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SUNDAY, JULY 20, 2008
THE TENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
Matthew 13:43 (Using our ears for
more than I-pods)
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TODAY’S SERMON THEME:
At least eight times in the New Testament, Jesus calls
on those “with ears to hear,” to DO IT.
To listen. Let those with ears to
hear, HEAR! I believe our God understands
completely how EASY it is for us to lose FOCUS in our lives, how EASY it is for
us to grow “hard of hearing.” With all
the noise, distractions, and disruptions in our lives, we must strive every day
to HEAR His voice, the “still, soft voice” of the Lord. Without His guidance, we’re lost.
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1. A long time ago, when I was a
very young boy, I grew up around a much older relative who was -- as we used to
say back then -- “hard of hearing.” I remember being told, when
this relative came over, to “speak up, raise your voice, or (he) won’t hear a
word you say.” And like an obedient
little boy, that’s exactly what I did.
Every time I got around this older relative, I positively SHOUTED my
words. One day, though, during a large
family gathering -- with several dozen people milling around the house -- I
made a comment to my dad about how this particular relative was “very hard of
hearing.” My dad smiled, leaned over,
and whispered: “What makes you think
(he’s) hard of hearing?” I was
shocked. “Well,” I replied somewhat
dumbfounded. “THAT’S what everyone else
says! They say (he’s) just hard of
hearing!” To which my dad
responded: “Trust me. (He) hears what he wants to hear.” I discovered on that priceless day the
phenomenon known as “selective hearing.”
As it turns out, the only person this particular relative could NOT hear
-- was (his) spouse.
Let
those with ears to hear, hear!
2. A rabbi friend once told me
about a husband who was worried about his wife’s hearing. He was afraid his wife was going deaf, but he
did not want to frighten her needlessly.
So,
rather than confronting her directly, he went alone to the family doctor to ask
what he should do. The doctor gave the
man a simple test to perform on his wife, and then to report back to him on the
results. The man went home, where his
wife was hard at work in the kitchen. He
stood at the far end of the house -- 40 feet away -- and asked, in a normal
voice, “Honey, what’s for dinner?”
Nothing. His wife did not say a
word. So, the husband cut the distance
in half, to about 20 feet, and asked again, “Honey, what’s for dinner?” Still no response. So he walked into the kitchen, about 10 feet
away from his wife, and asked one more time, “Honey, what’s for dinner?” THIS TIME, the wife turned around, looked him
directly in the face, and said: “George,
for the THIRD TIME, I’m telling you that we’re having CHICKEN for dinner!”
Let those
with ears to hear, hear!
3. One more little story: A retired couple in Florida were up early one
bright, sunny morning. The woman
immediately began doing housework -- mopping floors, running the vacuum
cleaner, starting a load of clothes in the washer, straightening the cabinets,
dusting the furniture. The man sat down
in his recliner to read the paper and drink his cappuccino. As the old fellow sipped his coffee -- which his wife
made for him -- he noticed that she was hard at work pushing the vacuum. As he sipped slowly on his coffee, he felt a
sense of pride welling up in his heart for his bride. She was hard at work, and it was still early
in the day. He decided to let her know
his feelings. “HONEY!” he said, “I’m
PROUD of you!” She looked up and (over
the roar of the vacuum) said, “What?” He
announced a second time: “I’m PROUD of
you!” She glared back at him, and with a
menacing tone in her voice, replied loudly:
“WELL, I’M TIRED OF YOU, TOO!”
Let those
with ears to hear, hear!
4. I bring up these little
stories this morning because I believe that we, as a society, are becoming
“hard of hearing.” We are slowly and
steadily losing our ability to hear. Never before in human history
have people been surrounded by so much NOISE. By so many DISTRACTIONS. By so many DISRUPTIONS. From the ever-present I-Pods to
surround-sound home television, from cell phones on every ear to
noise-eliminating headphones, we are slowly but surely tuning out the world
around us. We are gradually but
decisively tuning out the people around us.
And in the process, we are tuning out God. We can’t even hear ourselves most of the
time, and we rarely hear what others are saying to us. So, it stands to reason, if we can‘t hear
others, and we can‘t hear ourselves, then there is a strong chance that we also
cannot hear God. Holy Scripture is clear
-- from the great story of the prophet Elijah on the holy mountain -- that God
comes to us in a “still, soft voice.”
