Is God Listening?
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
A major story making headlines recently has been the revelation that the NSA, the federal agency in charge of clandestine surveillance, has been collecting millions of phone call records from major telecommunications carriers. These records are being assembled as part of what reports describe as a secret program to create the world's largest database of personal information. While this effort is being defended as an important way to root out possible terrorist activity, critics worry about the danger it poses to the right of privacy and suggest that the program violates numerous laws. In this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Carlos Wilton notes that while many of us are uncomfortable with the idea that the government might be monitoring our personal calls, we also need to come to terms with the implications of God "listening in" to the most intimate details of our lives. This week's material also includes additional thoughts from Thom Shuman, as well as illustrations, worship aids, and a children's message.
Is God Listening?
by Carlos Wilton
John 17:6-19
THE WORLD
In recent days, numerous news reports have raised alarm about electronic surveillance of telephone conversations by the U.S. Government. Most major telephone companies have turned over vast databases of information about their customers' telephone calls to intelligence agencies -- without feeling the need to notify their customers. Suddenly, many of us Americans are feeling anxious about whether or not someone has been listening in to our calls.
There are important philosophical and ethical issues about personal privacy and national security here -- issues that are likely to be debated in the halls of Congress, and wherever else Americans gather, for some time to come.
More to the point for Christians is the question of whether or not God is listening. We may pay lip service to God's omnipotence, omniscience, and benevolence, but many of us go through life functionally believing that we can hide certain areas of our lives from divine scrutiny.
Not so, according to the New Testament. "All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them," Jesus prays to God in John 17:10. Jesus is speaking here in a paternalistic way about his close oversight over his disciples' lives, and his deep caring for them.
Our modern society encourages us to think that we can wall ourselves off from the scrutiny of others. Those of us who can afford to do so place our houses on ever-larger lots, behind fences -- even in gated communities, if we can manage it (such is the modern ideal, anyway). The priciest vacation travel options on the market are typically the most private: the first-class cabin, promising minimal interactions with other passengers, and the private, secluded vacation villa. Privacy has become an indispensable part of our national ideal of success.
It wasn't always that way. Memorial Day helps us recall the World War II era, when a whole generation sacrificed privacy -- indeed, even put careers and personal goals on hold -- to engage in a great national effort. In Army barracks, and even in foxholes, young men from every ethnic background and economic level were thrown in with each other. If they were lucky, they bonded together as a "band of brothers" ("lucky," because that was the best way to survive). Yet once the war ended, how swiftly the process that led to the idolatry of personal privacy began!
When it comes to our spiritual lives, we make a terrible mistake if we put up emotional barriers to try to keep God out. Maybe we do have a right to keep the government from listening in to our calls, but we have no such right to keep God from listening in to our thoughts. On the contrary, if we can learn to let down those barriers and let God in, we will discover a love and a spiritual intimacy such as we have never known -- a love we can glimpse in the words of John 17, as Jesus prays to God that "they may be one, as we are one" (v. 11).
THE WORD
Jesus' lengthy prayer, of which this passage is a part, is sometimes called his High Priestly Prayer, and sometimes his Great Prayer for the Church. It is highly unlikely that this is an exact transcription of a public prayer offered by the historical Jesus. Rather, it reflects John's theological understanding of the person and work of Christ, and of Christ's desire for unity among his followers -- particularly those late-first-century disciples to whom John is writing.
The concerns addressed in the prayer are very much those facing the Johannine church toward the end of the first century. Speaking of his followers, Jesus asks God "that they may be one, as we are one" (v. 11). He asks for God to protect them from the evil one, and from the world's hatred (vv. 14-15). Like him, he declares, these believers now belong not to the world but to heaven (v. 16). Jesus prays that God will "sanctify them in the truth," in conformity to God's word, which "is truth" (v. 17). These concerns -- unity, protection, and orthodoxy -- all reflect the situation of the Johannine church, which was beginning to undergo persecution and to experience problems of disunity resulting from false teaching.
In verse 10 Jesus prays, "All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them." These words bespeak a very close relationship between Jesus and God on the one hand, and Jesus and his disciples on the other. Jesus is the common link; it is because the disciples are in relationship to him that they are able to be in relationship to God. Jesus is the priestly mediator in the classic sense.
This verse from "Christ Is Alive!" an Easter hymn by Brian Wren, reflects this close inter-relationship:
"Not throned afar, remotely high,
Untouched, unmoved by human pains,
But daily, in the midst of life,
Our Savior in the God-head reigns."
CRAFTING THE SERMON
It's taken more than five years, but finally the American public is becoming aware of a massive program of electronic eavesdropping that was put into place following the 9/11 attacks. At the time, believing he had authority to pursue wide-ranging efforts to root out and destroy terrorists, President Bush issued several highly classified "National Security Presidential Directives," which are generally believed to include permission for intelligence agencies to engage in expanded electronic surveillance. In the past, domestic spying had been tightly curtailed; after 9/11, the floodgates were thrown open, and Americans' telephone conversations became a hunting ground for government officials searching for terrorists.
