How Is Your Hearing?

As I was reading Luke 8 this week I was struck by the brilliance of Luke’s depiction of women throughout Luke-Acts. It is hard to imagine Luke’s community of faith without women. They seem to be everywhere in his narrative of the ministry of Jesus and the emerging church. But this week I was struck by a very small connection between Luke 8 and the opening narratives in Luke.

Just after Jesus describes those who respond faithfully to the word of God, his mother and brothers come to him. The brief scene revisits the language of the parable of the sower when Jesus says, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.” At first glance we could assume that this is a critique against Jesus’ family. But we have to remember how Luke has shaped Mary in his narrative. For Luke, Mary is the ideal believer, the perfect example of one who hears the word of God and responds favorably (Lk. 1:38). She provides the social paradigm for the church in Luke’s narrative. Mary’s faithful response to God was an eschatological event of social reversal. Because Mary heard and responded faithfully to the divine initiative, God broke into human history and visited the world in Jesus.

Have you had your hearing checked? As disciples, we have been called to live as Mary, to hear and respond to the word of God, to live the parable of the sower. This parable reminds us that hearing and responding is NOT a one time event. To truly hear and respond to the word of God is to engage in a life of ongoing and continual conversion. God’s people are those who hear the word and endure.

As the people of God, we have been called to be a community that hears the word of God. We are called to respond faithfully to the visitation of God in Jesus, to be a creative minority in the world through which the divine breaks into human history through the way live toward God and each other. God is calling us to be a community whose life together embodies God’s will, to live as though our social relationships were directed by God, and to open our arms to welcome others to join us. As a community of those who truly hear, we are a living witness to God’s mercy through our faithfulness to God and each other. So now we have to ask each other, “How is your hearing?”