Opening Our Hearts to Listening - July 27
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 61, 62; PM Psalm 68:1-20(21-23)24-36; 2 Samuel 3:6-21; Acts 16:6-15; Mark 6:30-46
Today’s Reflection
I’ve written before about the birds who frequent my backyard, especially those who have formed a community that I like to think of as the bird church (since our feeder is shaped like a church, complete with steeple and arched, clear glass windows a lot like the ones we have at Saint Stephen’s). But it’s not just about spending time bird watching—it’s also about spending time bird listening. As those of you who tune in when I lead online Morning Prayer from my backyard deck well know, the birds are joining us for Morning Prayer, too. It’s not so much that people can see the birds in the background, though sometimes one will flit through the scene behind me. Rather, it’s that people can hear the birds’ songs as we read scriptures and pray together, since the birds are especially active at that time of the morning.
Just yesterday, I was reading an article in the New York Times about the joys to be found not only from bird listening, but also in what we learn by using technology to help us know which birds we are listening to. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the premiere center for the study of birds, has just released a new version of its Merlin app, which allows you to not only visually identify the birds you see, but also to aurally identify the birds you hear. You download a sound catalog for your region of the country, then press record. The app creates a spectrogram, or a visual record of the different sound patterns. When the app matches this with one of the bird calls in the database, the name and picture of the bird will pop up—and if it hears more than one, a list begins to form of all the bird songs you’re hearing at any given time. When I tried this out yesterday, I realized I was listening to Carolina wrens, American robins, American crows, and Eastern towhees—all just in a one- to two-minute snatch of time. And each time the bird calls again, the name on the list flashes—which begins to teach you which bird call is which. Soon, if I keep listening and spending some time using the app as I listen, I will be able to listen better to the birds around me. I will know whose calls I am hearing—even when I cannot see them to identify them by the colors of their feathers or by the sizes and shapes of their bodies.
In today’s passage from the Acts of the Apostles, listening is an important theme. Listening to the Spirit, Paul and his companions knew that they were not supposed to go to Bithynia. But where were they to go instead? That night, as Paul slept, he dreamt that, “there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’” The Scripture describes this as a vision. However, this was not just a vision that Paul saw, it was also a vision that required Paul to listen to what God was telling him. And Paul did listen—taking what he saw and heard in his dream so seriously that when he awoke, Paul and his companions “immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them.” Because Paul was well practiced in listening to the voice of God, Paul could recognize God’s voice when it called to him, even when it came to him unexpectedly in visions or dreams.
Paul and company journeyed to Macedonia, traveling through the cities of Samothrace and Neopolis before reaching Philippi. Knowing that God wanted them to declare his message among the Philippians, they tried to think of where the people who would be open to hearing them might be gathered. On the Sabbath, they went to a place by the river that “they supposed to be a place of prayer.” Among the women gathered there was “a certain woman named Lydia, a worshipper of God, was listening to us; she was from the city of Thyatira and a dealer in purple cloth. The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul.”
Because Paul listened to God, he knew that he was supposed to go share the Good News of Christ with the people of Macedonia—including the women gathered for prayer at the river that day. And because Lydia listened eagerly when God brought Paul and his companions there to the river, not only she but her whole household decided to seal their belief in God through being baptized together. And, continuing to listen to the stirring of the spirit in her, Lydia invited Paul and his friends to come stay with her at her home.
We don’t know from this passage anything about what message Paul shared by the river that day—but what we do know is that Lydia listened, and that as a result of that holy listening she and her whole household made a commitment to live faithfully in Christ. Thanks be to God!
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
What is the difference between hearing and listening? What does it take for you to move from hearing something or someone to listening more deeply for the meaning in what you are hearing? How do you know when what you are listening to is something God wants you to be listening to?
Daily Challenge
You can learn more about the Cornell Lab of Ornithology here and you learn about the Cornell Lab’s free Merlin app (and download it) here.