The May 22, 2006 issue of Newsweek reports that, last December, the New York Times revealed that the National Security Agency had listened in to thousands of conversations between people in the United States and others overseas, without obtaining search warrants. In recent weeks, the newspapers have been filled with another story that -- for some people, anyway -- is more ominous: that the major telephone companies (with the exception of Qwest) have turned over to the NSA their massive databases of billions of domestic calls. These databases tell nothing of the content of such calls, but they do reveal who called whom, when, and for how long.
That, in and of itself, is enough to make some of us blanch. We've come to rely on our telephone conversations as secure. Now, the words of George Orwell in his creepy, futuristic novel 1984 appear to be coming true: "Big Brother is watching you."
For some of us, that's no big deal: "Whatever it takes to catch the terrorists, I'm willing to put up with it." But for others of us -- probably a large majority of the general public -- it's a massive invasion of privacy, made all the more disturbing by the fact that this information was obtained without a warrant, and without legislative action by our elected representatives.
But what if the "Big Brother" who's watching us is God? Does that make it any different?
Jesus appears to be quite clear about the fact that God is a bit of a micro-manager when it comes to individual human lives. "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?" he asks in Matthew 10. "Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted" (Matthew 10:29-30).
It may give us pause to think that God is watching us closely in just this way. We like to think, many of us, that there are some areas of our lives that are protected from the inquisitive gaze of the Divine. We like our privacy, and we like to think it extends into our spiritual lives. Yet, in point of fact, there is no right to privacy when it comes to our spiritual lives. God sees all, and knows all.
In the classic theological formulation, God is omnipotent and omniscient. Yet this same God is also benevolent -- and it is that attribute of God that makes all the difference. The God who can see into our hearts means us no harm. God only means us well. If we can learn to trust God enough to let down our guard, to tear down those inner, defensive walls and truly let God in, then we will know a greater measure of peace and contentment than we can come to know in any other way.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Thom M. Shuman
I don't think a week goes by that I don't hear someone on the radio ranting about government intrusion into private "rights." Usually it has something to do with seat belts, though motorcycle helmets often seem to run a close second. I have even heard folks claiming the "right" not to use infant/car seats! According to these folks, a large (or at least vocal) group of Americans believe the government should not be concerned about keeping people safe. Such actions by the government are an invasion of privacy!
Yet I would hazard a guess that most of these same folks have no problem with the electronic surveillance of telephone calls and emails that has been undertaken by the government, according to recent reports in the media. This form of invasion of privacy, all in the name of national security, seems to sit well with this group of folks.
There is clearly a distinction people are able to make when it comes to which actions of the government interfere with private and personal choices, and which do not.
It reminds me of the people in the church who believe that when it comes to the size of house a person buys, the cars that are driven, the private schools which are chosen, the multiple vacations -- all the ways in which money can and will be spent -- the church has no business addressing choices made in that very "private" area. But the church better be clear and forceful when it comes to the matter of choices in human sexuality!
As Carlos reminds us, many Christians continue to cling to the belief that there are certain aspects of our individual lives that are off-limits to God. There are those areas of life (which usually involve either finances or family, in my experience) that are better handled by us, with no outside interference from God.
Yet God continues to invade our privacy; God continues to break into our conversations with ourselves; God continues to interrupt our narcissistic obsession with our wants; God continues to tap us on the shoulder, saying, "Excuse me, but before you go down that path, before you continue to listen to just one point of view, before you choose to sit in first class whenever you travel, you might want to think about..."
God batters down the emotional walls I build to keep his Word out; God continues to listen in on the conversations I have with others, to see what I am saying to and about them; God continues to peek into the shadows of my life where I think I can hide my failures and frustrations.
God invades my privacy, each and every moment of my life, for the simple purpose of reminding me that I am called to live in community with others -- that community of hope, of justice, of peace, of grace; that community which will stand with me in every moment of despair and in every time of joy; that community, which even now, Jesus prays for.
ILLUSTRATIONS
In marriage enrichment seminars, we often emphasize that listening is one of the critical aspects of a healthy relationship -- failure of communication being one of the major factors that often leads to divorce. I often share with participants the following sentence as an illustration of the difficulty of communication: "I know that you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard was not what I meant."
I can imagine God saying this to many believers as we seem to twist and turn the words of scripture to fit our own needs.
***
One of the reasons that we don't want to listen to another person or to God is because there is a cost to listening. Frederick Buechner reflects with humor on the cost to Abraham when he listened to God:
The first thing that happened was that his brother-in-law Lot took over the rich bottomland and Abraham was left with the scrub country around Dead Man's Gulch. The second thing was that the prospective father of a great nation found out his wife couldn't have babies. The third thing was that when, as a special present on his hundredth birthday, God arranged for his wife Sarah to have a son anyway, it wasn't long before he told Abraham to go up into the hills and sacrifice him [see Isaac]. It's true that at the last minute God stepped in and said he'd only wanted to see if the old man's money was where his mouth was, but from that day forward Abraham had a habit of breaking into tears at odd moments, and his relationship with his son Isaac was never close.
-- Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures
***
Sometimes the greatest gift God can give us is not to listen to what we ask for:
There was once a man who had a golden bellybutton, but what to most people would have been a source of pride, to him was a source of embarrassment, for each time he took a shower or a swim he was the butt of his friend's teasing.
So he prayed and prayed that his bellybutton would be taken away. One night he dreamed that an angel came down from heaven, unscrewed his bellybutton, and went back to heaven.
When he woke in the morning, the first thing he did was to check to see if the dream was true. It was! There on the table lay the unscrewed bellybutton, all bright and shining. The man jumped out of bed in joy -- and his bottom fell off!
-- Anthony de Mello, S.J., The Heart of the Enlightened (Doubleday, 1989), p. 148
***
The word "listen" occurs 288 times in the NRSV version of the Bible. Perhaps the reason that it has to be used so often is that we have yet to learn the meaning of Psalm 46:10: "Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth."
I saw a cartoon once that had a believer praying to God: "God, how can you let all of these people die of hunger in our world?" In the next panel God responds, "I've been meaning to ask you the same question."
***
Among the lives described in the book Great Dames: What I Learned from Older Women by Marie Brenner (Three Rivers Press, 2000) are those of Marietta Tree and Pamela Harriman. One personal characteristic each of these women possessed was the ability to focus and listen with total concentration to the individual with whom they were conversing. For Tree and Harriman, both of whom were known as irresistible to men, the greatest aphrodisiac was not a perfect body or a moldable mind, but to be listened to, heard, and understood by another individual.
***
As a minister, I have always envied those ministers who are by nature extroverts. I long for their ease in large social gatherings and the way both small talk and conversations seem to come without anxiety or stress. In every church I've served, I've longed to be more extroverted and more of a personality whose personal charm and charisma are an asset to Christ's church and ministry. What I've learned with time is that my greatest gift as a minister is to be still and to listen -- to the church member in the hospital bed afraid of dying, to the 93-year-old in the nursing home who is lonely and has outlived all his friends, to the anxious young mother, and to the unemployed executive. All of us have stories to tell, and all of us need to be heard.
***
In his two little books To Will God's Will: Beginning the Journey and To Pray God's Will: Continuing the Journey (Westminster John Knox, 1987), retired Columbia Theological Seminary professor of evangelism and spirituality Ben Campbell Johnson offers some excellent exercises for use in learning to hear God's will rather than our own. The following listening exercise comes from To Pray God's Will. It might be a nice way to conclude this Sunday's sermon:
Listening to God in the Present Moment:
1. Sit quietly.
2. Pray for the illumination of the Spirit.
3. Name the events of your day.
4. Relive each event. Give thanks to God for it.
5. Confess the sin or brokenness that you discover.
6. What was the flow of the day, the movement forward?
7. What themes were repeated in your life?
8. Where does your life seem to be moving?
9. What new word did God seem to speak through the events?
10. Symbolize the day. Look at it as a whole. Contemplate the God who came to you in the clothing of those events.
***
Those who are involved with using computers to access the internet have come to know -- and fear -- a type of program called a trojan. Trojans get their name from the famous Trojan Horse, from Homer's Iliad.
Like the Trojan Horse, trojan computer programs slip into their victims' computers -- usually invited in by legitimate means, such as the owner going to a certain website. Once established on the victim's hard drive, most trojans bide their time until triggered by a date or by some other means. Then they will execute some lines of computer code that will lead them to do certain things, such as sending data from the victim's computer.
Some computer trojans are more harmful than others. One of the more benign ones was evidently written by a Muslim. Called the "Yusufali-A" trojan, it silently monitors its victim's web-surfing habits until it picks up on any one of a number of English nouns. Once this happens, the trojan displays the following message from the Quran, in both English and Arabic: "Yusufali: Know, therefore, that there is no god but Allah, and ask forgiveness for they fault, and for the men and women who believe: for Allah knows how ye move about and how ye dwell in your homes." If the user continues to view the offending website, the trojan will shut down the person's computer.
For more on the "Yusufali-A" trojan, click here.
***
The following story is said to have taken place in the cafeteria line at Princeton Theological Seminary. As the students passed through the serving line, they saw a large sign that the chef had propped against a big bowl of juicy oranges. It said: "Take only one. Jesus is watching you."
At the other end of the lunch line, there was a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. A mischievous seminarian left a rough handwritten sign beside it that said: "Take as many cookies as you want. Jesus is busy back there watching the oranges."
***
From a distance the world looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
and the eagle takes to flight.
From a distance, there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace,
It's the voice of every man....
And God is watching us, God is watching us,
God is watching us from a distance.
