Listening is Preferred
I enjoy watching the Cincinnati Reds. I grew up in the 70’s during the days of the Big Red Machine, with names like Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench and Ken Griffey defining my beloved baseball team. I’ve been a fan ever since. Few things are as relaxing to me as sitting at a ball game eating a hotdog or some other concession food.
Recently, while in Indiana to see my mother and help my son, I was waffling between driving home one evening or waiting till the next morning. One thought crossed my mind: I could stay and cozy down in bed to watch the Reds on my computer. Or I could drive home, listening to the game on the car radio. Faced with this choice, I realized how much I enjoy listening to baseball and chose the latter. I grew up listening to the Reds’ games. My dad had a transistor radio (does that date me?), and many nights I would sneak the radio into bed listening to baseball through the earpiece. Listening enlivens the imagination. In today’s culture, we tend to be more visual, but listening is my preferred way to take in a baseball game. And listening, at least listening well, might be a lost art.
Listening. I recall Eugene Peterson telling his congregation on occasional Sunday mornings to put their Bibles down and listen. What pastor does that? He wanted them instead, to simply listen to the reading of Scripture. Scripture, as we may know, was passed down orally. The Apostle Paul wrote letters that were read to the various congregations. One letter. One individual reading. People listening, imagining and digesting the words.
In Revelation, the disciple of love known as John repeatedly hears. Chapter 1, verse 10: On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet…. Two verses later, John turned around to see the voice that was speaking to him. How does one see a voice speaking? In chapter 4, John sees a door and then the same voice again speaking. Later, he looks only to hear the voice of many angels. Toward the end of this great apocalypse, John again hears a loud voice coming from the throne, a voice that informs the disciple of what is happening behind the scenes: I am making all things new! Over and over we read how John heard.
Borrowing from Pastor Darrell Johnson, listening is the preferred and primary method of discipleship. God speaks. We listen. We are listening…all the time, but to which voice? The competition is fierce. Advertisements are speaking to us. Culture speaks. The Accuser speaks his lies into our ears and hearts. People speak to us. But one Voice is speaking, has spoken and continues to speak that offers true life, that grounds us. He is in the middle of it all. John saw one like the son of man standing in the middle of the seven lampstands, which represent the churches. John fell at his feet. Then the “man” spoke to John: “Fear not. It starts with me, and it ends with me. I hold the keys to it all.”
What does it look like to put ourselves in a position to hear this Voice? The book of Revelation is entitled the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The book is about a Person. It calls us to hear the Person, see the Person, the One who is in the middle of it all. He is not looking down from above. He is not outside looking in. He is in the middle because He is central. We make sense of it all only as we listen and look for Him. We must hear his voice, hear what John and the other writers of Scripture are saying about Him, what He himself is saying so that we can make sense of the chaos and remain grounded amidst the fear elicited by the other voices all around. Lord God, open our ears to hear. Teach us to listen well and to listen and know your voice.
Kent