NINTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST 2016 Luke 10:38-42
I know it’s happened to you, because it happens to me to me frequently. You are in a meeting, and the subject matter is less than riveting and your mind wanders to something much more interesting, and you don’t hear another thing. Now just let me say that this never happens to me in meetings in Mt Calvary, not even vestry meetings. But it does happen to me in local meetings of clergy. There’s that blood-curdling moment when my thoughts are a thousand miles away – on a beach, or up a mountain or at a sports stadium and I am dragged shockingly back into the room by the words, “What do you think, Duncan?” Now I have developed some foolproof coping mechanisms in that stressful moment. And telling the truth that you find this conversation boring, is not one of them. So, when this happens to me a in a clergy meeting I usually say, “Well, I think we consider what Jesus says in John’s Gospel.” And this always does the trick because Episcopal clergy don’t know their Bibles, and they’re too embarrassed to admit it and so they all nod sagely and say, “Yes, of course, good point. Thank you for sharing that.” It works no matter what the topic of conversation is.

I reckon there are four levels of listening. There’s Level One which we can call Vague Listening. This is when you’re not actually listening at all. You find it in homes all over the world. You say something to someone – often someone you live with, and they pay no attention at all. They carry on reading their book, watching their TV show, surfing on their laptop. But instead of saying, “Sorry, I’m not listening”, they reply with some kind of sound, like ‘hmmm’, ‘yes’, ‘absolutely, darling’. Now some ingenious people try to take ruthless advantage of this situation by asking for things which the listener would never agree to if they were actually listening. Like, “Dad, can I borrow the car?” Or, “Honey, can we remodel the kitchen?”

Level Two we can name Good Listening. This is where you.... (read the full Sermon here: Don-t just do something sit there )