I have a "good" ear and
I have a "bad" ear. My right ear has always had a limited ability to
pick up certain sounds. Low end hearing and high end hearing are just fine, but
the middle range, in that left ear, is just missing. So my left ear has
compensated by becoming very sensitive.
My mom always told me the hearing
loss in my right ear (hearing assist devices won't help) was due to high fevers
I had as a child suffering with tonsillitis, but audiologists at IU Med Center
a decade ago said the hearing loss was a congenital birth defect. At some point
the right ear stopped developing, and then later -in utero- it began to develop
again. A study of the hearing range, in that right ear, looks like the Grand
Canyon. There is a sudden drop-off in hearing ability in the middle range.
My parents accused me of using
the hearing loss to my advantage. They said I had "selective
deafness." If I was asked to carry out the trash or do the evening dishes,
I suddenly had a profound and nearly complete hearing loss. If my Mom, two
rooms away, whispered to my Dad, "Would you like a dish of ice
cream?" I would shout from my bedroom, "I heard that! I'd like some
too!"
I learned to cope. I'd sit near
the front of my classes. I'd be sure to sit to the left of a speaker so the
"good" ear was in a great position to pick up what was being said.
I'd adjust the sound balance on my home stereo. When the kids were infants I
would be sure to sleep on my "good" ear so that their crying didn't
wake me up. (Sharon's gentle nudge with her elbow did the trick, though.) Even
now, if I am sitting to your left and you speak to me, I'll turn my head to put
my left ear where I can hear you best. If a noisy truck or emergency vehicle
goes by the sidewalk where I'm walking, I'll turn my head so my
"good" ear is away from the traffic.
Still I miss things. (If you say
something to me as I walk by or while we're in a crowded room and I don't
react, you might tug on my sleeve and check to see that I've heard you. Because
what you said may not have reached my "good" ear!)
On my college dorm floor at
Wilkie, the Resident Administrator knew that when a fire alarm went off he
would have to come to my room, unlock my door, and wake me up because I had the
ability -after a long night of vigorous studying- to sleep through a fire alarm
screaming just outside my door.
I tell you all of this because we
are in a season of listening here at FUMCB/The Open Door as we consider the
Fruitful Congregations Journey (FCJ) "Ministry Action Plans." (Please
open your email and read the Consultation Report we've emailed to you, look at
it on our web site at www.fumcb.org
or pick up a copy at the Welcome Desk this Sunday.) Will you bring your
"good" ear or your "bad" ear to this time of discernment,
conversation, and prayer? Will you bring your "good" ear or your
"bad" ear to the Town Hall meetings where we can say what excites us
about the FCJ recommendations and what puzzles us?
The truth is that most of us have
moments when we practice "selective deafness." We hear what we want
to hear. We tune out what we don't want to hear. You see this when you watch a
political debate, or you are in the middle of a business meeting, and people
just miss what the other person is saying.
Often what we hear is what we
want to hear or what we expect the other person to say. I've had a few
wonderful people share their concern over what the FCJ report says. When they
tell me FCJ is saying we'll end traditional worship, trade in the Chancel Choir
for a U2 cover band, disband their adult Sunday school class, and "dumb
down" the mission of the church to simply getting more people in the pews
as the single definition of Christian discipleship ("it's a corporate
takeover" someone kept insisting the other day), I listen and say,
"Where does the report say that?"
Fear makes it hard for us to
listen clearly.
The truth is the FCJ Consultation
Report says none of those things. The FCJ report is pointing us towards a
future that is more healthy, faithful, loving, and effective. Where we are
prayerful, thoughtful and strategic about what we do. Where we are prayerful,
more willing to trust, more respectful, and more loving with one another.
More than six years ago the
leaders of FUMCB, long before I arrived on the scene, read a book by a UM
bishop who outlined fruitful practices of healthy congregations. Robert Schnase
wrote that healthy churches practice radical hospitality, passionate worship,
intentional faith development, risk-taking in mission and service, and
extravagant generosity. In essence, that's what a lot of this comes down to.
Just last week in worship we
looked at the passage in Luke 12 where Jesus was offering some life-giving
lessons about how to handle tough times. A man in the crowd appears to have
missed it all because he was distracted by the disagreement he was having with
his older brother over the family estate. That's what he was thinking about,
that's what was churning inside him, and he missed what Jesus was saying. He
was there, but the man was using his "bad" ear. In Mark 6, Jesus is
speaking in his hometown synagogue, but his neighbors don't hear him because
they quickly wrote him off as he was once just a kid in the village, the son of
a carpenter and his young wife. They never gave Jesus a chance, and so they
were there, in worship, but they didn't bring their "good" ear.
I want to invite you to do your
best to bring your "good" ear not just to Sunday evening's Town Hall
meeting (two other Town Hall meetings follow in the coming week and a half, see
the times and dates below), but to our life as a community, your life at work
or in the classroom, and your family relationships. It's a loss when we miss
the truth and grace in others because we only appeared to be listening.
Just this week I heard Russ Abel
of Fort Wayne St. Joseph UMC say that one of the best gifts we can give others
is to tell our story. Russ also said that one of the best ways we can love
others is to listen to their story.
Will you be using your
"good" ear or your "bad" ear in your encounters with God
today... with others...or in our Town Hall gatherings?
+++++
Please remember to bring your
food donations for the Wednesday Pantry this Sunday morning. Let's fill the
front of the Sanctuary/theater!
Join us in worship as we continue
our series "More or Less." What do we really need, what do we have,
and how can we begin to choose reckless generosity?
+++++
As I write this I am 30,000 feet
over Kansas (or is that Iowa down there beneath those scattered clouds?) on my
way to Portland, Oregon for the Saturday funeral of my Aunt Betty. I learned a
long time ago that love means we show up.
Let me tell you why I'm going.
When I was three years old my Dad died on the mission field and was buried in
central Africa. At the time my Mom, Anita, was seven months pregnant with my
baby brother. We returned to the States and by the time we got to NY my Mom was
so sick with hepatitis that she had to be carried off the airplane. My Aunt
Betty, who was an RN, took us into the suburban home she and my Uncle Dan had
outside Syracuse, NY. Betty and Dan not only gave us shelter, but Betty nursed
my Mom back to the point where she (and I) could travel on to Indianapolis.
So I'm going because I think my
Mom would want me to be there with the family. I'm going because I love my cousins,
Susan and Pat, with whom I have a special connection. I'm going because love
shows up.
+++++
I'm thankful for you. I'm praying
for you even when you're out of my sight, you know?
In Christ and for Christ,
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