DATE: January 27, 2013
SCRIPTURE: Psalm 19:1-2; 7-14 and Luke 4:14-21
© Rev. Alison J. Buttrick Patton
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.”
— Psalm 19:14
How do we know what God wants? Or even if God has an opinion, on any given day? How do we discern God’s desire for us, in a world of competing claims? Does God ever speak directly, or send signs for us to decode? If we listen hard enough, can we get a direct answer to a direct question: “Should I choose red or green? Turn left or right? Go to law school or art school… Later? Or now?”
There are those who will testify that they’ve received clear answers – like a telegraph dropped out of the sky, wisdom in the form of an actual billboard on the expressway – and others who will insist that discerning God’s will is like reading tea leaves… imprecise and fraught with bias. I suspect the truth is somewhere in between, but I do believe God speaks – in subtle and not so subtle ways, and I know folks who have refined the art of listening, of recognizing the movement of God in our lives.
Dr. Dow Edgerton, my preaching professor at Chicago Theological Seminary, and later my boss, has a gift for perceiving the holy in the everyday. I remember one afternoon when he burst into my office, a boom box in hand (that’s like a really big iPod, for those of you who are under 40), urged us to gather around and pressed the play button. The room filled with the soaring voices of four women, members of the close-harmony vocal quartet Anonymous Four. “Don’t they sound like angels?” He asked. And they did: angels intervening in an otherwise ordinary work day.
Dr. Edgerton delights in music like that …and poetry, the play of raindrops on Lake Michigan and the crunch of peanuts mixed with lime … And in all those things, even when he doesn’t say so, you suspect that he has perceived something holy, something of God. It makes you catch your breath, lean in and listen the more intently, so that you might hear God, too. That is the beginning of the gift of discernment: To recognizeGod in all creation. In the words of the Psalmist, “Listen! ‘The heavens are telling your glory, O God; and the firmament proclaims your handiwork.’”
It may be easiest to discern the ‘handiwork’ of God in the beauty of a song or the wonders of nature. But what about in our own lives? What happens when we have to make a difficult decision, navigate a thorny relationship or take a first step into uncharted territory?
Then, I suspect, it can be harder to hear God’s voice. For starters, we can run into a whole lot of static: the dog wants to go out (or come back in); the phone is ringing and that deadline is looming. There’s dinner to cook, or homework to finish or bills to pay and who has time to think, much less listen for the voice of God? There’s also the static in our own heads: the voices of fear or doubt or other people’s expectations that get all muddled up until it’s hard to know which voice to trust.
It may also be hard to discern God’s voice for the simple fact that we forget to ask. Parker Palmer, a writer, teacher and member of the Society of Friends (also known as the Quakers), describes this forgetting as a kind of “practical atheism:” our daily, operating assumption that we’ve got to figure out our own problems, achieve our own goals, and single-handedly muster all the resources we need to get by.1 We forget that we don’t actually have to sort it all out ourselves; that we can rely on God; that God may even surprise us with gifts and guidance we never could have conjured on our own.
Even Jesus depended on the Spirit of God2 from the very first: The angel Gabriel said to Mary: You will conceive by the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit that descended on
Jesus in the Jordan River, on the day he was baptized, and that same Spirit that propelled Jesus into the wilderness. For 40 days, Jesus grappled with hunger and thirst and the devil’s temptations. After all that, when Jesus returned to his own home town and walked into the synagogue, sunburned and foot-weary, he took up a scroll from the prophet Isaiah. The first line of holy scripture that he uttered, the words with which he launched his ministry, according to the Gospel of Luke, were these: “The Spirit of the Lord us upon me…”
Some of his friends and neighbors may have thought he was putting on airs. “Look at me. I am God’s chosen, the messiah, and I will do great things.” But when I read this episode in the context of what’s come before, I hear in Jesus’ rendering of holy scripture the strains of profound humility, the voice of one who knows what it means to be utterly dependent on God.
