The Art of Listening

“Can you hear me now? How about now? What about now?” How many of us have gone through this same comical scenario trying to get a cell signal in hard to reach places? Communication is important to us. We like to get our ideas and thoughts across to others. But what about when others try to communicate with us? (ring ring… Excuse me for just a minute. Answer phone… Hello? Hi Mom, I really can’t talk right….uh huh…uh huh…um…I really have to go….uh huh… hold phone away from ear…) Have you ever been in the middle of an in-depth conversation with someone when your cell phone rings? You decide you have to answer it … after all it might be some catastrophe just waiting for you to come to the rescue. Someone might be sick or hurt or something and you have to be prepared to take immediate action. (uh huh…yes, I really have to go now, Mom. I love you. Bye now. Hangs up.) Being interrupted can be very annoying, especially when it’s the other person that answers the cell and you’re the one having to wait to carry on the conversation. Or have you been talking to someone on the phone, telling the other person some detailed occurrence in your life to have them respond “Uh huh” and not really be listening to you? Many times you can hear the “detachment” in their voice or hear the clicking of computer keys in the background. I have a tendency of throwing in something outrageous every now and then just to see if they are listening. “and after Trevor let the skunks out of the downspout, ….” Or something similar. Sometimes, they don’t even notice, but continue their thoughtless responses and clicking. Do you ever just yearn for someone to truly listen to you without interruptions or a thousand other things going on? Have you ever wanted to have someone’s full attention? Well, today, we are going to talk about some important ways to … and NOT to listen.
In the Gospel lesson from Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, Jesus spends quite a bit of time talking about listening and hearing. Here’s a hint. When Jesus says, “Behold” as it is translated sometimes, or “Listen” as it sometimes translated, we need to perk our ears up and listen. What he’s about to say has eternal significance. In this passage, Jesus begins by saying, “Listen” (NRSV). This begins a section of 7 parables in which Jesus will explain several key things about the kingdom of God, and he begins by getting their attention. He later repeats, “Let anyone with ears listen!” This is remarkably like the words he says in his letters to the churches in the book of the Revelation of John: “Let anyone who has ears hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” In other words, these words are for anyone who will listen and learn from them. Here in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus begins his lesson by saying, “Listen.” Or perhaps we would say, “Pay attention!” The parable of the sower and the seeds has a lot to do with listening. In it, Jesus describes 4 kinds of listeners or “hearers.” Listen! Pay Attention! And see what kind of listener you are.
1. The seeds that fell on the path got trampled on and lost in the busy-ness of life. If you read your emails more than the Bible, you could be this type of listener.

2. The seeds that fell on rocky ground was received joyfully, but did not grow for long before it started to wither and die. Jesus tells us that this kind of listener hears and receives the Word of God joyfully, but doesn’t take it in and let it root. The rocks (stumbling blocks) are too big, and the listener stumbles over them, falling prey to everything that comes along. This type of listener cares as much for the latest religious fad as for the Bible, and is the politically correct person, the one who tries to fit in at the cost his own soul. This person doesn’t want to offend anyone, and so stumbles over any new idea or stone, just trying to be accepting of everyone and everything. This person receives the Word joyfully, but does not continue to grow in the Word. If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, this person is a walking time-bomb, ready to trip and explode over even the smallest amount of opposition. If you are easily set off by those who disagree with your points of view, or if you are afraid to offend anyone, you are like the stony or rocky ground.
3. The third set of seeds that fell in among the thorns. The thorns grew up around the seed and choked the life out of the little plant. Jesus explains that those who care more for their wealth than for the Word of God are like those thorns. They become so pre-occupied with their position in life, their job, and their accumulation of wealth that they don’t really realize that they are not focusing on God and God’s Word, but on the material possessions they have. The more they have, the more they focus on what they have. The more they earn, the more they spend and try to save for retirement, not understanding that working too hard is so unhealthy that they may not live to enjoy all that they have hoarded. If you check the financial section of the newspaper more often than you read your Bible, you may be one of these thorny listeners.

4. Jesus saves the best for last. He explains that the seed that falls on good soil is planted, cultivated, and allowed to grow. These are the listeners who hear and put to good use the words they hear. The apostle James describes these listeners as “doers, and not hearers only” – those listeners who allow the Word to become “implanted” in their lives, to become part of who they are and who allow God’s Word and God’s Spirit to change them into the person God created them to be. These listeners hear and act. They give their undivided attention to the Word of God and to the Spirit of God as He grows them into the likeness of Christ. If you spend time in God’s Word daily, concentrate on what you read, and spend time in prayer, and then go out and put those words into practice in your life, you are good soil. You yield fruit, sometimes a lot, and sometimes only a little, but you are always productive and working for the Lord. You are a prime example of the kind of person the Apostle Paul talks about in the Romans passage that was read earlier. You are “in Christ” and you live and walk according to the Spirit of God who lives in you. It is this Spirit who raised Christ from the dead, says Paul, that will give you the strength to live this Christian life – to go on to Christian Perfection, as John Wesley would put it. Are you going on to Christian Perfection? If you answer yes, and mean it, you are the kind of soil that Jesus calls Good Soil.

So what kind of soil are you? Are you a path filled with busy-ness and schedules, email, work and constant interruptions with no time for reading God’s Word or for praying? Or are you a stony path, filled with stumbling blocks and the latest religious fads which take your focus off of God’s Word? Or maybe you’re the thorns, more concerned with your financial position than with your spiritual condition. Or are you the good soil, ready to grow into the character of Christ, eager to absorb and learn from God’s Word, and ready to share Christ’s love with the world? Jesus wants your full attention. He won’t settle for less than that. He wants to spend time with you – in uninterrupted communion with you. He wants all of you. So, What kind of soil are you?