How do you hear God’s voice? That probably sounds like a stupid question,
but I think that it is an important one.
I’ve always loved the story of Elijah fleeing from the wrath of the
Samaritans Ahab and Jezebel in First Kings.
He gets to a cave and goes inside to be safe. God asks him what he is doing there. He
answers him and then listens for God’s voice to tell him what to do. Elijah listens and listens. There is a strong wind, but God is not in the
wind; then there is fire, but God is not in the fire. Elijah then experiences an earthquake, but
God is not in the earthquake. Then he
hears what is called a “still, small voice.”
I think that is often how we hear the voice of God in our own lives. Just a whisper, or sometimes a voice in our
dreams. For me, God’s voice sometimes
comes to me through other people. A
friend will say something to me that is so profound and insightful that I know
that I must listen to what they are saying.
God’s voice is usually directing me
toward something that is wrong in this world; to take care of people who are in
some kind of distress or cast out of our society in some way. It sometimes amazes me that I haven’t seen
this myself, but then, God is our creator and our overseer who has all of this
world in sight and cares deeply about all of us. God’s perfect love extends to each and every
one of us. We are all capable and called
to be God’s servants and to do what needs to be done. God’s prophets did this. Amos went into the North and chastised the
rich people there for selling the poor for silver and treating the needy like a
crop to be reaped for their own benefit.
God looking out for the poor is a constant theme in scripture.
There is nothing new here. Our political system still tries as hard as
it can to reward the rich and tax the poor.
The current republican health care bill is being created behind closed
doors in the senate so as not to attract detrimental comments. They are not asking for any help by the
democrats because they know that this will only bring criticism. The problem here is that the bill is an
attempt to eliminate coverage for many poor people and to enable people with
means to have even more. We as disciples
of Jesus Christ are called by God to keep this kind of thing from happening and
to make sure that those who have nothing can benefit from our common purse.
I have been a priest for over forty
years and I know how the church can consume itself with non-essential
trivia. People in some congregations and
dioceses are great at blaming one another for the things that inevitably go
wrong. What we all need to be doing is
caring for each other and making sure that all is well in the lives of those who
aren’t as well off as the rest of us. When we do that, we are hearing God’s
quiet voice urging us on. But there are other congregations that focus on
outreach – on taking care of the need that exists all around us. These are the places where God is working in
this world and his disciples are those people in those parishes who listen for
the word and follow where it leads them.
We all get very tired of listening
to the news reports of what is going on in the political life of this
country. It all sounds like blame and
excuse and people always trying to show themselves in the best possible
light. What is lost in all of this is
the constant presence of need and pain in this world. The people begging in our streets, at our
bridges and intersections trying to get some contributions that will help their
lives don’t particularly care about the politics. They don’t even vote, mostly. They simply are trying to find ways of getting
through their day. Those of us who are
politically involved sometimes miss the point when we spend so much time with
our political striving that we miss the obvious times to simply give of
ourselves to help those who are obviously poor.
thanks Rod!
ReplyDeleteavanza