Oh, God is watching us, God is watching.
God is watching us from a distance.
-- "From a Distance," recorded by Bette Midler; written by Julie Gold
***
To walk in the light is to walk freely not fearfully, to see and delight in all the beauty around us: in people, in nature, desiring it to be allowed to remain beautiful. It is to walk with a light heart, relaxed not tense, to have choices. The light is in the world. There is an old Jewish saying, "Do not say God is in my heart. Rather, say I am in the heart of God." The gospel of Jesus says precisely this thing. I am in God's heart, and you and you and you. Loved, valued, unconditionally accepted, we live and move and have our being in the heart of God, which is the light of God.
-- Kathy Galloway, former Warden of the Iona Community
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call To Worship
One: From comfortable pews,
from tricycle seats,
from easy chairs in front of TVs:
All: God gathers us in to give us the words to proclaim the gospel.
One: At kitchen sinks,
at laptops and blackboards,
at nursing stations:
All: Christ calls us to share in serving all creation.
One: In communities gathered to pray,
in memories of those who served,
in families grilling in the backyard:
All: The Holy Spirit fills us with God's joy.
Prayer Of The Day
We do not notice, Holy God,
but you give us:
time, so we can think about your Word;
silence, so it may fill our emptiness;
wisdom, so we may know the path to walk.
We do not notice, risen Christ,
how you have not given just a piece of yourself,
or a portion of your grace, but all of who you are:
for us -- and yet, you regard us as God's amazing gift to you!
We do not notice, nourishing Spirit,
how you remove our fears,
simply by sitting with us and holding our hearts;
or how you swirl around us,
pulling us deeper and deeper into love, grace, and peace,
until we find ourselves rooted forever in the One who watches over us forever.
God in community, holy in one,
hear us as we pray as we have been taught,
Our Father . . .
Call To Reconciliation
We gather as God's people, believing the promises fulfilled in Christ.
We do not need to confess out of dread or fear,
but in trust that God is faithful to forgive us and make us new.
Join me as we pray, saying . . .
(Unison) Prayer Of Confession
How foolish we are, Calling God, to think we could be happy
when we sit in seduction's comfortable seats,
and scoff at your call to discipleship;
or run down the easy streets of sin,
rather than following Jesus;
or idolize the celebrities and superstars,
and not see you in those who wait on us in stores, restaurants, and sports arenas.
Forgive us, Author of life.
Keep us from our silly selfishness
as we seek to become those branches children can climb on;
as we hope to provide shade for fellow pilgrims;
as we long to be continually nourished by the Living Water of Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior.
(silent prayers may be offered)
Assurance Of Pardon
One: We are no longer blown about in the winds of the world,
we are grounded, yesterday, today, tomorrow,
in God's forgiveness, hope, and love.
All: Today, tomorrow, forever:
we can bear fresh fruit,
sharing God's peace and joy with everyone we meet.
Thanks be to God, we are forgiven! Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Thank you for caring
Object: a big bag with things in it that represent what the children's parents have given them (a pillow, peanut butter, a toy, a Bible storybook, a bike accessory, a lunch box, and similar objects)
Good morning, boys and girls. I have been thinking about all of the things I have been given in my life. It is amazing. I have received everything I needed to have a wonderful life. Because I am older than you, I have received more things than you. Where do all of the things we have come from? (let them answer) When you were very little and you had a birthday party or it was Christmas, you received presents. Do you remember opening them? (let them answer) You tore the paper and ribbons off and found the gift. You didn't always know who gave you the gift and you probably didn't care. You just took it and began to play with it, but as you got older, knowing the person giving you the gift was as important as the gift itself.
I brought along some things in a bag that may have been given to you. This is just a small number of the things you have received. (show each object as you mention it) Who gives you a pillow to sleep on? (let them answer) Very good! How about a jar of peanut butter? Same person. Who gave you a Bible storybook, a toy, something for your bike, a lunch box, and all of the other things I have in the bag? Most of them came from your parents, didn't they? So many things are given to us by our moms and dads that we don't even have to ask. Parents give their children almost everything they need to help them grow.
It was the same with Jesus. When Jesus was young, he knew God was giving him special gifts. He learned quickly about his faith and had great joy when he prayed to the Father. As Jesus grew up, he began to learn that God had given him special powers. He was able to heal the sick, solve problems for the troubled, feed the hungry, make loneliness go away for the lonely, teach people about the truth from God, and push away the devil. Jesus knew that all of these were very special.
Jesus shared his gifts with the disciples. They learned to heal, teach, forgive, and work with the people. Jesus was a great teacher and his disciples were good learners. When Jesus was getting ready to go back to heaven, he had a wonderful prayer with his Father. He prayed that God would really protect the disciples. Jesus knew that there were liars, thieves, greedy people, false leaders, and false teachers who hated Jesus and his disciples. Jesus asked God to protect them so that the disciples could continue their ministries to those who needed Jesus.
