NOTE: I am putting my weekly sermons on the church website. It will be on for two weeks (usually posted on Friday) and then placed in the Archives area by date. You can download in a matter of seconds.
Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766
Sunday, July 10, 2005
“Give Me Life , O Lord”
Scripture: Psalm 119: 105-112
Communication between people can easily crumble, such as when the phrase “listen here” comes out as “hiss and leer.” No wonder, then, that we have trouble hearing a word from the Lord.
Communication breakdowns.
They can occur between two people, such as when the phrase “listen here” comes out as “hiss and leer.” Or the solemn oath “So help me God” gets twisted into “Go help me sod.” (These are only a couple of “Spoonerisms”, a term developed by a Reverend Spooner, a Episcopal Priest of time past).
We’ve all experienced these breakdowns, and maybe even caused them. But to really foul things up, you need a computer.
Newspaper columnist Courtland Milloy recently dialed 411, and a female voice asked, “What city and state, please?” He said, “Landover, Maryland.” The voice replied, “You said England. Is that correct?”
Another time he telephoned Amtrak. “Hi, I’m Julie,” the voice said. Julie gave him a menu of services to select from, and he asked for scheduling information. “What day would you like to leave?” asked the voice, and Courtland mumbled to himself, “Hold on a second.” Julie replied, “I think you asked for December 22. Is that correct?”
Computers. They’re not very good listeners.
These voices on the phone are ”virtual characters,” computer programs designed to assist — and perhaps even replace – living, breathing telephone operators and customer service representatives. They are a product of the latest and greatest speech-recognition technology, but they don’t always grasp what we are saying to them.
The problem is not just with machines, however — there can be failures on the human side as well. Clifford Nass, a professor of communications at Stanford, reports that when BMW introduced their navigation system in Germany, they used a female voice. The voice was not accepted, and the product had to be recalled, because German drivers would not take directions from a woman. Ouch!
Nass has also found that when people engage in a major stock transaction, they’ll respond favorably to a female voice when getting information. “But when it comes to actually making a trade,” he says, “they prefer a male voice, even though it’s the same machine.”
This is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Go help me sod. Er: So help me God.
Communication snafus may be annoying when we’re calling for information about a bus schedule when we are standing at a train station, and do not know the proper pronunciation of the town we want reservations for. ie: when I went on my archaeological dig in 1998, I was looking for the bus station in Haifa, Israel. I went up to the window, and asked for a bus ticket to Safed (say fed). The lady at the window said “Svat?” I understood her to be saying “What”, so I repeated (a little louder) that I needed a bus ticket to Safed. She responded: “You want a bus ticket to Svat? You are at the train station.
Miscommunications are commonplace, and can be dangerous. You may end up far from your destination.
But what if we don’t get it? What if God speaks, and we don’t hear the message?
There are a number of reasons that we miss out on these messages. Sometimes we don’t practice good “speech recognition” when the word of God comes to us in a passage of Scripture, or in a message from the pulpit or in the reprimand of a friend — we tend to want to hear a voice that is pleasing to us, like the German drivers who reject directions from female computer voices.
We also find that we’re really not very good listeners, and our minds wander aimlessly when we hear talk of the ordinances, laws, precepts, decrees and statutes of the Lord.
The conflict is this: We know that Scripture is a light and lamp, a voice that we should recognize.
But we don’t. And this is a breakdown that can break us.
One way to avoid hearing “hiss and leer” when God says “listen here” is to approach the Bible in a whole new way. Actually, this new way is an ancient way, but it’s a way that is being rediscovered by Christians around the world. If we are going to find a route past the worship wars and the theological roadblocks that are causing such problems for Protestants today, we’re going to have to dip into the rich traditions that have been preserved by our Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican brothers and sisters.
When it comes to hearing the word of God, this means reclaiming the practice of lectio divina. This ancient Latin term can be translated quite simply as “sacred reading.”
So what does it mean, and how is it a new approach to the Bible?
