It's all about listening

There are many reasons why we do not want to, or like to listen. We may not like the looks of the speaker. We might have already heard the same thing before, and many times. We do not trust the presenter, because of their often used, “Umms” and “You knows”, and the use of “in conclusion” which is the beginning of the post-oration. We do like listening to stories, but not statistics. We love listening to a speaker who seems to have been thinking the exact same way we have.

It is difficult to listen to Jesus when He is talking to me about letting go as much as possible to my independence, my wanting to be apart from any community and at other times wanting to be a part of community. Community here is family, church, nation, team, and class, whatever group asks for my time, gifts, heart and head.

Jesus claims us as actual gifts from the Father and Jesus is giving us to be in relationships that will continue the caring for all God’s creatures. Our depending on God is not a casual now-and-then experience. God loves us as God loves the Son and the Shepherd has laid down His life that we might pick up ours.

I know there are terms such as “inter-dependent, co-dependent, over-dependent, self-centered independence”. These are good distinctions, but the struggle remains. Jesus has been resisted by His listeners—then, now and throughout the ages—when He tells us He has brothers and sisters who are poor, rejected, afflicted, abandoned, homeless, and jobless. Jesus and they are asking, inviting us—actually insisting—that we are to depend on them for receiving true life. He tells us who are in the flock that there are others who also belong, but they have been listening to other voices. He depends on us - me - to speak and live what He has tried to say to us, to me, and so many times.