You are people of God who have been given special powers in Jesus' name. God is also protecting you from the evildoers in this world. We should say, "Thank you, Jesus, for caring about us and asking God to protect us in this world." Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 28, 2006, issue.
Copyright 2006 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
Is God Listening?
by Carlos Wilton
John 17:6-19
THE WORLD
In recent days, numerous news reports have raised alarm about electronic surveillance of telephone conversations by the U.S. Government. Most major telephone companies have turned over vast databases of information about their customers' telephone calls to intelligence agencies -- without feeling the need to notify their customers. Suddenly, many of us Americans are feeling anxious about whether or not someone has been listening in to our calls.
There are important philosophical and ethical issues about personal privacy and national security here -- issues that are likely to be debated in the halls of Congress, and wherever else Americans gather, for some time to come.
More to the point for Christians is the question of whether or not God is listening. We may pay lip service to God's omnipotence, omniscience, and benevolence, but many of us go through life functionally believing that we can hide certain areas of our lives from divine scrutiny.
Not so, according to the New Testament. "All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them," Jesus prays to God in John 17:10. Jesus is speaking here in a paternalistic way about his close oversight over his disciples' lives, and his deep caring for them.
Our modern society encourages us to think that we can wall ourselves off from the scrutiny of others. Those of us who can afford to do so place our houses on ever-larger lots, behind fences -- even in gated communities, if we can manage it (such is the modern ideal, anyway). The priciest vacation travel options on the market are typically the most private: the first-class cabin, promising minimal interactions with other passengers, and the private, secluded vacation villa. Privacy has become an indispensable part of our national ideal of success.
It wasn't always that way. Memorial Day helps us recall the World War II era, when a whole generation sacrificed privacy -- indeed, even put careers and personal goals on hold -- to engage in a great national effort. In Army barracks, and even in foxholes, young men from every ethnic background and economic level were thrown in with each other. If they were lucky, they bonded together as a "band of brothers" ("lucky," because that was the best way to survive). Yet once the war ended, how swiftly the process that led to the idolatry of personal privacy began!
When it comes to our spiritual lives, we make a terrible mistake if we put up emotional barriers to try to keep God out. Maybe we do have a right to keep the government from listening in to our calls, but we have no such right to keep God from listening in to our thoughts. On the contrary, if we can learn to let down those barriers and let God in, we will discover a love and a spiritual intimacy such as we have never known -- a love we can glimpse in the words of John 17, as Jesus prays to God that "they may be one, as we are one" (v. 11).
THE WORD
Jesus' lengthy prayer, of which this passage is a part, is sometimes called his High Priestly Prayer, and sometimes his Great Prayer for the Church. It is highly unlikely that this is an exact transcription of a public prayer offered by the historical Jesus. Rather, it reflects John's theological understanding of the person and work of Christ, and of Christ's desire for unity among his followers -- particularly those late-first-century disciples to whom John is writing.
The concerns addressed in the prayer are very much those facing the Johannine church toward the end of the first century. Speaking of his followers, Jesus asks God "that they may be one, as we are one" (v. 11). He asks for God to protect them from the evil one, and from the world's hatred (vv. 14-15). Like him, he declares, these believers now belong not to the world but to heaven (v. 16). Jesus prays that God will "sanctify them in the truth," in conformity to God's word, which "is truth" (v. 17). These concerns -- unity, protection, and orthodoxy -- all reflect the situation of the Johannine church, which was beginning to undergo persecution and to experience problems of disunity resulting from false teaching.
In verse 10 Jesus prays, "All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them." These words bespeak a very close relationship between Jesus and God on the one hand, and Jesus and his disciples on the other. Jesus is the common link; it is because the disciples are in relationship to him that they are able to be in relationship to God. Jesus is the priestly mediator in the classic sense.
This verse from "Christ Is Alive!" an Easter hymn by Brian Wren, reflects this close inter-relationship:
"Not throned afar, remotely high,
Untouched, unmoved by human pains,
But daily, in the midst of life,
Our Savior in the God-head reigns."
CRAFTING THE SERMON
It's taken more than five years, but finally the American public is becoming aware of a massive program of electronic eavesdropping that was put into place following the 9/11 attacks. At the time, believing he had authority to pursue wide-ranging efforts to root out and destroy terrorists, President Bush issued several highly classified "National Security Presidential Directives," which are generally believed to include permission for intelligence agencies to engage in expanded electronic surveillance. In the past, domestic spying had been tightly curtailed; after 9/11, the floodgates were thrown open, and Americans' telephone conversations became a hunting ground for government officials searching for terrorists.
The May 22, 2006 issue of Newsweek reports that, last December, the New York Times revealed that the National Security Agency had listened in to thousands of conversations between people in the United States and others overseas, without obtaining search warrants. In recent weeks, the newspapers have been filled with another story that -- for some people, anyway -- is more ominous: that the major telephone companies (with the exception of Qwest) have turned over to the NSA their massive databases of billions of domestic calls. These databases tell nothing of the content of such calls, but they do reveal who called whom, when, and for how long.
