Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost
October 27, 2021
The Invitatory
“Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.
Praise ye the Lord.
The Lord's Name be praised.
Reading: Matthew 13:10-17
Then the disciples came and asked him, ‘Why do you speak to them in parables?’ He answered, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that “seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.” With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:
“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn—
and I would heal them.”
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell 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.
Meditation: Jo Ann B. Jones
Hear - perceive with the ear the sound made by (someone or something); be told or informed of.
Listen - give one's attention to a sound; take notice of and act on what someone says; respond to advice or a request; make an effort to hear something; be alert and ready to hear something; used to urge someone to pay attention to what one is going to say.
After reading and reflecting on these definitions, one may perceive that hearing and listening are entirely different enterprises. Hearing is much less demanding than listening. Hearing only asks that we perceive, that is, acknowledge that a sound has come to our attention. Nothing more is required. If a bell tolls then, yes, one has heard the bell. If it tolls twice, again, the sound has been heard, but one need not attach any importance to the number of times that the bell tolled. On the other hand, listening requires much more of us. If we are listening, as in the previous example, to the tolling of the bell, then if we listen to one toll, then perhaps we realize that it is one o’clock or, if two tolls, then it is two o’clock; or perhaps it communicates to us that it is the quarter, half, or three quarter hour. At four quarters, then we are alerted to the fact that ii is a new hour and listening to the tolls of the bell thereafter, can note the hour.
Thus far, Jesus has been busy, teaching and preaching, healing, explaining, gathering disciples, and traveling. And, now he does something new. He tells his audience a story - a parable. The meaning of the story isn’t immediately clear. The listener has to pause a moment and let it sink in, before comprehending. Because hearing does not equate listening, some are meant to understand and others aren’t.
We are invited to enter into the words and their meaning, their import for our faith and its deepening. We are asked to attend to the reading, to contemplate, to make an effort in our listening, perhaps, to what this passage might be revealing to us about God. Hearing will not do that for us. Listening will.
Listening underscores the fact that we are in a relationship. It does not confer any status or differential in power, necessarily, but it does, for the one who listens, call to the listener’s attention the importance of what is said and who is speaking. Jesus remarks to his disciples who have listened to these words: “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell 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.” But, of course, we who are allowed to listen, as if over the disciples’ shoulders, as Jesus explains what he means are given an insider’s perspective. We have an advantage in the growing of our faith as we cultivate our ability to listen.
The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.
