On Saturday afternoons when I was growing up my dad used to sit in our family room watching one football game on the television, listening to another one on the radio and reading the newspaper – all at the same time. I recall trying to talk to him with the very distinct impression that he could hear me but was not really listening to anything I was saying. Sadly, my kids tell me I have inherited that gift from my father. The ability (or disability) to hear people without really listening to what they’re saying.
In the 4th chapter of Mark (verses 1-20) Jesus tells the parable of the sower which is a parable all about hearing, suggesting that we (as hearers) are the soil in which seeds are planted but that only those who truly hear and nurture the seeds that are planted will experience growth. At the end of that parable Jesus says “whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” He seems to be suggesting that it’s possible to have ears to hear but not hear- I guess it means that like me, and my dad before me, we’ve become really good at letting things go in one ear and out the other. I guess it means we’ve become really good at tuning things out. We’re good at tuning out people; and I think we’ve become good at tuning out God.
I think it’s possible that God is speaking but we’ve got so much going on and so much competing for our attention that we just can’t hear it. Like my dad with the TV, radio and newspaper, we’ve got games to watch, work to do, bills to pay, papers to grade, calls to make and as a result we’ve become unable to hear our kids, our spouses, our colleagues, our students, our friends, not to mention the “still small voice of God” (1 Kings 19:12) that is trying to speak into our lives.
This week I invite you to take a little time; turn off the competing noise. Turn off the TV, the computer, the podcast, the radio; put down the book, the newspaper, the magazine; stop preparing, worrying, doing, for a few minutes. Take a little time. Read the parables in Mark Chapter 4. Listen for what they might be saying to you. Sit quietly and say a prayer and may you begin, not only to have ears but to also truly hear what God might be saying to you.
