Listening

By Rev. Raymond Coffey

October 2006

One of the most significant aspects of prayer and worship is that of listening. We have often thought of worship as what we do, particularly lift up our voices in praise, adoration, and prayer. And of course these are vital elements of any act of worship. But worship itself begins in silence and this itself is an act of listening.

Listening signals that the first word that is spoken is not our word. We wait to hear God’s word spoken. Then and only then do we respond with words of praise or petition.  Eugene Peterson has written that prayer is ‘answering speech,’ in that our prayers are a response to God’s speech, to his Word. His words on the Psalms as our prayer book are most helpful.

Most students of the human condition agree that prayer is basic to our existence. Prayer reaches into the unknown for whatever we sense will provide wholeness, or for what we hope will bring salvation. We are unfinished creatures, longing reaching, stretching towards fulfillment. We express these desires for completion in prayer. Prayers articulate our seeking after the best. Prayers give voice to aspiration towards the highest. Whether in disguise or reality, prayers show us at our best. Except for the Psalms. In a world of prayers that indulge the religious ego and cultivate passionate longings, the Psalms stand out with a kind of angular austerity. The Psalms are acts of obedience, answering the God who has addressed us. God’s word precedes these words: these prayers don’t seek God; they respond to the God who seeks us. These responses are often ones of surprise, for who expects God to come looking for us? God comes and speaks, his word catches us in sin, finds us in despair, invades us by grace. The Psalms are our answers. We don’t always like what God speaks to us, and we don’t always understand it. But what is critical is that we speak to the God who speaks to us…and in our speaking mature in the great art of conversation with God that is prayer. The Psalms, all of which listen in order to answer, trains us in the conversation.

All of prayer and worship begins with the act of listening. In our impatience and in the hurriedness of our culture we long to get on the business of doing something. But we must cultivate the discipline of listening. Of silence in the presence of God. Of waiting on him. Then we will begin to learn to pray.

In I Samuel 3, we read the story of Samuel’s apprenticeship in the Temple under the tutelage of Eli the high priest. One night he hears his name called and gets up to go ask Eli what it is that he wants from him. Eli tells him that it was not him who called. This occurs a second and third time. After the third inquiry by Samuel Eli realizes that the Lord is calling young Samuel. Eli instructs Samuel to answer the next time he hears his name with these words: “speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”  Such a response is our pattern for beginning to worship and pray.

Listening is not a passive resignation to just sit back and wait. It is active in that we focus our attention on God and his word. Mental and spiritual discipline are required as we concentrate our faculties of hearing on the Scripture spoken and read, on the sermon preached and on the prayers that are said. It is this very act of listening that signals to us not only the beginning of prayer and worship, but the very heart of prayer and worship.

It is not or agenda or our concerns that are central, but God, revealed to us in Christ Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, who is the focal point of all that is said and done. Listening takes us out of the spotlight. Listening gives glory to the God who speaks his truth and grace to our lives.

As we learn the art of prayer and the act of worship we will begin with the position of being a listening people. And as we listen we are formed, both in our character and in our ability to be able to speak with assurance that we are answering the God who has sought us and spoken to us his Word. During our studies on prayer I pray that God will give to us an attentive heart and mind to focus on his word and glory.