Spiritual Hiccups - Hearing God

For the past several years, members of the congregation I serve have produced an Advent Devotional.  People sign up to write devotions for each day in Advent, and these are bound in booklets.  This year the devotions were tied to the Daily Lectionary, and the writers chose which of the scripture readings they would use.

This morning, as I was reading the lectionary passages as part of my own devotions, I got the strong sense that I needed to read the Advent devotion for today.  I went and got the booklet, and what I read spoke directly to me in a very powerful way, and this got me thinking about how we encounter and hear God.

One of the hazards of having a profession that is intertwined with your faith is a difficulty listening to Scripture without thinking about how you might interpret a passage for teaching, preaching, or even blogging.  But how am I to hear God speaking to me if I am always trying to figure out what God is saying to someone else?

One of the spiritual practices I try to engage in is something called examen.  At the end of the day I reflect back, and I ask myself where I met God during the day, as well as where I may have missed God.  And it is a bit disconcerting to think that being a "professional Christian" can sometimes obscure God for me.

Thank God that the voice of my faith community broke through to me.  Turns out that the faith community is essential to me (and not just to pay my salary).  I need the voice of others to open me to the presence of God, especially as a Christian who understands God to be incarnate in Jesus, to be "in the flesh" both in Christ and in the living body of Christ, the Church.

Presbyterians are part of a tradition that not only speaks of incarnation, but also of the "priesthood of all believers," the notion that all Christians have direct access to God and so do not need a priest to mediate that presence.  But this access also means that each of us are part of the work of mediating God's presence.  But as resident religious expert, it can be easy to forget this, and so to miss God in the other.  But thankfully, God (with an assist from Amy) broke through my barriers of expertise. 

What barriers make it hard for you to hear God?  May the Spirit make all of us more open to God's presence in our midst.

Click to learn more about the Daily Lectionary.