Friday, May 25, 2012

Listen and then Speak


more thoughts on Pentecost
I found this quotation in a sermon preached in 2001:  A wise Presbyterian, the late Hugh T. Kerr, once said, "Our failure to communicate is not a failure of technique but will. We don’t want to communicate. We’d rather shout one another down."
That is true of some political speech and some religious speech.  But it is not just shouting that causes the failure.  How often have you heard the first three or four words your spouse, friend, neighbor … whoever it was … said and you are already forming the sentence you are going to start once they pause for breath?  You will not shout at them, but you are probably not going to communicate with them.  Or, what you communicate is – here is what I wish to say whether it fits what you said or not.
So, unless the Spirit does send us out into the street with a specific message (and if that happens to you, email or reply to me so we can converse about how you knew it was the Spirit and not an evil demon) I suggest that as those who have been given the Spirit the best way to speak so that others will hear/listen/understand us is to begin by listening to what they are saying.  Faith only “speaks” to people in specific ways.  I have not found  statements such as  “Jesus is the answer” or “Let go and let God”  are not helpful until we know the question and what Jesus might have said or done that would be an answer, or until we can discern what it is that is being grasped so firmly that it is harmful to our lives.
Peter Gomes once remarked that Pentecost is not only about the gift of speech but also about the gift of understanding. 
Try reversing  the usual order.  Listen and make sure you understand before you speak.  That may make the Spirit more likely to fill you and use you.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Do you believe what you hear?


“Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see.”  That line from Ben Franklin, reiterated by Bruce Springsteen,  gives me pause as we approach Pentecost Sunday.  Pentecost is all about hearing.    We who say that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us are linked to the power of speech in deep and abiding ways.  If the church cannot talk, or if its words cannot be believed or trusted it is hard for us to be about the practice of Christianity.
Franklin’s words are timely as we are caught up in the election season –  what seems to me to be a perpetual election season.
The Pentecost story  Acts 2:1-21     is the account of the disciples suddenly speaking in tongues.  The tongues are not the excited and almost incomprehensible speech often described as speaking in tongues.  These tongues are languages, the languages of the people gathered in Jerusalem.  The disciples have the gift of speaking multiple languages.  They can be understood.  It is that capacity to be understood that has intrigued me this year.  The disciples have the gift of speech.  The crowd has the gift of understanding.   
I am still working on how to preach and understand this passage, and will be happy for whatever thoughts and insights people wish to share, but one or two questions interest me at the moment: 
Language is used to shape reality.  “Talking points” are the subject of thought and research.  Folks use them to influence, shape, convert others.  That of course is one of the “jobs” the believers had.  I confess that I am always skeptical when someone who clearly wishes to tell me what to think/how to act begins using words to control my mind.  Is it possible to speak to others in ways that “communicate” or allow us to be understood but leave the listener with room to engage and grow rather than either to immediately  give assent or immediately start to argue?  
As a person committed to dialogue, am I foolish to expect to be able to have conversations that involve sharing among different people?  Are we simply supposed to convince folks that we are correct and call on them to change?
Peter and the others speak boldly and they are heard.  Perhaps I have been wrong in considering the art of listening to be the first step.  I find it easiest to speak directly to people when I have heard them.  I feel the most open to learn and change when others have listened to me first.     More later.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Body of Christ

I read a remarkable letter to the editor this morning. The writer was very very very unhappy about this cartoon
Here is the lesson in theology that corrects the mistaken idea behind the cartoon I understand that political cartoons are supposed to be satire, but in order to be intellectually honest, this satire should at least be based in some semblance of truth. The implication of the April 30 anti-Catholic cartoon is that because Jesus did not "speak out" against homosexual acts, the pope is wrong in doing so. This misrepresentation of Christian dogma is easy to make outside the context of church history and teaching. Jesus founded a church, and he built this church on Peter, who was the first pope (Matthew 16:18-19). In that gospel passage, he tells Peter, "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven," and also "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." Paul later wrote in 1 Timothy 3:15 that this church is "the pillar and authority of the truth." Pope Benedict shares in the apostolic succession from St. Peter. Also, scripture says that not everything Jesus taught was written down (John 21:25). In other words, that Jesus was not specifically quoted condemning homosexual acts does not mean that his legitimate Christian church on earth cannot do so. The church is Jesus Christ Wow The church is Jesus Christ! 3 thoughts from me: First, I do not have to spend any time developing a reductio. The last sentence itself does that for me. Second, when Paul says that the church is the body of Christ, he did not mean that literally. Third, if you wish to find a church that practices humility – give us a try.. We know the difference between Jesus and we who haltingly try to practice discipleship.