Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Listen to the Father

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Isaiah 50:4
Messiah speaks through Isaiah: "The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back."

Paul wrote to the Philippians that Jesus emptied himself, but another way to say this is that Jesus is emptied. His Father empties him because Jesus is willing.

What is he emptied of? His self-interest is replaced by self-forgetfulness. In Jesus' obedience God "opens his ears that he may hear." Then God opens his mouth to speak love and grace and healing to the weary.

James warns us about turning our words into weapons, about tongue-lashing others or talking behind their backs. But Isaiah's Messiah (Jesus) has a "well-trained" tongue. Over and over Jesus claims to only say what he is hearing his Father say. He doesn't speak quickly or often, but when he speaks people listen.

When Jesus speaks, people are healed. His words are creative and alive - his words bridge the gap between Creator and created. He understands and brings to earthly life the unity between man and God that the Creator envisioned from the beginning. In bringing God to live among us, Jesus shows us how to live in God.

Our pastors and teachers might think of God as an infinite sphere, as a "circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere."* This is one of my favorite metaphors describing God, but it might not change the way I live or, especially, the way I love. Those change when I return to quiet - morning after morning - to have my ears opened and mouth closed, while God surrounds me and loves me and guides me into the lives of others.

God doesn't care if we know the big words or think the big ideas. But he makes us all pastors. We live with others; therefore we are their pastors. No one is not a shepherd. All of us share the ministry of reconciliation with each other. Isaiah's words about Jesus are about us and for us too.

So, Lord, train my ears too, to open, and my mouth to close. Give me too, a well-trained, quiet tongue that bears witness to the weary and brings them rest.

* This circle metaphor is attributed to Voltaire (18th century), to Pascal (17th century), to Bonaventure (13th century), to Alain de Lille (12th century), to the Latin Book of the 24 Philosophers (4th century), and finally to the Greek philosopher Empedocles, 5th century BC. Ralph Waldo Emerson (19th century) attributed it to St. Augustine (4th century).

I am not surprised to think it is one of the most "re-tweeted" metaphors (21st century) about God of all time.

The picture has stood the test of time. It is, also, just a metaphor.

Devotions Archive

Listen to the Father

Sunday, April 13, 2014