God, Are You Listening?

Job 23; Mark 10:17-27

 

        Boy were we fortune. After eight days of rain, the sun finally broke through and we have begun to dry out. At least in our part of the country the rivers managed to contain themselves and while we were inconvenienced, we pretty much survived the whole mess. But not everyone was so fortunate. My daughter lives northwest of Columbia. Their rains were not so gentle and our only contact with Martina was through the cell phone. Daily we were informed of schools closing, Fort Jackson being shut down, damns being breached and roads collapsing. Martina’s community became an island. There was no way in or out.  We naively believed if we could hear her voice, everything would be OK. But if Martina had lost electricity, her cell phone would have died, replacing her words of assurance with the anxiety created by silence.

        A biblical major theme that began with the Exodus experience in Egypt was, “If we cry out God will answer.” Time and time again in scripture we are reminded that God heard the cries of the Hebrew slaves and responded because the God of Abraham and Jacob promised to respond to the cries of God’s people.  Job knows God as a God who speaks. Creation came about through a word. Pharaoh was banished with a word. The word of the Lord carries with it the proof of God’s fidelity with God’s people. Job believed if he can hear a word from God, all will not be lost. But no word was forthcoming, and Job lost his patience.

I find it ironic that the one thing that everyone seems to know about Job is his great patience. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was a man of faith. He suffered physical and verbal abuse. He remained steadfast in his confidence in his innocence. But Job was hardly patient. Listen to our text this morning. “My complaint is bitter. If I knew where God resided I would present my case. God has no argument for I am innocent. But God is nowhere to be found. If I go forward, God is not there. If I go backwards, God cannot be found. The Almighty must be hiding because God knows I am righteous.  I call out and hear nothing. Such silence terrifies me. I wish I could vanish in the darkness.”

        Whether it is a daughter in distress or a heart in conflict, silence offers little comfort.

I promise you, speaking about the silence of God is not a theme that really goes over big in church. We tend to be Psalm 139 folk. That’s the one that goes, “O God no matter where I go you are there. If I step forward or backward you are there before I arrive.” Yours truly clings to that message. Psalm 139 is my bail out when I have no other answers. We want to believe when all else fails God is still with us. When I go to the hospital I am well aware nothing eases anxiety more that reminding the patient God is with them.  For many folks those words work better that valium.

God’s presence is what we proclaim in worship. Our whole liturgy from revolves around that declaration that God is here. From our opening music through our joys and concerns there exist the unwritten assumption is God is sitting on the back row, quietly observing all we do and say. What if I began worship by declaring, “God couldn’t make it this morning. In fact, I am not sure God makes it any morning, but we are going to worship anyway, just in case.” If I began worship in this manner many of you would be church shopping next week.

Job decides if God won’t speak, then he will berate God until the Almighty responded. Job has listened to his friends. He has been badgered by his wife and now Job was ready to do his own talking. Job wants to plead his case. He wants to justify his actions and proclaim his faith. Job wants to tell God that if he has been punished because of his unfaithfulness than perhaps God needs to go back and check the ledger because he is innocent.        (Stop)

I must say if anyone deserved to be heard by God it was Job. But I wonder if God ever grows weary of listening to us. We are constantly bringing our concerns and our complaints. I wonder if our voices wear God out.

In my last church I had this great guy who never missed church and he appeared to love my sermons. No matter what I preached on, when I looked in his direction he was always smiling and nodding. If you have ever engaged in public speaking you know there is nothing more affirming than someone who is intensely engaged in your words. Whenever I felt a sermon was losing steam I would look at the old gentlemen and receive a shot of self confidence.

One Sunday I caught him after church and fishing for a compliment said, “You seemed to have really enjoyed church this morning.” He gave me a blank look, reached up to his ear, then replied, “I apologize, what did you say? I forgot to turn my hearing aids back on.”

I knew better too ask, but curiosity  got the best of me. “When do you turn your hearing aids off?”

