Presence As Listening

Well, good morning, church. It's so good to be able to be here today to worship together. 

I want to do what I tend to do on this Sunday every year, and that's to see how good prognosticators we are here at First United Methodist Church. So let me ask you real quick, in regards to tonight's Super Bowl, how many of you all think that the Seahawks are going to win tonight? Raise your hand.Okay. How many think the Patriots are going to win? Raise your hand. Oh. Again, y'all agreed with the 830 service. It's overwhelmingly Patriots. How many are more excited that this week pitchers and catchers report to spring training? So that's me.

As we continue on in our Practicing Presence series, which is our theme for this year as we seek to learn how to practice being in the presence of God and practice being in the presence of one another more fully and deeply and with our community. I want to share a story I read this week. U.S. presidents—regardless of who the president is—oftentimes have to endure long receiving lines at the White House.When they have banquets or dignitaries in, they have to receive them and welcome them into the White House. And oftentimes that means they have to stand there while person after person after person comes by and greets them. And what I read this week was about when Franklin Roosevelt was president, of how he absolutely hated those long receiving lines so much. And he would say on this that the reason he hated it so much is he was convinced.that nobody was listening to him when he would say something to them. Nobody would acknowledge him. They wanted to have the opportunity to meet him. They wanted to have the opportunity to say something to him. Today, we would say they wanted to have a photo op with the president. But nobody wanted to have an authentic interaction with the president. And so he decided...One day, when he had a receiving line, that he had to stand there and greet people, that he was going to mumble to each person that he welcomed and received, "I killed my grandmother this morning." And he said that person after person after person responded to him, "Marvelous. Keep up the good work, Mr. President. We are so proud of you. God bless you, sir." That was until he got to the ambassador of Bolivia, and when he shook the ambassador's hand and said, "I killed my grandmother this morning," the ambassador, without hesitating, leaned into him and said, "I'm sure she had it coming to her, Mr. President." 

I don't know if that story is true. I promise you I read it just as I told it to you today. But I suspect that it very well could be true. It made me think about my life and the times that I've waited in line to meet someone famous. For me, it's mostly athletes. When I then had the opportunity to meet a professional athlete that I admired and I was standing in line waiting to meet them, I found myself practicing and rehearsing and thinking about what I wanted to say to them when I got the opportunity to meet them. And when I got there, I would say what I'd been rehearsing. It would steer the conversation in the direction I wanted to. And in thinking back on those times, when I met these people of status, I really don't remember anything they said to me, but I can remember what I said to them.

It's one thing to think about this from the perspective of meeting a president or dignitary or a famous athlete or whatever. But the bigger problem is that it's a major issue in our world today in all our interactions. We do not listen. I mean, truly listen. And I'll speak for myself because I know me, and what I know is that oftentimes when people come to me, I'm trying to diagnose very quickly what is it they want from me. Are they wanting to complain about something? Are they wanting my advice about something? Are they needing my help with something? I'm trying to figure out what is it that this person before me wants. It's called listening to respond. It's a debate tactic, where you listen long enough to get the gist of what the person's saying, to get a couple of their main points, then you start building your rebuttal against them. You start building your response so when they stop talking, you are ready to respond to what it is they've said to you.  

It's not just in one-on-one conversations, either. This happens all the time in all aspects of our life, and one of the most common ways we see it today is in social media. People see something they disagree with, and they immediately begin trying to prove that I am right and that that person is wrong. Listening to respond is great in debate, but it's harmful in relationships because we don't truly hear what they are saying. We also don't hear beyond the words to the emotion. We don't hear the hurt in the midst of what they're saying, the fear of what they're saying, the hope that they're trying to bring to the conversation. When we're listening to respond, we miss all of the nonverbal cues they're offering us. 

Another thing I struggle with is the noise in my head. I have a little kind of obsessive-compulsive thing that goes on in my mind. My brain starts going and I can't turn it off. And so when I have things to do, oftentimes when I'm not focused on a task, when someone's before me and they're talking and I'm supposed to be listening to them, what I have to fight constantly is my mind going all different directions. Thinking about the things that are yet to be done, the things that I still need to do, the things that have to be accomplished, the people that I have to respond to. And that's especially true when I get home at the end of the day, and at times my family doesn't get the best of me because until I can clear the slate, clear the things that I've got to get done, make sure that I've done my to-dos, responded to the people I need to respond to, finish those things, I can't relax and I can't be fully present.

