A Listening Heart

This sermon was preached as part of St. Michael’s yearlong “It’s Your Call” campaign on 1 Kings 3:5-15 at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Raleigh, N.C. on October 26, 2012.  You can also listen to the sermon by clicking on this link:
http://kiwi6.com/file/s622fz40o7

               Every now and then I have dream that I signed up for classes but never attended them.  In my dream, the semester is nearing an end and I am panicking.  I always wake up from these dreams tense.  I tell Cindy that I had an “anxiety” dream.  Today we normally view dreams psychologically.  They represent something bubbling up from our subconscious, something that is going on in our lives with our family or work.  In the ancient world, though people thought God spoke through dreams.  In today’s lesson from 1 Kings, God asks Solomon what God should give the King.  Solomon doesn’t ask to hit the $300 million power ball, which I would have, instead he asks for a “listening heart.”  Solomon asks for the gift that actually is essential for all of God’s people.  Only if we have listening hearts, only if we listen to God can we live into God’s dream for our lives.

The New Revised Standard Version and many other English translations of this passage translate Solomon’s request for a “listening heart” as an “understanding mind.”  The Hebrew, however, literally says a “listening heart.”  The Hebrews thought the heart was the seat of the intellect, which is undoubtedly part of the reason for the NRSV’s translation, but, for the Hebrews, the heart was also the seat of the emotions, impulses, concern and much more.  The heart for the Hebrews had both faculties of the intellect and the emotion that we attribute separately to the mind and the heart.

Solomon asked that God would give him a “listening” heart.  Solomon knew that it was important to be open, to be attentive.  He wanted to be a good ruler of his people.

Solomon knew that a good leader must be a good listener.  A leader who fails to listen will soon lose touch with her or his people.  Listening is essential not only for leaders but for any relationship personal or professional.  My wife and I love our family doctor, who I recently saw for my sinusitis, in large part because she is an excellent listener.  Despite the pressures of modern medicine to see more and more patients each day, she takes as much time as is needed to listen to us and to develop a treatment plan with us.  Listening is also essential in our relationship with God.

All too often we are more ready to talk to God than to listen to God.  We tell God what we want without asking and listening for God’s will, God’s dream for our lives.  To live into God’s dream for our lives, to live into God’s call, requires us first of all to listen to God.

This year we are focused on discerning and living into God’s call.  Every calling comes from God.  This summer I did a lot of reading about call.  I didn’t know much about it before.  Often books and articles on this subject, I learned, focus on the individual.  Your spiritual gifts, your talents, and your passions are the means to discerning your call in life.  It is true our spiritual gifts, talents and passions are important in discerning our call.  Nonetheless, we begin discerning our call not with ourselves, but with God, because God is the one who gives us our call in our very being when God creates us.  Our spiritual gifts, talents, and passions are all God given.  We begin discerning our call, our purpose at any point in our lives, by first listening to God.

Indeed, I think at the heart of the entire life of faith is listening to God.  Listening to God is essential because it is only in listening that we can know that our lives are in alignment with God.   It is only in listening to God that we can know whether we are obeying God’s will.  The root of the English word “obey” comes from the Latin word which means “to hear.”  We cannot obey God; we cannot hear our call; we cannot live into God’s dream for our lives unless we first listen to God.

God speaks to us in many ways.  We hear God’s voice through the scriptures.  We hear God’s voice, as it says in the Acts of the Apostles, in “the breaking of bread and the prayers.”  We hear God’s voice in hymns and, occasionally, in sermons.  We can hear God in a still small voice while walking in the woods, or holding a newborn, through a kind word from a stranger, or in a news story about a disaster that calls us to action. 

