the days of Advent.....hear

Hear O Israel.......

When I first starting writing this I began with the word 'listen'....an important beginning point for our Advent journey.  But, of course, listening presupposes hearing so perhaps we should begin our journey with 'hear'.

All kinds of things interfere with our ability to hear.  Let's start with distractions.  I was listening to one of the those phone tree messages, you know the sequence of 'press 1 for...' 'press 2 for...' etc.  All of a sudden I was at the end and had no idea which number I needed because I hadn't really heard them.  I was distracted by something else.  I pressed 1.  It seemed like a good place to start.  So distractions interfere with our ability to hear.

Then there are messages we don't want to hear; these are often a form of the truth. Truth is so very difficult to hear, to swallow, to accept.  There is a confrontational (one might say 'confessional') component to truth which requires a bit of time to digest.  The clarity of truth makes it all the more difficult to receive and so we often reject it out of hand.  So the second obstacle to hearing is the message no one wants to hear.

Then there is the din from competing messages which often come with glitter and flashing lights. Not distraction but attraction.  We are attracted by the glory or fun or success that the glittery message promises.  We are 'all in' and never even hear the other message in the wings.

So, it seems hearing is a good place to start our discussion because hearing is clearly more than the ability to pass an audiology test.  Music lovers are able to pick out the oboe's mellow tones among the full orchestra.  A mother can distinguish her child's cry from others three aisles away.  A mechanic recognizes when the whine of an engine spells serious trouble.

So when we talk about the miracle of God's promise to this world, like God's promise to Abraham and Sarah, the promise of a son, an heir....to be born in their old age...then perhaps we need to begin with the miracle of hearing.  It seems that their ears needed to be tuned to God's voice in order to hear this promise of new life in the midst of their failing health, their daily struggles and the racket made by all the other voices in their world.

I can imagine them saying to each other, "What? Did you hear what I heard?"  It is a questions I often ask myself.....at least when I am  paying attention and willing to hear what God has to say.

"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one." Mark 12.29