Better Speaking through Silence

A few weeks back, those of us who follow the Revised Common Lectionary took a romp through the New Testament Letter of James. Maligned by Martin Luther as "an epistle of straw" because its contents could not be bent toward a more favorable agreement with his understanding of salvation through grace alone, James is direct, unadorned and at times, pendantic. The epistle has the feel of the Wisdom tradition of the Hebrew Scriptures (think Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, for example). Sometimes James is just, well, very preachy!

Here's a nugget from the August 30 reading: "Let everyone be quick to hear and slow to speak..." (James 1:19a)

Hmmm....that's good advice at any time, but these days, with uniformed wordiness being all the rage, this exhortation seems particularly appropriate. As a preacher-type, I too often default to talking, when listening is more in order. If I'm not careful, I assume that people ask questions to hear me pour forth a torrent of words as an "answer". I'm beginning to understand that sometimes the question is offered as an invitation toward deeper listening.

Perhaps in our cultural loquaciousness, we've simply lost the ability to hold a space, to give words a chance to sink in before they are swept away by another flurry of sentences. Holding a space. Waiting just a moment. Savoring a second of silence. Allowing the speaker's ideas to take up space, to spread out, to hang, suspended in the delicious communion of conversation. Maybe even resisting the almost-always-irresistible desire to refute an opinion that is contrary to our own. I've probably got more to say about listening, but maybe now is a good time to practice rather than preach.