Hearing and Heeding

Yesterday was the first Sunday of Lent. Lent is a beautiful time in the Christian calendar that I have not fully embraced in my Christian walk. It was not celebrated much at the church that I grew up in. And even in the church we left over a year ago, the language and observance of Lent was rare. I am excited that Exodus Community has decided to walk through Lent together with the practice of lectio divina. Today I start these Lent readings.

Lord I pray that our community takes these readings slowly and seriously. I pray that You will use these times to be formational in our group and transformational to hurting and damaged areas of our lives. I will need help with my discipline, but I pray Your Spirit will be over all who choose to embark on this journey towards the cross and resurrection.

MONDAY 2.11.08 - PSALM 81:8-14
Hear me, my people, and I will warn you - if you would only listen to me, Israel! You shall have no foreign god among you; you shall not worship any god other than me. I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it. "But my people would not listen to me; Israel would not submit to me. So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices. If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways, how quickly I would would subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their foes!

Significant things jump out at me here. I think both are rather obvious from the text, but very important. I know sometimes I get tricked into thinking that the only important stuff about a text is the new understandings I might glean from connecting it to another verse, by studying it in original language, or by thinking creatively about its meaning. Thank You for reminding me that straight-forward is soul-changing.

Listening is a huge part of this verse, "if you would only listen to me, Israel!" As a people formed to be Yours, Lord, how much listening do we do? This seems to be a first step of submission, to listen. But this isn't just the "oh, I hear what you are saying," type of listening is it? This is the listening where You are really talking about both hearing and heeding You. We both hear the things that You have to say to us, and then we make them part of our actions. This is pretty clear from the parallel language of the Psalm - "If my people would only listen to me, if Israel would only follow my ways." The listening and the following are one in the same.

And when they are that is submission, right? The other large thing I notice about this verse is the theme of choice. "If" is a common word, and it implies that we can choose something other than You, and we often are. The verse that really drives this idea of choice home to me is, "Open wide your mouth and I will fill it." We have to choose to open our mouths. We must choose to follow. Hearing is not enough, hearing is not submission.

So it comes down to something that sounds simple. I must pay attention and hear You and when I do I must choose to heed what You say.

So what is that? What are You saying to me/us that I/we must choose to follow? I believe that the most powerful message I am hearing is that we should have no other thing before You, and that we should take that command seriously. What would I not be willing to give up for You?

This is the question to take with me for the day. Bring me back to it. And actually, I pray that it soaks into the whole community. I love my friends of Exodus, let us start climbing the hill to the cross with You.