While God speaks to us individually in many ways, in the Christian tradition listening to God is something we always do together.  It is the work of the Body of Christ, the work of our fellowship.  When I was discerning whether I was called to the priesthood, I talked to many people at St. Andrew’s, Haw River, my home church, to people at Grace Episcopal Church, Elizabeth, New Jersey, where I was a volunteer in mission, and friends and spiritual advisors.  I then entered into the discernment process and talked with Bishop Estill and the Commission on Ministry.  A call to ordination is always discerned within the context of the church.

The same is true for other calls in the church.  We discern our different calls within in the body of Christ, because our calls are all in one way or another for the building up of the body of Christ, as Paul says in his letter to the Ephesians.  We also listen for God’s voice with other Christians to make sure that it is God’s voice that we are hearing and not some other voice.  Spiritual directors, clergy, small groups, Bible studies, or sage spiritual friends are all excellent sounding boards.  Each of us though with Solomon must seek a “listening heart.”

With a listening heart, we can live into God’s dream to walk in the way of justice, righteousness, and peace.  We can live into God’s dream for a creation renewed by the love of God that we see in Jesus Christ.

With a listening heart, we can use our God given gifts, talents and passions to proclaim the love of God to our family, friends, and neighbors.

With a listening heart, we can find the richness of God’s dream for our lives, a richness that goes beyond our wildest imaginings.  Solomon asked only for a listening heart, but God gave him a wise and discerning heart and riches and honor all his life.  The life of faith is not always filled with earthly riches and honor, but it is always filled with the incomparable riches of the kingdom of God.

"Speak Lord, for Your Servant is Listening." Click on the link below to hear this sermon preached on 1 Samuel 3:1-10 and John 1:43-51. The sermon was preached without manuscript or notes on January 15, 2012 for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B at St. Michael's, Raleigh. http://kiwi6.com/file/4dj8509p9g

"Eternity Dips Into Time" Click on the link below for my sermon on John 6:51-58. It was preached without manuscript or notes on August 19, 2012,12th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 15, Year B. http://kiwi6.com/file/2wa0dtmo2v

Let Go to Live Fully

Here's the link to a sermon preached without notes or manuscript on February 20, 2012 at St. Michael's, Raleigh on 2 Kings 2:1-2 and Mark 9:2-9 for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany:

http://kiwi6.com/file/4dj8509p9g

Sermon preached at Bill Faellaci’s funeral on March 22, 2013 at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Raleigh NC. 

As I thought about the last few weeks that I had the privilege to spend with Bill and his life as a whole I thought of the story of Moses and the burning bush.  According to the book of Exodus, Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro.  He led the flock beyond the wilderness to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God.  The text says that an angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in the fire.  When he turned to look at this bush that was blazing but not consumed, the voice of God said from the bush, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground" (Exodus 3:5 NRSV).  There is an important distinction here.  An angel or messenger, what the word angel means, appears in the flame but it is God who speaks from the flame.  I think this was true of Bill Faellaci.  He was an angel, a messenger of the Lord whose loving, quiet spirit incarnated the voice of God.

Bill was a generous man.  When Bill and Pat would visit Pat’s daughter Kathryn and her son Ian, Bill would always give Kathryn money to cover the cost of the food.  One time he forgot.  Remembering as they were leaving, he stopped the car in the street and walked over to Kathryn who was pulling out of the driveway to take Ian to school.  When she opened the window, he simply handed her the money, turned and went back to his car.  Ian asked why Grandpa had done this.  Kathryn replied, “Because he’s a generous and loving man.”  Ian answered, “Perhaps he wants you to buy me toys.”

Bill’s generosity was seen in his calling in life – teaching.  He taught in the class room and on Navy ships for more than 40 years.  He told his students that if they ever had a question about their homework first to ask their parents, then their classmates, and, if they still couldn’t solve it, to call him.  One of Bill’s few regrets was that he didn’t go when some of his former students who were at a bar home from college called after midnight saying they had a math problem.  Bill tutored many students outside of the classroom.

