ears that hear – The Noontimes

John 6:16-21: Walking on Water

John 6:16-21: Walking on Water

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

*Henry Ossawa Tanner: The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water*

I am thinking of a painting by Henry Tanner in which the waters are calm, one of the apostles stands toward the front of the boat, and Jesus approaches from the left.

The image is ethereal, with wisping stokes that evoke the spiritual experience these men are having. They have witnessed the miraculous multiplication of bread yet do not see. They will hear the explication of this miracle but will not fully understand. They are fishing alone when the storm rises and they fear for their lives. Then they see Jesus walking toward them.

It is I. Do not be afraid.

Life has a way of pulling us into a vortex of activity without suggesting to us that we ought to reflect on our actions. Storms rise suddenly, our little fishing boats are swamped, and a figure fluoresces just outside the periphery of our vision. We turn to focus on it but we cannot see anything which we can readily identify so we go back to bailing. I am wondering what might happen if we calm our fears and linger a bit with that fluorescence. Would it come into a crisp image that might register on the retina long enough for us to believe?

It is I. Do not be afraid.

Life has a way of making us feel as though everything is urgent, must be done by Friday, Monday, Tuesday. Deadlines loom, our agenda overflows yet something beckons just off behind our shoulder. We pause to listen to the faint humming, to wonder what it might be. We hear nothing that the ear recognizes, and so we go back to phone calls, emails and other messages that pile up on the desk.

It is I. Do not be afraid.

We are afraid that the work will not be done, that the children will not be fed, that the gift will not be bought, the laundry not washed and dried, the household tasks not completed. We have an idea that time is linear, finite and within our control.

It is I. Do not be afraid.

Jesus knows no time. Jesus is. Jesus was. Jesus will be. In the midst of our bailing, our counting, our working we must pause to look and listen. We want to have ears that truly hear, eyes that truly see because . . .

It is I. Do not be afraid.

For more of Tanner’s work, visit: http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/tanner/tanner_main.html

Adapted from a reflection written on May 23, 2008.

Image from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Ossawa_Tanner,_The_Disciples_See_Christ_Walking_on_the_Water,_c._1907.jpg

November 29, 2022

do not be afraid, ears that hear, eyes that see, Henry Ossawa Tanner

Matthew 13:17-23: So Many Paths – Part IV

Easter Friday, April 9, 2021

Matthew 13:17-23

So Many Paths – Part IV

Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear.

The Parable of the Sower is a familiar one and yet . . . we resist changing so that our journey might be a little lighter. We refuse adjustment from our present position even though modification in our living might offer and opportunity for conversion. When we find ourselves traveling a road that seems immutable and absolute we need not fear, for we are graced with the Word that combats all Woe. How do we tune our ears so that we might honestly listen to God’s word? How do we un-muddy our eyes so that might rightly see God’s presence in our lives?

Life gives us surprising obstacles and we lose heart. We lament and complain. We recoil and mourn. Life treats us well and we take credit for all that we have and are. We act with hubris. We become pompous and self-righteous. Once we have set out on a path, do we have any recourse to change? Once we are well on our way, are we doomed to a single outcome?

The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart.

When we hear the Torah, the Prophets and the Gospel we are as free to heed God’s Word as we are to ignore it.

The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away.

When we hear Jesus’ parables we are as free to search for meaning as we are to treat these stories as children’s tales that hold no meaning for adult lives.

The seed sown among thorns in the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit.

When we witness injustice we also witness the presence of the Spirit in a hostile and frightening world. We are as free to respond to that Spirit to unit ourselves in God’s grace with Christ’s mystical body as we are to squelch it.

But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.

When we find ourselves on a difficult path fraught with danger and friction . . . we are as free to ask for, to receive and to respond to God’s grace as we are to remain implacably set in our own rigid way. As we near the end of the Lenten season and prepare to open ourselves to Christ’s Easter joy, let us determine to receive Christ with gratitude, to celebrate God’s presence with delight, and to rest in the serenity of the Spirit.

Tomorrow, a prayer for the journey.

Images from: https://www.joe-ks.com/2012/amazing-paths

April 9, 2021

ears that hear, eyes that see, God’s grace, Gospel Parables, injustice, journeys, prophets, sower, Torah, words and woes

Matthew 13:1-17: So Many Paths – Part III

Easter Thursday, April 8, 2021

Matthew 13:1-17

So Many Paths – Part III

Jesus says: “To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, more will be taken away”.

Some lives are hidden journeys, following tracks laid down by unknown forces that pull us forward rapidly. We fly past dense underbrush that hides us from the openness of the world. We are enslaved to a strict pathway that does not allow for deviation in any way. Journeys like this seem pleasant and ordered but they eliminate the opportunity to make choices. We find that we have no freedom. When we realize that we have chosen a pathway that thinks for us and keeps us away from the fullness of creation, we find that we are missing out not only on risk and danger but on our own development. We begin to understand Jesus’ words when he says that those with more will prosper and those with little will fail. It dawns on us that these words do not refer to material goods but rather, to a life lived in fullness of heart versus a life lived with a narrowness of mind. A constricted, prescribed and confining journey brings with it its own punishment of more constriction; while open and generous pathways call us out of ourselves and ask us to stretch. Open and flexible journeys offer us a new prosperity of love, peace and fulfillment. We discover that as we move away from restriction to stretch beyond our comfort zones, we learn about the depth and breadth and beauty of our gifts.

