Tongues and Ears

First Presbyterian Church/ Memphis, TN

September 13, 2015

Isaiah 50:4-9a

James 3:1-12

I am a storyteller. People identify me that way and I am happy to be recognized as a storyteller. I have so many stories from my life experiences that long to be shared, stories I need to share in order to connect with the healing power of being heard, being respected for what I have survived and being valued as a decent human being among other decent human beings.

Being human is challenging, at its very best it is challenging. We are all doing our best to overcome yesterday’s mistakes and injuries. We are all waking up each morning with hope that we will grow into our better and higher selves. We want our story to have a happy ending, satisfying closure. And we want that for others. So I find myself these days doing more listening than telling. In my storytelling experience, I have come to see that listening helps me to be a better person while it also helps the people around me to be their better selves as well.

The title of today’s sermon, Tongues and Ears, might imply that I am going to talk about hot sex. But, instead, I am going to talk about hot and heavy listening. I am trying to listen to myself these days. What messages am I sending to myself? Which voices in my head get power and authority to tell me who I am and why I am here?

You, too, may have been wounded in the past by the tongues of others. Other voices may have told you, and effectively taught you, that you are not enough, a problem, a disappointment, a loser in the line-up of human beings. And what has been said cannot be taken back. However- it is an insult to the God who created us if you and I wallow in resentment and bitterness about the evil that has come from tongues of others. God’s plans for redemption in this world depend upon our trust in God’s power and goodness within us. So we are called in our discipleship journey to listen for the Word of God and the voice of God.

God created each one of us with a purpose. We are here for a reason, to be part of the Beloved Community, to help usher in the Reign of God. Tongues of others may have done their best to throw us off the highway, to obstruct our view of who we are and what good we might contribute to this world. It is absolutely possible for the evil on the tongues of others to trap us in darkness.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Your tongue can speak healing words to yourself. Your ears can listen to lessons of hope from others. And we can all walk into the light together. It’s all about tongues, words spoken, and ears, lessons learned.  Our tongues and ears are vital to our personal growth. What we say to ourselves and about ourselves and how we listen to it are key in how we perceive our place in this world. We are all teachers. We teach ourselves first. And if we hope to teach good and healthy lessons to our children, students, families, neighbors, friends and co-workers then we must first review and improve the curriculum that we have been studying about our own value.

My friend, Karen Gennette, offers to me the gift of “Listening Sessions.” She listens while I talk. Her listening is highly effective as a form of encouragement in my life. One day I talked to Karen about kindness. I recalled experiences of being treated kindly by others and I told her about moments when I shared from the kindness of my own heart. We were both struck by how kindly we felt at the close of an hour. I talked about kindness and she listened to my talk about kindness and we both increased our investment in kindness. I think it was more than an emotional response. I understand this kind of thing to be hormonal. When we choose to focus on kindness, compassion, joy, faith, hope and love we open up the hormonal channels that release endorphins into our blood stream. And we actually become kinder, friendlier, more compassionate and loving.

We see the whole world through our own experiences. If we want the world to be a kinder place then we start by talking kindness to ourselves and asking people around us to talk about kindness to us.

Isaiah says: “The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word.” We are all teachers and we teach ourselves before we teach anyone else. It is through our discipleship, our relationship with the redeeming Word, Jesus himself, that our weary selves are redeemed and set free to lift others up to where they long to be.

It’s September and school has begun. Children are seated at desks all over the city and teachers are standing in front of the room doing their best to teach what must be learned if the children are going to succeed.

The Commercial Appeal has a feature section in today’s paper about teachers. What people think teachers are doing as opposed to what teachers are actually doing.  I have volunteered at Snowden School in my neighborhood. I confess that I could not do what teachers are called and required to do day after day after day!  I admire our teachers. In fact, I am in awe of the people who show up every day and manage all that they have to manage in a classroom full of children and young people.

