To Speak? Or To Listen?

Yesterday I wrote about those who are so willing to speak.  Making so much  noise that it is difficult to silence it.  

Job longed for his unhelpful friend to shut up so he could think.  

⁴ As for you, you whitewash with lies;

   all of you are worthless physicians. 

⁵ If you would only keep silent,

   that would be your wisdom! 

⁶ Hear now my reasoning,

   and listen to the pleadings of my lips..(Job 13)

However his friends didn’t listen to his plea. They just kept repeating platitudes from the past; believing they were being helpful.  And, right/correct by the way.

Isn’t it interesting that people don’t realize that their constant speaking doesn’t allow others to have a voice?  I am thinking their assumption is that what they have to say is so interesting, or so right, that others don’t need to speak.

That kind of assumption is the tug that has yanked my chain for years.

There is a cherished truths in my life.  Silence.  

In silence I become open to listening.  To being willing to hear what needs to be heard. It took me years to find this truth. When we are continually talking we limit our ability to learn something new.  

One of the things I have realized, about myself in these past years, is that I am more interested in asking the questions; then having the answers. 

It is a great place to live. There is a freedom in not having to know it all — or even know a little — or pretend to know. 

This is most especially true when it come to God.  

By asking questions I have reversed the direction of  conversation.   And it feels great.  

I learned this gift from Jesus.  

Though the years, as I read, and reread the Gospels, I noticed that most of the time Jesus answered a question, asked of  him, not with an answer but with another question.

One example I can think of, off the top of my mind, is when the arrogant Lawyer stood up, to test Jesus by, asking: “Teacher, what must I do to inherited eternal life?”  And Jesus asked him two questions back:  “What is written in the law?”  “What do you read there?”(Lk. 10:25-26)

Or when:

Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, ²‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands before they eat.’ ³He answered them, ‘And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? (Mt.15)

Or when:

³³The disciples said to him, ‘Where are we to get enough bread in the desert to feed so great a crowd?’ ³⁴Jesus asked them, ‘How many loaves have you?’ (Mt. 15)

What I am thinking is that Jesus continually invites his followers to find their own answers; by reviewing their own behavior, attitudes and habits.  

He lets us wrestle with our own stuff.  Asking us to focus on ourselves when it comes to our egos and pride, our greed and needs.

People of Jesus’ day were so use to the religious leaders telling them. That they became unable to think for themselves.  

Like Job’s three friends. Repeating only what they had been told; rather than figuring things out with their God given brains.

I don't know.  What do your think?

Do We Speak About What We Know? Or What We Have Been Taught?

I am thinking this morning about the Book of Job.  In particular I am thinking of Job’s three unhelpful ‘friends.’

Through the years, even before I went into the seminary, I have had this tug. I am not sure how to describe it.  But is about people who talk without saying anything essential.  People who talk about God without any actual relevance.  And yet they speak with such authority.

Do you know what I mean?

I was reminded of this tug as I was rereading the Book of Job.  He had three friends who grieved with him after God allowed Satan to have his way with Job. At first Job and his friends could only sit silently in disbelief together.

Unfortunately, after a time, Job's friends began to speak for God.  All they really knew, for sure, was that they could not understand Job’s suffering. However  they didn't leave it there. They began to spout their learned religious myths; and arguments based on ancient beliefs. 

The problem is Job's friends claim to know what is unknowable.  They even admit their ignorance by quoting scripture after scripture to prove their point.  A common mistake in today's world as well. (Read it for yourself in chapters 11-20 of Job)

Instead of comforting Job, by being his strength, they began to claim that the only logical thing, they could come up with, was that Job must have done something to displease God.  Nothing else made any sense.  Their simplistic logic just assumed that God was punishing Job for what he did.  And their religious traditions would actually back them up.

This way of thinking is not uncommon even in todays world.  I have heard many time: “What have I done for God to let this happen to me.”  Or, “I must have done something really bad.”

However, Job knew better!

I love Job's comment, to all of their claim to wisdom (Chapter 13).

"‘Look, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it. ² What you know, I also know;  I am not inferior to you. ³ But I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue my case with God. ⁴ As for you, you whitewash with lies;  all of you are worthless physicians.  ⁵ If you would only keep silent,  that would be your wisdom!  ⁶ Hear now my reasoning,...

I am thinking that this kind of speaking/talking is a key problem — a difficulty that needs to be resolved — but is not logically apparent. So then our human mind falls back on myths, and learned beliefs, uninformed information drawn from tradition that should have been corrected long ago.

Jesus did attempt to correct this.

I truly appreciate the dialogue between God and Job -- see Chapters 38-42. Ending with these words from Job:

² ‘I know that you can do all things,

   and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 

³ “Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?”

Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,

   things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 

⁴ “Hear, and I will speak;

   I will question you, and you declare to me.” 

⁵ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,

   but now my eye sees you; 

⁶ therefore I despise myself,

   and repent in dust and ashes.’  

The conversation that God has, with the three friends, helps me with the tug I have lived with since early on in my life: 

7 After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite: ‘My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends;….my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has done.’ (Job 42)  

As I read these words again I had to inwardly smile.  

God’s words, to Job’s three friends, speak to my often felt feelings, when listening to those who presume to define God in their own limited language.  

When people begin to tell me, or others, that they know the mind and will of God; I often am tempted to ask -- and sometimes have: “How do you know?  Or, "Did you see God face to face?”

What the human mind has tattooed onto God’s will, and character, is actually quite intriguing. And, in my opinion, quite incorrect.  

Think about it!  

             
                         To be continued

What Do We Actually Celebrate?

Today is Memorial Day.  

Yesterday as I left Iowa, and drove north toward Wisconsin, I saw American flags lining every street in town. On every single street flags had been planted in the corner of every yard.  Not just little flags, but regular size flags.

Now I grew up in a very patriotic culture. I wasn't even allowed to breath when the National Anthem was played.  World War Two was not too distant in the memory of America people’s minds. Theirs hearts were truly grateful for what those, who served in the armed forces, did to defend the rights of freedom. And the ones who couldn’t join the action, who stay home, did their part to help a nation without a the majority of its young men and women. 

It was a shared experience for all involved.   They all knew what it honestly meant for a nation to "be great."

It made me wonder, as I drove away, what the generations, that have come since, are actually celebrating on this national holiday.

So being me, I began to compare this holiday with another huge celebration, Easter.  A holiday, by the way, celebrated all over the world, not just in America.   

I thought about how it was for Jesus followers, who walked and talked, listened and experienced how it really was to know Jesus first hand.  How it must have been, on that awful Friday, for them — so lost, so full of grief and disbelief.  And yes, disappointment -- they believed Jesus was indestructible.

That event rendered, Jesus’ closest followers, defenseless and completely disoriented. They didn’t know what to do. So they did what they knew best.  They went fishing.  

We can only, just begin to, imagine their joy when Jesus came and met them on the beach.  They witnessed first hand the awe and joy of the biggest event in history; and most certainly their otherwise ordinary lives.  

They experienced what we today can only read about to know. 

I am quite aware how people today celebrate the Easter event.

However, I was born just four years after the end of WWII.  I came into life in the midst of that huge feeling of pride. 

But now this day comes and goes, in my life, without much if any notice.  Even when I was in full-time ministry the only true reason I gave thought to it was because I was expected to give it attention for the sake of the veterans in the congregation.

So my question today is: 

What, how and why do we celebrate something that occurred seventy-five years ago?