On the Art Of Listening To Sermons
Sermon
LIKE A BREATH OF FRESH AIR
Sermons For Pentecost (First Third)
I cannot imagine a more difficult place to preach than the setting of this parable-sermon. Although they were not out to get him, this surely must have been one of the toughest audiences Jesus had to face, outside of the religious establishment who were not receptive to much of anything he had to say anyway. The assembling of these people is handled in a rather matter-of-fact way by Matthew in his telling of the story. He says simply that they came to the beach where Jesus had gone to relax for a few moments. There is no evidence that the people came to hear anything. After all, most people I know do not go to the beach to listen to preaching.
To make the situation even more troublesome, Jesus had to retreat to a small boat, anchored a few feet off shore, in order to deliver his message. Without benefit of an adequate sound system, he had to try to be heard over the sound of the waves washing against the beach. There were children playing in the sand, building an endless variety of sand castles. And the adults were trying to keep the children still and quiet, though they were making more noise trying to keep the children quiet than the children were making in the first place. And I think there probably were at least a few people who, like Jesus, had gone to the beach to get away from it all. Now, suddenly, they were surrounded with this great throng of people. Their peaceful picnic, sunbathing afternoon had been interrupted by the crowds.
In that setting, Jesus tells this story that is our text for today. The parable presented was drawn from an everyday life situation, the common scene of a farmer at planting season. There was nothing unusual nor earthshaking about the story, although it sounds a bit strange to our ears. Since none of our modern farming methods and techniques were in use at the time, the planter simply went to an open field with a bag of seed tossed across his shoulder. He would reach his hand into the sack, pull out a handful of seeds and scatter them across the ground. One of the realities the farmers of that time lived with was the fact that some seed sprouted and grew, and other seed did not. From one year to the next, one never knew exactly where the crop would be the best.
When Jesus finished telling the story, the crowd shrugged their shoulders, scratched their heads and said to one another, "we came down here for this? There's nothing new about that story, no surprise in that tale. Why, we see that happen all the time! So what!" But then, in one of those magical strokes of effective public speaking and storytelling, Jesus brought their casual responses to an abrupt end by adding: "Let anyone with ears listen (Matthew 13:9, NRSV)." As if to say -- and to remind us -- there is more here than meets the ear. So, sit up and pay attention; lend me your ears and listen!
I wonder what prompted Jesus to add this last line to this slice of ancient farming life. Part of me wants to believe that it was surely unnecessary, since these people had come out of the woodwork when they got the word that Jesus was in the area. Maybe they thought they were going to see something, rather than have to do anything as strenuous as listening carefully and thinking about what a story might mean. Perhaps Jesus added this line, and maybe even told the down-to-earth story of the land in the first place, because of what he saw when he looked at the crowd from his perch in that boat. What he saw is the same thing I see when I look out at the congregation each Sunday: a group of people who have come together for a variety of reasons. Some have been forced to come, made to rise and dress when sleep would have been preferred; some have come out of a sense of duty, perhaps even habit; others have come to display their piety and practice their faith; a few have come, no doubt, with a sense of expectation, knowing there is a need and a longing to have it met; these listeners are hoping beyond hope that maybe this will be the Sunday when the Word will break through for them.
When Jesus looked into their faces, he probably saw the same thing I see. The body language and facial expressions reveal much about what's going on in a person's mind, and from this pulpit vantage point, I can see more than I sometimes care to see. There are, for one thing those blank expressions which say, in essence: "I am not interested: you can stand on your head and juggle five apples with your feet, nothing will crack my facade, nothing will make me listen. I am just here filling a spot." Then, there are the glassy stares which betray the fact that someone is thinking about other items: their mind is on their agenda and calendar for the rest of the week. They will stare at the pulpit and make everyone believe they are listening. Of course, there are those with drifting eyes, wandering the sanctuary, searching the faces of those who have gathered: "let me see who is here, who is wearing what, what are the choir members doing, and where is that crying baby?" Then, of course, there are those "hungry eye" looks, which are, essentially saying, entertain me for 50 minutes or so and then let me get out of here, feeling good but not disturbed.
