UCC Church of Charlotte

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Sermon for January 25, 2009
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Sunday, January 25, 2009 9:03:54 AM
From:
Phil Hobson   
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To:
Phil Hobson 


Saying It
Jonah 3:1-5, 10 
Mark 1:14-20

Grace and Peace to you this morning.  Grace and Peace.
    
I bring you greetings from the Bahamas this morning, where the highs were in the 70's.  I also bring home a case of post-cruise vertigo, which means that my inner ear hasn't caught up with the fact that I am not onboard a ship any more, and the world continues to rock a bit.  That's why I am staying in the pulpit this morning, so I have railings to hold on to.
    
Perhaps this is Jonah's revenge.
    
I recently received a confidential report on several candidates under consideration for an open ministerial position.  It included such entries as:

    Adam: A good man but problems with his wife.  Also one reference told of how he and his wife enjoy walking nude in the woods.

    Jesus: Seldom stays in one place for very long. And, of course, he's single.  Has a messiah complex.

    Noah: Prone to unrealistic building projects.

    Jonah: Refused God's call into ministry until he was forced to obey by getting swallowed up by a great fish.  He told us the fish later spit him out on the shore near here.  Known to pout when he doesn't get his way.  We hung up.

    John: Says he's a Baptist, but definitely doesn't dress like one.  Has slept outdoors for months on end.  Has a weird diet.  Provokes denominational leaders.  Is too social and political minded.  Offends politicians and has been known to lose his head on occasion.

    Timothy: Too young.

    Methuselah: Too old.  WAY too old.

    Judas: His references are solid.  A steady plodder.  Conservative and pragmatic.  Good connections.  Knows how to handle money.  We're inviting him to preach on Sunday.  Possibilities here.
    
By many standards, the ones we are to follow seem way out of bounds, don't they?
    
In the stories this morning, we have two men who spoke, and said exactly what was needed, and people acted immediately with no other provocation.  Anybody ever do this, short of issuing orders in the military?  (And my veteran buddies seem to take pride in the fact that not necessarily even then.)
    
Say it once and it gets done.
    
A far cry from Bill Cosby's take on children.  You don't tell a child to come here.  You tell them, "Come here.  Come here!  Come HERE!  Here, here, here, here, here, here, HERE!"
    
And a far cry from most places where we not only have to tell people what it is, we then have to explain why, and then tell them again a few times.  And if we are savvy, we will change it up a bit and present the same information in a different way.
    
So how do we speak the truth so that life and community and hope may flourish?
    
Surely it starts with listening.  Last week Dawn spoke of how well we listen, which is to say, not so well.  There are difficulties to listening.  We get distracted.  We get so busy we forget.  Or maybe what we hear confounds us.
    
A man who deals with violent cases of mental illness talks about needing to know where his own buttons are, what triggers his own issues to come up.  Because if he is reacting to his own stuff, there is no chance of dealing with the person in front on him well.  And he says an interesting thing.  Two things that set people off are: something about ourselves we are in denial about, or something that offends our deeply held values.
    
In other words, just because someone reacts badly to hearing something does not mean it was necessarily right or wrong.  It may have been something I really needed to hear about myself, but I was not ready to handle yet.  Or it may have been something that went so against what I believe in most deeply, that I automatically jump to the defensive.  We must discern the truth in what we hear. 
    
Which brings up the power of denial, what the rest of Jonah's story was about.  
    
Nuh-uh!  No way!  Ain't gonna do it!
    
Of course, Jonah is up against God, so we can see how this will work.  But even in the end, Jonah is unrepentant.  He is the prophet who speaks the word of God, but never gets it for himself.
    
Speaking the truth doesn't work if we are in denial on the listening end.
    
And then there are added degrees of difficulty.  We are to speak the truth in love.  To be as honest as possible and yet care for the person to whom we are speaking.  So much easier when we are allowed to vent, to talk AT someone and then say, "Well, you know, I'm just saying."  But we are to be mindful of our connections when we speak, remembering covenant with God and neighbor.
    
Which brings us to the strangest part about truth.  We see it partially.  As if in a foggy mirror, Paul puts it.  Which means that the truth of my experience of something, and the truth of your experience of that very same thing may be very different.  It is filtered through our past experiences, our understanding of the world, our best guesses and latest information.  It is shaped by our own needs, wants and desires.
    
So we must speak our own truths, as best we are able, and listen for the truth brought to us by others, including the person who may say things we don't like to hear.
    
Why bother?  Isn't it so much easier to just go along to get along?  To not speak of the needs we have or our neighbor has, wouldn't that be easier?
    
Maybe.  But the life we live with half-told truths is barely half a life.  And we are meant for more than that.  As people.  As a community.
    
So when God speaks, through scripture, or that still, small voice within us, or through our neighbor, or even through the one bringing us what we don't want to hear, let us listen.
    
For then, perhaps only then, we can speak our truth, in love, and live.
    
Thanks be to God.
Amen.