It’s as if he said, “The Spirit of the Lord has a hold on me. I made it through the wilderness, not by my own wisdom or resources, but by the guidance of that Spirit. And by that same Spirit I am now anointed, called and compelled: ‘To preach good news to the poor… to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’”
It was God’s Spirit that lent focus and direction to Jesus’ life and mission, God’s Spirit, at work in him all the days of his life. And after he died… Do you know the rest of the story? On Pentecost: how tongues of flame descended on the disciples, so that they were all ‘filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2)? Thatday marked the birth of the Church, the day that God’s mission spread like holy wildfire through the crowds. Before there were boards or committees, clergy or deacons, budgets or annual meetings, there was the Holy Spirit, guiding the earliest Christians, as She continues to guide us now.
But how do we hear? Just saying, “Let’s ask the Holy Spirit,” may sound a little too mystical-magical for some of us raised by rational, New England stock. Isn’t the Holy Spirit a Pentecostal thing, like waiving arms, speaking in tongues and fainting in the aisles?
Except, according to the Rev. Martin Copenhaver, who’s done a bit of research on the matter, our own congregational ancestors routinely spoke about – and relied on – the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Martin says: “They believed that the workings of the Holy Spirit could be discerned by a community of receptive hearts, informed by scripture and molded by prayer.”3
They saw their meetings – not just worship but their business meetings – as “opportunities to encounter God in their midst.” And they saw one another as vessels for God’s Spirit. So whenever they gathered, they listened, listened to each other, not because one ought to respect a person no matter what her opinion, but because you never know through whom the Holy Spirit might speak.
Anthony Robinson, another UCC minister, describes a congregational meeting at a very small church. The church had been limping along for some time, and they were debating whether to close their doors. Joshua, a nine-year-old boy, sat in their midst and listened. As a child, he was not invited to speak, until there was a lull in the discussion. At a loss, someone finally turned to Joshua and asked, “What do YOU think?” After a considered silence, the boy replied, “You’re going to need the Bible. And you’re going to need to be brave.”4
You just never know where the Holy Spirit might speak: Through the preacher? Maybe. Or through a nine-year old boy. Through a wise senior member or the visitor who just wandered in through the door. God speaks, in subtle and not so subtle ways, to us and through us. It is our job, the task of the whole community, to discern what God is saying.
So we listen: we search for the holy in silence and in scripture, in the songs of God’s created world and in the insights of our neighbors. We do this together, because we are all members of the one Body of Christ. Individually, we might catch a glimpse of God’s purpose; might even experience our own epiphany – our own billboard-on-the-expressway moment, clear as day. But always we are called back to the Body, to ask questions and compare notes. “What do YOU think? What’s God saying? Is the Holy Spirit up to something here?”
We will know the answer is ‘Yes!’ when along the way we are surprised by gifts and guidance that we could not have conjured up ourselves; when we find ourselves utterly dependent on God and yet somehow set free; when we are led in directions we could not have imagined on our own.
Because in the end, it’s not about us, any one of us. It’s about what God would do through us5 to bless God’s whole world:
The Spirit of the Lord IS upon me, and you, because God has anointed us to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind…
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Scripture Texts
Psalm 19:1-2; 7-14 (adapted – second person)
1 The heavens are telling your glory, O God; and the firmament proclaims your handiwork.
2 Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night declares knowledge.
…
7 Your law is perfect, reviving the soul; your decrees are sure, making wise the simple;
8 Your precepts are right, rejoicing the heart; your commandment clear, enlightening the eyes;
9 the fear of you is pure, enduring forever; your ordinances are true and righteous altogether.
10 More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.
11 Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
12 But who can detect their errors? Clear me from hidden faults.
13 Keep back your servant also from the insolent; do not let them have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, and innocent of great transgression.
14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Luke 4:14-21
14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
May God add a blessing to the reading and the hearing of this Holy Word. Amen.