“This is why I speak in parables, because ‘they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand’. Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them”.

There are paths that bring us changes that are so sudden that at first we believe ourselves to be lost. Huge, impassable obstacles loom large before us and all we see is a roadblock. All we hear is chaos. When we look closely, however, to discern God’s plan and call, we notice alternative routes we had not previously seen. We hear precious words of advice and encouragement to which we had earlier been deaf. With this new discovery of trusting God, we also realize a life of eagerness, adventure and acumen. We become wiser. We hear better. We see further. We find endurance. We find that we can bear far more that we had imagined. We understand that we are loved far more than we had hoped. Our eyes see opportunity where before we had seen loss; our ears hear rejoicing where before we heard only dirges.

Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears because they hear. Many prophets and righteous people have longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Some journeys convince us that the world is made of two kinds of people: the good and the bad. We find ourselves believing the illusion that we can divide everyone and every idea into opposing camps or positions. And then we find ourselves either allying with the position we think is the safest and most suitable . . . or we struggle to achieve an impossible compromise that addresses none of the problems we find before us. This kind of living begins as an innocent attempt to simplify our journey, and it ends in a passage that is rigid, unforgiving and blind.

Tomorrow, So Many Paths – Part IV.

Images from: https://www.joe-ks.com/2012/amazing-paths

April 8, 2021

dualism, ears that hear, eyes that see, freedom, journeys, obstacles

Amos 8:11: A Famine of Hearing

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Amos 8:11

A Famine of Hearing

Yes, days are coming, says the Lord God, when I will send famine upon the land; not a famine of bread, or thirst for water, but for hearing the word of the Lord.

The Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 begins: Hear, O Israel! And yet, do we listen? In 1 Samuel 3:11 we are told: The Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle”. The prophet Isaiah tells us Isaiah 30:21: Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. From Jeremiah 19:3: Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold I am about to bring a calamity upon this place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle. And Ezekiel 12:2: Son of man, you live in the midst of the rebellious house, who have eyes to see but do not see, ears to hear but do not hear; for they are a rebellious house. Zechariah 7:11: But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. And Jesus in Mark 4:23: He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And yet . . . do we listen? What is the origin of our famine of hearing?

God says: When a large crowd was coming together, and those from the various cities were journeying to him, he spoke by way of a parable: “The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled underfoot and the birds of the air ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out. Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great.” As he said these things, he would call out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 8:4-8)

For millennia God has spoken to us. We humans have the spiritual ears to hear. Let us be bearers of the word, witnesses of the kingdom, and carriers of the Good News. And let us do all that we can to end this famine of hearing.

For more information about The Shema, visit: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/shema.html or enter the word Shema in the blog search bar and explore.

For a commentary on the famine of the word (“Will Religion Become a Thing of the Past”), click on the image above or go to: http://www.ucg.org/commentary/will-religion-become-thing-past/

September 22, 2020

1 Samuel 3:11, Deuteronomy 6: 4-9, ears that hear, Ezekiel 12:2, Isaiah 30:21, Jeremiah 19:3, Luke 8:4-8, Mark 4:23, Shema, the kingdom, Zechariah 7:11

Matthew 13:16-17: God Time

Matthew 13:16-17: God Time

Saturday, August 31, 2019

Matthew 13:16-17 – Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

We complicate life until it becomes unrecognizable.

We listen to our own voice and ignore the voice that loves us.

We what for signs of love endlessly and miss the obvious simplicity that God loves us more than we can ever imagine.

God says: I see constant striving and thrashing among my people; they reach out for what they already have. I speak to my children endlessly; yet they turn away from me. It brings me such joy when just one of you pauses in the minutiae you have created for yourselves to think of me. It brings me great happiness when you call my name. I want to do all for you. I want to be with you. Put aside the extraneous activities you create to make yourselves too busy to spend time with me. Sit with me awhile.

Let us turn off the noise and clamor of our day for just five minutes today. And let us spend it with God.

A re-post from August 10, 2012.

For a reflection on spending time with our creator, go to the God Time page on this blog at: https://thenoontimes.com/god-time/ or type “God’s love” in The Noontimes search box to see where it leads you.

For an interesting essay on God’s Time Machine, click on the image above or go to: http://www.ucg.org/news-and-prophecy/gods-time-machine/

August 31, 2019

Children of God, ears that hear, eyes that see, God’s love

Tag: ears that hear

John 6:16-21: Walking on Water

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Matthew 13:17-23: So Many Paths – Part IV

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Matthew 13:1-17: So Many Paths – Part III

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Amos 8:11: A Famine of Hearing

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Matthew 13:16-17: God Time

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