Help me hear....

There*s a story about a preacher preparing her sermon for Sunday.  No matter how hard she tried, it would not come together.  So she preached a disjointed sermon that Sunday, with as much fortitude as she could muster.  She was glad when she was done.  Being an Episcopal priest, she knew that there were other things people could hang on to in the service, like the celebration of Holy Communion, even when the sermon had little to offer.  After the service, she stood at the doorway, shook hands, and prayed no one would say anything beyond the standard, Nice sermon, or possibly, Thank you for your words.  The last person out the door was a man, visibly shaken.  Looking into the preacher*s eyes, he said: I really needed to hear your words this morning.  They were incredibly powerful.  Thank you.

Incredulously, the preacher asked him what had been helpful. 

He replied:   When you said: Now, moving on to the next point…. I realized I was at a major turning point in my life. 

Back in my preaching days, there were times that a sermon did not come together.  I would start to put something on paper that sounded good in my head, only to find it fall apart in front of me.   On those Sundays, I would preach what I had.  It was not unusual for someone to come up later and thank me, often citing a throwaway line that was not in the text.   I learned to trust that no matter what I thought of the words, God inhabited both my words as preacher and the hearts of the people who listened, as well.  When we asked, and when we let Him.  

Consider this:

How do you listen to sermons on Sunday morning?  Or other times?  How do you listen to Holy Scripture being read?  Are you caught by that stray mispelling in the Sunday bulletin?  Or perhaps a mispronunciation of that odd word?  Do you find yourself saying That could have tightened up or Certainly that point could have been made better, or sooner, or....   For all of this (and more), I offer the following simple prayer:  

Lord, help me hear what you want me to hear.  Amen.  (It even works in other situations)