When he was president Franklin Roosevelt became a little weary of all the handshakes and the official merry-go-round.  And one day when he was being introduced to a long line of guests at the White House his mischievous side got the better of him.  He had always suspected that no one in these reception lines ever listened to anything he ever said, and so he tried an experiment.  At this particular function as he shook hands with the line of guests Roosevelt murmured to each one, "I murdered my grandmother this morning." The guests responded with phrases like, "How wonderful! 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 someone actually listened to his words. Nonplussed, the ambassador leaned over and whispered, "I'm sure she had it coming, sir."

Well, this morning’s Bible readings have one thing in common – the sbject of listening.  And listening is something Jesus is expert at.  Just look at the two encounters he has in today's Gospel reading.  First he is approached by a Gentile woman who falls at his feet and begs him to heal her daughter who was suffering at the hands of an evil spirit.  Jesus hears her request and a conversation develops.  Now at the start he seems a little reluctant to give the woman what she wants - he gives her a reply that to us seems insulting and even racist.  "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."  In other words, you’re a Gentile and my mission is to the Jews, so I’ve come to heal them, and not your daughter.  This is not what you’d expect Jesus to say.  I reckon that Jesus was actually setting her a test.  He was always going to heal the girl, but first he wanted to see just how much faith and persistence her mother had.  Would she now give up and slink away or would she carry on asking and pleading?  And so she replies "Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."  And the listening Jesus hears beyond the foreign accent and the words of this woman and hears a sincere, robust, and persistent faith. And he answers her prayer and heals her daughter.

And then there’s the other healing - the one of the man who is deaf and mute.  This man had friends.  Good friends who brought him to Jesus.  And Jesus listens to their pleas for healing and he responds with great sensitivity.  The first thing he does is take the man aside, away from the public gaze and performs the healing.  The listening Jesus.  How easy would it have been for him in both cases to have rolled his eyes, sighed and grumbled that he was busy or tired?  Or how easy it would have been for him to be half-hearted in his listening.  To have failed to have really listened to the Gentile woman and dismissed her after the opening exchange.  Or to heal the deaf man but to do it in a cold, detached kind of way.  Instead Jesus makes time and room for these two people.  He listens to their needs and engages fully with them as if there was nothing else in life at that moment.

And as it was for Jesus then, so it is now.  He still listens to you as if you were the only person in the world.  And so it should be for us. You see it’s not just in the Gospel reading that listening is a theme.  In the epistle reading, James is writing to his church and imagines an absurd scenario.  A financially needy person comes into the church and after worship has finished the Christians go up to them and say, "Great to meet you, we wish you well; keep warm, make sure you eat well," but they do nothing about his poverty.  “What good is that?” asks James.  If they had really been listening to him they’d have done something to help him.  Instead of saying “keep warm” they’d have sent him on his way with some clothes and blankets.  Instead of saying “make sure you eat well” they’d have given him some food.  It seems these early Christians were hearing the man but not listening to him.

Don’t you hate it when that happens to you?  You’re talking to someone and all the time they’re glancing around, looking to see if there’s anyone more interesting to talk to.  Or they use what you’re saying only as a lead in to tell you what they think about this or that.  And your function in the conversation is merely to give the other person a topic to spout off about, because in his or her eyes their thoughts and words are much more important than yours.  They are worth listening to – and you’re not. Well, you will not receive that treatment from Jesus.  When we have something to say to him he listens and he understands, and he longs to help us just as he helped those two needy people in Mark 7.

Chuck Swindoll tells the story of a native American who was walking in downtown Manhattan with a friend who was a native New Yorker. They were walking therough Times Square and the native American seized his friend’s arm and whispered, "I hear a cricket." His friend said, "Come on! A cricket? This is downtown New York.”  He persisted, "No, really, I really do."

"That’s impossible! You can’t hear a cricket! There are taxis going by, horns honking, people yelling at each other, brakes screeching, subways roaring under the street. You can’t possibly hear a cricket!"  But he insisted and he led his friend along, slowly. They stopped, and he walked to the end of the block, crossed the street, looked around, cocked his head and then walked briskly to a large cement planter where a tree was growing, he dug into the mud and found the cricket. "See!" he yelled, as he held the insect high above his head. His friend walked across the street, marveling, "How in the world could it be that you heard a cricket in the middle of downtown Manhattan?"  His friends replied, "It simply depends on what you’re listening to. Here, let me show you." And he reached in his pocket and pulled out a handful of change - a few quarters, three or four nickels, and some dimes and pennies. Then he said, "Now watch." He held the coins waist high and dropped them to the sidewalk. Every head within twenty yards turned around and looked.