That, in and of itself, is enough to make some of us blanch. We've come to rely on our telephone conversations as secure. Now, the words of George Orwell in his creepy, futuristic novel 1984 appear to be coming true: "Big Brother is watching you."
For some of us, that's no big deal: "Whatever it takes to catch the terrorists, I'm willing to put up with it." But for others of us -- probably a large majority of the general public -- it's a massive invasion of privacy, made all the more disturbing by the fact that this information was obtained without a warrant, and without legislative action by our elected representatives.
But what if the "Big Brother" who's watching us is God? Does that make it any different?
Jesus appears to be quite clear about the fact that God is a bit of a micro-manager when it comes to individual human lives. "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?" he asks in Matthew 10. "Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted" (Matthew 10:29-30).
It may give us pause to think that God is watching us closely in just this way. We like to think, many of us, that there are some areas of our lives that are protected from the inquisitive gaze of the Divine. We like our privacy, and we like to think it extends into our spiritual lives. Yet, in point of fact, there is no right to privacy when it comes to our spiritual lives. God sees all, and knows all.
In the classic theological formulation, God is omnipotent and omniscient. Yet this same God is also benevolent -- and it is that attribute of God that makes all the difference. The God who can see into our hearts means us no harm. God only means us well. If we can learn to trust God enough to let down our guard, to tear down those inner, defensive walls and truly let God in, then we will know a greater measure of peace and contentment than we can come to know in any other way.
ANOTHER VIEW
by Thom M. Shuman
I don't think a week goes by that I don't hear someone on the radio ranting about government intrusion into private "rights." Usually it has something to do with seat belts, though motorcycle helmets often seem to run a close second. I have even heard folks claiming the "right" not to use infant/car seats! According to these folks, a large (or at least vocal) group of Americans believe the government should not be concerned about keeping people safe. Such actions by the government are an invasion of privacy!
Yet I would hazard a guess that most of these same folks have no problem with the electronic surveillance of telephone calls and emails that has been undertaken by the government, according to recent reports in the media. This form of invasion of privacy, all in the name of national security, seems to sit well with this group of folks.
There is clearly a distinction people are able to make when it comes to which actions of the government interfere with private and personal choices, and which do not.
It reminds me of the people in the church who believe that when it comes to the size of house a person buys, the cars that are driven, the private schools which are chosen, the multiple vacations -- all the ways in which money can and will be spent -- the church has no business addressing choices made in that very "private" area. But the church better be clear and forceful when it comes to the matter of choices in human sexuality!
As Carlos reminds us, many Christians continue to cling to the belief that there are certain aspects of our individual lives that are off-limits to God. There are those areas of life (which usually involve either finances or family, in my experience) that are better handled by us, with no outside interference from God.
Yet God continues to invade our privacy; God continues to break into our conversations with ourselves; God continues to interrupt our narcissistic obsession with our wants; God continues to tap us on the shoulder, saying, "Excuse me, but before you go down that path, before you continue to listen to just one point of view, before you choose to sit in first class whenever you travel, you might want to think about..."
God batters down the emotional walls I build to keep his Word out; God continues to listen in on the conversations I have with others, to see what I am saying to and about them; God continues to peek into the shadows of my life where I think I can hide my failures and frustrations.
God invades my privacy, each and every moment of my life, for the simple purpose of reminding me that I am called to live in community with others -- that community of hope, of justice, of peace, of grace; that community which will stand with me in every moment of despair and in every time of joy; that community, which even now, Jesus prays for.
ILLUSTRATIONS
In marriage enrichment seminars, we often emphasize that listening is one of the critical aspects of a healthy relationship -- failure of communication being one of the major factors that often leads to divorce. I often share with participants the following sentence as an illustration of the difficulty of communication: "I know that you think you understand what you thought I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard was not what I meant."
I can imagine God saying this to many believers as we seem to twist and turn the words of scripture to fit our own needs.
***
One of the reasons that we don't want to listen to another person or to God is because there is a cost to listening. Frederick Buechner reflects with humor on the cost to Abraham when he listened to God:
The first thing that happened was that his brother-in-law Lot took over the rich bottomland and Abraham was left with the scrub country around Dead Man's Gulch. The second thing was that the prospective father of a great nation found out his wife couldn't have babies. The third thing was that when, as a special present on his hundredth birthday, God arranged for his wife Sarah to have a son anyway, it wasn't long before he told Abraham to go up into the hills and sacrifice him [see Isaac]. It's true that at the last minute God stepped in and said he'd only wanted to see if the old man's money was where his mouth was, but from that day forward Abraham had a habit of breaking into tears at odd moments, and his relationship with his son Isaac was never close.
-- Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures
***
Sometimes the greatest gift God can give us is not to listen to what we ask for:
There was once a man who had a golden bellybutton, but what to most people would have been a source of pride, to him was a source of embarrassment, for each time he took a shower or a swim he was the butt of his friend's teasing.
So he prayed and prayed that his bellybutton would be taken away. One night he dreamed that an angel came down from heaven, unscrewed his bellybutton, and went back to heaven.
When he woke in the morning, the first thing he did was to check to see if the dream was true. It was! There on the table lay the unscrewed bellybutton, all bright and shining. The man jumped out of bed in joy -- and his bottom fell off!
-- Anthony de Mello, S.J., The Heart of the Enlightened (Doubleday, 1989), p. 148
***
The word "listen" occurs 288 times in the NRSV version of the Bible. Perhaps the reason that it has to be used so often is that we have yet to learn the meaning of Psalm 46:10: "Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth."
I saw a cartoon once that had a believer praying to God: "God, how can you let all of these people die of hunger in our world?" In the next panel God responds, "I've been meaning to ask you the same question."
***
Among the lives described in the book Great Dames: What I Learned from Older Women by Marie Brenner (Three Rivers Press, 2000) are those of Marietta Tree and Pamela Harriman. One personal characteristic each of these women possessed was the ability to focus and listen with total concentration to the individual with whom they were conversing. For Tree and Harriman, both of whom were known as irresistible to men, the greatest aphrodisiac was not a perfect body or a moldable mind, but to be listened to, heard, and understood by another individual.
***
As a minister, I have always envied those ministers who are by nature extroverts. I long for their ease in large social gatherings and the way both small talk and conversations seem to come without anxiety or stress. In every church I've served, I've longed to be more extroverted and more of a personality whose personal charm and charisma are an asset to Christ's church and ministry. What I've learned with time is that my greatest gift as a minister is to be still and to listen -- to the church member in the hospital bed afraid of dying, to the 93-year-old in the nursing home who is lonely and has outlived all his friends, to the anxious young mother, and to the unemployed executive. All of us have stories to tell, and all of us need to be heard.
***
In his two little books To Will God's Will: Beginning the Journey and To Pray God's Will: Continuing the Journey (Westminster John Knox, 1987), retired Columbia Theological Seminary professor of evangelism and spirituality Ben Campbell Johnson offers some excellent exercises for use in learning to hear God's will rather than our own. The following listening exercise comes from To Pray God's Will. It might be a nice way to conclude this Sunday's sermon:
Listening to God in the Present Moment:
1. Sit quietly.
2. Pray for the illumination of the Spirit.
3. Name the events of your day.
4. Relive each event. Give thanks to God for it.
5. Confess the sin or brokenness that you discover.
6. What was the flow of the day, the movement forward?
7. What themes were repeated in your life?
8. Where does your life seem to be moving?
9. What new word did God seem to speak through the events?
10. Symbolize the day. Look at it as a whole. Contemplate the God who came to you in the clothing of those events.
***
Those who are involved with using computers to access the internet have come to know -- and fear -- a type of program called a trojan. Trojans get their name from the famous Trojan Horse, from Homer's Iliad.
Like the Trojan Horse, trojan computer programs slip into their victims' computers -- usually invited in by legitimate means, such as the owner going to a certain website. Once established on the victim's hard drive, most trojans bide their time until triggered by a date or by some other means. Then they will execute some lines of computer code that will lead them to do certain things, such as sending data from the victim's computer.
Some computer trojans are more harmful than others. One of the more benign ones was evidently written by a Muslim. Called the "Yusufali-A" trojan, it silently monitors its victim's web-surfing habits until it picks up on any one of a number of English nouns. Once this happens, the trojan displays the following message from the Quran, in both English and Arabic: "Yusufali: Know, therefore, that there is no god but Allah, and ask forgiveness for they fault, and for the men and women who believe: for Allah knows how ye move about and how ye dwell in your homes." If the user continues to view the offending website, the trojan will shut down the person's computer.
For more on the "Yusufali-A" trojan, click here.
***
The following story is said to have taken place in the cafeteria line at Princeton Theological Seminary. As the students passed through the serving line, they saw a large sign that the chef had propped against a big bowl of juicy oranges. It said: "Take only one. Jesus is watching you."
At the other end of the lunch line, there was a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. A mischievous seminarian left a rough handwritten sign beside it that said: "Take as many cookies as you want. Jesus is busy back there watching the oranges."
***
From a distance the world looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
and the eagle takes to flight.
From a distance, there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace,
It's the voice of every man....
And God is watching us, God is watching us,
God is watching us from a distance.
Oh, God is watching us, God is watching.
God is watching us from a distance.
-- "From a Distance," recorded by Bette Midler; written by Julie Gold
***
To walk in the light is to walk freely not fearfully, to see and delight in all the beauty around us: in people, in nature, desiring it to be allowed to remain beautiful. It is to walk with a light heart, relaxed not tense, to have choices. The light is in the world. There is an old Jewish saying, "Do not say God is in my heart. Rather, say I am in the heart of God." The gospel of Jesus says precisely this thing. I am in God's heart, and you and you and you. Loved, valued, unconditionally accepted, we live and move and have our being in the heart of God, which is the light of God.
