Listen to Jesus

This week's "Words to Live By", entitled "Listen to Jesus" were written from Pastor Paul's hospital room. He is hoping to be going home today. We extend our thanks to him for his good words and our prayers for continued recuperation. God bless you Paul and Diane.

Read Luke 8:4—15

Hearing is a gift. Listening is an art. There is a difference between them that is essential to faith development. Jesus points to that difference in the Parable of the Sower and the Seeds. It seems to depend on what happens to the words we hear.
When a farmer sows seed it is broadcast across the land falling on or into various kinds of soil. Jesus proclaims his good news to a variety of people who hear the same words. Yet, depending on what happens to those words in our minds and hearts determines the various results that follow. It is like the difference in how seed grows and produces in the kind of soil on or into which if falls.

Jesus uses parables to share the “secrets of the Kingdom of God” with his followers. Not everyone who hears the good news understands what Jesus says. Each person interprets what is heard based on his or her experiences, beliefs and convictions.

Therefore when good news is proclaimed people respond to it differently. Some hear but don’t listen. Their thoughts are focused on other things. It‘s like seeds that fall on the path which the birds carry away. Others hear, yet as they listen, other things distract them from understanding. They are like those seeds falling on rocky soil that cannot take root and the good news, like the young plant, withers.

Another group listening to the good news begins to see and understand God’s truth. However, they are deeply committed to other ideas in conflict with what God says and can’t quite make the connection. They are like those seeds that fall among thorns and weeds that grow up and choke the developing plant and it dies. Often the religious leaders of Jesus’ day heard Jesus but had a difficult time listening and understanding because of their self-righteous understanding that they alone were the experts on God’s truth contained in the law and the prophets.

Jesus seems to be wasting his words on people who don’t listen. The good news that he shares is for everyone to hear. Many people listen and allow God to nurture the message of reconciling love, forgiveness of sins and salvation in their hearts and minds. They are like the seeds that fall into the good soil and produce fruit. It changes their lives. It grows into a living faith. It results in becoming a disciple.

God’s gift of hearing allows everyone to hear the good news. The art of listening helps the hearer to understand this good news is intended for their benefit. Understanding the good news of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ, is salvation and eternal life for all who believe. It is a blessing for everyone who believes.

Even disciples have difficulty understanding parables. Like seeds, faith takes time to grow, develop and bear fruit. Each and every time you and I open the Book of Faith and hear the good news of God’s love that faith gets fertilized and nourished. A growing faith is the result of hearing, listening and understanding over a life time.

During the last week my body has been fighting off infections with the help of antibiotic and required my being hospitalized. My mind and heart have been nourished with God’s good news Jesus Christ. My faith has been strengthened by the gift of God’s Holy Spirit transforming what I heard from God’s Word into an increasing confidence in God’s love for you, for me and for everyone.

When I was a young boy and my mother asked me to do something she would often have to say, “Did you hear me?” If my response was too slow she would say, “Are you listening to me?” When I needed a third reminder, her words were, “Did you understand what I said?” Now that I’m no longer a young boy, I find those same questions guiding me as a child of God growing in the faith that brings salvation to those who believe.

In John’s Gospel, chapter 2, Mary, the mother of Jesus, tell the servants at a wedding, listen! “Do whatever he (Jesus) tells you.” That’s good advice for every believer who wants to grow and live in the faith.

Open my ears, Lord, and teach me to listen.
See Hymn # 516 (Evangelical Lutheran Worship)

Almighty God, your word is cast like seed into the ground;

now let the dew of heav'n descend and righteous fruits abound.
Let not the sly satanic foe this holy seed remove, but give it root in ev'ry heart to bring forth fruits of love.
Let not the world's deceitful cares the rising plant destroy, but let it yield a hundredfold the fruits of peace and joy.
So when the precious seed is sown, life giving grace bestow, that all whose souls the truth receive its saving pow'r may know.