And so having looked at Jesus as our model it is time to see how we can imitate him.  And the challenge can be summed in just that one word: listen.  Let’s listen to one another here at St John’s, and let’s also listen to the needy world around us. 

Now we live busy lives.  Our minds and our calendars are full.  Each day we are bombarded by thousands of voices clamouring for our attention.  Some of them are unworthy of it, of course, the voices of a thousand commercials and advertising hoardings.  Some are worthy - the voice of the newspaper or news broadcast telling you of a world in pain.  Listen to those voices.  And some are the voices of your family and friends and fellow worshippers here at St John’s.  The sick friend, the disabled co-worker, the bereaved acquaintance.  Listen to these voices.  And REALLY listen.  Sometimes listening can be hard.  We might not want to hear what the other person has to say, but listening is always good. 

One day a conflict counsellor received a phone call from a priest. The priest and the principal of the Parish School had seen their professional relationship deteriorate to the point where they could no longer communicate with each other. The counsellor spoke to both men and said "Before we get together I want you to write down for me what you think the problems are in your relationship."  The Principal and the priest came to the first meeting. They sat opposite one another and the counsellor asked them to read out their lists.  The Priest said "I feel that the principal resents my presence in the school. I would like to play a larger role but feel I can’t. I’d especially like to be more involved in religious education but I feel pushed out."  The Principal then read out his assessment of the problem. "I feel that the priest doesn’t want to get involved in the school. I can’t understand why he feels this way because we desperately need him, especially in religious education."  If only they had talked and listened to each other without assuming rejection they would have learned that they both wanted the same thing.

Apparently people think about four times faster than they can talk.  That means that in a conversation there is plenty of time to let your mind wander.  And you can find yourself wandering off onto some other topic when the other person is talking.  Make it your aim to concentrate on what the other person is saying.  Invest yourself.  And that might mean turning the TV off.  Make eye contact, give little signs that you are listening so as to encourage the other person to talk more and trust you - nod, smile, say “I see” or repeat what the person has said. 

 
And when you listen don’t merely pay attention to the words, but listen to the feelings behind them.  Watch the body language too.  The point of listening, as demonstrated by Jesus, is to truly engage with someone and put yourself in their shoes; to try to discover what it is like to be that person.  You can’t completely achieve that, of course - no one can know exactly what it is like to be you except you.  However, to really listen, to really invest yourself in the other person means helping them carry the burden they’re struggling with.  This is what it means to love.  How can we love someone and not give of ourselves?  It’s what James is driving at when he says “Don’t just say to the poor person eat well and keep and warm.  Do something about it.  Show you care; show that the love of Christ is in your heart.”

Before we can really listen to someone we have to rid ourselves of prejudice.  And by that I don’t just mean prejudice about the way they look or their race or sex or lifestyle or taste in music and clothes - although certainly we must rid ourselves of those prejudices.  I mean prejudice against Chad or Isobel who is standing in front of us and talking to us.  You know Chad and Isobel.  Nothing they ever say is worth hearing.  They are always going on about this or that irrelevance, some boring trivial detail of their lives.  This is really hard, I know.  I’m talking about those people who really push your buttons.  You want to take their photo and give it to the Post Office to use if they ever bring out a set of stamps commemorating really irritating people.  When a person you have a personal struggle with talks to you try to rid yourself of those prejudices, just because you don’t find them or their stories interesting does not mean that this time they will not bless you in some way by the things they say.  And even if they don’t, it is a God-given opportunity for you to bless them by showing love and interest in them.

So this morning Jesus is presenting to us a way in which we can love each other.  Listening.  Listening as he listens to us.  He loves you and he is interested in every thing you might want to tell him – nothing is too large and nothing is too small.  Talk to him, share your heart, your joys, your fears, your worries and your delights.  And then let’s endeavour to do that for each other  - over coffee and into the future.