Those of us who stand in pulpits to engage in this foolishness we call preaching have come to know one truth that is more norm and rule than exception: most of what is said will go in one ear and out the other. It should not surprise us that Jesus would tell such a story as this, and as one clergyperson, I am grateful for his Word to all of us about listening.
Listening seems to be one of those automatic things which we too often take for granted. Listening stops in a marriage or family, and the relationship soon deteriorates. We bury our heads in papers, books, or get absorbed in television and forget to listen to one another. While the person who stands in the pulpit may not always be the most entertaining person or the best looking one, and may not preach the most creative or thought-provoking sermons, the problem may not be all in the speaker. The source of the problem may be as much in hearer as speaker.
Could it be that one of the reasons we think that God no longer talks with plain voice, as God did in the Old Testament days, is not that God stopped speaking, but that we quit listening?
Before us this morning is a story that is about more than poor farming techniques and uneven ground conditions. It is, at one level, about how we listen when the Word is proclaimed. The parable offers some guidelines on the art of listening for God's Word in the sermon. Listen.
Guideline Number 1: Do not have your mind made up before you come. We often fail to hear anything because we think we know everything there is to know already. There is nothing that will be said that will bring any more information than we already possess, or that we would want to add to our memory cells anyway. Besides, they believe, nothing that is spoken will change their firmly held convictions and longstanding prejudices. The sermons that are most loved by this particular group of listeners are those which simply confirm what they already believe.
More than a few persons who venture to seminary to further their education and preparation for service have been advised by well-meaning church people: "don't let them change you." That was one piece of advice I received, which I'm glad I did not follow! I have heard college graduates, and some few seminary graduates for that matter, rather proudly announce that they had received their degree but had learned nothing and had not been changed in the least. It is like seed that, when scattered, winds up on a path where the birds quickly fly down and eat. It never had a chance to grow because the seed never got inside. Some people are so hardheaded, rigid, and hardhearted that nothing will penetrate their spirits.
In contrast, a good listener is one who is open, sensitive and receptive. A good listener is eager to learn, ready to grow, anxious to have new seed planted within, and excited about receiving something, even if it does challenge previously held notions and opinions.
Guideline Number 2: Do not be swept away with emotional ecstasy. We often fail to pay attention, to really listen because we are on some mountaintop high on emotions and feelings, either before we come, while we are present, or after we leave. Too many times we listen only with our feelings and emotions. We get inspired not by the content but by the presentation; we are moved not by the Word but by the persuasiveness of the personality through whom the Word comes. Brass bands, grand orchestras, charismatic stars and majestic buildings are fine in their place as tools and agents that enable the hearing of the Word. They are not, however, the Word.
This kind of emotional listening affects what we hear, and generally it is what we want to hear in the first place. For the sports-minded almost every month is a season of emotional listening, especially if it involves your favorite team. Without regard to the facts, one listens to hear the reports that will mean a winning season. Some even rebel against the definitive word of the experts who say that there is no way the team will win, in order to dream glorious dreams of championship trophies. The Living Bible paraphrases Proverbs 18:2 in an unusual way, but it gets to the point: "a rebel doesn't care about the facts; all he wants to do is yell."
Emotional listening is like a seed that finds itself on rocky soil, a bit of top soil where it can sprout quickly. But since there is no root it soon wilts in the midst of the reality of the sun and the heat. In contrast a good listener balances emotions and feelings with a healthy sense of what is required in the real world. To be able to hear the Word with excitement and enthusiasm, but also be able to transplant that sameWord in the world is balanced listening. As we listen, we are stirred, moved, and excited, but we also put down roots and allow the Word to sink in, moving us to action in response to what we have heard.
Guideline Number 3: Do not be distracted by the surroundings. We often fail to hear because there is so much coming at us and there is so much activity swirling around us that it is difficult to sort through the noises, to hear the Word. Distractions divert our attention from what is to be the focus of the moment, and we turn off our hearing to think about what has just happened. We lose our place when a physician's pager sounds, a hymnal is dropped, a door is opened or there is a sudden movement by some person. All of it sidetracks us from the main agenda.
