"What We Need Is Here" - A Sermon for Lent 1

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Preached by the Very Rev. Michael D. Kinman at Christ Church Cathedral on Sunday, February 26, 2012

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

There’s a poem in your service leaflet this morning I want us to share by Wendell Berry who is, among other things, a great American conservationist. Berry is a person of the land, and his writing is grounded in the notion that our lives ought to be rooted in and responsive to the creation around us.

The poem is called “What we need is here.”

Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.

For all we search for things to fill the holes inside us with things that others try to sell to us. For all we search for meaning in the myriad of anesthetics the world offers, the truth is that God in creation has provided what we need and we need nothing more. What we need is here.

A friend of mine, Amy McCreath, took the title of this poem and put it to music in a simple song, and I want to teach it to you. If you’ve already had this experience with me in a chapter meeting or one of the back to basics classes, just play along.

I’m going to teach you the basic melody and we’ll get going on that a few times and then when it feels like we’ve got that down, I’m going to invite you to experiment with harmonies. Just branch out and see what happens.

OK, Listen first. Then sing. Listen first. Then sing.

The song was taught and sung … and after awhile, some members of the congregation branched out into harmonies.

How did that sound? (peaceful, beautiful, comforting) How many tried harmony? (about ¼ of the congregation raised their hands) How many made a sound that made you cringe before you found the right harmony? (a bunch of those nodded their heads). What did it take (listening and singing and willingness to take risks). You had to listen harder or maybe differently and adjust your pitch.

So what did we learn? We learned that we can make something beautiful together.. We learned that this is a safe place to take risks and to try new things. I didn’t see anyone leaning away and giving a dirty look to someone who was trying a harmony. We might have had some voices in our own heads saying that because we all have those harsh internal critics, but we weren’t doing that to each other. So we learned that this is a place we can take risks to make something beautiful together.

And we did that. We made something beautiful together. Everything we need to make beautiful music is right here. All we need to do is to just listen deeply and sing sweetly.

What we need is here. Listen first, then sing.

This is the first Sunday of Lent. Jesus is baptized. He hears that he is beloved of God and he is driven into the desert for 40 days. And the desert is harsh. There are wild beasts that want to eat you. He was tempted by Satan.

But he survived. And he realized God was there with him. And when he took the time to look and listen, he realized there were angels there to minister to him. And he realized who he was and what he had to do. And he emerged from the desert knowing the road that God has set before him. He emerged knowing the song he had to sing.

But the desert was not optional. Jesus had to go into the desert. He had to go into that place where he could strip away all the distractions, all the things other than God that he might rely on. Where he could listen. And when he listened he heard voices of demons tempting and voices of angels loving. 

And so he prayed. And I believe he prayed, as Wendell Berry sings, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye, clear. For from that clarity came knowing who he was and what he was to be about. And in listening he learned the song he had to sing. A song of the Kingdom of God. A song of deep beauty and glorious harmony.

The desert proved to Jesus that what he needed was right there. God was all he needed. The knowledge that he was God’s beloved. The presence of God to minister to him. God has provided, as God always provides, what we need.

What we need is here.

And so we enter Lent as a Cathedral community. And it is an intentional time in the desert. A time to strip away all the distractions, all the things other than God that we might depend on.  

There are outward signs of this. Our liturgy will be said and not sung, and certain more celebratory words are not said at all. All the things we took out so that we could welcome the icons exhibit – the banners, the flags, the angel font, the bulletin boards on the first floor and even the pictures in my outer office – we’re going to leave all that bare and put away this season like ground lying fallow. We will live in this place of bareness and simplicity and search for God’s presence, knowing what we need is here.

But what we learn from Jesus, is that the desert is not just a barren place to hang out for 40 days. We come together in the desert for a reason. We come together to listen and in listening to learn how to sing.

Remember … Listen first. Then sing.

We come together to listen because listening is how we recognize God’s provision for us. Listening is how we trust that God has provided what we need right here.

So this Lent, let’s do that together. This Lent, let us commit to a season of listening.

First, of listening to the voice of God in scripture.

This Lent, let us commit together to regular if not daily reading of scripture. Pick a book of the Bible then set aside time every day to read just a small piece of it. If you want to join me, I’m doing it with the Book of Acts. Sit with it. Listen to it. Pray with it. Ask yourself, “what is God saying we should be about as a church?” “What is God’s dream for me? For us?” If you’d like help picking a book or finding a commentary that can be a good companion for you, I’m going to send out an email this week with some ideas and assistance. Or please come and see one of the clergy. We’d be happy to help. But mostly just dive in … pick a book of the Bible and dive in. Pick a book and read slowly and listen.

And in listening we will find that what we need is here.

But let’s not stop there. This Lent, let us commit together to listening deeply to one another.

In today’s world, the voice of the tempter comes most often in our own infatuation with our own agendas and in the temptation to be reactive in pushing and defending those agendas rather than seeking deeper wisdom from those around us.

I’ve taken to the practice in Chapter meetings and other meetings with writing four questions on the piece of paper in front of me that remind me of my own temptation to be infatuated with my own ideas and my deep need to listen and trust that God has provided wisdom not just within me but especially in the people around me. The four questions are these:

*Is it something that needs to be said or do I just want to say it?

*Am I the best person to say it or would it have more effect coming from someone else and can I wait to see if that happens?

*Is it the right time to say this or do I need to listen more and see if deeper wisdom emerges?

*Is there a way I can ask a question instead of making a statement?

I find as I practice this, more often than not deeper wisdom than I could have reached on my own emerges in the conversation. So this Lent, let’s listen to one another. Ask more questions and make fewer statements. Look for the deep wisdom that resides in the people around us.

But let’s even go deeper in listening than that. This Lent, let us commit together to listening to God in prayer.

On average, we are exposed to more than 5,000 advertising messages a day. Five Thousand. We live in a world of constant bombardment with messages that are, to a one, telling us that we are not worthy or lovable being who we are but that there is something we need to buy to make us whole.

In Basic Discipleship, we hold up the goal of working toward 20 minutes a day of silent, centering prayer … of listening to the God who gives us a different message than those 5000 ads we hear each day. Working toward 20 minutes a day of listening to the God who says “you are my beloved. In you I am well pleased. And I have a dream for your life that is deeply beautiful.” 

Even if you can’t get to 20 minutes. Even if you can only get to two. Let us commit together to a season of listening to God in prayer. And pray as Wendell Berry sang, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye, clear. For from that clarity we will know who we are and what we are to be about. We will now what song we have to sing. What it means for us to be proclaimers of the Kingdom of God. And we will get glimpses of the deep beauty and glorious harmony God is and will continue to bring into being through us.

I invite you to the observance of a holy Lent. To a season of listening to God’s voice in scripture, in one another and in prayer.  To listen first, and then sing. To listen and pray, not for a new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye, clear. To listen and discover that what we need … is here. AMEN.