Julie Brown wrote about her daughter Hollis’s experience with Bill’s tutoring.  “Hollis was very shy with Bill at first.” She wrote, “She started out meeting once a week, then twice.  Eventually when she started driving herself, she started calling him and setting up appointments on her own, in between his tennis games.  Many times when I would take her over there, I would wait on her in their living room while they worked at the kitchen table.  They would argue over problems, bickering like two school kids over who was right or which way to approach a problem.  They were very funny together.  If you heard them, you would never know that there was seventy something year age difference between them.  Pat and I laughed so often over the relationship.  They were both very stubborn and tried to get their points across, sometimes it got heated and sometimes with laughter, regardless of how it was done, she learned a lot.  But most importantly she gained confidence that she could think through the problems and come up with the answers on her own.  Bill gave her the confidence that she needed in math and he gave her his friendship.  She never thought of him as an old curmudgeon, but as a friend.”

“I loved Bill Faellaci for always taking the time to help my children.  You see, he never got paid for this service; he would not take any payment.  He did it for the love of math.   Over the years, he has helped hundreds of students; understand what they didn’t think that they could understand.”

Bill liked to say that he was lighting candles.  I think this is all the more impressive because Bill’s father told him he would never amount to anything.  If you define a life by the difference that you make to others, Bill’s life was an incredible success. 

While Bill was a well-educated mathematics teacher, holding a Master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the secret of his success, I believe, was his caring spirit.  Bill loved his students, his family and his friends.  He stayed in touch with many for years.  When Bill could no longer play tennis during the last year of his life, he still got together once a month for breakfast with his tennis buddies, passing around a bottle of brandy under the table while the police sat at the next table.  Bill’s memoir of his life is punctuated with the phrase “Good times.”  He had many good times with his family and friends.  He loved life and lived it to the fullest.  He told his children to work hard and to play hard every day.

Bill had his faults like the rest of us.  He had a temper among other things. But to his credit, he grew over the years.  When he married Pat, they agreed that he didn’t have to learn choral music and she didn’t have to learn to play tennis.  They had a loving, close relationship, a relationship built on respect for one another, a relationship where each kept his or her own identity.  His last words to Pat were “I love you.  Shut up.”

Bill was not a religious man in the second half of his life.  After his divorce from Mildred, Bill stopped attending church.  He had been very active teaching Sunday School and serving on church committees.  He liked sermons that made him think.  Bill didn’t attend any longer because, he wrote in his memoirs, Mildred and her new husband attended their church.  Nonetheless, Bill, I believe, was always a man of faith.  He still participated in his children’s Sunday School and he supported Pat’s participation at St. Michael’s.  He had a good time at choir parties.  Who wouldn’t have a good time at choir parties?  I always felt welcomed by him when I talked to him at a party or visited him in the hospital.

Yesterday I attended a retreat with the other Episcopal clergy from the diocese.  Bishops Sauls, our key note speaker, talked in his meditations about Matthew 25.  He said that in this chapter the righteous persons are not religious and that the unrighteous are religious.   The righteous are the ones who fed the hungry and clothed the naked and visited the prisoners.

Bill was a righteous man.  He taught people who lacked self-confidence to believe in themselves, to appreciate the gifts and abilities God had given to each of them.  Ultimately, I think, Bill challenged his students to hope for a better life and a better world.

At every funeral we light this large candle called the paschal candle.  It symbolizes the hope of the resurrection, because it is also lit during the Easter season to symbolize the resurrection of Christ.  We light it at baptisms, too, symbolic of a person’s dying and being raised to new life in Christ.  Our deacon Meta lights a small candle from this flame, gives it to the newly baptized person or the person’s godparents, and says, “Be the light of Christ for the world.”  This flame encompasses the whole of a person’s life.

In the flame of Bill’s life – his generous, compassionate spirit - we can hear the voice of God.  This flame can never be put out because ultimately this flame burns in and through the love which is the God that we see in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

A New Heaven and a New Earth

(Isaiah 65:17 and Revelation 21:1)

[This sermon was preached Sunday April 21, 2013 at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Raleigh on Revelation 7:9-17, Easter 4, Year C.  The context was the bombings in Boston and the factory explosion in West, Texas that week and Earth Day the next day.]

