Tag: speaking

And God Said…

Two weeks ago, as we were recognizing and celebrating high school seniors who were graduating, one of the things I said to them was “You don’t have to read the Bible cover to cover, but know the story. Know enough of the Bible and enough about the Bible so when situations arise in your life you have a touchstone or a reference point around which to make a decision or to help you figure out what now or what next.”
Then, this happened.
It was Monday morning.
I was taking our dog on her morning walk.
I was a bit anxious because Monday is the day I work on the bulletin for the following Sunday. Writing the Opening Sentences and Prayer and selecting the hymns helps me think more about the sermon and overall focus of our worship. On most Mondays I have at least a glimmer of an idea about what I want to be thinking about in terms of worship and sermon.
But, last Monday I had nothing.
No spark of an idea.
No scribbled notes to fall back on.
Nothing.
Only walking the dog.

Then it happened.
A verse from the Bible.
“And God said…”
I sure it popped into my mind because I was struggling to make sense of the news of children being separated from their parents and housed in detention centers and what that must feel like for both parents and children. And, what it felt like to me as a citizen of this country. And, because my faith and my understanding of God is often the way I think and try to make sense of my life and world I found myself asking where God might be in all of it.
And so the Bible verse.
What would God say?

Still walking the dog and still not clear about the bulletin or about this morning, as I thought more about what God would say, another similar verse from the Gospels popped into my head. Jesus has been invited to dinner at Simon’s house. A woman of questionable integrity bursts in, washes Jesus with her tears and dries his feet with her hair. Simon, the Pharisee who had invited Jesus to dinner is aghast. Just as he is about to say something Jesus turns to him and says, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
Which added to my pondering.
What would Jesus say to us, I wondered?

Then back at my desk, a third verse.
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.”
My understanding of the Hebrew is that the word in this verse which is translated ‘hear” implies much more than just hearing a sound or a sentence. More than hearing the birds chirping or a door closing. The Hebrew word implies these three things: hearing and understanding and acting. If you have not understood and not acted, you have not heard.

So, there I was.
Three verses.
And God said…
Simon, I have something to say to you.
And, Hear, O Israel…
Then there was the bulletin and the hymns.
Then several days thinking about those three verses.
Thinking about what God is saying and about what Jesus might want to say to me and to us and about whether or not I was really hearing.
Which brings us to this morning.
Now, it is your turn.
Let me invite you or pull you into the conversation.
Believing God still speaks or the Spirit still prompts what do you hear God saying?
To you in terms of your own life?
What you are thinking about and pondering and trying to discern?
Or in terms of who we are as a community of faith with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other and where and how God might be wanting to say something to us?

Today…

Today, may I seek to be…
More understanding and less indifferent.
More caring and less aloof.
More gracious and less thoughtless.

May I strive…
To listen carefully before I speak.
Pause long enough that I might see clearly.
Look closely enough that I might understand.

May what I do and what I say…
Create some space for grace to slip in.

Who Me?

I think it started for me in my 3rd Grade Sunday School class.
On the bulletin board in the room where we met was a large piece of oaktag divided into squares. Our names were listed down the left side and dates listed across the top. Every Sunday, we began our class with each of us standing in front of our friends and reciting the Bible verse we had memorized for that week. If you had memorized a verse and could recite it, you received a star next to your name for that Sunday. If you didn’t…no star. And, we all know how important gold stars are to Third Graders.
The first verse and star was easy.
At least in the version of the Bible we used then.
John 11:35.
Only two words. Jesus wept.
It got harder after that.

All of that is to say I have had a lifelong interaction with the Bible.
Memorizing verses.
Reading it on my own.
Studying it in college and seminary classrooms and here around a table with some of you.
For all of that, I am grateful.
What has happened to me or in me over the years is that particular verses and passages from the Bible have lodged themselves somewhere in my memory. Always there, but not always thought about. Until that unexpected moment when a particular verse will push its way up to the surface of my awareness.
As my Dad was dying I found myself repeating the words of Psalm 23.
Even though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death you are with me.
When I am outside at night and look at the stars and think about the immensity of the universe, I remember the words of Psalm 8.
When I look at the heavens, the work of your fingers
The moon and the stars You have established;
Who are we that you are mindful of us;
Mortals that you care for us?
Yet, you have made us little lower than God and crowned us with glory and honor.
And, sometimes it happens as I am trying to sort out something in my own life.
More often than not, when I find a verse running through my mind, it has pushed its way there as a reminder of what is important or what I value and need to remember or what I believe about life and love and community and God.

The verse from today’s reading from the Bible falls in that last category.
I am not even sure what it is I have been trying to sort out in my life, but I have found myself thinking about this one verse where Jesus says. “Simon, I have something to say to you.” But, of course, when the verse runs through my mind the name is not Simon, but Paul.
Paul, I have something to say to you.
Maybe I am remembering this particular verse at this particular moment as a reminder that in the midst of my busyness and all that has been a part of my life the last couple of months, there is something there for me to learn or to understand. Something I have overlooked or need to be mindful of. Something that will come into focus for me as I pay attention and take time to listen for that still, small voice of God which waits to be heard.
Maybe.
I am not sure.
So, I allow the verse to linger.
And do my best to find the will and a way to say the words found in the next verse.
“Teacher, speak.”

And, because this verse has been pestering my life recently, this morning it also gets to pester yours. At least for these few moments. And, so I wonder…
What if you inserted your name into that verse?
Jesus speaking to you saying…
I have something to say to you.
And, what if you made an effort to live with those words for a whole day?
What if you reminded yourself of those words when you wake up tomorrow morning.
And again when you send your kids off to school.
And, then again when you walk into work.
And, when you meet a friend for coffee.
And, what if Simon’s response became your response?
Teacher, speak.
Jesus, speak.
God, speak.
And then you do your best to pay attention and to listen.
Not necessarily for some James Earl Jones voice booming out of the sky and stopping you in your tracks, but to listen and to pay attention to that which you know is God as it brushes, often unnoticed and unnamed, up against your life. The opportunity for gratitude and to say Thank you. A moment to pause long enough to take a deep breath and to acknowledge the gift of life which is yours. The day which you have which was not promised to you, but which is so full of promise. The moment in which you are called upon to do your best to do what you know to be good and kind and generous and faithful.

So, what do you think?
As you know, the Bible is never just about then, but also about now.
And never just about them, but also about you and me.
In the end, today’s reading from the Bible is not about Simon and Jesus,
But about you and Jesus.
So, what if it is to you that Jesus speaks?
Your name here.
Then, “I have something to say to you.”
What do you think Jesus might say?

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Several things I believe: