turn to the Gospel of Luke, where in the ninth chapter we read this: Jesus took Peter, James, and John and went up the mountain to pray.

This verse  reveals two very basic lessons about prayer.  First lesson; we need time. We need a specific time for prayer.  Jesus was quite specific and intentional about setting aside his prayer time, he made it a priority throughout his life. Same for us, unless we make prayer a priority by designating a specific time, it won't happen despite our best intentions. Second lesson, he shows that we need a place, we need a specific place where we can get away from the demands and the distractions of the world around us.

Luke continues, “while  Jesus was praying, his face changed in appearance, his clothing became dazzling white and behold: two men appeared who were conversing with him.”

This incident is called the Transfiguration, while Jesus is praying, his inner glory is revealed. We know that Jesus was fully human just like us, but he was also fully God. Throughout the course of his life, his glory was largely hidden from sight, but here in this moment, and just for a moment, his divine nature is revealed.  And this is given as a gift, a blessing to Peter, James and John to bolster their faith, to strengthen them for what was coming. In fact, years later, Peter would point to this moment as the transforming one in the course of his whole life. Peter understands and believed in Jesus' divine majesty, not because he's heard about it, but because he witnessed it personally, he's seen it with his own eyes.

Luke goes on to tell us that Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. If you've ever had trouble sometimes staying focused during prayer, or even staying awake, take heart, you're in good company. Peter is twice recorded in the Bible as falling asleep during prayer in the presence of Jesus. Here, he wakes up from his sleep and sees Jesus bright with glory and Moses and Elijah, along with him, two towering figures of the Old Testament.  Understandably, bewildered, Peter says, "It's good that we're here, let's make tents for you, and Moses and Elijah".

Like any amazing experience, Peter doesn't want this one to end. But even as he's speaking, this whole scene becomes even more amazing. A cloud came and cast a shadow over them, and they became frightened when they entered the cloud, then from the cloud, the voice of God announced, "This is my chosen son, listen to him."  A mighty, majestic scene but with quite a simple message, "This is my chosen son, listen to him." To listen to him, to do that requires that we not only have to hear, but to hear with attention. There's a difference there, to lend our attention, thoughtful attention to someone else, to attend closely, to heed, perhaps even to obey.  It carries the connotation of engagement and relationship with another.

Unfortunately, sometimes, we don't want to listen and sometimes we're afraid to.  If I listen, then I might have to change my mind and I've already made up my mind, I don't want to change my mind. If I listen, it might mean I have to admit that I was wrong and I'm never wrong. If I listen, I might have to acknowledge that I don't know something that I've been pretending all along to know.  When we fail to listen, we fail to learn and in the process, we're failing to make progress in intellectual growth, in spiritual growth. Of course, listening requires humility. It means humbling ourselves at least enough to recognize that on our own, we don't know how life works, at least not all of it, and we don't know everything.

It takes humility to put aside my own self-importance, my own self-absorption, my own self-interest, to slow down and to listen to what somebody else might have to tell me or teach me. And a great place to learn to become a better listener is in prayer because prayer is not just talking to God, it's listening to him, it's meant to be a conversation. When it comes to conversation, it's often said the wiser, the more knowledgeable, the more experienced person should do more of the talking.  The less knowledgeable, the less experienced, the less wise should do more of the listening. And in any given conversation, if you're not sure which category you fall into, go with the listening one.

When it comes to the person of Jesus Christ, we have the font of all wisdom, the source of all knowledge, the one through whom all things were made.  So, it just makes sense that we will be availing ourselves of what he has to say. But how to do it, how to apply this message?  Pick a time and a place this week when you're going to pray. It matters not at all how long that time is, it matters very much that you determine a specific time and place when it's going to happen, and determine, decide that part of that time will be devoted to listening.  And the easiest way to start listening to Jesus that I know is to begin reading the Gospels.

For some people, that sounds simple, but it could be a game changer, it could be more important than you actually realize. The point is to read the gospel in the bible, see what is in the story, listen to what Jesus is saying and doing and see how it helps you understand him.  If you want to take it a little deeper, I suggest you “listen” to the story this way, as you read. Read a particular section of the gospel and 1) Listen to the story as you read: Ask yourself what are characters thinking or feeling? How is God (or Jesus) acting in this story? What would you do differently if you were that character? How would you feel? 2) Then take a minute and listen to your heart what your answers to those questions: If thinking about those things moves you to pray about something, just stop and pray. 3)  Listen to God: Now that we’ve pondered these questions and prayed to God about this story, just be quiet for a minute so you can hear what God might be saying back to you, inside your heart.

A Few years ago during Lent, we challenged parishioners to read just one of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.  Maybe that is something you can do this Lent. We challenged everybody to pick just one gospel and in the course of the season of Lent to read it from beginning to end.  We received some amazing feedback from that exercise. People that have been going to church their whole life long discovered things that Jesus said and Jesus did that they never heard before.  Their faith and their relationship with Christ went to a whole new level simply by slowing down and listening to Jesus as he speaks to us in the gospels. The point is to listen to the Lord as you read and see how he touches your heart.  Listening is so important. Here is a lesson I learned about the importance of listening. I went to a conference, one for which I paid good money to attend. It was supposed to be about how to be a better pastor, and help people come back to church. Since there are so many people who no longer go to church I thought this would be an excellent conference to attend.

There were many other priests and pastors there as well.  It was a very interesting experience, it was very spiritual, thoughtful, and engaging.  I spent a few days with about one hundred other priests and experts on this topic which is something I'd never done before.  During the conference, the main speaker, really turned on the firepower. I began to feel like he was talking directly to me. It was uncomfortable and I actually thought about leaving but I didn't feel comfortable doing that either because I didn't want to create a scene.   What was uncomfortable was that his message, was profoundly convicting. He spoke of the local church community as the delivery system for much of what God wants to do in the world.

I'd never thought about it like that.  He described the job of a pastor as one of the most important consequential jobs on the planet, I'd never thought about that either. He talked about the prideful assumptions, the amateurish approaches, the lame efforts, the sad outcomes of many pastors and churches that are hurting people and dishonoring God.  He said that if we're not doing church with the purpose that God has given to the church, God will remove his blessing. Our churches will fail, and they ought to fail. Just as God removed his blessing from the religious leaders in Jesus' day, the Pharisees The speaker said, a lot of us pastors are just Pharisees at heart.

I was surprised, and increasingly, many of the other priests were getting angry.  Some priests decided they didn't care if he saw them leave, they hoped he did. So they stormed off, loudly. Who did he think he was anyway?  Honestly, maybe I did not leave because I was chicken and did not want to look like a jerk, and, after all, I paid good money to sit here and get insulted.  I asked God to help me settle down and listen to see if there was an element of truth in what was being said. I asked the Holy Spirit to help me. I calmed down enough to begin to see through the pride of my heart and to acknowledge sadly, but sincerely, the conviction that everything that guy had said was true.  And it did apply to me, and I needed to hear it.

As I think about this today, Pope Francis has been telling us the same thing, if we will just listen.  I listened intently, and prayerfully, to the rest of that conference. And I've continued to learn from this speaker and many others who share the same perspective, and what he, and they, have to teach us, which is quite a lot about building and growing a healthy parish.

But putting aside my ego, at least for a little while, that afternoon, changed the direction of my life, it is also changing the direction of our parish's life as we become a place, where we make church matter, we want to be a place where people who don't like church, like church. And we WILL become a place where it becomes impossible not to share Jesus with the world. All because I listened and now because we are all are listening. It was Saint Augustine who once said, "There's something in humility which strangely exalts the human heart, and it all begins simply by listening."  It all begins simply by listening.