The Ear of a Servant
By John Anderson
September 16, 2018
The words that we hear today from the
prophet Isaiah come from what are known as the Servant Songs. Isaiah
writes about the Servant as one who hears God’s call for goodness and justice,
and obeys that call in the midst of a world that is filled with violence,
ignorance, sin, greed…
These Servant poems are some of the
most beautiful and compelling words in the Bible. Christians who hear
this text see Jesus as the Suffering Servant, the One who lived out God’s
vision of goodness in the world and willingly suffered and died. Jewish
people see the Suffering Servant as the nation of ancient Israel as it tried to
live out God’s vision and be a “light to the nations” (Isaiah 49:6). As we hear
these words today we can see them as both Israel and Jesus. And, as we
hear these words today, we can hear them as describing us, God’s people alive
today in a world that needs hope and light.
Martin Luther, the great 16th Century
church reformer whom Father Jamie has mentioned many times, taught that all
Christians are priests. He called this the priesthood of all believers.
He writes “through baptism we have all been ordained as priests.” According to
Luther it is the duty, calling, and honor of all Christians to be servants in
the world. All Christians are to pray for and with each other, provide
comfort and assurance, food and drink, teach and proclaim the Word as we
understand it, confess our sins and hear others confess their sins. We are all
priests, teachers and ministers. To use Isaiah’s language, we are all “Suffering
Servants.”
That is quite a responsibility.
It can be daunting to think that we are all priests and ministers,
suffering servants called by God. What can we do as individuals to bring
healing and hope to a hurting world? How can we make a difference? Today
I want to lift up one of the qualities that I see in Isaiah’s Suffering
Servant. It is a quality that I have been working on in my life over the last
several years. It’s a servant skill that takes a lot of practice. It is
the willingness and ability to listen carefully, to listen patiently, to listen
with compassion. Listening is an ordinary, everyday thing, but it is essential
to good servant-hood.
Many churches are currently struggling
with some controversial issues that threaten to divide us, and have in fact
divided many parishes. Churches all over the country meet to discuss and
debate these hot button issues. A few years ago Bishop Margaret Payne from the
ELCA Lutheran church told of her experience at one of these very heated church
gatherings. At a church conference called for the purpose of discussing
and debating the issue of homosexuality in the church...who should be a member,
who can be ordained, in what capacity can gay people serve… pastors,
lay-persons and bishops gathered to express their views. Bishop Payne
arrived at the conference ready to fight. She knew how she felt; she was
passionate about her opinion and she was prepared to take anyone on who dared
to confront her. She said that her opinion was like her sword. She was ready to
cut at anyone who disagreed with her; she was ready to cut through the
conference with her sword.
As she sat in the convention center she
noticed that everyone had a different perspective. She noticed that
nearly everyone was as passionate as she was. Bishop Payne settled in and
listened carefully to everyone. She chose to hold her own opinion to
herself for a while. Over the next several days of the conference she listened
carefully as the people talked and debated. She listened carefully as
they worshiped together, sang hymns together in harmony, as they heard the
Great Thanksgiving and received Holy Communion together, and yes, she listened
as they disagreed together. It was clear to Bishop Payne that all of
those people, as different as they were, loved Jesus Christ as much as she did.
When she did address the conference she
realized that her opinion, her sharp sword, had softened. She had been
transformed by hearing the words of others. She had been transformed by hearing
sacred hymns, by hearing the Word preached, by hearing the prayers of the
people, by hearing the communion blessings. By listening carefully to
others, her own opinion had changed, at least a little. Now, I don’t know if
she did a full 180 or not. In fact, I do not even know what her opinion was in
the beginning of the conference. That does not matter. What matters is
that she said God transformed the sword of her opinion into a plowshare. By
listening to others she was changed, softened, made more willing to hear others
and work with them. When she spoke her words more likely sustained the weary
rather than cut them down. I wonder if others at the conference had a similar
experience.
We can all listen. As servants of
God we must listen. Most of us are eager to have our thoughts and
opinions heard. Often times as we listen to another speaking we are busy
in our heads planning our next words. But learning to be quiet and listen
to others may be more important. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Better to remain
silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” If
Bishop Payne had brashly spoken out before listening to the other people speak,
pray, sing, worship...if she had come out swinging her sword she may have
seemed like a fool. Instead, she listened carefully and was transformed and
humbled by what she heard. Perhaps Bishop Payne meditated on the words of
Isaiah that we hear today: “Morning by morning he wakens---wakens my ear to
listen as those who are taught” (Isaiah 50: 4). Rather than be the fool, she
learned to be a humble servant, one who listens to others.
This does not mean that we should never
speak. It does not mean that every time we speak we are a fool. But
learning to listen carefully first helps us to speak carefully.
Isaiah said, “The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, so that
I may know how to sustain the weary with a word” (Isaiah 50:4). If we
listen carefully to others we can speak with words that heal, with words that
sustain the weary. Anyone can learn to do this. We are all priests and
ministers called to be servants in the world.
There was a wonderful, sweet old fellow
in one of the many nursing homes in which I have worked. We’ll call him
Ralph (because that was his name). Most of the time Ralph did not know the day
of the week or where he was currently living. Quite often he believed he
was back home and needed to get to work fixing his car or a piece of machinery.
One day when I was at work one of the nurses was having a bad day. Her little
boy had fallen out of bed and broke his arm that morning. She was very worried
about her little guy. While she worked with Ralph bathing him and feeding him
she talked about her little boy. She had to talk about her son, even if
nobody was listening. The nurse was not sure how much Ralph heard or
understood. But he seemed to be listening with compassion and concern. And she
felt so much better just talking to someone about her worries; it felt so good
for somebody to just listen to her.
About a month later Ralph wheeled up to
the nurse as I was visiting with her. By this time her son’s arm was
almost fully mended. Ralph said, “How is your little boy’s arm?” The
nurse was shocked. She could not believe that Ralph remembered her little boy.
She almost burst into tears because this lovable old man in a wheelchair had
listened to her and remembered what she said over a month prior. With
moist eyes and trembling lips she said, “He’s much better Ralph, thanks for
asking.” Ralph gave us a toothless grin (the Pepsodent smile, my dad called
it), nodded, and wheeled off down the hallway. I knew Ralph well; his own
suffering in life had been in enormous. He had learned to be a Suffering
Servant along the way.
Ralph may not have known the day of the
week or where he was, but he was a priest among all believers. He had the
ear of a servant and the tongue of a teacher and he knew how to sustain the
weary with a word.
We can all become good listeners as a
way of making the world a better place. When we calmly, lovingly,
patiently, listen to others we are telling them something; we are telling them
that they matter; what they have to say is important; that they are being
heard. There is probably enough talk in the world right now. St.James reminds
us of the power of our tongues and the damage we can inflict with our words.
Our Psalm tells us that God inclines his ear to us (Psalm 116:2). Perhaps
God does more listening than talking. So often I want an answer from God. But
perhaps I should rejoice that God is listening to me. God listens to us
carefully. Let us imitate our God and incline our ear to one another. Let us
have the ear of a Servant so that when we do talk it is with words that will
sustain the weary. Amen.
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