From the Pulpit:

    Ann Brotherton, Assistant Rector

It’s Important It  To Be Heard!

You don’t often hear sermons about the Psalm for the day – but you will today.

Margaret spoke about praying the Psalms in her sermon two weeks ago as they do throughout the day in worship in monastic life.  Because the entire Psalter is repeated on a weekly basis Psalms are often enviably committed to memory.  On the same Sunday, in Christian Formation, we heard Chris Webb speak brilliantly of how the Psalms express every human emotion and could and should be utilized in prayer by those who are angry, sad, happy, mad, hurt or grieving.  The Psalms speak to me and Psalm 116 is no exception.

It begins - “I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my supplications.”  When I first read these words I found myself strangely put off, troubled.  I was troubled because it sounded so self-centered, so ego-centric.  It is true that we are each the center of our own universe most of the time, but there was more to it than that.  It is important to spend some time considering just how important it is for each of us to be heard by God and one another.  Those who have completed Community of Hope training are very familiar with the practice and importance of active listening – not just listening, but really listening with undivided attention and the ears of the heart.  As a young clinical casework assistant, I worked with a Social Worker who was keen on pointing out to me those moments when I wasn’t really listening.  You have experienced it – you’re speaking with someone and they are looking over your shoulder at someone else in the room with whom they want to converse, or your mind wanders and you are the one who isn’t really listening.  My friend said he could tell by the look in my eyes and he called me on it.  After awhile he only had to say “You’re doing it again.”

As a nurse, I have had the joy of being present at a number of births and, without exception, have been moved to tears by the miracle of it all.  We have been blessed to have new babies born and baptized into our community this year, so the miracle is fresh in our minds.  One of the most holy moments of this experience is when the newborn is finally all cleaned up, weighed, measured, wrapped, capped, and placed in the arms of one of the parents.  Hopefully the child has cried vigorously upon entering this bright, cold, foreign world, but is now snug and warm.  That moment when parent and child make eye contact and the parents murmurs words of welcome – that moment is holy!  They see one another for the first time, both rest and are at peace, and the baby hears for the first time the clear voice of the parent that had previously been muffled in the watery womb.  I wonder if we all won’t have such a moment when we make the transition from this life to the next and see the face of God clearly for the first time.  Margaret speaks in funeral homilies of death actually being a birth into a new life.  What if this life is simply a time of growth – soul development that prepares us for the next life? 

A baby is born crying, is heard and cared for by the parent for the first time.  This is only the first of thousands of times that the voice of the infant will be heard and it’s needs met by the parents – at all hours of the day and night!  In that process, the infant learns to trust:  when I cry, my parents will feed, change, comfort, and interact with me.  We know this process continues into childhood, as the adults in a child’s life care for and listen to that child.  We also know that many infants are born into this world without being wanted, with parents who don’t treasure them, parents who are absent either physically or emotionally.  There are children who grow up with no one at home for them at all, much less with someone to hear the sounds of their voice.  Having worked with some of these children as both social worker and nurse, I know they are at risk for failure to thrive, developmental delays and detachment disorders and sociopathic behavior that may haunt them and our society throughout their entire lives.  A whole generation of children in Africa currently faces the prospect of having no one to care for them or hear them because of HIV/Aids.

As we get a little older we learn the joys of relationships outside the home – of friendships.  You have heard me say before that “God cares for us so well through the people placed in our lives – especially our friends.”  And what do good friends do for us?  They listen to us!  Friends hear our voice and often help us to discover our own voice in the process.  Sometimes they help us remember our own song when we tend to forget the words.  They want to be with us, and we with them.  Friendships are relationships that are built as we hear one another.  We can be separated for months or years, but when special friends get together the conversation picks up right where it left off – as though we had never been apart.  Friendships are a great gift, yet there are many lonely souls among us who do not share in this gift for a variety of reasons.

And then we have the experience of falling in love, and a most special friendship begins.  Do you remember walking and talking for hours on end – realizing with amazement that someone else wants to hear your every word?  Do you remember the joyous awareness that this person loves you warts and all?!?!  Do you remember the day you both realized you might want to spend all your days together?  How is it that two become one?  In part, this happens as we hear one another, listen and respond to the needs of the other.  In a long marriage this falling in love happens time and time again, as we grow and change and become the person God would have us to be individually and together.  A hard lesson to learn in marriage is that sometimes the other person ONLY wants to be heard.  We don’t want any advice, or for the listener to fix things for us.  We simply need for someone else to listen.  Our need is to be heard.  The sad reality of our world is that some people look all their lives for these relationships and never find them.

