“The Gift of Selective Hearing”

Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – May 12, 2019

Centenary United Methodist Church

Psalm 23; John 10:22-30

 

Mother's Day

    From time to time, all of us tune into various distractions that attract and hold our attention. It would be interesting to discover from one another the variety of voices that we regularly listen to. Many of them are highly specific to our needs. Most of them, if not all of them, are connected to our lives in the material world. We can be in the middle of some activity when a particular voice entices us to listen to it. 

    While visiting a family who had brought a new baby into the world, I was seated in the family room engrossed in a discussion. The couple's other two children were playing on the floor. We were completely engaged in conversation when Sharon got up and left the room. A few minutes later she returned and we resumed our conversation. A short time later she once again got up and left the room. I asked, "Is Sharon all right?" Her husband said, "She's fine. She hears the baby."

    I heard absolutely nothing. Music was playing on their sound system. The children were talking about their new sister. And the three of us had been engrossed in a conversation about her frustrations with her work environment.  In spite of all these distractions Sharon's hearing was sharp enough to hear noises being made by her baby.

    Here is a more typical example: A husband and wife can be sitting together in front of their television watching the evening news. The wife is talking to him about her day while the news anchor was talking about the weather.  When the news shifted from the weather to sports, the husband was looking at his wife and only appeared to be listening to her. His ears were tuned into the scores of the baseball games that had been played that afternoon.

    The dead giveaway that he was not listening occurred when the program showed the highlights of a particular game. The husband instinctively turned his head at just the right moment to watch a towering fly ball leave the stadium with the bases loaded.  This was a grand-slam home run.  His wife responded by snapping the newspaper abruptly as she muttered, "Why do I even bother?" Both of these instances involved selective hearing.

    While we might smile about how selective hearing is modeled in our lives, this skill is exactly what Jesus was talking about in our lesson today. In spite of the movies that are playing in the external world, Jesus said that we can distinguish his voice from among all others that we hear. (John 10:27)

    This morning we are going to consider the transforming power that such selective hearing can bring to us. This ability is available to everyone, but we have to use it and refine it every day for it to be useful in offering guidance. As we will see, staying tuned into our shepherd's voice is not always easy for us to do.

    Jesus made several statements that bear repeating. He said:

I am the gate for my sheep. Those who come in through my gate will be safe; they will come in and go as each is looking for pasture. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come in order that you might have life and experience life in all of its abundance and fullness. (John 10:9f)

    The image of sheep was understood by Jesus' listeners. Sheep were known to be innocent creatures who were easily torn apart by wolves which Jesus described as thieves. Another quality of sheep is that they know the presence and voice of their shepherd. All a shepherd needs to do is call them and the sheep will come.

     Jesus' metaphor breaks down for us during our daily experiences. Sheep have selective hearing and respond to one voice.   We, however, can hear and respond to many voices. What is fascinating about these other voices is their appeal to us. They may be gossip about someone we know. They may be providing us with new information about a news event. We may be preparing for retirement and tune into hearing words describing the success of an investment company that promises protection and financial growth. 

    Jesus was teaching people how to have the abundant life. However, he had a definition of such a life that varied widely from the one we frequently desire. We often equate the abundant life with instant gratification of our needs and desires, with believing that a sizeable inheritance holds the answer to all that we are missing in our lives, with speculation about who loves us and who does not, and with wondering how one job might work out better for us than another.

    Put in the simplest terms, Jesus' message was that when we use our selective hearing to tune into more loving, selfless choices, the outside movies will become transformed. Those who experience this will remain safe and abundant.

    At my last church, I officiated at a memorial service for a woman whose major career had been a stay-at-home mother. She performed many tasks that created numerous memories for her five children. Just prior to the beginning of the memorial service, members of the gathered family were telling me how their mother had influenced their lives. The most important role recalled by the children was that she was always home and allowed very little to escape her attention regarding the welfare of her family.

    One of the daughters was born with a heart defect that would require surgical procedures until she became an older teenager. She was recounting the presence of her mother during the numerous operations that were required.  She told me how her mother was there in the prep-room when the medical staff started her anesthesia and she was the first face she saw in the recovery room. The protocols of the hospital did not allow for this, but she was always there.

    Once she asked her mother if she worried about her? Her mother said:

No! I don't. Worry is nothing but wasted energy that can solve nothing. Each time that we have had to face another one of your surgeries, I always thanked God that you are in our family. Then I let go of you and loan you to God for a while. During every surgery you have always been in God's hands.

