LENT 2020: Day 21

• Lent 2020: Day 21 Friday, March 20, 2020:
  Psalm 23; 1 Samuel 15:22-31; Ephesians 5:1-9

     And Samuel said to Saul,
          “Now, heed the voice of the words of the LORD.”

So began our chapter. And in yesterday’s reading, we saw an emphasis on listening and heeding the voice of the LORD.

And that theme continues today, as Samuel responds to Saul:
    “Does the LORD take delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
          as in heeding the voice of the LORD?
    For heeding is better than sacrifice,
          hearkening, than the fat of rams.
    For the diviner’s offense is rebellion,
          the transgression of idols — definance.
    Since you have cast off the word of the LORD,
          He has cast you aside as king.”

Back in verse 1, Brueggemann observes, Saul is anointed because of his listening. But the same logic works the other way as well: “Where there is no listening, there will be no anointing.”

“Saul’s role is to listen,” Brueggeman writes. 

And he continues: “Listening is everything.”

Our current crisis is making it clear that we have not been listening to the cries of the most vulnerable in our city, in our nation, in our world.

The cries of the poor are not new, the cries of the sick are not new, the cries of the elderly are not new.

For far too long, though, we have ignored their cries.

And shame on us for waiting until their problems became our problems too, interrupting our comfortable lives, to listen.

Now that we are listening, though, may we continue to listen. And so, as we continue through Lent, may we seek out other voices we have ignored.