These are not days which are the most conducive in hearing God's Word. There are many competing ideas and rival ways of living vying for our attention and energy. At just the time we have come to perfect an amazing array of communication instruments, there is very little worth saying, and even less worth repeating a second time. In this communication explosion, however, we are faced with a glut of announcements and find ourselves listening to less-than-ultimate kinds of announcements made with great fanfare. As a result we miss, or are too busy, or have no time to listen to the annunciation of good news. It is like seed planted among the thorns and the thorns grow up to choke off the good growth, preventing (or at the very least hindering) the ability to listen.
A good listener, however, is one who is focused, centered and attentive, if only for a brief moment in time. To be able to concentrate when all around us there is chaos and confusion is the art of listening with a deeper sense than with just an ear or two.
There are our guidelines for the art of listening, as suggested by a simple story and that additional sentence from Jesus. Let us put these guidelines into practice for a moment, applying our good listening techniques to this parable/sermon. If we can be, for at least one moment, open, sensitive, receptive, focused and attentive, what will we hear in this story. A farmer scatters a handful of seed, and some falls on the road, other on rocky soil, some among the thorns, and a bit in the good ground. At harvest time, the return on the seed that fell in the good soil is astounding. The rest of the seed had little or no chance.
What's the message? If I'm listening to the same story you are, I hear a single word. In spite of people like me, and like you, the seed of the gospel of Jesus Christ is sown. As a result the reign of God is established, it takes root and grows in this world sometimes in surprising places, where we would least expect it. It starts small, does this gospel, like a seed; but the result is an amazing return at the harvest season. It is a return that is not based on what we do with or to the soil. It is simply an act of God's grace.
Above all this is a story of hope. Even when we come to realize that not all of our efforts are productive, the end result is still astonishing. God's grace: God's active, loving presence makes a significant difference in our lives and in our world when it takes root. Life can indeed be the art of the possible which succeeds in spite of overwhelming odds to the contrary. If we hear it, then we are called to go tell it, to plant more seeds and to scatter our particular brand of hope on a world which has none. Go, scatter some seeds because you have heard the Word.
"Let anyone with ears listen!"
To make the situation even more troublesome, Jesus had to retreat to a small boat, anchored a few feet off shore, in order to deliver his message. Without benefit of an adequate sound system, he had to try to be heard over the sound of the waves washing against the beach. There were children playing in the sand, building an endless variety of sand castles. And the adults were trying to keep the children still and quiet, though they were making more noise trying to keep the children quiet than the children were making in the first place. And I think there probably were at least a few people who, like Jesus, had gone to the beach to get away from it all. Now, suddenly, they were surrounded with this great throng of people. Their peaceful picnic, sunbathing afternoon had been interrupted by the crowds.
In that setting, Jesus tells this story that is our text for today. The parable presented was drawn from an everyday life situation, the common scene of a farmer at planting season. There was nothing unusual nor earthshaking about the story, although it sounds a bit strange to our ears. Since none of our modern farming methods and techniques were in use at the time, the planter simply went to an open field with a bag of seed tossed across his shoulder. He would reach his hand into the sack, pull out a handful of seeds and scatter them across the ground. One of the realities the farmers of that time lived with was the fact that some seed sprouted and grew, and other seed did not. From one year to the next, one never knew exactly where the crop would be the best.
When Jesus finished telling the story, the crowd shrugged their shoulders, scratched their heads and said to one another, "we came down here for this? There's nothing new about that story, no surprise in that tale. Why, we see that happen all the time! So what!" But then, in one of those magical strokes of effective public speaking and storytelling, Jesus brought their casual responses to an abrupt end by adding: "Let anyone with ears listen (Matthew 13:9, NRSV)." As if to say -- and to remind us -- there is more here than meets the ear. So, sit up and pay attention; lend me your ears and listen!
