"Listen Carefully!"

Memories of 'Allo, Allo' may come flooding back for some.

Or maybe, a teacher's comments to a dreamer in class.

Or a choir director to those not quite hitting the notes.

In our noisy and muddle culture, with so many sources of sound and information, my hunch is that not much listening goes on. 

The ancient prophets repeatedly instructed people to listen carefully to the word of the Lord. Isaiah's famous call was to preach to people who wouldn't listen. 

'Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” 

I said, “Here I am. Send me.” 

And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people, 

‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. 

Watch closely, but learn nothing.’ (Isaiah 6.8-9)

When Jesus was teaching people, his repeated refrain was to encourage people to listen carefully, and then to take appropriate action. 

After telling the parable of the Sower (or the Soils), Jesus commented, '“Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given—and you will receive even more. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.” (Mark 4.24-25) The quality of our listening will have profound consequences, for good or ill.

So it is all the more wonderful that the Wise Men, who visited the child, Jesus, in Bethlehem, were tuned in to listen carefully to God's warning. 'They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 

When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.' (Matthew 2.11-12)

It seems that we can train ourselves to be those who listen carefully to the voice of God, so that we are always on his wavelength, ready to respond, moment by moment, to his leading and guiding. But we need to give ourselves to this relentlessly, retuning our receiving processes, away from the self-absorbed concerns which often fill our thoughts.

May you listen carefully today.

Best wishes,

Richard