Ears of God
"For Christians, pastoral care differs essentially from preaching in that here the task of listening is joined to the task of speaking the Word. There is also a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. This impatient, inattentive listening really despises the other Christian and finally is only waiting to get a chance to speak and thus to get rid of the other. This sort of listening is no fulfillment of our task. And it is certain that here, too, in our attitude toward other Christians we simply see reflected our own relationship to God. It should be no surprise that we are no longer able to perform the greatest service of listening that God has entrusted to us--hearing the confession of another Christian--if we refuse to lend our ear to another person on lesser subjects. The pagan world today knows something about persons who often can be helped only by having someone who will seriously listen to them. On this insight it has built its own secular form of pastoral care, which has become popular with many people, including Christians. But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been entrusted to them by the one who is indeed the great listener and in whose work they are to participate. We should listen with the ears of God, so that we can speak the Word of God.
I think that this has been on my mind since --Monday, November 19, 2007 as I had posted about this topic there as well...I do plan to revisit this subject with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, since I do NOT have this down and I desire to be a good listener. When I do take the time to listen, I have found it to be SUCH A BLESSING!
"For Christians, pastoral care differs essentially from preaching in that here the task of listening is joined to the task of speaking the Word. There is also a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. This impatient, inattentive listening really despises the other Christian and finally is only waiting to get a chance to speak and thus to get rid of the other. This sort of listening is no fulfillment of our task. And it is certain that here, too, in our attitude toward other Christians we simply see reflected our own relationship to God. It should be no surprise that we are no longer able to perform the greatest service of listening that God has entrusted to us--hearing the confession of another Christian--if we refuse to lend our ear to another person on lesser subjects. The pagan world today knows something about persons who often can be helped only by having someone who will seriously listen to them. On this insight it has built its own secular form of pastoral care, which has become popular with many people, including Christians. But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been entrusted to them by the one who is indeed the great listener and in whose work they are to participate. We should listen with the ears of God, so that we can speak the Word of God.
I think that this has been on my mind since --Monday, November 19, 2007 as I had posted about this topic there as well...I do plan to revisit this subject with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, since I do NOT have this down and I desire to be a good listener. When I do take the time to listen, I have found it to be SUCH A BLESSING!
2 comments:
I'm the king of this...well, the king of this error that is. I'm always ready to talk, seldom ready to listen, and always sure I have the answer--what a theology of self-love.
Bonhoeffer is of course right.
I think it was Bonhoeffer who also said, "When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die." (or something like that) I'm very much in agreement with you and mwh, it's this dieing thing that's difficult.
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