Shut Up and Listen! 

“This is my Son, the Beloved… listen to him.”  Matthew 17:5

Not being listened to is a most dehumanizing experience. I'll never forget an interview I had some 27 years ago. When the interview began, one man on the committee picked up a newspaper, turned sideways in his chair and read it throughout the entire interview as if I didn't exist. I can remember how angry and dehumanized I felt.

Listening is not always one of our best things.

Most of us are aware of how hard it is to listen when there are external distractions. Marcia and I went to a movie a couple of weeks ago, The Phantom of the Opera, and there were two people behind us who wouldn’t stop talking throughout the entire movie. It made it hard to focus in on the movie with voices coming from behind us.  I would have moved to a different seat, but the theatre was pretty full.  I should have said something, but I kept thinking that they would surely stop talking.  I wondered how anyone could talk through a movie like Phantom: glorious music, stunning cinematography, a good story. 

Listening is not always one of our best things.

But even louder, so much louder than the clatter of external distractions, is internal distraction, the clatter of which is so loud we are often inhibited from listening.

Peter’s problem on the mountain was that he did not listen. You and I would have reacted no differently.  Whatever Peter thought was happening on that mountain, his response was to advance his agenda, that is, until God interrupted him, surrounded him with a bright cloud, and with a booming voice said, “Peter, shut up and listen!”  That’s not exactly the words that God used, but that is precisely what God meant.  Whatever incredible thing was happening up there on that mountain, Peter tried to turn it into his thing and make it all about Peter and his agenda, and God literally stopped him in his tracks.

Listening is not always one of our best things.

I read the other day that on average, we spend 9 percent of our day writing, 16 percent reading, 30 percent speaking and 45 percent listening. But, it is also true that we receive most of our training developing skills in writing, reading and speaking, but very little time developing listening skills.

Did you know that the word for Sabbath in Hebrew, Shabbat, literally means “to quit, to stop, to take a break?”  The word by itself has no inherent religious meaning.  But when it is placed in the biblical context, “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy,” it takes on a fascinating character.  What it suggests is that a first step of faith, a baby step of discipleship is not doing, but listening. I think of the awesome Psalm 46:10 where it says, “Be still and know that I am God.” “Be still and know!”

Remember the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10?  Jesus came to their house for a visit and Mary chose to sit at Jesus feet and “listened.”  Martha, on the other hand, got all bent out of shape because Mary wasn’t helping her with the household tasks, fixing dinner for Jesus or whatever.  Jesus mildly admonished Martha saying, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things… but Mary has chosen the better thing…”  (Luke 10:38-42)  And the better thing was to “listening.”

A part of what I believe this Transfiguration Story is about, and why the early Christian community chose to remember it, is because they wanted to remind each other that a first step of discipleship is listening because, like us, they also knew that “listening is not always one of our best things.

A huge component of Jesus’ ministry here on earth was attentive listening.  Many of the gospel stories are about Jesus attentively listening to those around him.  He touched the lepers when he healed them because he listened to their lonely isolated souls, and knew that more than anything they needed a loving touch.  I call that attentive listening. 

I love the story of the woman who touched the fringe of Jesus’ cloak in a pressing crowd, and Jesus stopped and acknowledged her touch.  He was so in tune with the people around him, that even in a jostling crowd he perceived the desperate touch, of a desperate woman, and stopped everything to minister to her needs. (Matthew 9:18-22)  I call that attentive listening.

There was also the time four friends brought a paralyzed man to Jesus.  Jesus was teaching inside a house and there were so many people crowded in the house and around the door that they couldn’t get even close to Jesus.  So, they went up on the roof and lowered the man on his stretcher down through the roof in front of Jesus so that Jesus might heal him.  Jesus did heal him, but before he did he forgave the man’s sins.  Nobody asked anything about forgiving sins, but Jesus saw past the man’s physical paralysis to a deeper spiritual and emotional paralysis of his soul.  (Mark 2:1-12) I call that attentive listening.

Dying on the cross he looked down at his executioners, those mocking and cursing him, and even as he suffered unto death, he never lost his capacity to see into the darkness of the human soul, and he saw that even his executioners were still people to be loved. “Father, forgive them.”  I would call that attentive listening beyond comprehension. 

Jesus mentored for us that listening is a principle characteristic of love – especially God’s love.  Jesus’ attentive listening elevated the needs of others over his own personal agenda. 

On the Mountain of Transfiguration Peter stopped listening and advanced his agenda.  God stopped him in his tracks, and brought him to his knees in a posture of listening.  And then Peter and the others followed Jesus off that mountaintop back into the real world, of real people, with real needs and real troubles.  He mentored for them the baby steps of discipleship, the baby steps of following him, which had to do with attentive listening before anything else – attentive listening to God and attentive listening to others. 

But the disciples still didn’t get it.  The very next day, with the memory of the mountain experience fresh in their minds, an argument broke out among the disciples about who among them was the greatest, trying to posture themselves over and against one another.  Once again Jesus had to shut them up and set them straight that in the kingdom of God the least are the greatest; the last become first; the servants are the masters.

Repeatedly Jesus told the disciples that it was necessary for him to go to the cross to die, and repeatedly they didn’t get it.  Peter even tried to physically stop him and cursed the idea right in Jesus’ face.  Once again Jesus had to shut Peter up and set him straight.

Listening is not always one of our best things. 

Perhaps the most important thing we can take away from this Transfiguration Sabbath is that the baby steps of discipleship involve listening.  

What is it that keeps you from truly listening to God, and truly listening to others?  What aspects of your personal agenda would you advance over and above the agenda of Jesus Christ and deafen you to the deeper issues of discipleship in His name?

I know for me it’s easy to identify the internal noise that deafens me.    Fear of rejection and failure; worry and anxiety; not wanting to be inconvenienced or have to go out of my way; anger; rage; guilt; a prejudice against someone; hurt feelings;  a desire to feel safe;  a need to be in control – the list grows pretty long.   But in the face of my inner noise and clamor Jesus comes before me and says with love, “Joe, shut up and listen!”  

“This is my Son, the Beloved… listen to him.” 

It’s an admonition to render silent your agenda that would supercede the agenda of the Lord.

“This is my Son, the Beloved… listen to him.” 

It’s a challenge to quiet those inner voices that would drown out the voice of Jesus.

“This is my Son, the Beloved… listen to him.” 

It’s an invitation to take a bold step of discipleship.

Will you?