Jesus said:‘No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lamp stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 17For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, nor is anything secret that will not become known and come to light. 18Then 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.’This Gospel reading comes just after Luke 8: 1-15 with the following Parable beginning at verse 4.
The True Kindred of Jesus
Then his mother and his brothers came to him, but they could not reach him because of the crowd. 20And he was told, ‘Your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you.’ 21But he said to them, ‘My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’
When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to Jesus, he said in a parable: 5‘A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. 7Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. 8Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.’ As he said this, he called out, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’
The Purpose of the Parables
Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10He said, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets* of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak* in parables, so that
“looking they may not perceive,
and listening they may not understand.”
There is a real difference between hearing and listening. It is often easier to hear than it is to listen. When we hear something it is often something that may or may not be intended for us, but we hear the sound anyway. The sound of a bird chirping or a lawn mower, for example. Listening requires a sense of surrender. When we listen we are attentive with an interior focus on what someone is saying or waiting for something we expect. Listening involves a risk. There is always the possibility that when we are listening, we will hear something we do not particularly care for. When we hear something we do not care to hear, we can choose to only hear it or actually listen to what happened. Hearing something only can stop it as soon as it is in the mind. Listening risks something going through the mind and into the heart. If it is something that hurts and we listened, it will turn our emotions to anger, hurt or even deep sadness. When we listen to good news, we will experience joy and a sense of serene.
When it comes to listening for God, it requires a willingness to listen to what is beyond ourselves, and yet how God connects with the deepest parts of ourselves. When God enters our space of silence when we cannot hear so much as a pin drop, that is when God the Holy Spirit comes to our restless hearts and makes her home deep within our souls. The Holy Spirit calms us with her wonderful Motherly grace and tells us once again how much God loves us. As we listen to the Holy Spirit, she will tell us to see ourselves through God's eyes not through the eyes of our common world. The Holy Spirit makes no distinction of persons, but comes to the heart that is wounded and seeks to help us find solitude in the quietness of God's wondrous graces.
Those who often listen become people of wisdom and leadership. A humble listener does not need to place themselves in the front rows to be seen. A listening leader leads by example and compassion and a desire to meet the challenges around the individual and her or his community and know that by action she or he can change things for the better. Even if she or he only helps others take a tiny step forward.
*In the middle of the Russian Civil War, Sergius began a life of seclusion in a nearby forest from which he developed the Monastery of the Holy Trinity as a center of revival for Russian Christianity. Sergius was inspired intense devotion to the Russian Orthodox Faith. Sergius supported Prince Dimitri Donoskoi to that helped him win a decisive victory against the Tartar overlords in the Kulikovo Plains in 1380 and laid the foundations for his people's independent national life.
The Russian Church observes Sergius' memory on September 25. His name is familiar to Anglicans from the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius, a society established to promote closer relations between the Anglican and Russian Churches. (*See Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 600).
Sergius is an example of what can happen when an individual takes the opportunity to spend some time in solitude and listen to what God has to say. One can learn to listen to God in a diversity of situations and be moved to understand things in diverse ways. Listening has the power to turn what we listen to into actions that can change people's lives.
The Episcopal Church has been listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit to help us change our understanding of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, questioning and queer people (LGBTQ). We understand that sexual orientation and gender identity/expression is not a choice, but a gracious and wonderful gift from God to love and to be the person/people God created us to be. Our committed and loving relationships are also a symbol of God's love for all humanity, the love of Christ and the Church. The love of God in Jesus Christ is for all humanity, not just a particular part of humankind. It is humankind that must learn to stretch our hearts open to love others different than ourselves. God's heart is always wide open to love every one of God's precious children.
Sadly, the Archbishop of Canterbury's (ABC) own language towards LGBTQ people is still old fashioned. Archbishop Rowan Williams reportedly supports gay bishops who remain celibate. In other words as long as gay and lesbian people are willing to refrain from our vocation to love someone of the same sex, which is why God blesses us with sexual and gender diversity. It is a shame really that having spent some time with Pope Benedict XVI he would adopt like ideas, even if they do not reflect the truth of God's love for LGBTQ people. This is hardly listening to the experiences of lesbian and gay people as the Lambeth Council of 1998 suggested. Happily the Episcopal Church does not share the ABC's narrow minded opinion. Because in the Anglican Tradition we do not have a hierarchy control such as the Papacy, each Church within the Anglican Communion can decide how to operate within it's own borders.
In her Pentecost Letter, Katherine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church wrote:
The recent statement by the Archbishop of Canterbury about the struggles within the Anglican Communion seems to equate Pentecost with a single understanding of gospel realities. Those who received the gift of the Spirit on that day all heard good news. The crowd reported, “in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power” (Acts 2:11).
The Spirit does seem to be saying to many within The Episcopal Church that gay and lesbian persons are God’s good creation, that an aspect of good creation is the possibility of lifelong, faithful partnership, and that such persons may indeed be good and healthy exemplars of gifted leadership within the Church, as baptized leaders and ordained ones. The Spirit also seems to be saying the same thing in other parts of the Anglican Communion, and among some of our Christian partners, including Lutheran churches in North America and Europe, the Old Catholic churches of Europe, and a number of others.
That growing awareness does not deny the reality that many Anglicans and not a few Episcopalians still fervently hold traditional views about human sexuality. This Episcopal Church is a broad and inclusive enough tent to hold that variety. The willingness to live in tension is a hallmark of Anglicanism, beginning from its roots in Celtic Christianity pushing up against Roman Christianity in the centuries of the first millennium. That diversity in community was solidified in the Elizabethan Settlement, which really marks the beginning of Anglican Christianity as a distinct movement. Above all, it recognizes that the Spirit may be speaking to all of us, in ways that do not at present seem to cohere or agree. It also recognizes what Jesus says about the Spirit to his followers, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:12-13).
The Episcopal Church has spent nearly 50 years listening to and for the Spirit in these matters. While it is clear that not all within this Church have heard the same message, the current developments do represent a widening understanding. Our canons reflected this shift as long ago as 1985, when sexual orientation was first protected from discrimination in access to the ordination process. At the request of other bodies in the Anglican Communion, this Church held an effective moratorium on the election and consecration of a partnered gay or lesbian priest as bishop from 2003 to 2010. When a diocese elected such a person in late 2009, the ensuing consent process indicated that a majority of the laity, clergy, and bishops responsible for validating that election agreed that there was no substantive bar to the consecration.
The Episcopal Church recognizes that these decisions are problematic to a number of other Anglicans. We have not made these decisions lightly. We recognize that the Spirit has not been widely heard in the same way in other parts of the Communion. In all humility, we recognize that we may be wrong, yet we have proceeded in the belief that the Spirit permeates our decisions.
If all of us could take some time to listen to the Holy Spirit lead us towards heavenly understandings, we would see that our earthly prejudices are groundless. May a little listening help us all to love each other today better than we did yesterday, and tomorrow better than today.
Grant us, Lord, not to anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things which are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Proper 20, Book of Common Prayer, page 234).
O God, whose blessed Son became poor that we through his poverty might be rich: Deliver us from an inordinate love of this world, that we, inspired by the devotion of your servant Sergius of Moscow, may serve you with singleness of heart, and attain to the riches of the age to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Sergius, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 601).
O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior, the Prince of Peace: Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions; take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatever else may hinder us from godly union and concord; that, as there is but one Body and one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may be all of one heart and of one soul, united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Prayer for the Unity of the Church, Book of Common Prayer, page 818).
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