Listening To God

With the New Year comes a new focus for our congregation: Listening. We are going to listen. Not just “listen” as in kicking back and putting on a pair of headphones and closing our eyes, but a different type of listening: spiritual listening. This type of listening requires using more than one’s ears. Spiritual listening involves the entire person, the ears, eyes, heart, body, and soul.

Commonly when we talk about listening to God, people understand t do that” and because we are Christians we listen to what the Bible says. Certainly this is part of the Christian walk, but not as central as some would have us believe.

Instead of equating listening with moral conduct, consider this statement: ” Open up your heart and listen to what God is saying to you. Allow your life to ‘written’ by God”. This is a quote by Pope Francis, given this past fall on a radio address. In this case, listening is responding to the invitation to be God’s instrument. God is the author, we are the compliant participants in the work of God in the world. In this case, listening involves carefully considering what God is saying in the here and now. At the root of this approach is the conviction that God invests in people and outcomes. This makes listening an important part of the spiritual walk.

But most of us don’t take the time to listen. Why not? I see three primary reasons:

Our lives are hurried. We each have a lot we have to do, and a lot a lot of things we want to do. The result is we are rushing from one thing to the next. Meeting obligations and then seeking distractions. This constant hurry leaves little room for God and prevents our lives from being more fruitful and satisfying.

Our Lives are loud. Silence is a crucial part of listening to God. We are media maniacs. We have lots of technological gadgets, most of which come with speakers: cellphones, iPads, cars, etc. Businesses pump music into the air to get us to buy more things. We live in the city, the 8th largest media market in the country. It is a challenge to find spaces and times of silence.

We’ve never been shown how. Listening to God is a skill. There are those rare people who have taken the initiative to do some reading, taken a class, or met with a pastor in regard to the question of listening to God, but we come from a tradition that doesn’t emphasize this aspect of the faith life.

So this month we will focus on listening. We are going to explore how and why we need to listen to God. We will offer opportunities for growth: to learn new ways to pray, to attend prayer vigils, and likely a retreat on the subject.

All this is a part of a process we are embarking on for 2014 pertaining to mission planning. It all begins with listening to God. As I see it, there are 3 important questions each one of us needs to listen to answers for:

How can I grow closer to God?

What is God calling me to do?

What is God calling Amazing Grace to do next?

These are important questions. Taking time to tend to them as individuals and as a community will be deeply enriching. I look forward to listening with you.

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Jason