-- Kathy Galloway, former Warden of the Iona Community
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by Thom M. Shuman
Call To Worship
One: From comfortable pews,
from tricycle seats,
from easy chairs in front of TVs:
All: God gathers us in to give us the words to proclaim the gospel.
One: At kitchen sinks,
at laptops and blackboards,
at nursing stations:
All: Christ calls us to share in serving all creation.
One: In communities gathered to pray,
in memories of those who served,
in families grilling in the backyard:
All: The Holy Spirit fills us with God's joy.
Prayer Of The Day
We do not notice, Holy God,
but you give us:
time, so we can think about your Word;
silence, so it may fill our emptiness;
wisdom, so we may know the path to walk.
We do not notice, risen Christ,
how you have not given just a piece of yourself,
or a portion of your grace, but all of who you are:
for us -- and yet, you regard us as God's amazing gift to you!
We do not notice, nourishing Spirit,
how you remove our fears,
simply by sitting with us and holding our hearts;
or how you swirl around us,
pulling us deeper and deeper into love, grace, and peace,
until we find ourselves rooted forever in the One who watches over us forever.
God in community, holy in one,
hear us as we pray as we have been taught,
Our Father . . .
Call To Reconciliation
We gather as God's people, believing the promises fulfilled in Christ.
We do not need to confess out of dread or fear,
but in trust that God is faithful to forgive us and make us new.
Join me as we pray, saying . . .
(Unison) Prayer Of Confession
How foolish we are, Calling God, to think we could be happy
when we sit in seduction's comfortable seats,
and scoff at your call to discipleship;
or run down the easy streets of sin,
rather than following Jesus;
or idolize the celebrities and superstars,
and not see you in those who wait on us in stores, restaurants, and sports arenas.
Forgive us, Author of life.
Keep us from our silly selfishness
as we seek to become those branches children can climb on;
as we hope to provide shade for fellow pilgrims;
as we long to be continually nourished by the Living Water of Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior.
(silent prayers may be offered)
Assurance Of Pardon
One: We are no longer blown about in the winds of the world,
we are grounded, yesterday, today, tomorrow,
in God's forgiveness, hope, and love.
All: Today, tomorrow, forever:
we can bear fresh fruit,
sharing God's peace and joy with everyone we meet.
Thanks be to God, we are forgiven! Amen.
CHILDREN'S SERMON
Thank you for caring
Object: a big bag with things in it that represent what the children's parents have given them (a pillow, peanut butter, a toy, a Bible storybook, a bike accessory, a lunch box, and similar objects)
Good morning, boys and girls. I have been thinking about all of the things I have been given in my life. It is amazing. I have received everything I needed to have a wonderful life. Because I am older than you, I have received more things than you. Where do all of the things we have come from? (let them answer) When you were very little and you had a birthday party or it was Christmas, you received presents. Do you remember opening them? (let them answer) You tore the paper and ribbons off and found the gift. You didn't always know who gave you the gift and you probably didn't care. You just took it and began to play with it, but as you got older, knowing the person giving you the gift was as important as the gift itself.
I brought along some things in a bag that may have been given to you. This is just a small number of the things you have received. (show each object as you mention it) Who gives you a pillow to sleep on? (let them answer) Very good! How about a jar of peanut butter? Same person. Who gave you a Bible storybook, a toy, something for your bike, a lunch box, and all of the other things I have in the bag? Most of them came from your parents, didn't they? So many things are given to us by our moms and dads that we don't even have to ask. Parents give their children almost everything they need to help them grow.
It was the same with Jesus. When Jesus was young, he knew God was giving him special gifts. He learned quickly about his faith and had great joy when he prayed to the Father. As Jesus grew up, he began to learn that God had given him special powers. He was able to heal the sick, solve problems for the troubled, feed the hungry, make loneliness go away for the lonely, teach people about the truth from God, and push away the devil. Jesus knew that all of these were very special.
Jesus shared his gifts with the disciples. They learned to heal, teach, forgive, and work with the people. Jesus was a great teacher and his disciples were good learners. When Jesus was getting ready to go back to heaven, he had a wonderful prayer with his Father. He prayed that God would really protect the disciples. Jesus knew that there were liars, thieves, greedy people, false leaders, and false teachers who hated Jesus and his disciples. Jesus asked God to protect them so that the disciples could continue their ministries to those who needed Jesus.
You are people of God who have been given special powers in Jesus' name. God is also protecting you from the evildoers in this world. We should say, "Thank you, Jesus, for caring about us and asking God to protect us in this world." Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, May 28, 2006, issue.
Copyright 2006 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 517 South Main Street, Lima, Ohio 45804.
