One practice that has endured the test of time with the people of God, from the beginning to the present, has been the discipline of listening. God’s people are constantly listening—whether it’s to stories and narratives passed down over centuries, to the law being read aloud to the people, letters written to churches by apostles, and nowadays, sermons preached during Sunday services. We are a people constantly immersed in the practice of listening.
In Acts 20, there’s a somewhat unconventional story that illustrates the importance of listening:
On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. “Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “He’s alive!” Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.”
What makes this story remarkable is two elements: first, apparently Paul spoke so long that someone fell asleep, fell out a window, and consequently died; but secondly, and perhaps more importantly, after resurrecting him, Paul returns to speaking after doing so! Which highlights something very important about what Paul thought—even if what he was teaching was apparently not the most captivating (after all, someone fell asleep and died from it), the apostle Paul thought it was important enough to for the people to listen to for him to continue speaking.
“The basic task of a sermon is to expound on a passage from the Bible, on a bit of theology or on a bit of religious history. The goal is to make these various topics both understandable and edifying…” — Bishop Todd Hunter
Christianity is a religion of listening.
The whole thing started with the God who listened to the cry of His people and delivered them.
The People of God were formed when they heard the Law of God.
The Christian faith was launched by the hearing of the Gospel.
And it was sustained by the listening to the Word of God.
The Word of God, delivered through a sermon, is contextual and rooted in the locality of the church. Sermons are not simply information and inspiration, but rather, vehicles for communal transformation and formation.
What sermons are meant to do for us is a journey of invitation:
An invitation into God’s Ways and Will;
An invitation to re-enter into God’s Reality;
And an invitation to repent, confess, and be made whole.
So how do we hone in on this common practice of listening? Well, Jesus gives his disciples instructions:
“Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
So how do we practice this? Some thoughts for us to meditate on as we go throughout the week…
- Begin your quiet times with stillness and silence and invite the Holy Spirit to speak. Tune yourself to God by clearing out all of the unnecessary noise, thoughts, and distractions of the day, and invite God’s voice to speak clearly.
- Listen to sermons with an open and humble ear—even if it isn’t explicitly relevant to you, what can you glean from those teachings? What small nugget may be important for your spiritual walk? And begin forming groups to discuss, process, and figure out how to apply the key markings of those teachings after each week.
- Listen to the Word of God being read to you via Lectio Divina (such as d365.org or Lectio 365). What speaks to you? What word resonates as you’re hearing it? What does it remind you of?
For more discussion and behind the scenes of this sermon in the Common Series, listen to our new podcast: The Common Podcast. We upload new episodes every Wednesday! Stay tuned as we continue to learn the Common practices that keep us united as Christ-followers.