Just as sacred space exists to reflect divine glory and beauty, so sacred sounds exist in order to communicate grace and truth. Sacred sounds communicated primarily (but not exclusively) through the vehicle of words are sacraments that uniquely and truly manifest the divine presence.

If words are sacraments, then listening is an act of worship. This involves more than the simple hearing of sounds. Sacred listening is an active and intentional engagement with sacred words in order to faithfully receive God’s message. This activity demands our complete surrender to the ultimate source of sacred words – a personal encounter with the living God.

Just as we may possess sight but not truly “see,” we may also hear but not really “listen.” For this reason, Jesus called people to open their eyes and ears in order to see and hear God’s message (e.g., Matthew 13:15-16). He did not assume that this would happen automatically. The mere possession of eyes and ears is no guarantee that an individual will see or hear. We need “open eyes” and “blessed ears” – ears that hear – in order to actively receive sacred words.

This need is vital and urgent. Losing our ability to listen puts us in a dangerous position. Spiritual formation is impossible for the spiritually deaf. Love to God begins with listening to God’s word.[1] If we are unwilling to listen, then we will remain deaf to God’s voice. We will possess ears, but we will be unable to hear![2] Therefore, it is vital that we learn how to quiet our hearts before God and attentively listen to God’s voice. We must learn that listening is more than waiting for our turn to talk![3]

Ears to Hear: Listening as Worship

Contrary to what most people assume, listening is not passive; listening involves active engagement with another. To really listen to someone takes great effort. It calls for patience and respect. We will not spend time listening to someone we do not respect. Ultimately, listening is an act of love. We show others love when we choose to listen to them rather than ignore them.

Because listening is an act of love, it does not come effortlessly. True listening does not happen naturally; it is a learned habit. People need to learn to listen, and learn how to listen. The possession of a listening heart is the result of attentiveness and active discipline. It does not come without a fight.

This is an important truth to emphasize in our image-saturated culture where words are continually humiliated. Many even within the church claim that listening to sacred words is irrelevant to our culture. They deem that it is “inactive” and “non-participatory.” Those who make such claims fail to consider how much effort and participation is necessary in order to actively and attentively listen. Could our culture’s knee-jerk reaction against active listening actually be evidence of mental laziness and emotional lovelessness – not wishing to fully interact with the patience, tolerance, and surrender necessary for full engagement with another?

Much liturgical worship consists of sacred sounds in the form of songs, prayers, readings, and preaching. Since worship involves sacred words, we have a responsibility to engage with them, think through them, and remember them – in other words, to actively participate in sacred sounds through attentive listening. We must not simply hear, but truly listen.

The Danger of Selective Hearing

With sight, we possess the ability to shut our eyelids if we do not wish to see something. But there is no similar appendage for our ears. Unless we physically stop our ears with our fingers or ear-plugs, they remain forever open to the sounds of the world. The fact that our ears cannot shut themselves as conveniently as our eyes creates a unique problem in regard to hearing.

Our eyes – with the aid of eyelids – can create the illusion of complete blindness. Our ears, on the other hand, cannot create complete deafness. Therefore, our greatest danger with hearing is not that we would completely shut our ears (because we can’t) but that our hearing would become so selective that we effectively grow deaf to the sound of truth.

The deceit and devastation caused by selective hearing is widespread. Selective hearing allows us to experience the illusion of listening even though we are not fully engaged. Through selective hearing, we choose to hear (whether consciously or unconsciously) only what we want to hear. We refuse to hear anything that is troubling, challenging, or convicting. We only listen to that which affirms our preconceptions. Over time, we become hard of heart, unable to be changed, because we are unwilling to listen. We do not stop hearing altogether. We simply seek out those who will say only what we want to hear.

Paul refers to this hearing-malfunction in his final letter to his favorite son in the faith, Timothy. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).[4]

No matter how much we desire to remain open to God’s word, we tend to drown out the parts we find unappealing, unimportant, uncomfortable, or challenging. Selective hearing drains the sacred words of their power. “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). God’s word not only comforts and consoles; it also challenges, confronts, and convicts. Its teaching may be difficult at times, its reproof may be hard to hear, its correction may seem like meddling, and its training may be rigorous and demanding. This makes it all the more difficult for us to remain open to all God has to say to us. There are some things we simply don’t want to hear!

In order to remain completely open to the entirety of God’s message we must embrace the wisdom of the old saying, “Learn to listen, and listen to learn.” We can evaluate our progress by asking ourselves, “Am I listening to discover something, or only to confirm what I already believe or know?”[5]

God’s word is a double-edged sword. It comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. We should expect God’s message to stretch us. Sometimes sacred words should be like a warm security blanket that comforts and consoles. At other times, they should be like sandpaper that smoothes a rough surface. We may prefer dessert over veggies or milk over steak, but a good meal includes all of these things.