    With such a statement, her mother was describing her ability to remain emotionally strong during some of the more fragile moments of her child's life. Not only did she have the power to override a mother's more natural fears, but she also was able to communicate a message how her selective hearing instilled confidence during every phase of her daughter's movie.

    It requires some skill and desire to develop such selective hearing. It was easy for Sharon to hear the sounds of her new baby in the midst of countless other distractions.  Part of us knows how to find the way to the safe pasture that Jesus described. Sometimes all that it takes is for someone to remind us of what is important in our lives and what is not.

    When people tell me that they find church attendance irrelevant to their lives, I wonder how many people have been reminded of the Master's voice when they were at a crossroads of a choice they were about to make.  Maybe the words in a sermon, a prayer, or a hymn become gentle reminders of what is important.  It is so easy to become tuned into a voice that has little relevance to an abundant life.

    A young man joined the group of engravers employed by the Tiffany company in Manhattan, New York.  He quickly rose in stature among the engravers to such an extent that the ill-advised supervisor announced to the other engravers that this newcomer to the group may soon become a master engraver that would head the department.  This greatly disturbed two other engravers who had worked for Tiffany for decades. 

    They began to sabotage this young man.  They would steal his tools.  After he purchased new ones, his former tools would show up.  This and other subtle forms of harassment continued for months. Finally, the stress got to him and he shocked his supervisor by resigning without much explanation.

    One day month later, he was working in his backyard when his cell phone vibrated.  He was amazed to hear the voice of the senior partner of the largest and most prestigious law firm in Manhattan.  After introducing himself, the attorney told him why he called.  He was offering his firm's services if he wanted to sue Tiffany.  He said:

You have an air-tight case against Tiffany. The same two engravers who have driven other engravers to resign are still employed by Tiffany. The engravers who resigned for the same reasons that you did, will not have to work another day for the rest of their lives. They each have received an extremely handsome settlement in the millions of dollars.  I am offering you the same compensation that they received if you allow our firm to handle this case for you.

    This young man replied, "I really appreciate your calling me with such a generous offer, but I do not want to earn my money that way."  This young man turned a deaf ear to receiving millions of dollars.  Not many people would have made that choice. Most people would have jumped at such an opportunity to become instant millionaires.

    The reason Lois and I know this story so well is that our son, Steven, was that young engraver. We could not be prouder of him.  He made his own decision without first seeking anyone's advice. A voice within him sent up a red flag of caution that provided him with a most uncommon response.

    What Jesus was teaching his listeners is important to hear. Who we are becoming is far more important than the content of our movie. The abundant life does not come from what we own or even from what we do. It comes from experiencing the results that come from the choices we have made.

    The question for all of us today is this: Have we developed such selective hearing or do we still prefer to listen to the voices of countless thieves who can only provide distractions that may lead us into the weeds rather than the green pastures we were hoping to enter.

      

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

Thank you, God, for having such compassion for us.  We marvel at how your spirit equally accepts the powerful and the lowly as your children.  You have called us to be your family when we often separate each other by ethnicity, gender, religious beliefs, and economic boundaries. Many people are lost in the storylines of their lives and have no awareness of the infinite spirit that lies within them.  O God, inspire us to understand that awakening others is why Jesus came into our world.  He asked those of us that are spiritually awake to help others find the same gift of understanding within them.  Thank you for this mission and privilege.  Amen.

 

PASTORAL PRAYER

We thank you loving God, for placing in our midst the opportunity for us to experience a day of rest. Not many of us honor that commandment. In fact, our Sabbath frequently becomes our catch-up day for chores we had left undone.

Today, we honor our mothers who often laugh at the possibility that a day of rest exists. As we remember our mother who carried us inside her body for nine months, who nurtured us after our birth, and who took the time to make visible whatever form of love she had thus far refined, we thank you for her presence in our lives. Sometimes we have praised her, and sometimes we have blamed her for preventing us from engaging in what we now know as questionable behavior. Yet, we know that the attitude and spirit we direct toward our memory of her is reflective only of the distance we have come spiritually in appreciating one of our primary teachers.

We thank you for giving us life and for everyone who has taught us how to laugh at ourselves, to find joy in the simple elements of life, to appreciate beauty in whatever form we find it, to love music, and to value the friendship of caring people. We thank you for those who have shown us the value of stretching to what we thought were unreachable heights, confident that one day your hope for us will be done on earth as it will be for us in Heaven. We pray these thoughts through the spirit of Jesus, the Christ, who taught us to say when we pray . . .