Maybe We Find Freedom When We Stop Talking and Start Listening

Daily Office Reflection — John 8:33–47

Jesus says some harsh words in today’s Gospel reading.

He is continuing a conversation with people who question who he is and where he comes from.

They appeal to their heritage:

“We are descendants of Abraham.”

Jesus doesn’t deny their ancestry. He knows they are descendants of Abraham.

But he challenges something much deeper.

If Abraham were truly their father in the way they claim, their lives would reflect Abraham’s example.

They respond again:

“Abraham is our father.”

Then they go even further:

“God himself is our true Father.”

Jesus responds:

“If God were your Father, you would love me.”

Then comes the statement that stopped me:

“Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God.”

Hears.

Listens.

Maybe that is what this entire conversation is really about.

They are so busy telling Jesus who they are that they cannot hear what Jesus is saying.

We are Abraham’s descendants.

We know our ancestry.

We know our tradition.

We know God.

We know the truth.

But Truth is standing in front of them, and they cannot hear him.

Earlier in this same conversation Jesus told those who believed him:

“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Perhaps sometimes we find that freedom when we finally stop talking and start listening.

That thought has followed me throughout today’s Daily Office.

In the Psalms, David struggles with the turmoil within himself. He becomes conscious of how brief life really is and describes himself as a guest, a traveler passing through.

Then I came to Job.

Job’s friends have plenty to say.

They have explanations for Job’s suffering.

They have theology.

They have answers.

But Job tells them:

“Ask the animals, and they will teach you.”

Listen to the birds.

Listen to the earth.

Listen to the fish.

And Job eventually reminds them:

Wisdom belongs to God.

Then I came to Acts.

James is killed.

Peter is imprisoned.

An angel comes and Peter walks free.

Why Peter and not James?

Acts doesn’t tell us.

Again I was reminded of something I learned from Michael T. Garrett’s Walking on the Wind and the Cherokee Rule of Acceptance.

Garrett relates an old Cherokee saying:

“Listen or your tongue will make you deaf!”

That saying has stayed with me today.

Sometimes we become so busy explaining, defending, arguing, controlling, and telling everyone what we know that we can no longer hear.

And now I come to John.

Once again people are talking.

They know who they are.

They know their tradition.

They know their ancestry.

They know what they believe about God.

And Jesus says:

You aren’t listening.

That makes me stop.

Because I have traditions too.

I have doctrines.

I have theological understandings.

I have experiences.

I have education.

I have opinions.

I have accumulated knowledge over many years.

And none of those things is necessarily bad.

But they can become so loud that I cannot hear.

Our traditions can become loud.

Our doctrines can become loud.

Our denominations can become loud.

Our politics can become loud.

Our isms can become loud.

Our fears can become loud.

Our desires can become loud.

Even our own thoughts can become loud.

And somewhere beneath all that noise may be the quiet voice we most need to hear.

Perhaps that is why silence has such an important place in the spiritual life.

Silence isn’t necessarily the absence of anything.

Silence can be the space we create for listening.

That reminds me of an old hymn I heard years ago:

“I’ll be somewhere listening.”

There is something beautiful in that thought.

Somewhere listening.

Not somewhere explaining everything.

Not somewhere defending everything I already believe.

Not somewhere proving that my group possesses all the truth.

Not somewhere demanding that God fit my expectations.

Somewhere listening.

My journey has taken me through different churches, classrooms, traditions, cultures, books, people, experiences, and Sacred Writings.

I have discovered wisdom in places I once might not have expected to find it.

Sometimes another culture has helped me hear something in my own Sacred Writings that had been there all along.

Sometimes history has challenged what I assumed.

Sometimes genealogy has helped me understand relationships across generations.

Sometimes creation has taught me.

Sometimes another person’s experience has made me reconsider my own.

And sometimes I simply needed to become quiet.

Today Job told me:

Listen to creation.

Acts reminded me:

I don’t have to understand everything.

And Jesus tells me:

“Whoever belongs to God hears the words of God.”

Maybe that is the thread running through all of it.

Listen.

Listen before judging.

Listen before explaining.

Listen before defending.

Listen before deciding that what I already know is everything there is to know.

Listen to Sacred Writings.

Listen to creation.

Listen to those who came before us.

Listen to people whose experiences are different from ours.

Listen to wisdom when it comes from somewhere unexpected.

And above everything else:

Listen for the Holy Spirit.

Because perhaps the truth that sets us free begins with becoming quiet enough to hear it.

I don’t want my traditions to make me deaf.

I don’t want my doctrines to make me deaf.

I don’t want my opinions to make me deaf.

And I certainly don’t want my own voice to make me deaf.

I want to remain a Curious Pilgrim.

Learning.

Watching.

Waiting.

And somewhere along the road—

listening.

A Pilgrim’s Prayer

Holy Spirit,

quiet the voices within me that compete with yours.

Quiet my need to explain everything.

Quiet my need to defend what I already believe.

Quiet my fears, expectations, and desires long enough for me to hear.

Teach me the gift of silence.

Help me listen to your Sacred Writings.

Help me listen to creation.

Help me listen to those whose experiences are different from mine.

Help me recognize wisdom when I encounter it.

And when truth challenges something I have always believed, give me courage to listen before I react.

Jesus said the truth will set us free.

So lead me into truth.

And when I don’t know what to say,

teach me that I don’t always need to say anything.

Sometimes I simply need to be still.

Somewhere waiting.

Somewhere listening.

**Speak, Lord.

I am listening.**

Amen.