The adventure of listening for God in the midst the sounds of world.
Gospel Reading: Matthew 11:16-19,25-30
For Sunday, July 3, 2011: Year A - Ordinary 14
I am notorious for allowing myself to get distracted by shiny things. Be it some wonderful conversation on twitter or a good mystery I can get unexpectedly drawn into my own world for hours at a time. When there is room in my life to do this, these things can be wonderful. I gain new insights, I disengage from stressful situations and I become more balanced.
Shiny Things
But when there is something that I must focus on, these shiny things are all of a sudden not so good for me. As often as I can experience grace in these clarion calls to engage in something unexpected, I can also be drawn AWAY from projects and people that I need to pay more attention to. I listen, I am drawn in and five hours later—I have moved from a space of unexpected discovery in to blatant irresponsibility. I allow myself to listen to the wrong rhythm and song in my life.
We do the same thing as a people and a society. We lose the ability to listen for where and how God is calling our attention. We develop patterns in our life that create blinders to what we are supposed to be doing in exchange for doing what we WANT to be doing.
God's Song
In this passage the children of the land sing a song that no one understands or hears. The song is not just unfamiliar, but probably uncomfortable. It is easier to listen to the song that pulls us away from hearing the proddings of God. John was a nutcase, the song he was singing certainly can not be of God. We have been singing our song of what we believe God is calling is to be for so long, how could God now sing a different tune?
Not to beat the music metaphor to death, but this constant changing of the song that God sings to us is part of the joy and adventure of being claimed and marked by God. In gratitude for eternal life, we must seek out God’s particular song to God people out of the many tunes that are being played around us, all competing for our attention and focus. Some days a song - be it patriotism, church life, or intimate relationships - may be our entry into a transformative relationship with the holy and on another day, what sounds like the same song may lead us on a path of destruction and despair.
God is not static in our lives or the world, so why would we think that the ways in which God sings to us would be? Part of the challenge of being a person of faith is being able to sit in the midst of a chaotic and noisy world and listen for the centered and harmonic voice of God no matter from where it may originate.
So go and listen to God’s song, it may come from unexpected places.
Bruce is a native Northern Californian and third generation Chinese/Filipino who has been living in San Francisco since 1998. From January 2000-May 2011 he was the founding pastor of Mission Bay Community Church, a church of 20/30-somethings in San Francisco, CA and from 2008-2010 was Moderator of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA). He is currently one of those “consultant” types who makes his way, writing, speaking, teaching and drinking coffee. An avid social networker and blogger, he is committed to expressing a Christian faith that is beautifully complex, unimaginably just and excruciatingly gracious. He usually blogs and tweets on issues of faith, culture, technology, race, politics, parenting and urban living. When he isn’t on Twitter, Facebook or blogging for Patheos, SFGate and The Huffington Post you can usually find him riding his motorcycle, hanging out in a local cafe or chauffeuring his three daughters around beautiful San Francisco.
