10-6-2018

Good Morning All,

        Matthew 17:5; “He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

    We were discussing in a Bible Study session about what makes a church different from other organizations.  What is it about a church that makes it different from other charitable organizations?  We looked at many aspects.  We looked at the use of Scriptures, the use of Sacraments, the centrality of God and the focus on Jesus.

    As I was going home, I tried to remember what one of my favorite authors, Henri Nouwen, said about the community of the church.  I hunted until I found what I was looking for.  In his book “The Spiritual Life” he writes:

 It is the practice of listening.  In our wordy world we usually spend our time together talking.  We feel most comfortable in sharing experiences, discussing interesting subjects, or arguing about current issues…But often we find words function more as walls than as gates, more as ways to keep distance than come close.  Often-even against our own desires-we find ourselves competing with each other…The discipline of community helps us to be silent together.  This disciplined silence is not an embarrassing silence, but a silence in which together we pay attention to the Lord who calls us together.  In this way we come to know each other not as a people who cling anxiously to our self-constructed identity, but as people who are love by the same God in a unique way.

    We are a people who listen; who practice and desire a silence so we can listen to Jesus.  Rather than talk louder and louder like the world; we seek silence to listen closely to what God has to say to us.  In the corporate setting (communal worship), we hear it in the hymns, the readings, the sermon, the prayers and in the fellowship.  In our personal time, we hear it in the reading of God’s Word.  The difficult part is to hear in silence.  It is said that nature abhors a vacuum, but it seems we desire stimulation.  In our silence, we can see and even experience our fears, worries and sorrow.  We use stimulation to change our focus.  Yet in our silence, when we see our pain; we can also see our hope.  Jesus said come unto me and I will give you rest; listen to Him.  Jesus said God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him; listen to Him.  Jesus says I will not abandon you; listen to Him.

    The devil wants the noise in our life so we are distracted from the source of our comfort and hope.  Yet Jesus invites us into a comforting quiet to listen to His wonderful words of love and mercy.  Listen to Him.

Gracious Father, still my heart and my world that I may listen to your love, your promise, your comfort and your hope.  Guide me to savor the time when I hear only You.  Keep me safe from all the devil’s noise.  In the precious name of Jesus, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret