Thoughts from Good Shepherd Sunday
I was away from Tosa this weekend, attending a continuing education event in Chicago. This was the third of three weekend trainings designed to (among other things) assist me in sharpening my listening skills. Intentional listening is a particularly scarce commodity in a culture that seems to blather on incessantly and indiscriminately.
In the six years since my graduation from seminary, I've engaged in my fair share of "blathering on". I've preached hundreds of sermons (some hopefully better than others); taught scores of classes and written dozens of mostly unmemorable memos, letters and articles. I've had literally thousands of conversations -- in which I attempted to share some insight or opinion about one thing or another. All of this ecclesiastical yakking is compelling evidence that my seminary education instilled in me the value of "telling" as a primary aspect of a priest's work (even this blog is an example of the compulsion!).
But almost none of my work in preparation for ordained ministry actually involved listening as a spiritual practice. For this I had to go to a "secular" workshop! And yes, the workshop actually used the term "spiritual practice" as a means of describing a particular in-depth listening process.
This all causes me to wonder if most of the "telling" we clergy do has reached a point of diminishing returns. What if, for all of the good intentions, our words are simply more noise vying for a hearing from already overtaxed ears?
Before my workshop began yesterday, I spent some time reflecting on the collect for The Fourth Sunday of Easter. This collect highlights themes from the 10th chapter of John (the one in which Jesus names himself as "The Good Shepherd") -- particularly the themes of calling and hearing:
O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
I think today is a good time to begin restraining the impulse to constantly "tell". Reducing my contribution to the noise in other people's ears would be a good thing. Reducing the noise in my own ears, even better. Who knows? In the sound of silence, I might hear Someone calling my name.
I was away from Tosa this weekend, attending a continuing education event in Chicago. This was the third of three weekend trainings designed to (among other things) assist me in sharpening my listening skills. Intentional listening is a particularly scarce commodity in a culture that seems to blather on incessantly and indiscriminately.
In the six years since my graduation from seminary, I've engaged in my fair share of "blathering on". I've preached hundreds of sermons (some hopefully better than others); taught scores of classes and written dozens of mostly unmemorable memos, letters and articles. I've had literally thousands of conversations -- in which I attempted to share some insight or opinion about one thing or another. All of this ecclesiastical yakking is compelling evidence that my seminary education instilled in me the value of "telling" as a primary aspect of a priest's work (even this blog is an example of the compulsion!).
But almost none of my work in preparation for ordained ministry actually involved listening as a spiritual practice. For this I had to go to a "secular" workshop! And yes, the workshop actually used the term "spiritual practice" as a means of describing a particular in-depth listening process.
This all causes me to wonder if most of the "telling" we clergy do has reached a point of diminishing returns. What if, for all of the good intentions, our words are simply more noise vying for a hearing from already overtaxed ears?
Before my workshop began yesterday, I spent some time reflecting on the collect for The Fourth Sunday of Easter. This collect highlights themes from the 10th chapter of John (the one in which Jesus names himself as "The Good Shepherd") -- particularly the themes of calling and hearing:
O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
I think today is a good time to begin restraining the impulse to constantly "tell". Reducing my contribution to the noise in other people's ears would be a good thing. Reducing the noise in my own ears, even better. Who knows? In the sound of silence, I might hear Someone calling my name.
posted by FrGaryB | 12:31 AM
6 Comments:
What!!!???!!! Did you say something???? Ok, I get it, enough of me talking about me, how about you talking about me for a while... :)
By the way, you mentioned the "collect for the Fourth Sunday of Easter" (I think that was the terminology). As a past heathen and current sinner who attends a church he was pre-destined to attend what does the term "collect" mean as used in your mussing?
Be blessed,
David
What!!!???!!! Did you say something???? Ok, I get it, enough of me talking about me, how about you talking about me for a while... :)
By the way, you mentioned the "collect for the Fourth Sunday of Easter" (I think that was the terminology). As a past heathen and current sinner who attends a church he was pre-destined to attend what does the term "collect" mean as used in your mussing?
Be blessed,
David
Hey Dave!
What, did you push the reply button twice??? Or did you simply want to be sure I answered the question?
OK...here's the scoop:
The "col-lect" (pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable) is a short prayer that's prayed on behalf of the congregation to "collect" (as in the verb form we normally use) and gather the people for worship.
Collects (prayers) generally follow a pattern of "invocation; petition; conclusion" and are usually no more than two sentences.
In the Book of Common Prayer, a different collect is assigned for each Sunday of the year...the one I cite in this post is the one for this past Sunday (which was the Fourth Sunday after Easter.)
Look and see if you can find the three elements of invocation, petition and conclusion in that prayer.
Oh, and you're probably wondering how April 12 could be the "Fourth" Sunday after Easter when it's only been three weeks...well, that's because the Sunday of the Resurrection (Easter) technically is the First Day after Jesus' rising, so the count of the Sundays in the Easter Season begins then. Confused yet? That's what makes being an Episcopalian so much fun...all the code!
I'll add my $0.02 in here as well. (Hi, David!) The mnemonic device for the components of a collect is: "You, Who, Do, Through." You + Who = invocation, Do = petition, Through = conclusion. Once you get that stuck in your head, it will never come out...
Thank you Gary and Dr. kns for your good explanation regarding collect. I have yet to be in a perfect church and if either one of yours is a perfect church then please don't let me in or it will cease to be perfect. I think we can learn from all of our denominations and pick up good stuff here and drop bad stuff there. We just need to learn what different events mean. Again, thank you.
Be blessed,
David
Thank you Gary and Dr. kns for your good explanation regarding collect. I have yet to be in a perfect church and if either one of yours is a perfect church then please don't let me in or it will cease to be perfect. I think we can learn from all of our denominations and pick up good stuff here and drop bad stuff there. We just need to learn what different events mean. Again, thank you.
Be blessed,
David
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