I wonder what prompted Jesus to add this last line to this slice of ancient farming life. Part of me wants to believe that it was surely unnecessary, since these people had come out of the woodwork when they got the word that Jesus was in the area. Maybe they thought they were going to see something, rather than have to do anything as strenuous as listening carefully and thinking about what a story might mean. Perhaps Jesus added this line, and maybe even told the down-to-earth story of the land in the first place, because of what he saw when he looked at the crowd from his perch in that boat. What he saw is the same thing I see when I look out at the congregation each Sunday: a group of people who have come together for a variety of reasons. Some have been forced to come, made to rise and dress when sleep would have been preferred; some have come out of a sense of duty, perhaps even habit; others have come to display their piety and practice their faith; a few have come, no doubt, with a sense of expectation, knowing there is a need and a longing to have it met; these listeners are hoping beyond hope that maybe this will be the Sunday when the Word will break through for them.
When Jesus looked into their faces, he probably saw the same thing I see. The body language and facial expressions reveal much about what's going on in a person's mind, and from this pulpit vantage point, I can see more than I sometimes care to see. There are, for one thing those blank expressions which say, in essence: "I am not interested: you can stand on your head and juggle five apples with your feet, nothing will crack my facade, nothing will make me listen. I am just here filling a spot." Then, there are the glassy stares which betray the fact that someone is thinking about other items: their mind is on their agenda and calendar for the rest of the week. They will stare at the pulpit and make everyone believe they are listening. Of course, there are those with drifting eyes, wandering the sanctuary, searching the faces of those who have gathered: "let me see who is here, who is wearing what, what are the choir members doing, and where is that crying baby?" Then, of course, there are those "hungry eye" looks, which are, essentially saying, entertain me for 50 minutes or so and then let me get out of here, feeling good but not disturbed.
Those of us who stand in pulpits to engage in this foolishness we call preaching have come to know one truth that is more norm and rule than exception: most of what is said will go in one ear and out the other. It should not surprise us that Jesus would tell such a story as this, and as one clergyperson, I am grateful for his Word to all of us about listening.
Listening seems to be one of those automatic things which we too often take for granted. Listening stops in a marriage or family, and the relationship soon deteriorates. We bury our heads in papers, books, or get absorbed in television and forget to listen to one another. While the person who stands in the pulpit may not always be the most entertaining person or the best looking one, and may not preach the most creative or thought-provoking sermons, the problem may not be all in the speaker. The source of the problem may be as much in hearer as speaker.
Could it be that one of the reasons we think that God no longer talks with plain voice, as God did in the Old Testament days, is not that God stopped speaking, but that we quit listening?
Before us this morning is a story that is about more than poor farming techniques and uneven ground conditions. It is, at one level, about how we listen when the Word is proclaimed. The parable offers some guidelines on the art of listening for God's Word in the sermon. Listen.
Guideline Number 1: Do not have your mind made up before you come. We often fail to hear anything because we think we know everything there is to know already. There is nothing that will be said that will bring any more information than we already possess, or that we would want to add to our memory cells anyway. Besides, they believe, nothing that is spoken will change their firmly held convictions and longstanding prejudices. The sermons that are most loved by this particular group of listeners are those which simply confirm what they already believe.
More than a few persons who venture to seminary to further their education and preparation for service have been advised by well-meaning church people: "don't let them change you." That was one piece of advice I received, which I'm glad I did not follow! I have heard college graduates, and some few seminary graduates for that matter, rather proudly announce that they had received their degree but had learned nothing and had not been changed in the least. It is like seed that, when scattered, winds up on a path where the birds quickly fly down and eat. It never had a chance to grow because the seed never got inside. Some people are so hardheaded, rigid, and hardhearted that nothing will penetrate their spirits.
In contrast, a good listener is one who is open, sensitive and receptive. A good listener is eager to learn, ready to grow, anxious to have new seed planted within, and excited about receiving something, even if it does challenge previously held notions and opinions.
