Listen

We are currently in a series called “Love Your Neighbor.” Where we are focusing on how we can reach those in our communities that need blessed. We began this series discovering how early on in the scriptures and throughout the scriptures we find people that have been blessed by God to be a blessing to others.

Last week we began looking at how to show the love of God to those around us through the word “BLESS. We began with the importance of Being in Prayer, and how it is through prayer that God helps us know where to be and what to say or not to say.

How it is important to have God involved in our conversations and we accomplish this best when we begin with prayer. You can find both of the previous sermons and other previous sermons on our You Tube channel.

This week we are looking at the importance of listening. The “L” in BLESS. Our scripture comes from Luke 18:35-43. The words are on the screen.

35 As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. 36 And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. 37 They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” 38 And he cried out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 39 And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 40 And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he came near, he asked him, 41 “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, let me recover my sight.” 42 And Jesus said to him, “Recover your sight; your faith has made you well.” 43 And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Please pray with me…

How does it make you feel when the person or people you are talking to seem to be distracted? Often it will make us feel like the person either doesn’t care about us or at the very least isn’t willing to take the time to get to know us.

Most People have a problem. It is a problem that I am sure none of us here in person or online have. The problem is that many of us like to hear ourselves talk. We spend so much time talking that we are either not listening or we are attempting to figure out what we are going to say next while someone else is talking.

There is a saying that “we have two ears and one mouth for a reason.” That reason is that we should be spending twice as much time listening as we do talking. We are able to show that we love those around us when we allow them the opportunity to speak to us and tell us what is happening in their lives.

People that are not listening to us leave us feeling unloved and unblessed. We are living out the “listen” portion of the “BLESS” model when we are willing to do what is called “active listening.”

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Active listening involves us listening to a person with our whole being. What does that mean? It means we are facing the person. We are looking at them as they are speaking to us instead of allowing the distractions around us to affect our ability to hear what is being said to us.

In case you are not aware there is an interesting experiment taking place within the schools right now. The students are having their phones taken away from them at the start of the day. It would be my expectation that this will lead to a better learning environment.

There will be a greater possibility for active listening without having a phone vibrating in a pocket or even checking out a message.

But what we also can see just by watching even as we are driving down the road, it does not matter the generation you belong to, phones have led to us not being connected to those around us in a physical way. Many people struggle communicating in person instead of on their phone.

We are called to love and bless those around us. We can allow people to feel loved and blessed when we are willing to face a person, truly look at a person, and can remove as much of the distractions that are around us. It is a willingness to do this that can show that we care about what they care about.

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Let me give you an example from my marriage. The first part of our marriage I would be watching TV and Amy would say something to me and when I realized she was talking to me and I didn’t hear her, I would act like I didn’t know she was talking to me.

This allowed for me to not have to listen and for her to feel like I didn’t care about what she wanted to say to me. It allowed me to ignore her feelings and go on doing what I wanted to do which was watch TV.

After we had been married a while and I was more open with my feelings, she would try to talk to me while I was watching TV and when I realized I hadn’t heard what she had said I would yell and ask why she was bothering me when I was doing something else.

Did you notice I was sharing my feelings with her, just not in a positive way. I definitely didn’t act in the best manner and would have caused her to believe that I would prefer to spend time doing something else other than spend time talking and listening to her.

Now, I still have times where she is talking to me while I am watching TV or more likely on my phone and once I realize she is talking to me and I hadn’t heard what she said I now, I will say usually, quit doing what I was doing, apologize, and ask her to repeat what she has said.

Can you see how the first two examples make the person feel unimportant and unloved? We tend to do similar things to those around us. We need to work towards paying attention so that those we are interacting with believe that we care about them and what they care about.

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We discover in scripture Jesus over and over again living out what it means to listen to those around him. If we flip through the pages of the Gospels, our attention is naturally drawn to the stories of Jesus doing over the top, amazing things like healing the sick, feeding thousands of hungry people, and even raising the dead.

We tend to remember the exceptional and extraordinary moments. But it’s important that we don’t overlook the more frequent and ordinary moments. The moments when Jesus pulls up a chair to another person and just listens.

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Our scripture for today offers a different scenario. We have Jesus heading to the next town. He may already be in conversation with those around him, talking while he’s walking. It is while this is taking place that a blind man hears the crowd.

He wants to know what is going on and he is told that Jesus of Nazareth is walking by. We can assume that Jesus has walked by this man before or at least has been in his vicinity because he knows who Jesus is.

