Sermon from May 3, 1998

Sermon "Hearing What We Listen For"
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, May 3, 1998

Hearing What We Listen For

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them

We spend a lot of time hearing.

Auditory scientists tell us we spend 70 per cent of each working day in verbal communications. This breaks down to 9 per cent in writing, 16 per cent in reading, 30 per cent in talking and 45 per cent in listening. Listening occupies most of our time, yet it is the area in which most of us could do better. Few know how to listen. Tests conducted by the University of Minnesota over a period of years show that on average people listen to only about half of what they hear. During a 20 minute sermon you hear about 30,000 words. And listen to about half of them.

Two men were walking along a crowded city sidewalk. Suddenly one of them remarked, "Listen to the lovely sound of that cricket." But his friend could not hear the sound. He asked his companion how he could detect the sound of a cricket amid the roar of the traffic and the sounds of the people. The first man who was a zoologist, had trained himself to hear the sounds of nature - yet did not explain. He simply dropped some change from his pocket onto the sidewalk, where-upon a dozen people began to look about them. "We hear," he said, "what we listen for."

Talking makes it difficult to listen

There is an old story which lists these verbal stances of a young couple: before they were married he talked and she listened; on the honeymoon, she talked and he listened; after they settled into their own home they both talked and the neighbors listened.

The public words of Jesus, as reported in the Bible, amount to eleven minutes of speech. Jesus must have spent considerable time listening.

Carl Rogers the psychologist says that people will pay hundreds for no other reason than to have someone to listen to them. "A person's real need, a most terrible need, is for someone to listen to him or her, not as a 'patient' but as a human soul."

Noise makes it difficult to listen.

During a baseball game in Kansas City, a dog suddenly appeared on the playing field. It trotted around on the infield for a bit and then sat down on third base. The people in the crowd began to yell at it: "Get off the field." "Run for home." "Bite the umpire," but the yelling was to no avail; the dog just stayed on third base. One sports writer, commenting on the incident, explained that the dog did not move because there was no dominant voice from the crowd.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them

How do we hear the voice of God? Packer team member Reggie White struggled with this on his recently reported pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It is our concern as we. How do we hear the voice of God? Listen for it!

Stop making noise and start listening!

Someone has said that God gave us two ears and one tongue. That way we may hear from others twice as much as we speak. James says, "Be swift to hear, and slow to speak." I once lost a watch. When we were silent we could hear the ticking of the watch and the sound led us to it. The same is true in our faith. Be silent, be still, start listening. It may be the very sound which leads you closer to God. For some, the most meaningful time during Sunday worship is the silence before the pastoral prayer.

God speaks through others

My experience has led me to believe that one of the ways that God speaks is through others. It was a friend in high school who first asked me to consider pastoral ministry as a possible future vocation. I had never considered it until that time. He recognized gifts and interests which would be useful in ministry. But was this what God wanted me to do? Just because one has the gifts for a vocation does not necessarily mean they will be fulfilled exercising those gifts in a particular context. Fulfillment in vocation involves developing and perfecting the right gifts in the right setting. When you believe God may be speaking through another, test the comment, ask hard questions, consult with others for confirmation, spend time in silence before God.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them

God is calling out to you. God is searching for you. God is asking you to come to him, to listen to him, and to enter his family and be sheltered and made safe with the rest of sheep, safe from that which destroys. Safe from a direction of darkness and despair. Listen - and follow - and you shall not want. Listen and follow - and you will lie down in green pastures. Listen and follow - and your soul will be restored.

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