Guideline Number 2: Do not be swept away with emotional ecstasy. We often fail to pay attention, to really listen because we are on some mountaintop high on emotions and feelings, either before we come, while we are present, or after we leave. Too many times we listen only with our feelings and emotions. We get inspired not by the content but by the presentation; we are moved not by the Word but by the persuasiveness of the personality through whom the Word comes. Brass bands, grand orchestras, charismatic stars and majestic buildings are fine in their place as tools and agents that enable the hearing of the Word. They are not, however, the Word.
This kind of emotional listening affects what we hear, and generally it is what we want to hear in the first place. For the sports-minded almost every month is a season of emotional listening, especially if it involves your favorite team. Without regard to the facts, one listens to hear the reports that will mean a winning season. Some even rebel against the definitive word of the experts who say that there is no way the team will win, in order to dream glorious dreams of championship trophies. The Living Bible paraphrases Proverbs 18:2 in an unusual way, but it gets to the point: "a rebel doesn't care about the facts; all he wants to do is yell."
Emotional listening is like a seed that finds itself on rocky soil, a bit of top soil where it can sprout quickly. But since there is no root it soon wilts in the midst of the reality of the sun and the heat. In contrast a good listener balances emotions and feelings with a healthy sense of what is required in the real world. To be able to hear the Word with excitement and enthusiasm, but also be able to transplant that sameWord in the world is balanced listening. As we listen, we are stirred, moved, and excited, but we also put down roots and allow the Word to sink in, moving us to action in response to what we have heard.
Guideline Number 3: Do not be distracted by the surroundings. We often fail to hear because there is so much coming at us and there is so much activity swirling around us that it is difficult to sort through the noises, to hear the Word. Distractions divert our attention from what is to be the focus of the moment, and we turn off our hearing to think about what has just happened. We lose our place when a physician's pager sounds, a hymnal is dropped, a door is opened or there is a sudden movement by some person. All of it sidetracks us from the main agenda.
These are not days which are the most conducive in hearing God's Word. There are many competing ideas and rival ways of living vying for our attention and energy. At just the time we have come to perfect an amazing array of communication instruments, there is very little worth saying, and even less worth repeating a second time. In this communication explosion, however, we are faced with a glut of announcements and find ourselves listening to less-than-ultimate kinds of announcements made with great fanfare. As a result we miss, or are too busy, or have no time to listen to the annunciation of good news. It is like seed planted among the thorns and the thorns grow up to choke off the good growth, preventing (or at the very least hindering) the ability to listen.
A good listener, however, is one who is focused, centered and attentive, if only for a brief moment in time. To be able to concentrate when all around us there is chaos and confusion is the art of listening with a deeper sense than with just an ear or two.
There are our guidelines for the art of listening, as suggested by a simple story and that additional sentence from Jesus. Let us put these guidelines into practice for a moment, applying our good listening techniques to this parable/sermon. If we can be, for at least one moment, open, sensitive, receptive, focused and attentive, what will we hear in this story. A farmer scatters a handful of seed, and some falls on the road, other on rocky soil, some among the thorns, and a bit in the good ground. At harvest time, the return on the seed that fell in the good soil is astounding. The rest of the seed had little or no chance.
What's the message? If I'm listening to the same story you are, I hear a single word. In spite of people like me, and like you, the seed of the gospel of Jesus Christ is sown. As a result the reign of God is established, it takes root and grows in this world sometimes in surprising places, where we would least expect it. It starts small, does this gospel, like a seed; but the result is an amazing return at the harvest season. It is a return that is not based on what we do with or to the soil. It is simply an act of God's grace.
Above all this is a story of hope. Even when we come to realize that not all of our efforts are productive, the end result is still astonishing. God's grace: God's active, loving presence makes a significant difference in our lives and in our world when it takes root. Life can indeed be the art of the possible which succeeds in spite of overwhelming odds to the contrary. If we hear it, then we are called to go tell it, to plant more seeds and to scatter our particular brand of hope on a world which has none. Go, scatter some seeds because you have heard the Word.
"Let anyone with ears listen!"
