You Never Listen to Me

A common lament among couples regards not listening. When complaints about listening are offered, a distinction is often made between "hearing" and "listening." These words can function as near synonyms, but to listen usually implies more active intent of the listener's part. I may hear the loud noise of a car crash, even if I was busy concentrating on something else. But I may not understand what someone is saying if I do not listen. I may only hear that person's words as so much extraneous background noise.

Today's gospel reading features Matthew's account of the Transfiguration, where Jesus literally glows and Moses and Elijah join him for a chat. In the midst of this remarkable event, the divine voice speaks, terrifying the Peter, James, and John. “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!”

If you are a person of faith, you may know first hand that divine speech is frustratingly infrequent. God apparently does not feel the need to speak all that often, at least not in a manner that is unmistakeable. But God speaks here with great clarity and brevity. Jesus is God's special, beloved Son, requiring a single, simple imperative. "Listen to him!"

Jesus says quite a lot, much of it repeatedly. It is perhaps to our benefit that those first disciples were a bit slow on the uptake. In reading through the gospels, Jesus makes many of his points over and over. On a number of topics it is hard to miss what Jesus wants us to do, but if Jesus suddenly appeared in my office, he might be justified if he complained, "You never listen to me!"

If Jesus did offer that complaint, I think he'd only be partly right. Often we have listened a bit, enough to discover that Jesus says some really troubling or difficult things. And so we in the church often focus on other things to the extent that they drown out what we don't want to hear. We worry about how we worship, the music we sing, the buildings we build, getting our doctrines correct, and most of the hot button social issues of the day. These things are not unimportant, but all too often they become so much extraneous noise, drowning out teachings on loving our enemies, denying ourselves, not worrying about wealth, or being willing to suffer for the gospel.

I think that much of the fascination with the new pope in Rome, all those #popecrush hashtags on Twitter, is about a church leader who seems to have done some listening. By many of his statements and actions, he gives the appearance of someone who puts what Jesus says above institutional agenda items that tend to drive many denominations and congregations. And in the process, Pope Francis has made the church attractive to many who had written it off. Who knew that might happen, if only we listened to Jesus.

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