Joining God – Listening Together

            Throughout the Christmas story, it quickly becomes evident that God is at work in a lot of different places.  God shows up out in the fields with the shepherds and then is at work in the streets of Bethlehem as the shepherds tell everyone they meet what God has done.  God is at work far to the East, prompting the magi to make the journey to search for the Messiah.  God is there in the stable (or cave) as various people come to investigate this child who has been born.  And, as one might expect, God is also at work in the Temple, leading people like Simeon and Anna to come and see the long-awaited Saviour.

            Throughout the stories of the birth of Jesus, it is God who takes the initiative, letting people know what is about to happen and then working through a variety of people in order to spread the news.  It is a pattern that does not stop – especially after Jesus has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven.  Particularly in the book of Acts, God is the one who takes the initiative every step of the way.  And the job of those first disciples is to discern what God is up to and to follow where God leads.

            However, somewhere along the line we got the idea that God only shows up in church buildings.  While it is true that God is at work in and through the church, it is also true that God has never stopped being at work in the world.  The thing that stopped was any attention on our part to what God might be doing in the world around us – so much so that now we have trouble even thinking in those terms.

            Alan Roxburgh, of the Missional Network, uses Luke 10:1-12 as a pattern for how we engage with the world around us.  He writes about going lightly in the way of Jesus into our neighbourhoods, and listening, and discerning, and joining in with what God might be doing.  He writes about engaging with our neighbours in new ways and discerning where God might be leading us to join in. What he really is advocating is a different way of seeing the world and thinking about God’s activity in it.  We’re used to thinking that people are going to come to us (build it, and they will come).  We’re used to thinking that we need to go out there and meet people’s needs.  We’re used to thinking that we have the technology to fix things, and that if we just change a few things, the people will come streaming in.  We’re used to taking the initiative, rather than allowing God to do so.  We’re used to telling rather than listening.

            Roxburgh does not deny that the church continues to be important and that God continues to work within it and through it.  However, he does suggest that we need to stop asking church-centered questions all the time and ask God-centered questions instead.  The basic question was put like this by Kelly Fryer:  “What is God doing?  How can we help?”  After all, what kind of a church doesn’t allow God to be the one in charge?

            And so, throughout the coming year I will be gathering with others in the Kildonans to learn some new practices. (Briefly, they are listening, discerning, experimenting, reflecting and deciding.)  The key is beginning with Dwelling in the Word – listening to God through the Scriptures while listening to our neighbours.  We undertake this together not knowing where it will lead, but wanting to listen for what God might be saying to us.  After all, God continues to be at work in the world – waiting for us to catch on and to follow where God is leading us.

                        In Christ,

                        Pastor Lynne Hutchison