Have you heard the joke, "When a person talks to God, it's prayer; when he hears the Voice of God telling him to do things, it's schizophrenia!" I remember our psychology professor telling us that joke, eons ago. But, it brings up interesting religious questions. On the one hand, we all know how goofy people who hear God telling them things can be. They wander our city streets, apparently harmless enough, but deeply disturbed as they rant their messages to those with no time to listen. We had one in New Orleans, who would walk around the French Quarter with a tin foil bishops mitre on her head, telling anyone in her path that they were damned. No one really wanted her locked up; she was sort of an institution. But, I don't know that we could have taken too many of her. Luckily, she was the only regular.
But the religious question remains: How do we know when God is "speaking to us?" For one of the points of prayer is to make contact with the Living God. We offer God our worship; we seek God's gracious healing and forgiveness; we seek the strength to live lives of goodness and sacrifice. AND, we seek to open our ears to listen for the Inner Voice to guide us toward those paths of goodness and sacrifice....to nudge us in a direction that will lead us to greater wholeness, and to finer living. Tammy Faye Baker used to ask God to lead her to good sales on everything from washing machines to automobiles. And, before we laugh, is there anyone here who hasn't at some time or other, been tooling along at 60 miles per hour, sun on your face and wind in your hair, radio playing your favorite songs, ONLY to look down and see that your below E on the gas gage, and a toll bridge is coming up, with no where to get off or turn around....WHO HASN'T PRAYED, "GOD, GET ME ACROSS THIS BRIDGE AND TO A FILLING STATION?"
We so hope to sense a response of SOME sort to our prayer. Sometimes, it's enough to get to the other side of the bridge and get gas, other times, though, we truly seek answers to something that is troubling us, and we want to "hear" something....oh, not necessarily a "Voice," but we want to somehow have that "answer" come to us...
So, back to the question of the First Reading: "How do we know it's God talking?" Samuel got up three times that night. That sounds like my life at 62! But, I don't interpret my awakening as God. Neither did Samuel. Nor Eli....at first. There was a "holy insistence" that finally got through to both of them. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, he said: "Be persistent! Think of your friend...he may not get up and feed you and your guests a midnight out of friendship, but he will if you get a rock and bang long enough....and if that doesn't work...something stronger!" He asks us to keep a "holy insistence" before God...the same "holy insistence" God will place in our lives to let us know that this is, indeed, HE who speaks!
Now, that doesn't get us off the hook. For, there is always the obsessive personality–the one who gets an idea, and can't let it go...who obsesses on it, and worries it to death. For this situation, the first reading is no real help. For them, or for US when we get like that...perhaps the words of the Gospel will be helpful. Simply, "Come, and see." I remember I was chaplain of a hospice for pilgrims in Jerusalem one summer, and a woman whose husband had recently died, who was from Atlanta, Georgia, showed up at the hospice, and spent some time there. She seemed OK, and I didn't pay too much attention to her, thinking she was a typical pilgrim/tourist getting to see the city. One morning I came down to breakfast, and she was in tears...sobbing away not far, fortunately, from the coffee pot. So, I went up and asked if I could help.
She told me her story–a story of deep personal loss–and how bereft she had felt. And, then, one day, she felt she just "had to come to Jerusalem," so she sold up and bought a ticket, and here she was, but the grief remained. Now, she felt silly. I remembered the verse from today's Gospel. The nameless disciple and Andrew, Peter's brother, too, are in some sort of need or pain. And they are searching. And they want healing or peace, or wisdom or SOMETHING! And Jesus says to them, "Come and see." They simply had to go, to experience whatever was to be had! I told the Atlanta lady, "You were seeking direction in your suffering, you thought of the place of Christ's suffering, and you felt you needed to be near it...like Andrew. So learn what this place has to teach you...go to the hill of Calvary and the Holy Sepulcher, sit with His Suffering and place in it your own. When you're ready, when you've absorbed what you need to absorb, then you can go home...like Andrew and the other disciple did...they went home and told Peter. Remember?" "So," she asked, "do you think I should go home?" I said, "Do you believe God can ever speak through priests?" She kindly replied, "I suppose..." I smiled and said, "Go home. But, before you go, learn from this place. OK?" I heard from her for years...back in Atlanta. She must be dead, herself, now, for the cards have stopped. But, I think of her frequently.