Lectio divina is based on the belief that Bible-reading is a personal encounter with God, rather than an impersonal search for information. Too often we approach the Bible as a divine textbook, full of answers to our moral or theological questions. If we have a question, we open up the Bible, find the answer, and then snap the Bible shut. Case closed. “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.”
Problem is, God does not always speak the language of rules and regulations. God is interested less in rules than he is in relationships, connections that are deep and rich and satisfying and strong, and that can carry us through any kind of hardship, distress, persecution, famine, peril or violence. God wants to speak clearly to us so that we will know how much he loves us; so that we will open our arms to his gift of abundant life.
This hunger for connection comes through so clearly in Psalm 119, when the author cries out, “I am severely afflicted; give me life, O LORD, according to your word” (107). The Bible is no dry textbook here, no source of quick answers to tough questions. Instead, it’s an invitation to enter into a personal encounter with God, and to hear his word more clearly than before.
This is where lectio divina can be such a life saver. This style of sacred reading begins with a slow and reverent reading of the Bible passage, allowing the words to sink into our consciousness. “In lectio divina, we love the text,” writes Michel de Verteuil in an article on sacred reading. We “linger over it, read it over and over, let it remain with us.”
Then we meditate on the passage, and allow it to stir up memories, so that we recognize our own experiences in it.
We also pray over the text, offering up thanksgivings, expressions of humility, requests for help. By following this method of Bible reflection, we discover that God is actively trying to make a connection with us through the words of Scripture, and is always working to strengthen our relationship with him.
Step 1: Reading to “hear” the Word of God. Psalm 119 begins, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (v. 105). Hang on these words ... let them work on you a little. Hear them over again, and let them remain with you.
“Your word ... is a lamp to my feet ... and a light to my path.”
[Allow a few moments of silence for the meaning of these words to sink in.]
Step 2: Reading to “see” Christ in the Word. God’s word provides us with a strong and reliable guiding light. It is a beacon of hope in dark and depressing times; a ray of guidance when we don’t know the way to go. How does Christ the Word come to us as a light to our path? Reflect on a time in our lives when we’ve been walking in darkness ... and then seen the light.
[Give the congregation some time for meditation.]
Step 3: Reading to “respond” to Christ’s call to action. There is no guarantee of comfort in this psalm, only connection. “I am severely afflicted,” says the psalmist; “LORD give me life, O LORD, according to your word” (107). The writer knows that our lives are in God’s hands, and there is no good to be found apart from God. What is Christ calling us to “do,” or to “be”?
“Righteous ordinances ... laws ... precepts ... decrees ... statutes.”
[Allow a few moments of silence.]
These words bring order out of chaos, and offer illumination in places of deep darkness. They have a truly positive power, one that leads the psalmist to say, “Your decrees are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart” (111). There is nothing oppressive about such words of guidance — instead, they lead us toward a life of love and joy and peace and connection.
Step 4: Prayer. Now we have an opportunity to enter into dialogue with Christ the Word, to hear him invite us to deeper levels of discipleship and obedience.
Let us now incline our hearts to the law of God, and move from meditation into prayer. As people who have turned from leering to hearing, and from sod to God, let us unite our hearts in prayer. (please repeat the following prayer, after me)
Almighty God, we thank you for your holy word, which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. May we become ever more closely connected to you as we read your word, and may we follow your light into a life of abundant love and joy and peace. We confess that we sometimes wander from your way, so we ask you to help us observe your laws and statutes — not out of a fear of punishment, but out of a passion for your word and your way. We pray all this in the name of Jesus, your Word made flesh. Amen.
[Allow time for silent prayer.]
Step 5: Contemplation. The text is read a final time, and silence follows to allow a period of time to envision ourselves in the very presence of God who is speaking to us now. This is a time of rest and reflection.
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Sources:
Milloy, Courtland. “Who wants to talk like a computer?” The Washington Post, December 15, 2004, B1.
Verteuil, Michel de. “Lectio Divina — Sacred reading: A method of Bible reflection.” The Lectio Divina Page, clubi.ie/shalom/lectio. Retrieved January 6, 2005.
Let me know what you think. The church Email is: slumc@direcway.com, Phone: 480.895.8766