Tony Campolo tells a story about a fifth-grade teacher, Jean Thompson, who looked at the students in her classroom on the first day of school and she said, “I love you. I love all of you just the same.” It was the way she routinely began the school year. But Campolo says that Ms Thompson was lying. We all know that some students are much easier to love than others. How many of you have ever been in a class where it was clear that the teacher just didn’t particularly like you? All teachers have favorites. How many of you have been in a class where it was clear that you were the teacher’s favorite? Right. While somebody else was not. That’s the way it goes in school.

Teddy Stoddart was in Jean Thompson’s room that year. He was not her immediate favorite. He slouched in his desk all the time. He mumbled and muttered when he spoke. His hair was messy. He smelled awful. And his face maintained a rather dull look.

Ms Thompson had access to Teddy’s records. She could have and should have known. The notes were all there in his file. First grade: Teddy is a good boy. He shows promise. He has some social challenges. Poor home life. Second grade: Teddy is a good boy. He is too serious for a second grader. His mother is ill. His father is not invested in Teddy’s school work. Third grade: Teddy is a troubled child. His mother died. His father is detached. Fourth Grade: Teddy is a boy who needs help.

Christmas time came and all the children in Jean Thompson’s class brought gifts to their teacher, piling them on her desk. They were all beautifully wrapped in red paper, gold paper, and green paper with pretty ribbon—except for Teddy’s gift. It was wrapped in brown paper from a grocery sack and held together with lots of scotch tape.

She opened all her gifts and when Ms Thompson opened Teddy’s gift she discovered a rhinestone bracelet with several stones missing. And a bottle of cheap perfume, the bottle half empty. The children started to giggle and make fun. But Ms Thompson put the bracelet on her wrist and held it out with an admiring look. “It’s gorgeous! Thank you, Teddy!” Then she dabbed some of the perfume on her wrist and smelled it, taking in the experience and smiling widely. “How nice! Teddy, this is wonderful!” The students changed their attitude when they saw how much the gifts meant to their teacher. The giggling stopped.

That afternoon, when all the other students had left the room, Teddy walked up to his teacher and said, “Ms Thompson, all day you have smelled just like my mother. That’s her perfume. And her bracelet looks so nice on you. I’m glad you like it.”

After that, Ms Thompson’s classroom was transformed. She had heard a new voice, a new word had been spoken to her and she had listened.  She no longer focused on teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. She focused on coaching, tutoring, listening, being kind… so the students could learn reading, writing and arithmetic.

Years went by and Jean Thompson taught many students. One day she got a letter. “Ms Thompson, I’m graduating from high school and I wanted you to be the first to know! Teddy Stoddart.”

More years went by and the teacher got another letter. “I wanted you to be the first to know. I am graduating from the university, second in my class! It has not been easy but I made it."

Six years passed and the next letter said: “Ms Thompson, I am graduating from med school and in a few weeks I will no longer be Teddy but Dr. Theodore Stoddart, MD. I am being married on June 27th and I want you to come. I hope you can make it. I hope you will sit in my mother’s place at the wedding. You’re the only family I have. Daddy died last year.”

 

Jean Thompson bought a plane ticket and she went to that wedding. She sat in the seat where Teddy’s mother would have been seated.

 

Jean Thompson was transformed by a student. And because she was able to move into a place of transformation, she gave all of her students a chance to be transformed. She saw in that rhinestone bracelet and the cheap perfume a chance to be part of the Beloved Community. She chose words to say to Teddy and to the students in her classroom that would help to usher in the Reign of God. She was transformed. Teddy was transformed. Her classroom was transformed. The world around all of them became a kinder place. A place of hope. Lonely hurting people became family for one another. The irony of the story is this: When Jean Thompson was retired and elderly, Teddy Stoddart was her family, the one beside her at the end of her days. Her student became her child, a family born from deep listening.

May we use our tongues to speak words of healing and hope. And may our ears listen carefully for what the Word of God has to say to each one of us. We are part of something magnificent.

 

Amen.