“It pays to listen”
By Rev. Micheal Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday, October 8, 2022
Luke 8:16-25 (Forward, p. 71) CEV p. 1068
The passage selected as today’s reading contains three very different and seemingly unrelated pieces or pericope. Jesus begins by talking about light and how those very secrets that we try to remain hidden will some day for brought to everyone’s attention (brought to light). Then, we hear of Jesus’ family being turned away when they come seeking to see Him, and of Jesus’ surprising words that His mother and brothers are actually those who hear and obey God’s message. And then, in the final section, we read of how Jesus was able to calm the storm at sea with nothing more than a mere word. In other words, the wind and the waves hear Him and obey.
Now, it is bad scholarship and poor exegesis to force a theme upon passages where it doesn’t actually exist, but there does seem to be something of a theme here. It is the theme of hearing, or of listening.
In the section on light, we discover that people will eventually hear, and presumably listen to, those very things that we have kept secret and not wanted anyone to know about. But then, Jesus exhorts His hearers to pay attention to what they hear, for what they do have, and do hear, can rather easily and quickly be lost. It can far too easily be forgotten. How very true this is for those of us reaching more senior years!
As for the second section, Jesus delineates who His real family really consists of, who they really are. Not to exclude His nuclear family necessarily, it is those who hear—and obey—God’s message. There’s that listening bit again.
In the final section, we read that the wind and the waves obey, which is rather interesting and informative, because far too often we humans do not. All of which brings me to a personal story. Back in June 1970 I was a deeply troubled young person, one that was struggling with matters of faith and my future. I had been sitting outside with a friend during a good old-fashioned prairie thunderstorm when the storm drifted away and the stars came out. It struck me that the stars were all in their fixed and designated places because they had no choice. Furthermore, they were wonderfully ordered that even mariners could chart their courses by them. I realized that there was this order to them because God willed it and planned it that way. I realized that I could have that same order, but only if I chose to let Him have that control. The stars and planets, in terms of whether they would listen and obey--just as with the wind and the waves in our gospel account--had no choice, but I did. And so I chose to say ‘yes’ to God.
So, it is important that we choose to hear, to listen up, but perhaps even more important that we chose to remember—and to obey, what God says to us. Amen.
Forward notes: “Then pay attention to how you listen; for to those who have, more will be given; and from those who do not have, even what they seem to have will be taken away” (verse 18).
“When I’ve heard this reading from the Gospel of Luke in the past, I focused on the injustice that I perceived. How can it be fair that those who have little will lose what little they have? But as I prepared for this meditation, I began to spend time with the first part of verse 18: ‘Then pay attention to how you listen; for to those who have, more will be given.’
“Perhaps a key instruction here is about our growth and our potential for growth in Christ if we are invested in expanding our understanding. Maybe, just maybe, with better listening, we’re equipping ourselves to carry forth what we’re hearing and learning, better positioning ourselves to live the evangelism that we’re being called to do. And it may be that we, who have listened a bit better, will walk alongside Christ as he shares with those who may not have listened as well at first.”
Moving Forward: “Are you listening? Or do you get stuck on other parts of scripture that seem confounding?”