And how many “still, soft” voices are we able to hear each day? As a society?
All of this brings me
to the main point I want to make this morning:
At least eight times in
the New Testament, Jesus calls on those “with ears to hear,” to DO IT. Let those with ears to hear, HEAR! I believe our God understands completely how
EASY it is for us to lose FOCUS in our lives, how EASY it is for us to grow
“hard of hearing.” With all the noise,
distractions, and disruptions in our lives, we must strive every day to HEAR
His voice, the “still, soft voice” of the Lord.
Without His guidance, we’re lost.
5. In our Gospel lesson today from Matthew 13,
Jesus continues his teachings to His disciples -- who followed Him in large
numbers along the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
We
have heard several of His teachings, His parables, in the last few weeks. The images Jesus uses are pastoral in nature
-- taken from the fields and the hills all around them. He uses simple, understandable images to open
their hearts to the secrets of the Kingdom of God. He talks of harvests at the end of the
season, and the sowing of seeds at the beginning. He talks of growth in the fields, and
obstacles to growth. One of the
obstacles He mentions today is the growth of weeds. As anyone who has worked in a garden knows,
weeds grow up rapidly and choke the plants.
Left unchecked, weeds will take over a garden completely. Left unchecked, weeds bring destruction. In our lesson today, Jesus AGAIN PROMISES
that there WILL BE A HARVEST at the end of the season. Actually, He speaks of TWO HARVESTS: A harvest of weeds, which will be thrown into
the fire and burned; and a harvest of goodness, which will be rewarded
greatly. The challenge for all of us,
Jesus says, is that we remain focused on the harvest of the Lord -- on the
growth in righteousness and goodness that God is bringing into the world. We are NOT to be distracted by the weeds. And then, in verse 43, He sums up this
teaching by saying this (in the Greek):
Ho’ exou ‘ota akou’eto LET THOSE WITH EARS to hear HEAR!
6. Jesus uses this particular
saying THREE times in Matthew’s Gospel, THREE times in Luke’s Gospel, and TWICE
in Mark. Ho’ exou ‘ota akou’eto. Let those with ears to hear, HEAR. What is fascinating about this sentence is
that it is a Greek translation of an old Hebrew saying that appeared frequently
in the Old Testament. The most prominent
of these sayings was in Ezekiel 12:2, where the prophet condemns the rebellious
house of Judah for departing from the ways of the Lord. These rebellious people have EARS TO HEAR,
but they DO NOT HEAR, Ezekiel says. The
Hebrew phrase is this:
O’MEN
SHA’MAH . . . Ears to hear.
The
ears of the Hebrew people, during that dark moment in the Sixth Century BCE,
were focused on EVERYTHING BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD. The ears of the people had lost the ability
to FOCUS on the Word of God. The people
had deserted the Lord, and they were sent into exile because of their disbelief
and disobedience. Even the prophet
Ezekiel was among the captives taken into Babylon -- where the people of the
Lord were forced to learn faithfulness away from Jerusalem, which was totally
destroyed in 586 BCE, and apart from the Temple, which had been torn to the
ground by King Nebuchadnezzar. Psalm 137 even records a lament from the exiled
people of Israel, forced to live in Babylon:
“How can we sing the Lord’s song in an alien land?” And that was what Ezekiel was helping them
understand: They can call on the Name of
the Lord even in an alien land. Even
when they have fallen far short of the glory of the Lord. They can call out to God even in the midst of
a horrendous spiritual (and physical) desert.
7. And so can we. We can call out to the Lord no matter HOW far
we have fallen. No matter how “hard of
hearing” we have become. No matter how
long we have been in the spiritual desert.
Quite
simply, God has never STOPPED speaking to us.
He speaks to us continuously -- through His Word, the Holy Scriptures,
through spiritual leaders, through compassionate friends and colleagues,
through nature, and (yes) even with His own voice. THE PROBLEM IS NOT WITH GOD’S VOICE. THAT HAS NEVER BEEN THE PROBLEM. THE PROBLEM
IS WITH OUR EARS. We must re-learn how
to focus on Him, how to listen to Him, how to direct our thoughts and our
desires to Him. He has given us ears to
hear -- OMEN SHAMAH -- and we must use them!
A final word: As my rabbi friend told me: If you haven’t heard the voice of God today,
then there is a 100 percent chance that you have not been listening.