Sources of Sacred Words for Sacred Listening

We possess a variety of sources of sacred sounds for spiritual formation.

Our primary source for sacred sounds is the Bible. The apostle Peter highlights the importance of a steady diet of God’s word when he gives this command: “like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation” (1 Peter 2:2). The “milk of the word” is directly connected to the gospel message that initially brings salvation: “for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). How is this life-transforming message communicated? Through preaching: “this is the word which was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:25). For this reason, Peter commands us to “long for the word” in order that we might more deeply grasp the truth and significance of the preached message that changed our lives. Put simply: since we have received salvation through the preached word, we should now earnestly desire more of the word in order to grow in our salvation.

Sacred liturgy, including its written prayers, both ancient and contemporary, is another rich source for spiritual formation. Our prayers both reveal and shape our faith. The use of other’s prayers can enhance our personal prayer life. As a place to start, I would recommend the Lord’s Prayer as a basic structure to guide your own prayers, Thomas Merton’s prayer for guidance in the midst of confusion, St. Francis’ prayer for self-less spiritual transformation, and the Reinhold Neibuhr’s Serenity Prayer. If you pray these prayers habitually for an extended time their deep spiritual significance and value will be self-evident. (By the way, these prayers can be found at the end of this chapter.)

Spiritual reading can also be a source of sacred words. Choose books that affirm faith rather than undermine it. This is not to suggest that you have to agree with everything in a book in order to spiritually benefit from it, but we currently live in a time when a glut of books exist which are intent upon distorting, undermining, and eliminating the Christian faith and tradition. There is a rich industry of books by “believers gone wild.” A steady diet of these will shrink rather than enlarge the soul.

Perhaps one way to maintain one’s perspective is to take the advice of C. S. Lewis and read at least one ancient book for every three contemporary books. If we read only contemporary books, we easily succumb to “the arrogance of the modern.” We fail to realize how entrapped and influenced we are by our own time and culture. Reading books from other times and cultures gives us a platform from which to momentarily transcend our culture and thus evaluate it more critically. In his classic introduction to Athanasius’ On the Incarnation, Lewis defends his importance of ancient writings,

A new book is still on its trial… It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light… People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes. They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction.

As a starting place, I would recommend the following classics: On the Incarnation by Athanasius, Practicing the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a’Kempis, and Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. This is merely the tip of the iceberg. There is such a wealth of deep Christian reading available that no one could possibly exhaust it in his or her lifetime.

The ancient spiritual practice of lectio divina (sacred reading) is another means to learn spiritual attentiveness to sacred words. This discipline involves slowly reading a spiritual text, not for the sake of instruction, but for spiritual formation. Through hearing, reflecting, praying, and resting in the word, it descends deep into our souls and transforms us from the inside out. Lectio Divina concludes with contemplation – silent basking in the presence of God. This sacred silence opens us up to listen to the “still, small voice of God.” The most difficult aspect of effective contemplation is the abundance of distractions we face – both within and without. (Indeed, outer quiet is much easier to achieve than inner quiet.) Quieting our heart in order to really listen to God is difficult to achieve and reveals how easy it is to grow deaf to the voice of God in our lives.

Finally, songs of the faith provide a rich resource for spiritual formation. The corporate discipline of sacred singing is commanded in scripture for our personal and corporate growth. Singing “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves” is one evidence of the Spirit’s filling (Ephesians 5:18). Colossians 3:16 indicates that such singing is a means to allow the word of Christ to richly indwell our faith community. The power of songs is found in their ability to engage the whole person – body, emotion, and intellect – as well as in how melody allows us to easily remember words.

Nourished by God’s Word

Sacred words are a means of grace, a sacrament of Christ, a tool of the Spirit. Attentive listening with “ears that hear” is our way to appropriate these words, receive the sacrament, and be shaped by the Spirit. Just as Jesus taught, “we do not live by bread alone”; but we are nourished by the words God feeds us. These words sustain and support our shared life in Christ. Through attentive listening, we demonstrate our devotion to God. We do not simply listen; we listen worshipfully!

Truly, listening is a spiritual discipline. Don’t let anyone convince you that listening is passive or non-participatory. Those who say such things simply don’t know what they are talking about. Listening is hard work. It demands much of us. It requires that we take the focus off ourselves in order to become attentive to another. We must surrender ourselves to the other in order to listen attentively. This is infinitely magnified when we give ourselves over to the Wholly Other in order to hear words unlike all others – sacred words of spirit, truth, and life.

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Appendix: Prayers Referenced

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. (Thomas Merton)

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where this is discord, unity;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek…
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
(St. Francis)

God, Grant me the serenity to
Accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and the Wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardship as the pathway to peace.
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.
Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life,
and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen. 
(Reinhold Neibuhr)

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© Richard J. Vincent, 2007