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Third Week of Lent – March 7, 2013
Jeremiah 7: 23-28
Psalm 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Luke 11:14-23
S
UMMARY
In Jeremiah, God commands his people to listen. If they listen, they will
hear his voice, walk in his ways and prosper. But they did not listen or pay
heed – they are to be told that they are a nation who does not listen and
from which faithfulness has disappeared.
In Luke’s Gospel, we are told the story of Jesus driving a demon from a
mute. When the demon left and the man spoke, the crowds were amazed,
thinking that it was the power of demons that had driven the demon away.
They did not listen or understand that a demon being driven out by a de-
mon was a house divided against itself.
R
EFLECTION
This world is filled with sounds of all sorts – a myriad of voices,
laughter, music, snatches of conversations, honking horns, rum-
bling machinery, elevator chimes, sirens, blowing air vents, slam-
ming doors, wind chimes, the clinking of silver against dishware,
hummingbird wings, the television, the television, the television…
the list is seemingly endless. These are things we
hear
every day
and mostly tune out. The real question is to what do we actually
spend time
actively listening
? To the boss or co-workers (maybe),
to our family (hopefully), to clients (probably). A musician actively
listens to music. A good doc-
tor truly listens to a patient.
Steven Covey (
7 Habits of
Highly Effective People
) said,
“Most people do not listen
with the intent to understand;
they listen with the intent to
reply.”