Common Sense
Isaiah 11:1-10
Matthew 3:1-12
The Reverend Odette Lockwood-Stewart
 

Novelist George Eliot wrote, “If we could heed vision and feeling for all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of the roar which lies on the other side of silence.”

In this age of information technology, overload and crashing systems, we don’t need new information nearly as much as we need wisdom.  
And wisdom comes from listening.

“If we could heed vision and feeling for all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel’s heart beat...”  Sometimes it is possible to be so attuned to the world ... to be so aware... to be so receptive to the words, and movements, and silence presence of mystery and meaning ... that we recognize God’s new creation already present.  Most of the time we are oblivious.

Eliot does not stop with her description of “the roar which lies on the other side of silence.”  She goes on to challenge, “The quickest of us walks around well wadded with stupidity.”  Her graphic image of defenses, distractions, and denial, walking around “well-wadded with stupidity,” conjures images of bodies, minds, and spirits so numbed ... by screens, or sounds, or drink, or food, or “stuff” ... that we cannot hear the sounds and silence of everyday truth, let alone divine promise.

In his new book, Listening is an Act of Love, David Isay tells about the formation of StoryCorps.  He says the four basic ideas of StoryCorps are:  “(1) That our stories – the stories of every day people are as interesting and important as the celebrity stories we’re bombarded with by the media every minute of the day.  (2) That if we take the time to listen, we’ll find wisdom, wonder and poetry in the lives and stories of the people all around us.  (3) That we all want to know our lives have mattered and we won’t ever be forgotten.  (4) And that listening is an act of love.”

With that as his premise, Isay founded StoryCorps in Grand Central Terminal in New York City in 2003. To participate, you simply make an appointment at one of StoryCorps recording booths.  Then you bring someone,... family member, friend, colleague ... it could be anyone, someone whose story you’ve always wondered about.  A trained facilitator takes you into the silent booth – a cozy room – you sit across a table with a microphone in front of each of you...and you begin asking your questions.  At the end of forty minutes, the facilitator gives you a CD and a second copy of the CD becomes part of an archive in the Library of Congress. (some may have heard excerpts on NPR).

To date, he says, 10,000 such stories have been recorded.  That means there are 10,000 people who have been really listened to ... paid attention to ... at least for 40 minutes.  And that means there are 10,000 people who have listened.

What difference would it make to you ... if we all listened...if we all were heard?  What difference would it make in this community? In this world?

In January Epworth’s Stephen Ministry will be offering training for those would be interested in becoming Stephen Ministers ... persons trained and equipped to be listeners ... and to accompany others in one-on-one relationships of Christian care and support through time of crisis, challenge, loss and transition.  John Schweizer and Beverly Dance will lead this training here on Sunday evenings beginning in January.  I hope that you will speak with them about this wonderful lay movement and as an opportunity to grow, serve and experience community in this ministry.

What a difference it already is making in this congregation that these confidential caring relationships have been formed, pains and fears of all kinds have been voiced in safety and heard with care for more than 15 years. Times of discernment and decision have been experienced with a caregiver. What a difference it already is making that those who listen receive care and support and supervision to use their spiritual gifts most effectively.

The name Stephen comes from St. Stephen who was the first lay person sent by the apostles to care for those in need.  (Acts 6) Stephen Ministry is happening in 150 denominations.  It takes place in basements after tornados, in shelters after fires, in rehab centers and hospital room and homes, on walks and in stillness.  It is deep listening in action.

Both of our Scripture texts this morning voice a deep and persistent hope, deeper than what is seen and heard.  Listen to the roar on the other side of silence. Listen to the Yahweh’s promise fulfilled....

Isaiah prophesied a truly new world order.  Isaiah described the coming of a king who would be faithful and just, fulfilling the promises of Yahweh!  Isaiah proclaimed a realm of radical re-alignment in the political world and in all creation.  This new ruler and new reign would be characterized by equity for the vulnerable and justice for the poor ... by the defeat of the wicked.  In this new creation wolves and lambs dwell together... leopards and sheep... predator and prey are companions... lions become vegetarian and eat straw like the oxen that would have been their prey ...And children, young children in the most dangerous locations imaginable... would be safe.  And a child will lead them all.

By the time of Matthew’s Gospel, the followers of Jesus read Isaiah as a prophecy Jesus’ coming and confirmation his authority.
Matthew begins, “In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  Those were days of high expectation born out of desperation from the domination of Roman Empire.  John the Baptist’s voice was crying in the wilderness of many voices – expecting, preparing, proclaiming the coming of the Messiah.  

As Christians, it is important for us to understand the relationship between prophetic expectations and the Christ followers’ belief that Jesus was the one in whom they are fulfilled.  But it is just as important to understand the nature of the new reality the prophet was proclaiming, not just the question of Jesus’ role in it.  

Walter Brueggemann wrote that insofar as Hebrew Prophets have been, and can be drawn upon to illuminate our understanding of Jesus ... “it is a reminder that Jesus cannot be reduced to privatistic salvation or to sacramental operations, but that Jesus was received, celebrated, and eventually crucified precisely for his embodiment and practice of this vision of social possibility ... (He) was not  killed because humanity hated God, but because they hated what God-with-us would do to their social power and privilege.”

Isaiah was calling the people to new life and hope, to hear and remember the promises of Yahweh, the shalom of God.  Isaiah spoke of the experience of predator and prey, oppressed and oppressor, living together in harmony.   The images were not neutral ... they were of the most startling reconciliations imaginable ... Fred Phelps and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence breaking bread together... children running and playing through the halls of Congress.

When domination and injustice are the order of things, hope is a revolutionary act.

In a critique of the security of dominant power, Luise Schottroff writes, “Patriarchal security is characterized as an impenitent refusal to listen.”  It’s a great phrase ... “impenitent refusal to listen.”  It’s like “oblivious and uncaring ... and proud of it.”  

The prophet’s vision of a peaceable realm, where the weak are not taken advantage of ... where the powerless, in fact, are strengthened and the vulnerable are protected ... requires a whole lot of listening to start taking place ... people paying attention to others... hearing and holding each other’s truths with open hearts and kind hands.  One to one.  Nation to nation.

Listening ... and being listened to ... is common sense.  And it may prepare the way for the realm and reign of peace proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah and claimed by Jews and Christians... “(No one) will hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

At the close of the service we will sing the great Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.”  The hymn verse continues ... “O come, O come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel.”  Rabbi Margaret Moers Wenig wrote of this hymn, inviting Christians to think beyond the notion of a one-time ransom of one nation, but rather to come to a recurring experience of redemption through time ... “O come, O come Emmanual and ransom ... restore ... recreate ... not one nation ... but the captivities of our lives, our communities, our world.  Redemption is set loose in the world ... redemption is set loose in our lives ... redemption is at hand.  Amen.