Luke 2:22-40 Waiting on God

Do you ever feel that it is difficult to hear God speaking? I know I do.
There are so many distractions around us. TVs, Radios, telephone, email, things calling on our time and attention. As well as the different competing voices telling us what to do, we are constantly bombarded with advertising which tells us how to spend our money, where we should go, what we should do, how we can live longer, be happier, be more successful, achieve our goals. With so many distractions around us, is it not surprising that sometimes we find it hard to hear God’s voice in all that is going on.

I actually think that sometimes we feel more comfortable with this noise, and that we are not very good when it comes to being still and silent. Have you noticed just how difficult it is to escape from the sound of human activity? Standing in the middle of Cannock Chase, you can hear the distant rumble of traffic or the sound of a plane flying overhead.

Too much noise can be bad for us. Excessive noise can damage our hearing. A report at the start of January revealed concerns that the ipod generation are storing up problems for themselves because of damage caused by ‘white noise’, the noise of the headphones which causes damage to the hearing. Excess noise can also lead to sleeplessness and stress.

But it is not just audible noise that is a problem. Our lives can often be filled up with noise, worries, doubts, fears, pressures of work, family life, church life. All these things can act as noisy distractions. I imagine all of us at one time or another, had those experiences of lying awake on our beds at night with thoughts rushing through our mind, making it difficult for us to switch off and sleep. This noise, which can affect our lives can so often prevent us from hearing God.

The other day as I was walking down Sutton Road, there was a brief pause in the traffic, and in those few short moments, I suddenly became aware of the sound of birds singing. They had been singing away all this time, but I had not heard them because of the sound of the traffic. Is the fact that we sometimes feel as though God is not speaking to us, not because he’s stopped speaking, but that we’re not listening?

The word ‘Listen’ appears 332 times in the Bible. Clearly this is something which is important for us to do. A lot of people are very poor when it comes to listening, myself included! The story is told of Franklin Roosevelt, who often endured long receiving lines at the White House. He complained that no one really paid any attention to what was said. One day, during a reception, he decided to try an experiment. To each person who passed down the line and shook his hand, he murmured, “I murdered my grandmother this morning.” The guests responded with phrases like, “Marvelous! Keep up the good work. We are proud of you. God bless you, sir.” It was not till the end of the line, while greeting the ambassador from Bolivia, that his words were actually heard. Nonplussed, the ambassador leaned over and whispered, “I’m sure she had it coming.”

Good listening is like tuning into a radio station. For good results, you can listen to only one station at a time. If I try to listen to Beata whilst also listening to the radio station, is like trying to receive two radio stations at the same time. I end up with distortion and frustration. Listening requires a choice of where I place my attention. If I’m talking to Beata, I need to put away all that will divide my attention. That might mean laying down the newspaper, moving away from the dishes in the sink, putting down the book I’m reading, setting aside my projects, or switching off the TV or radio. The same is true when it comes to God. We need to set aside time to be with him. The trouble is that I find I’m not very good at doing this. It takes time, and effort. One of the essential elements of Taize Worship is the 10 minutes of silence in the middle of the prayer. At first it takes a lot of getting used to, because there can be so many distractions, not least the noise of thoughts whirling around in your head. But after a while you begin to appreciate the space and stillness, and you start to hear God’s voice speaking. It is about creating space for God in our lives.

Why is it though, that we find being still so difficult? I think part of the problem is that we live in a world where everything is expected to happen quickly. The world has been transformed by global communications, it is no longer a surprise when we hear about a disaster the other side of the world within minutes of something happening.

We have similar expectations in our own lives. Britain is a country in debt, consumer debt in 2004 topped one trillion pounds. In the past people used to purchase good and products after they have saved up money. Now people buy now and hope to pay later. People are borrowing money on their credit cards, and finding that they are getting more and more in debt. In the first two weeks of January the National Debtline received 12000 calls from period worried about debt, and the average caller owed between 5 and 15 thousand pounds. This is all symtematic of a culture where we expect everything to be done instantly, the buy now pay later culture. It can be a problem in our Christian life as well. When we pray we expect to get instant answers. But God doesn’t act like this. In our reading this evening, we heard about Simeon, who had been promised by God that he would live to see the Lord’s Christ. How long did Simeon have to wait for this promise to be fulfilled? The Bible doesn’t say, but it may have been an extremely long time. In 1999 I remember clearly praying to God about my desire to marry Beata. I had to wait over four years for that prayer to be answered, and a lot happened in between.

Bill Hybels in the book ‘Too Busy Not to Pray’ says that:
• If the request is wrong, God says ‘No’
• If the timing in wrong, God says ‘Slow’
• If you are wrong, God says, ‘Grow’
But if the request is right, the timing is right and you are right, God says, ‘Go!’

I get the impression that Simeon must have been someone who learnt how to be still. He was someone who learnt how to listen to God. But also, he was someone who was prepared to wait on God. He knew that he would see the Christ one day, he didn’t know when, but he trusted God. Maybe one of the things God wants to teach us is to learn to be still. To learn to switch off from the other noises and distractions we have in our lives, and to tune into him, and learn to be still. The Psalmist writes: Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD. I have to confess I often struggle to create the proper time for God in my life. It is all to easy to fill up our lives with things which do not matter, and neglect those things that really do matter.

It has been estimated that in a lifetime the average person will spend: Six months sitting at traffic lights, Eight months opening junk mail One year looking for misplaced objects 2 years unsuccessfully returning phone calls 4 years doing housework 5 years waiting in line 6 years eating I wonder how much time God gets from us?

The Psalmist writes, Be Still and Know that I am God. The well known Quaker George Fox used to say ‘Carry some quiet around inside yourself, be still in your own mind & spirit, from you own thoughts, and then you will be able to hear God.’ It is important to find time, during the day just to be still, to take a sabbatical moment, even if that is for only a few minutes every few hours. It helps us feel refreshed, and focus’ our direction back onto God.