            This past week we have all been stunned by the violence in Boston and the explosion in West, Texas.  In the face of this senseless loss of life, John’s vision in the book of Revelation offers hope that one day all humanity will live together in peace under the reign of God.  But John’s vision extends beyond humanity living in harmony.  God dreams that the whole created order - everything in heaven, on earth and under the earth - will live together harmoniously in God’s loving presence.

 

According to the book of Revelation, an angel gave a vision to John while he was in exile on the island of Patmos.  John wrote this vision in the form of, what we today call, the apocalyptic genre.  The writers of scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit, were like us - time bound creatures.  They used the literary conventions and forms available to them at the time.  The apocalyptic genre existed from approximately 200BC to 400AD.  It used exotic images and fantastic creatures to depict the battle between good and evil.   Revelation proclaims that God will triumph over the forces of darkness.

Revelation offers hope that human society will be transformed when Christ returns in glory.  Today’s lesson shows the Lamb, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, standing on the throne.  With the Lamb on the throne, instead of the almighty dollar, as is true in our consumer society, humanity will be free from want and suffering, free from senseless acts of terror and destruction.  Chapter 7 in the book of Revelation reads, “They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (Rev 7:16-17 NRSV).

Christ will not only radically transform the social order but also the entire created order.   All the creatures will live together peacefully and glorify God.  John hears in his vision, “I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, ‘To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’" (Rev 5:13 NRSV).  This vision echoes Isaiah’s prophecy that at the end time humanity and all of nature will live together in a peaceable kingdom.  Isaiah prophesies, “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.  The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not 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” (Isaiah 11:6-9).  The second coming of Christ will transform all of creation.  Christ says in the book of Revelation, “See, I am making all things new” (Rev 21:5 NRSV).

People often think that this vision of a new heaven and earth has little to do with their lives here and now.  They believe it only has to do with the end of time or with the next life.  God’s dream though actually drives the entire Christian life.  While the new heaven and earth will only be fully realized at Christ’s second coming, the process of transformation began with Christ’s first coming.  God calls us to love one another, because this is the essence of the reign of the One who is love.  God calls us to care for the environment, because God cares for all of God’s creation.  Jesus says in Matthew’s Gospel, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father” (10:29 NRSV).  God puts humanity into the world to care for it.  The book of Genesis says, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Gen 2:15 NIV).

While people debate the extent of our impact on climate change, there is little question that God calls us to care for our environment.  Even a political and theological conservative such as Pat Robertson endorses environmental causes.  Our individual actions may seem to make little difference in the face of such an enormous task but over time and with enough people our efforts improve our world and our pocket book.

Five or six years ago St. Michael’s Environmental Committee did an energy audit of our facility.  The audit showed quickly correctable things such as insulating bare pipes to our outdoor HVAC units, weather stripping doors, turning off lights in unused rooms and changing the thermostat setting at night.  Other items were longer term such as installing energy efficient HVAC units when old ones wore out.  These changes have lowered St. Michael’s energy bill by $5,000 a year and reduced our carbon foot print by 40 tons a year.

If each of us did an energy audit of our home and business and implemented some of the suggestions, we would make a difference.  Progress Energy and PSNC offer free online energy audits that take about 15 minutes.  For only $25, PSNC will do a thorough 3 – 4 hour energy audit of houses that use natural gas and were built before 1993.   There is a lot that we can do beyond recycling.

Spring is one of most beautiful times in North Carolina.  At this time of year, I love driving through St. Michael’s neighborhood with the cherry trees, red buds and dogwoods blossoming and the flowers blooming.  God truly has given us a beautiful world.  God calls each of us to do what we can to take care of this incredible gift.