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When I was in middle school, I caught myself daydreaming in class. I realized
that I could take down some notes from my teacher’s lesson while dreaming
of my future life as the lead singer of a punk band. I was so proud of my ruse
that I went home and told my mother I had discovered a new skill. “Mom,” I
said with self-satisfaction, “I can sit through a class, take notes and not
actually listen to anything the teacher is saying.” With a concerned look on
her face, my mother replied, “Jonathan that is neither a skill nor something
to be proud of. You don’t learn anything by doing that. You need to pay
attention in class.” She was right. I was hearing without listening at all. My
mother was pointing out a problem that New Testament scholar Klyne
Snodgrass calls “superficial hearing.”1
In the parable of the sower, Jesus talks to beach shore crowds about the kind
of listening that doesn’t lead to learning, growth, or change. When a message
isn’t received, when it meets a closed mind or hard heart, when it does not
take root, or when it goes in one ear and out the other—that is superficial
hearing. It is the kind of hearing that isn’t productive. I learned back then in
middle school that a person can hear without ever listening. But what I did
not know then and what I need to remind myself each day is that good
listening is not a given—it is a discipline. As Marilyn McEntyre, the author of
our Lenten devotional puts it, “Listening consistently takes practice.”2 The
kind of listening that leads to new awareness, understanding, empathy, and
transformation requires focus and intention. Listening is a learned skill, an
acquired ability. Most of us, however, are proficient in superficial hearing.
We have to be, to some extent, because we are bombarded with messages
from ads, apps, news feeds, snapchat, Facebook or whatever lights up the
screens we have and hold. Information from all over the world comes to us
in an instant. To navigate this world requires some quick judgment about
these many messages. Now that we have a world of information at our
fingertips we want it all and fast. And we have become accustomed to
communication that is brief and to the point. For example, online college
courses are now offered in lieu of lectures. No judgment, but one of my
friends listens to audiobooks in his car at nearly double speed. Many of us
prefer a text over a call. And just for a little comparison, some of the first
Protestant churches on this soil held 3-hour worship services—twice on a
Sunday. Back then, you might have been told to stand for an hour long
prayer. (You can thank me later.) As a culture, we only require a short span
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Klyne Snodgrass, Stories with Intent: A Comprehensive Guide to the Parables of Jesus, 170.
Word by Word: A Daily Spiritual Practice, 4.
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of attention. One of the things we don’t consider enough is how all of this
impacts the way we listen. As we navigate this distracted and distracting
world, we can often be impatient, apathetic, and superficial listeners.
We are beginning this 40-day Lenten season with Jesus’ command, “Listen!”
Lent is a time of self-examination and prayer that prepares us to receive the
message of the resurrection on Easter. Lent allows us the opportunity to
declutter our heads and soften our hearts so that we can listen for and receive
God’s grace. Some of us, during Lent, refrain from eating or drinking this or
that. Others commit themselves to devotional readings. Some of us practice
daily prayer and contemplation. And others make it a habit to daily do
something for someone in need. All of these disciplines help us to practice
listening. They help us pay attention to ourselves, one another, and God. The
most basic and important Lenten discipline is to listen. It was the first
discipline Jesus relied on in his wilderness temptation. After Jesus fasted 40
days and 40 nights, his first temptation was his most basic bodily need: food.
But Jesus responded to this temptation by telling the tempter that what
really sustained him over those long days and nights was listening to every
word that came from the mouth of God.
Lent, if anything, is about attuning our hearts and minds to the voice of God
that resounds everywhere and in everyone. Marilyn McEntyre challenges us
to listen “widely and willingly” because God speaks in many ways.3 We are
too often too busy-bodied and absent-minded to hear what God is saying.
But Lent offers us a needed pause so that we can attend to God’s voice. Now
is the time to listen widely and willingly to that still, small voice: Listen to the
consolation of God in a friend. Hear God’s promise of peace in a moment of
silence. Pay attention to God challenging you with a hard truth or a difficult
person. Eavesdrop on the chatter of children and discover God’s wisdom.
Listen to the lament of a sufferer and hear hope. Hear the good news of the
gospel behind the daily news. Heed the helpless cry of the distressed and hear
Christ calling. Pay attention to the patter of rain or the stir of the wind and
take note of God’s grace. Listen with affection and intention and you will
hear. Jesus says, “Let anyone with ears listen!”
Through his own 40-day fast, Jesus knew that listening to God requires
discipline and practice. And when Jesus went about telling people to listen
for the word of God he had to account for the fact that his audience would
not listen well. That is why Jesus often spoke in parables—to get people to
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Word by Word, 4.
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hear messages they didn’t want to hear.4 The parable of the sower is the
perfect example of this. Jesus knew that people were often too stubborn and
hard-hearted to understand what he had to say. But instead of indicting his
crowds for their poor listening, he tried a different tactic. He told a story
about seed and soil—the seed being the good news of God’s love and the soil
being the hearts and minds of listeners. The moral of the story is that
listeners who have open, receptive, and focused hearts and minds will truly
hear the good news of God and live accordingly. But this news will have little
to no effect on the close-minded, hard-hearted, and easily distracted.
Sometimes the parable of the sower is interpreted as a cautionary tale about
salvation and damnation. According to this interpretation, those who hear
and receive the word of God are saved and those who don’t listen and let it
sink in are damned. This is to miss the point of the parable entirely. Jesus
tells this parable so that his hearers will consider the conditions of their
hearts and minds to hear what God is saying. This parable invites selfexamination, not fear and despair. Through this story of soil and seed Jesus
wants us to examine our capacity to hear and receive what God is saying.5
Jesus is asking his audience: are you really hearing this good word for you?
And so, as we hear the parable of the sower we are invited to ask ourselves:
am I like the beaten path, where any good news about me is snatched away
by negative thoughts? Am I like the rocky ground, in that God’s voice is just
another voice that bounces off my hard head and calloused heart? Am I like
the soil from which thorns grow, where God’s word to me is choked by the
many distractions and burdens of life? Or, am I now that good soil ready to
receive whatever God has to say to me this day? Am I ready to let that word
sink in so that it will bear a joyful, productive life? God wants to be heard. So
what is the condition of your head and heart? Are you willing and ready to
listen?
This is our invitation on this first week of Lent—to listen well and widely for
God’s voice. In these 40 days, like Jesus, we will be tempted by the superficial
pleasures of life that prevent us from listening to our hearts, our neighbors,
and God. And there will be birds and brambles that threaten our capacity to
listen well. But I invite you to personal prayer and reflection, to regular
worship on Sundays and at our Wednesday night Taize services, to small
group study, and to compassionate care for the poor, the stranger, and the
grieving in this Lenten season. Together, let us practice radical attentiveness.
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Snodgrass, Stories with Intent, introduction.
Snodgrass, 165-176.
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Let’s no longer pretend at hearing—but practice true presence of mind and
heart wherever we are and in whatever we do. Let us take stock of our lives
and see what God is saying to us. Let us open our hearts and minds to every
person we meet to discern what Christ is telling us. And let us seek some
silence and solitude to understand what the Holy Spirit is teaching us. With
every new morning, may we be so open to recognize and receive what God is
telling us. May we be so ready to receive and respond to the good news of
resurrection on Easter morning. God has a good word for us today and
forevermore. Let anyone, let everyone, listen!