Words of Love

Did you see Blondie in yesterday’s paper? The Saturday, black and white strip (not the Sunday color one). Dagwood has just answered the phone. He looks eager and very excited and says something like, "Yes, that sounds wonderful! Let me run get my credit card." Leaving the phone off the hook, he returns to the family dinner, which had obviously been interrupted by the call. When Blondie asks who was on the phone, he replies, "Oh, just a telemarketer."

Personally, I’ve never met a telemarketer that I liked. I know that the actual person at the other end of the line isn’t the real problem. Nevertheless, the second I answer the phone and realize it’s some sort of solicitation, my mind immediately switches modes. I shut off any interest in communication or conversation and start working on getting out of the trap as quickly as possible, sometimes politely, sometimes not.

I mention telemarketers and answering the phone because answering calls is one of the important themes in our collect and readings this Third Sunday after the Epiphany. Answering calls.

In contrast to the telemarketer experience listen to a prayer about phone calls by contemporary French priest Michel Quoist. It’s from a book of Quoist’s prayers. This prayer is in a section called "All life would become a sign." This prayer is called The Telephone.

It’s not clear in this prayer whether it was a friend or God who called on the phone. I think we’re meant to wonder. It could have been either a friend or God. It could have been both. And in the end this phone call isn’t so different from Dagwood’s. In both, we do not listen. And therefore we do not communicate.

When God calls you, what is your response? Do you treat God like a telemarketer? Do you feel trapped; afraid you might get sucked into something? Afraid God might say to you, "Follow me?" You know, with most telemarketing calls, there’s that telltale pause after you answer, that second or two it takes the computer dialer to switch over to an actual person. Do you try to hang up during that pause before you hear the first word? I do. Don’t even let them get started. That way I don’t get trapped into trying to justify or explain why I’m not interested. I won’t have to fabricate excuses. If I can hang up real quick, I almost feel like I’ve won. In a sense I’ve said to them, I have no idea who you are or what you’re offering, but I do know I’m NOT INTERESTED. I’m especially not interested in anything that might take any of my time or money. That’s one way to respond when God calls.

Another sort of response is the one outlined in Father Quoist’s prayer. Especially among those of us who consider ourselves more or less good Christians, this is a common reaction to God’s call, especially God’s call to "Follow me." The minute we pick up the phone, we begin telling God where we want to go. Our conversations, our prayers, with God are monologues, not dialogues. We seek God’s presence, we desire God’s support, we know that we could use God’s help, we know that traveling with God is what we are supposed to do… if only God would listen as we explain exactly where we would like to go and exactly what we need God to do to help out. We talk, but we do not listen. There is no connection; communion is lost.

Sometimes when God calls, we hang up before God can begin to speak, for fear of what God might ask of us. Sometimes when God calls we fill the air so much with our own voices and expectations that we never hear God’s voice. Or maybe you’re thinking that God doesn’t call you. Others, but not you. Before my refrigerator got covered with pictures of Golden Retrievers, I had a Far Side comic strip posted there. In the first frame God is sitting on his throne amid the clouds of heaven holding a phone. God says, "Hello? Hello? This is God! Who’s this?" The next frame shows a frumpy, solitary man in front of the TV answering the phone. "Uh, this is Ernie Miller, Sir." "Ernie who?" God says, "Is this 555-1728?" "No, sir," Ernie replies, "This is 555-1782." "Sorry," God says, and Ernie hears the click as God hangs up.

God doesn’t hang up. God never gets the wrong number. This same book of prayers by Michel Quoist has another section called "If we knew how to listen to God." He writes, "If we knew how to listen to God, we would hear him speaking to us. For God does speak. He speaks in his Gospels. He also speaks through life—that new gospel to which we ourselves add a page each day. But we are rarely open to God’s message, because our faith is too weak and our life too earthbound." God does speak. God does speak to each and every one of us. I we do not hear God, it is not because God’s voice is silent, it is because we are not listening. If we do not hear God’s voice, it is because we are not open to God’s message.

There are many ways to improve our listening skills. Father Quoist suggests we be less earthbound and, he goes on to say, more childlike. Let me suggest just one other possible strategy. In last week’s gospel reading, in this week’s gospel reading, throughout the gospel, Jesus says, "Follow me." There are a lot of reasons we might do our best not to hear when God issues that particular call. Last week in our 9:00 adult Bible discussion we talked about how unbelievable it is that the disciples appear to answer Jesus’ call at the drop of a hat. Jesus just happens to walk by. They don’t know him; they haven’t heard him speak; they haven’t studied his position; they haven’t checked his references or reputation. The first words Jesus says are "Follow me," and they immediately drop everything in their lives and follow. They leave behind their families, their homes, their jobs to follow Jesus. Hard to believe.

We don’t know, of course, all the details of what really may have happened. Maybe they did have some prior knowledge of Jesus and his teaching. Or maybe, in actually seeing Jesus in the flesh, by looking into his eyes, through hearing his tone of voice… Maybe the disciples sensed much more from Jesus than just his words. Maybe by being in the presence of Jesus, they felt God’s overwhelming love coming to them through Jesus. Maybe what they sensed and knew in Jesus’ presence were God’s words of love—joyous, wonderful and life giving beyond imagination. Maybe those are the words we should be listening for. God’s words of love.

Words of love are, indeed, the first words that God would speak to each of us. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, so that all might believe in Him." The primary, overwhelming message that Jesus brought into the world was of God’s love. Father Quoist again: "If we knew how to look at life through God’s eyes, we would see [life] as innumerable tokens of the love of the Creator seeking the love of his creatures." That’s why Jesus was there in Galilee—to convey God’s love, to bring God’s love to Philip and Nathanael, to Simon and Andrew, to James and John, to you and me.

Before God says hello… Before God says believe in me… Before God says follow me… Before God says anything else, God says, I love you. Listen. Listen for those words. They speak from the pages of Scripture. They speak from the pages of our lives. Listen in the loneliness of your heart or the depth of your anxiety. Listen for God’s deep and tender words of love. Listen in the fierceness of your hope or the wonder of your joy. Listen for the words of the God whose love is the source of all hope and joy. When you come to a point in life when cannot think of anything to say to anyone, listen. God’s loving voice will give you direction and guidance. In those times you have said all the wrong things and done all the wrong things, stop and listen. Just listen. Listen to God. Listen and hear that you are forgiven; you are loved.

That is where the conversation begins. The conversation, the dialogue begins with God’s words of love. Where will it go after that? Each of us will have our own conversation with God. But I do know that in that life-long conversation, love can only grow and grow and grow. And throughout history people have done incredible, amazing things for love. People, it seems, will do anything for love—even follow Jesus.

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