Okay, I understand that it is vitally important for us to be heard by one another.  Because we are created in the image of God, does it not follow that this is true of our relationship with God?  How can this be?  Is it really possible that the great God of the universe can listen to each one of us and desires to be heard by us?  This is almost too good to be true!  You will know I am old, when I tell you that I grew up in the time of such songs as “The Little Blue Man” and “Purple People Eater.”  For a while, as a child, I had this strange vision of a God with a huge head and millions of ears in order to be able to hear the prayers of everyone.  Fortunately, my concept of God has grown and changed over the years.  I still don’t have all the answers, and certainly don’t claim to understand fully how it is that God hears each of us, and yet I sense it’s true.  It must have something to do with the gift and power of Holy Spirit – that breathe of God that lives within each of us – the gift Christ left to us and to the church, that somehow makes us one with God and each other.  We are all subject to doubts and fears, and ‘dark nights of the soul’ when God seems distant.  But on our better days we know that God does, indeed, continue to hear us and our prayers.  And every once in awhile, sometimes in words spoken by one another, the sound of the wind or purring of a kitten, we know we hear the voice of God.

The Psalms presents a model of faith for us.  In the book of Psalms the faithful are not always prosperous, healthy, or secure.  They are not always content and do not always celebrate the status quo.  Those who speak with complete candor in the presence of God, those who articulate their doubts and their pain as well as their trust in God are all included among the faithful in the Psalms.  The very act of putting anger, impatience and frustration into words often enables the speaker in the Psalms to come to a renewed sense of assurance in God’s continuing care.  The confessional stance of the psalmist – their willingness to articulate feelings of anger and pain as well as joy in the presence of God – their refusal to submit passively to oppressive circumstances, and their confidence in God’s concern for their needs has significantly shaped our theology, and our lives.

Our Jewish brothers and sisters in Jesus day made use of this particular psalm when coming to the temple to give ritual thanks for healing.  For centuries this psalm has been recited after the Passover meal in remembrance of what God has done for God’s people.  What do we do with psalms of praise today?  Surely not enough! We as Christians need to spend more time in individual and collective thanksgiving.  The last few years during our stewardship campaign, folks at St. Alban’s have been sharing their stories of blessing and abundance.  Those words, both spoken and written, have delighted us all and caused me to give thanks and praise to God throughout the week for that person and God’s presence and action in our lives.  The former Bishop of Alaska tells of a tiny village church, transformed one long, dark, cold, depressing winter, when they began meeting on Sunday evenings to share out loud where they had seen God at work in their lives that week.  Not only was their church transformed, but their community and their Diocese as well.  Oprah Winfrey urges listeners to keep a gratitude journal.  It seemed a bit trite, but I tried it.  For me and for many others the results were amazing.  Gratitude and praise are powerful tools that not only enhance our relationship with God, but lift our spirits and allow us to dream new dreams as well. 

What new dreams are yours for the year ahead?  Perhaps it’s the dream of developing a special relationship with a 1^st grader at Menchaca Elementary School.  Perhaps it’s the dream of a new relationship with scripture as you engage in one of our many Christian Formation offerings this year.  Perhaps it’s the dream of helping a prison inmate to read for the first time.  Perhaps it’s further education to enable you to serve God in the world more effectively in your professional life.  Perhaps it’s the dream of helping everyone who darkens this door to feel treasured and welcome.  As you come to the Parish Life Center after church today, let your heart be open to exploring new possibilities and dreams.  Remember that as we praise God, even in difficult and challenging days, we realize what has been done for us and for God’s people throughout history, and a new vision of God’s Kingdom here on earth can be born in our midst.  In as many ways as there are individuals present here, we have each heard the voice of God calling to us.  We are in this place today to worship a God who not only calls, but hears us.  Mysteriously, as we are heard we begin to hear the voices of one another and the world around us calling out.

- Is it really possible that this could be a world where all children are treasured, have someone to care for them, enough to eat, a warm, safe place to live, good educations and adequate health care?
- Is it really possible that the lonely and friendless among us might find a friend who will listen, support and encourage them?
- Is it really possible to envision a world where all voices are heard and respected, even the voices of women, the poor and marginalized, the mentally ill, those languishing in prisons, the battered and abused?  Is it really possible?

02/13/2010