I may be the only person who remembers the E F Hutton commercials from the last century … when EF Hutton talks … people listen. 

Well EF Hutton is no more, after 40 years of mergers and sales and take overs. So only a few remember how successful they once were in the stock market. No one is listening to them any more.

This week’s Gospel moves from Greeks wanting to see to Jesus to disciples hearing the voice of God. Both of these signs could be, have been misinterpreted, misrepresented. After all some folks thought the voice of God was thunder.  

 

How do we listen for the voice of God? How do we interpret what we hear? What we see?  

Or maybe it’s a like the old adage – be careful what you wish for, or what you pray for. Meaning? Do we really want to see Jesus, do we really want to hear the voice of God? Most of the time I would answer, Yes! Except beloved what if, just stay with me here, what if, it’s not the answer I want?  

Since we often try to create God in our image. Rather than believing that it is indeed the other way around, we are created in the image and likeness of God. Me included. Our need for control and certainty so inclines us toward the former. That’s why I need church, why I need the people I find in church. Left to my own devices I can imagine all kinds of things, I can miss Jesus right in front of me. I can think the voice of God is thunder. I can choose to not hear what I think is bad or at the very least unwanted news.

It’s often tricky this wanting to see Jesus and hear the voice of God. Not on purpose, it just is. We have to be willing to let go of what we think ought to happen, to let go of desired outcomes. Even if that means death on a cross. Ouch.  

Lenten lesson for this week: keep on looking, keep on listening even when the answers we want are not the answers we get. Sorry if that seems like not so good news.

Beloved, this isn’t giving up on justice or mercy or compassion. No way am I saying that. There are things, circumstances and systems that need to be dismantled and changed. God has already spoken clearly on these matters. The poor are to fed and housed and clothed, the sick and the prisoner and the widow are to be visited, there is no wiggle room here. This lesson is about how we still must seek to see and hear the divine in our world. Amen.

Your Vestry and Clergy team are working on a plan to reopen for in-person worship on a limited basis, beginning with a small Sunday service at 10 a.m. (start date Sunday, April 11) and building out from there.

The purpose of this survey is to determine the circumstances under which you would attend an in-person service, this or another one, and how we can best accommodate you as we continue to plan.