Now I don't have a whole lot of worry that you as a congregation when I preach are listening to respond to me. I'm not against that; I'm always open to have conversations about my sermons, and if you disagree with something or have a thought about something or want to talk to me about something, I'm always glad to hear from that. But I do have the concern that when I preach...Many in the congregation may be distracted while they're listening to me, thinking about where they're going to go for lunch or what they need to do this afternoon or where's that last word on the word search in the bulletin. And for those who weren't laughing just then, you were probably distracted and not listening.

There's a third way to engage in conversation. It's the helpful way. It's what offers value in our relationships. It's listening to understand. It is the model that helps us strengthen our relationships with God and with one another. It is what communicates value to people in our lives. It's what helps us to understand where a person's coming from beyond the words that they're saying. It's seeking not only to hear what they're saying, but why they are saying it. And it allows us to embrace what they're saying, at times even be sympathetic to what they're saying, regardless of whether we agree with what they're saying.if we can understand why a person is saying what they're saying, then perhaps, just perhaps, we can be more graceful in the midst of it. Can you imagine, church, how our world might be different if instead of trying to prove that I'm right and you're wrong, that we tried to gain understanding? That we try to listen, hear their perspective, at least try to understand why they see things the way they do, even if we don't agree with them?

In our text for today, we see the epistle written by James. James is largely considered to be the brother of Jesus, and he's writing his epistle to Jewish Christians today.in this newly formed church who have experiencing this new thing that God is doing. But you need to understand about who James is writing to, is that these Jewish Christians were born into the faith. The faith has been a part of who they were. They followed the law of Moses their entire life. They know God, who God is, the nature and character of God. They've lived with it all their life, and now they've been exposed to Jesus. And they believe him to be the promised Messiah of God, come to be with them so they can understand who God is even better. But as the church, and I'll call it the church as was then forming, had become a place for people of all ages, nations, and races...the Jewish Christians still felt an air of superiority. There was an arrogance in them.. They were more knowledgeable about who God is. And so they felt like that gave them a greater leverage, a higher status, more value within the church.  And it's to these Jewish Christians that James was speaking.

And listen to what he said: "Let everyone be quick to listen and slow to speak, slow to anger, because your anger does not produce God's righteousness." Do you hear this? Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, because anger does not produce God's righteousness. The church today, that's us, and all of our sisters and brothers around the world, all who follow Jesus, those of us who call ourselves the church would be the equivalent today of the Jewish Christians that James was speaking to. So James would be talking to you and me today where he's writing, Church, be quick to listen. Slow to speak. Slow to anger. For your anger does not produce the righteousness of God.

Do you think that the reason we're so angry as a society is because we are not being slow to speak? Because we're not being quick to listen? Because in speaking, we obviously think we're right and they're wrong, whoever they are, which makes us quick to anger. And what we know happens is it creates division in our world that prevents us from being the body of Christ that the world needs. When we're divided, when we stay on separate pages, then the power of God is divided in the world and we're not able to manifest and maximize the power of the church in the world. So James is trying to help the Jewish Christians...perhaps even the church today, to understand the power of listening to understand. But he doesn't stop there. And he continues to step on their/our toes. Because the second thing he says is that we need to be hearers of the word. The Word is Jesus. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We need to be hearers of the Word, but we also need to be doers of the Word as well. Because if you are simply hearers of the Word, then you are deceiving yourself.

Let me put it in a different way. I remember vividly when I was a kid, probably a teenager based on what I know about teenagers now, when my mom would say to me, "Son, I need you to take out the garbage." And then an hour later, she would say, "Ryan, I need you to take out the garbage." And then an hour later, she would say, "Son, I need you to take out the garbage." To which I would respond, "Mom, I heard you the first time!" To which she would say, "Then why hasn't the garbage been taken out?" I may have heard her with my ears, but it hadn't sunk in to the practice of my life.

How many of us are hearers of the word but not doers of the word? The way we show that we have heard what Jesus calls us to do is ultimately to do it. I think it's a major problem of us Christians to know what Jesus tells us to do and to tell others what Jesus tells them to do when it benefits us. But we don't do the things that Jesus calls us to do near enough.

What James is challenging the followers of Jesus to do in his epistle is the same thing that non-Christians challenge the church to do regularly: Practice what you preach. Show the world with our lives, because our words don't matter anymore.We need to be quick to listen to the teachings of Christ. Slow to speak about how it applies to others' lives, but instead look at living it out in our own lives better. And it starts, James says, by being slow to anger. That's what practicing presence is. Quick to listen, slow to speak, Not arrogant. Slow to anger. Hearers of the word and doers of the word. Practicing presence. After all, that old campfire song that we're going to sing later on rings true still today: They'll know we are Christians not by our ability to condemn the world, but by our love. Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love.

Thanks be to God. Amen.