So, the long and the short: there is NO sure fire way to be sure it's God speaking, and not a self-induced idea, wish or longing. All we are offered are the two general guides:
1) Is the thought persistent?
2) If you decide to "go and see," experience it, then evaluate.
Now, if you came here today with no burning issue of wondering if God was, indeed, speaking to you, what do YOU take away from the readings? There is another hint, lurking in the background. Did you catch the words: "They stayed with Him..."? The question put to all who would know the Christ of God is, "Can you wait with me an hour?" (Do you remember the words from Gethsemane?)
Everyone of you in this Church, today, wants to "know" God. Otherwise, you wouldn't have come. You would have found something else to do. But, you came. You came here to experience something of God...to know something of His Love, His forgiveness, His power, His wisdom. You want to "know" the Lord. The words echo forth: "They stayed with Him that day."...They STAYED with Him.
If we would know our God, we have to stay for a while. What does it mean? It means, among other things, to DO WHAT HE TAUGHT...we just "stay at it," even if it doesn't quite make sense. We keep at it. We turn the other cheek. We find ways to make peace, and to foster peace without condemning either side of a situation. We find ways to help each side see the good in themselves and the good in the other. They need to see the deep goodness in themselves...a goodness that will enable them to rise above their anger and violence and be bigger, AND they need to see the inherent goodness in those they are so dissatisfied with...who, too, have hopes and dreams, and need a space of understanding. And when it isn't working...we don't stop. We simply keep at it. We do the work of peacemaking, the work of building justice in an unjust world. We break the bread, and pray that it give us the courage to be, ourselves, "broken" for others. We read the ancient texts, and draw strength for the gentle life we are called to live, as we learn to walk gently on the earth in the footsteps of the Prince of Peace. It's in simply STAYING, just DOING it, that we come to know the God of our stillness.
The readings are about discipleship, aren't they? How to listen to the Master's Voice, and how to come to know the Master. It's my prayer for each of us–disciples in our own way–that we will be touched with Divine Power in the Breaking of the Bread, today–a Power that will enable us to STAY with Him, and Listen for His Voice, and ultimately make of our lives benedictions of goodness and peace in our world. And may God bless you all. +
But the religious question remains: How do we know when God is "speaking to us?" For one of the points of prayer is to make contact with the Living God. We offer God our worship; we seek God's gracious healing and forgiveness; we seek the strength to live lives of goodness and sacrifice. AND, we seek to open our ears to listen for the Inner Voice to guide us toward those paths of goodness and sacrifice....to nudge us in a direction that will lead us to greater wholeness, and to finer living. Tammy Faye Baker used to ask God to lead her to good sales on everything from washing machines to automobiles. And, before we laugh, is there anyone here who hasn't at some time or other, been tooling along at 60 miles per hour, sun on your face and wind in your hair, radio playing your favorite songs, ONLY to look down and see that your below E on the gas gage, and a toll bridge is coming up, with no where to get off or turn around....WHO HASN'T PRAYED, "GOD, GET ME ACROSS THIS BRIDGE AND TO A FILLING STATION?"
We so hope to sense a response of SOME sort to our prayer. Sometimes, it's enough to get to the other side of the bridge and get gas, other times, though, we truly seek answers to something that is troubling us, and we want to "hear" something....oh, not necessarily a "Voice," but we want to somehow have that "answer" come to us...
So, back to the question of the First Reading: "How do we know it's God talking?" Samuel got up three times that night. That sounds like my life at 62! But, I don't interpret my awakening as God. Neither did Samuel. Nor Eli....at first. There was a "holy insistence" that finally got through to both of them. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, he said: "Be persistent! Think of your friend...he may not get up and feed you and your guests a midnight out of friendship, but he will if you get a rock and bang long enough....and if that doesn't work...something stronger!" He asks us to keep a "holy insistence" before God...the same "holy insistence" God will place in our lives to let us know that this is, indeed, HE who speaks!
