Listening is an activity that must be cultivated, practiced, invested in. We have all had those times where someone tells us something, and it just flies right past us. Sometimes it’s because our concentration isn’t there—we are unfocused, or perhaps focused on something else. And sometimes it’s because we really don’t care. There are any number of times I will say something to Susan that is of absolutely no interest to her, and, God bless her, she tries to engage with me. But after awhile, she tunes me out—and that’s OK with me, because sometimes I get so excited about something I don’t notice that she’s not interested, and I then am not being very good about listening to her.
Listening must be cultivated. Again, one of the characteristics, one of the practices, of the follower of Jesus is to “Listen Generously.” This is not listening casually—this is engaging, caring about what is being said, and caring about the one who is saying it.
In the passage from John 5—one of my favorite stories in the Bible, for a number of reasons—Jesus genuinely listens to what the man by the pool of Beth-Zatha is saying. Jesus asks him if he wants to be healed—he, who has been 38 years in that spot, and has yet to benefit from the healing properties of the pool. The man answers with what can easily be understood as an excuse, that someone always gets to the pool ahead of him, because he has no one to help him. It would seem that in 38 years he NEVER gets there first? But Jesus is listening, and doesn’t seem to see what the man says as making excuses—Jesus LISTENS to his desire to be healed, and heals him. Generous listening hears what’s behind the words that are said, and responds to them.
In the church, we are to practice generous listening. We are to “be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger”—as James 1:19 reminds us. Our immediate reaction to something should not be anger and defensiveness, although that is often the default setting for us—the most immediate response. Often what someone says that angers us has nothing to do with us as the person says it; like Jesus in the John story, we need to hear behind the words, to the person who is saying it and that person’s meaning and motivations. Much of what we take personally isn’t meant personally, and sorting that out is part of listening generously.
Part of listening generously is that we also consider what one person says as just as valuable as what another person says. This doesn’t mean that we follow the medical advice of the pastor and ignore the medical advice of the physician, to give an example. But this means that the feelings of one person are just as valid as the feelings of another person, regardless of who the respective people are, and if they’re rich, or respected, or poor, or generally disregarded. Favoritism has no place when we listen generously; James 2:9 reminds us, “if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” Listening generously is about not showing partiality. A mark of who we are as a follower of Jesus is to “Listen Generously”.
NEW TESTAMENT James 1:19-2:9
19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger;
20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
1 My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? 2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, 3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Have a seat here, please’, while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there’, or, ‘Sit at my feet’, 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? 5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters, Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? 7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
8 You do well if you really fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.