He sheepishly smiled and said, “I turn them off before church.  I like you a lot preacher but I would rather be fishing.  I promised my wife a long time ago if I could fish on Saturday, I would go with her to church on Sunday. So here I am. But I dream about being on the lake.”

Have you ever wondered if sometimes God just wants to go fishing? We send a constant barrage of petitions to God and expect answers.  We are the faithful. We are the true believers. We are the ones God can count on. We are the good guys.

Well so was Job. Yet when Job needed an audience from God, guess who had left the building. Can we really expect God to listen to everything we have to say?  I wonder if sometimes God just turns off the holy hearing aids and waits for us to be quiet. In Job’s defense I have discovered it is a whole lot easier to talk to God than listen to God. When we are talking, we control the conversation. But what happens when we stop, and dare to say, “OK God, I’m listening.”  That is a dangerous proposition. First, who am I to decide when God can or cannot talk? But even scarier is the idea that God might speak. Are we really ready to hear the Word of the Lord?

In this morning’s New Testament text we encounter a young man brash enough to engage in a holy conversation.  He insists he is faithful. He brags he has kept all the commandments. He even desires eternal life. It would seem that when it comes to being the perfect disciple, this guy has hit the jackpot. But then he goes from talking to listening. Jesus said to him, “What I need for you to do is sell everything you own and give it to the poor.” Are you kidding me? No wonder Paul insists we are saved by grace alone. The demands of Jesus/God are too often more than we can comprehend.

A number of years ago my church in Texas invited Will Campbell to come and speak to the community. For those of you not familiar with Campbell he was a white Baptist preacher from Mississippi that got caught up in the Civil Rights movement and never looked back. People loved to invite Will to speak at their church but by the time he finished a lot of folks were glad he was leaving. Will not only spoke his mind, he didn’t mind speaking it.

At one of the sessions in San Angelo a person stood up and asked how the city might solve its homeless problem. Campbell said, “Homelessness is not a city problem, it is a church problem.” He continued, “How many homeless folks do you estimate are on the streets of your fair city?”

The person who had asked the question responded, “Probably around one hundred.”

Campbell then asked, “How many churches are there in this godly city?”

Again the person responded, “Probably the same amount.”

Campbell smiled and said, “Let every church in this town adopt a homeless person for a year. Give them and their family a place to stay. Give them a job. Teach them how make a budget. Invite them into your homes. At the end of a year, see how many homeless folks you have.”

The buzz that went through the crowd was not one of excitement. Immediately folks complained the plan would never work. It was unrealistic, unproven, and too hard to orchestrate. Folks even suggested homeless folks liked living on the streets. Campbell simply smiled. This was not the first community in which he had made this outrageous suggestion. And it was not the first that saw him as some kind of lunatic.

Godly words are hard. They take us out of our comfort zone. They challenge us to take a closer look at ourselves. When the young man heard the request of Jesus, he turned and walked away in silence because silence was his only response to God’s difficult words.

What an interesting pair we have this morning. Job cannot stop talking and the rich younger ruler no longer has anything to say. The silence of God leaves Job bitter, while the words of God leave the rich young ruler sour. Both view themselves as perfect yet neither passes godly muster. What a conundrum we have? Do we dare speak for God might respond?

The disciples of Jesus viewed the interchange with the young man and responded, “If he is not good enough, heaven help the rest of us.” Jesus responded, “Heaven will. For mortals, salvation is impossible, but not for God.”

Job screamed at the Almighty demanding verification of his perfection and heard nothing. The young man encountered one word from God and was left speechless. Aren’t we both Job and the rich young ruler? We who claim to be followers of the Prince of Peace have no rival when it comes to power and riches yet we claim no answers for a world flooded by wars and poverty. We either rant to God that we need some holy answers, or we remain curiously silent to the holy words we have already been offered.

I think God is weary of hearing how perfect we are. I think God is weary of our turning a deaf ear to difficult truths. So what does God want of us? Perhaps we are the ones who need to be listening rather than talking.

Perhaps the Word of the Lord to be gleaned from this morning’s text is simply this.

How often do we listen?

        How often do we listen?

                Amen.