Now, that doesn't get us off the hook. For, there is always the obsessive personality–the one who gets an idea, and can't let it go...who obsesses on it, and worries it to death. For this situation, the first reading is no real help. For them, or for US when we get like that...perhaps the words of the Gospel will be helpful. Simply, "Come, and see." I remember I was chaplain of a hospice for pilgrims in Jerusalem one summer, and a woman whose husband had recently died, who was from Atlanta, Georgia, showed up at the hospice, and spent some time there. She seemed OK, and I didn't pay too much attention to her, thinking she was a typical pilgrim/tourist getting to see the city. One morning I came down to breakfast, and she was in tears...sobbing away not far, fortunately, from the coffee pot. So, I went up and asked if I could help.
She told me her story–a story of deep personal loss–and how bereft she had felt. And, then, one day, she felt she just "had to come to Jerusalem," so she sold up and bought a ticket, and here she was, but the grief remained. Now, she felt silly. I remembered the verse from today's Gospel. The nameless disciple and Andrew, Peter's brother, too, are in some sort of need or pain. And they are searching. And they want healing or peace, or wisdom or SOMETHING! And Jesus says to them, "Come and see." They simply had to go, to experience whatever was to be had! I told the Atlanta lady, "You were seeking direction in your suffering, you thought of the place of Christ's suffering, and you felt you needed to be near it...like Andrew. So learn what this place has to teach you...go to the hill of Calvary and the Holy Sepulcher, sit with His Suffering and place in it your own. When you're ready, when you've absorbed what you need to absorb, then you can go home...like Andrew and the other disciple did...they went home and told Peter. Remember?" "So," she asked, "do you think I should go home?" I said, "Do you believe God can ever speak through priests?" She kindly replied, "I suppose..." I smiled and said, "Go home. But, before you go, learn from this place. OK?" I heard from her for years...back in Atlanta. She must be dead, herself, now, for the cards have stopped. But, I think of her frequently.
So, the long and the short: there is NO sure fire way to be sure it's God speaking, and not a self-induced idea, wish or longing. All we are offered are the two general guides:
1) Is the thought persistent?
2) If you decide to "go and see," experience it, then evaluate.
Now, if you came here today with no burning issue of wondering if God was, indeed, speaking to you, what do YOU take away from the readings? There is another hint, lurking in the background. Did you catch the words: "They stayed with Him..."? The question put to all who would know the Christ of God is, "Can you wait with me an hour?" (Do you remember the words from Gethsemane?)
Everyone of you in this Church, today, wants to "know" God. Otherwise, you wouldn't have come. You would have found something else to do. But, you came. You came here to experience something of God...to know something of His Love, His forgiveness, His power, His wisdom. You want to "know" the Lord. The words echo forth: "They stayed with Him that day."...They STAYED with Him.
If we would know our God, we have to stay for a while. What does it mean? It means, among other things, to DO WHAT HE TAUGHT...we just "stay at it," even if it doesn't quite make sense. We keep at it. We turn the other cheek. We find ways to make peace, and to foster peace without condemning either side of a situation. We find ways to help each side see the good in themselves and the good in the other. They need to see the deep goodness in themselves...a goodness that will enable them to rise above their anger and violence and be bigger, AND they need to see the inherent goodness in those they are so dissatisfied with...who, too, have hopes and dreams, and need a space of understanding. And when it isn't working...we don't stop. We simply keep at it. We do the work of peacemaking, the work of building justice in an unjust world. We break the bread, and pray that it give us the courage to be, ourselves, "broken" for others. We read the ancient texts, and draw strength for the gentle life we are called to live, as we learn to walk gently on the earth in the footsteps of the Prince of Peace. It's in simply STAYING, just DOING it, that we come to know the God of our stillness.
The readings are about discipleship, aren't they? How to listen to the Master's Voice, and how to come to know the Master. It's my prayer for each of us–disciples in our own way–that we will be touched with Divine Power in the Breaking of the Bread, today–a Power that will enable us to STAY with Him, and Listen for His Voice, and ultimately make of our lives benedictions of goodness and peace in our world. And may God bless you all. +
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