He knows that Jesus is the one who has been healing the sick, curing the lame, healing the leper. He may even have heard that he has raised the dead. What he has heard has led him to believe that Jesus is his best chance to be able to see again.

Therefore, the blind man cries out to Jesus. He is taking a risk because through his words he is stating that he believes that Jesus is the Messiah and he desires to have the Messiah help him overcome his ailment.

Those that are in the group in front of Jesus tell the man to be quiet. It could be because of the way he was asking. They are afraid of what would happen to Jesus or the man if those that aren’t so friendly heard him.

Or it could be that they don’t believe that right now is the right time for Jesus to stop his journey to Jericho. No matter what the reason is they want the blind beggar  to stay quiet and mind his own business.

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This is important for us to hear. We might not meet a person that God has placed before us in a way that we would expect. We may find ourselves having someone crying out to us, asking us to help them.

We need to make space in our lives to be available to those around us. Let me give you another story. This one has me a little better light overall. How many times have you gone somewhere and asked someone how they are doing? What is the normal response? Fine.

That was what I was expecting when I asked this single mother at the place, I was working that question. Instead, she went on for ten minutes telling me about how her life was falling apart and how she was tired and at her wits end.

I was blessed because I got to work early enough to be able to listen to her for the whole ten minutes. What if I had gotten to work at the last minute and asked her that question? I would have had to say “sorry, but I have to go.”

How would she have felt. She would have most likely felt empty and believed that no one cares. It is why I try to not ask that question anymore unless I have the time. I don’t want to have my busy life to prevent me from listening.

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We have a choice to make. We can be like those in the crowd that not only didn’t ask the man how he was doing but also didn’t want him to speak to Jesus, or we can be like Jesus. We can take the time to stop and talk to the people that we meet.

Jesus hears the man, stops walking, and says to the man, “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus chooses to not only take the time to speak to the man, but he also asks what the man would like for him to do for him.

Jesus desires to be the hands, feet, and voice of God to this man before him. He wants to be there for the man and help him however he can. It is true that we most likely won’t be able to help a blind man see, but there are many ways we can help people if we are willing to stop and take the time to ask.

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When we look at the model, we can recognize how beginning in prayer sets us up for success through the rest of the BLESS acronym. Prayer can lead us to opportunities to speak with those around us.

It is through listening and as we see in our reading asking questions that can lead us to discover how we can live out the first “S”. We receive an understanding of ways in which we can serve those we meet.

You may have noticed that we skipped the “E”, eat or entertain. It is important that we don’t look at the ideas of blessing those around us a rigid model in which we have to pray before we listen. Listen before we eat with the person. Eat before we serve them. And we have to serve them before we tell our story.

We need to look at these BLESS concepts as us opening ourselves up for various ways that God may use our willingness to bless others to meet people where they are at. We may find ourselves eating a meal and we meet someone who we begin to build a relationship with them. It is important that we allow our prayers to lead us into wherever God desires to guide us.

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Living a life of BLESSing others like Jesus blessed others is not a journey of the spectacular. In fact, I believe it is best lived out in the regular. It’s in these regular moments of life where we can pull up within arms reach of another person and actually listen to what is going on in their hearts.

Listening is an ordinary activity that can lead to extraordinary results. That is why we should listen twice as much as we talk. We need to take the time to be attentive to the needs and desires of those around us.

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We also need to be listening to places.  Let me explain what I mean, we need to listen to our community. This means that we pay attention to our surroundings so that we can see potential ways that we can assist those within our community.

Are we giving attention to the places God has placed us? Are we really listening? The Apostle Paul knew how to listen to places as well. Listen to what we see from our first reading. In Acts 17 he points out what he noticed about their town.

“As I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.”

Before Paul proclaims, he observes. He “observed” the culture he was going to address. And once he had, he says this:

“What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.”

Paul understood the importance of learning to pay attention to the place he was in, leaning in to what God might have him do there.  We can also listen to our communities. Look around with eyes focused on what information we can glean from what is around us. This lets us know what matters to the community and can offer us conversation starters.

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Let us choose to begin our days with a simple prayer…”God help me listen today.” We are asking God to help us interact with those around us. We are asking God to help us see with clear eyes the environment around us. This can then possibly lead us to discover ways to bless those around us.

And here’s the secret of all of this. When we live out these missional practices, when we begin with prayer and listen, not only will we bless the people and communities around us, but we’ll be also transforming ourselves.

We will see and hear more clearly. We will grow in compassion and empathy for others. We will get glimpses of how God is at work. When we learn to truly listen, we’ll find that God does a transformative work in us as well.

Please pray with me…