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Sermon on James 1:17-27

Sermon on James 1:17-27 August 30, 2009 My mother is the oldest of 7 children and when those 7 children would get together it was something else! Picture 7 sisters and brothers in one room sitting together and everybody is talking at the same time. One might be telling a joke to the group. Another might be telling a story about her daughter going out with a questionable young man. Another might be asking how to repair a mistake in a knitting pattern Another might be telling the group an opinion on why people should not go on welfare so easily. Another might be revealing a new invention they came up with. Another would be just singing a song. Another might be telling the group how she got a coffee stain out of cotton shirt. Picture all that going on at one time. It was so much fun for me to be there—everyone talking at once and everyone knowing everything that’s going on. Somehow at the end of it, everyone would have: enjoyed the joke. added their commented on appropriate dating behavior of adolescent children. given instructions on how to pick up the lost knitting stitch. gone up one side of the Welfare system and down the other expressed their Ooo’s and Ahhh’s over the new invention enjoyed the song. go away knowing how to remove coffee stains from T-Shirts. We used to go to the Auntie’s a lot and so I had a lot of exposure to that sort of thing. I never thought at the time that it was anything unusual. But looking back now, I wonder how they did that. That’ll have to remain a mystery. THAT was their natural communication style. And it worked for them. Until someone said too much. Too many words came out of their mouths and they couldn’t get them back. It was too late. The words were out. Feelings would be hurt and that would be the cue for some of us to look at our watches and say, “Oh my look at the time. It’s time to go home And then we’d do it all over again another time. So much fun! So I wonder is something like that is going on in today’s epistle lesson because the writer of the book of James says more than once, “Be quick to listen and slow to speak. Be quick to LISTEN and slow to SPEAK.” Be quick to listen. Concentrate on listening. That’s the way to follow Jesus, by listening—lots! Do you know anything about the Quakers? One thing they do well is listen. A friend of mine just got married at the beginning of August and she married a Quaker. I didn’t go to the wedding but I met her in Kelowna and she was telling me about the wedding. Half of the service was Christian (which would be like a wedding we would have here) and half was Quaker (which involved a half hour of silence in the service). Imagine going to a wedding and having to sit for 30 minutes in silence for part of it. My friend said they had someone describe to the non-Quakers how it would probably feel to sit there for 30 minutes with no words spoken to them, and that it would most likely feel awkward and uncomfortable at first, but to be open and try to trust the process. And after the 30 minutes if anyone wished to speak they could. And after that 30-minute period of silence 5 people ended up speaking and she said it was so profound and so moving for her and her new husband to hear those words spoken out of the silence. I think speaking words out of silence is what today’s scripture is getting at. I’m not suggesting we all convert to Quakers but maybe we can listen in on the way they listen, because they do it so very well. I know I have more to learn about listening. I can get long-winded and end up speaking gobbledegook and bafflegab, (drivel) especially coming from that beautiful family of mine. And so I think it’s good to remind ourselves to watch our words. Trying to get them back once they’re spoken is like trying to get toothpaste back into the tube after it’s squeezed out. Don’t get me wrong. Being quick to listen doesn’t mean that we close our mouths and stop speaking altogether. We do need some words, but we also need listening in between the words. Think of music. The notes could be like the words we speak. And the rests could be like the silences between the words. If we didn’t have rests in music it ends up being mush. There would be no song, just meaningless mush. Now, in my short time here at Valley I’ve experienced so many of you as good listeners and I thank you for that. But it’s never a bad thing to try to be better at it. The next time you meet someone at the store or at the bank or at the restaurant, or even in your own home be quick to listen to them on their own terms, (‘on their own terms’ is important) and be slow to speak. Listen in on their tone of voice. Listen for the words they have chosen to use. Listen to the words they have chosen not to use. Listen to their body language. Listen to their eyes. Listen. And maybe, just maybe in all that listening while words are spoken, you might just hear God’s Word rising up inside their voice, in their eyes, in their hands, and in their heart. God’s truth might be spoken to you in amongst the words that are said. And they’ll wonder, “What’s up with those Christians at __________ UC? We need to go and check out that church and see where they’re getting those deep listening skills from. I came upon a song just recently. It was written by a group called rEvolve and this group led all the music at General Council in Kelowna a few weeks ago. And instead of filling up the rest of the time with more spoken words I’d like to sing the end of this sermon, and I hope and pray God’s Word might be spoken and heard among the words and the rests and the rhythm that I sing. It’s called “I Heard God’s Voice”. [song is sung]