Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

John 2:23-3:15

What does it mean to listen? To receive the words of another? We confront in a moment the need to be humble before the other, to sit at their feet and be taught, without needing to interject. In a certain moment, Nicodemus visits Jesus with the intention of learning what he means in his testimonies. But Nicodemus has not come to receive what Jesus says; his first words to Jesus are a statement of who Jesus is, instead of a simple greeting. He does not take the time to listen, especially to one who he has recognized as something greater. 

A few weeks ago as part of a global sacred music class, I gathered with my classmates in Keffer Memorial Chapel at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary to spend an hour and a half together in a drum circle. We had brought instruments small and large: drums, frogs, tambourines. For a while we simply played; someone would start and we would follow. But there came a point when we were asked to “support” one drummer. It took some time before we could do that, because it meant stripping away our needs to do certain things and to give one person the opportunity to speak through their drum. We needed to listen, to hear what rhythms that person worked, and to fall back so that those sounds could express “our” sound. 

Jesus does not shy away from speaking to us. But in order for us to truly receive what he says, we must learn to listen to the other. To the one who speaks strange things. To the one who says words that are different. To the one whose opinion is not our own. 

And then, before we decide who they are, let us wait and let them tell us. 

- Joshua Zentner-Barrett