Weekly Bulletin

….I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land….      Moses’ challenge to Israelites before his death, Deut. 30:19,20

Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”  (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)  Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”  Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.       Mark 9:5-8

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.       Jesus to the disciples, John 10:27,28

 

 

Winchester Friends’ Missions & Social Concerns Committee is spending the first half of 2026 focusing attention on Christ’s consistent use of his time and resources to work for “the common good,” and on his expectation that his followers will do the same with their lives.  This emphasis arose out of Friends’ concern about the growing self-focus and selfishness which has gripped our nation’s culture for the past several years.  At their meetings, the committee has discussed practical ways for 21st century Christians to work both individually and together to oppose and diminish selfishness and to encourage and support the common good.  The members have started a list of actions we all can take to work towards that goal (the list can be seen on the annex bulletin board).  All of those actions are proposed in the spirit of the apostle Paul’s instruction in Philippians 2:3,4 to look out for the interests and well-being of others, not just our own.  Several of the points suggested by the members are about living wisely and prudently to avoid causing harm or hardship to other people.  Other actions call for “going the second mile” to help provide for people in need, to invest ourselves in actually knowing our neighbors, and to practice good citizenship by paying our fair share of taxes and advocating for their wise use.  That would mean serving as much of the public as possible, especially those who are struggling – the common good.

 

In the committee’s most recent meeting, one member thoughtfully suggested adding “genuine listening” to the action list, noting that in today’s self-focused social media culture, there is a serious lack of communicating with one another but an excess of talking at one another.  A review of the scriptures reveals that this is not a new problem.  Ever since sin got its foothold in the human race, God’s enemy has worked to convince people that it is better to be served than to serve others, more important to be heard than genuinely to listen to others.  In Matthew 13:13-15, Jesus echoed the diagnosis of the prophets Isaiah (6:9,10), Jeremiah (5:21) and Ezekiel (12:2) that people who live that way “have eyes but never see, have ears but never hear.”  Teaching in Matthew 20:25-28 about authority and greatness, Jesus made it clear to the disciples that in his kingdom, the exact opposite of his enemy’s falsehood is true.  Unselfish servanthood, vision, and listening are essential to the common good.  It all begins with learning to listen to God.

 

Samuel is usually considered the last of Israel’s judges and the first of their prophets.  He was the son born miraculously to Hannah and her husband Elkanah after she had almost given up hope of ever having a child.  She poured out her heart to God, vowing to dedicate her son to serving the Lord in the temple if he would bless her with one.  God answered her prayer with the baby Samuel (thought to mean “heard of God”) in 1105 BC.  After he was weaned, his mother honored her vow by taking him to Eli the priest at the temple in Shiloh to be raised there in service to the Lord.  When Samuel was about twelve years old, God called his name while he lay in bed.  Thinking the elderly Eli needed assistance, Samuel hurried to him and asked what he needed.  Eli replied that he hadn’t called for him.  After the same thing happened twice more, Eli told Samuel to return to his room, and when he heard his name called, he was to answer, “speak, for your servant is listening.”  Samuel obeyed, and the Lord spoke to him messages of great importance for Eli and Israel.  Samuel’s learning to recognize and listen carefully to God’s voice proved essential, not just for him, but for the good of all Israel throughout the remainder of his life.

 

King David is probably much better known for his many words than for his listening, but it helps to realize that many of the words he wrote in the Psalms are his part of a dialogue with God.  His rise from being a shepherd boy to becoming the king of Israel resulted directly from Samuel’s genuine listening to God (I Samuel 16:12,13).  Many of David’s psalms indicate his dedication to maintaining a listening spirit before the Lord.  One of my favorites always has been Psalm 27.  In that psalm, David wrote that the one thing he asked of God was the privilege of dwelling in the house of the Lord every day, to see God’s beauty every day, to seek him every day, and to be taught by him the way he should go every day (27:4,8,11).  The Psalmist’s request to be taught God’s way is repeated dozens of times in the Psalms.  Receiving those blessings from the Lord implies a contemplative dialogue between God and David which required a lifetime of genuine listening.

 

King Solomon      As the wisest man in the world, Solomon clearly knew the value of careful listening and understanding, and the destructiveness of unkind, untrue, unthoughtful words.  Chapter 18 in the Book of Proverbs gives several good examples of that wisdom.  Verse 2 states, “A fool finds no pleasure in understanding, but delights in airing his own opinions.”  Verses 13 and 15 read, “He who answers before listening – that is his folly and his shame,” and “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out.”  That may have been written 950 years before Christ, but it still conveys truth for the common good today.

 

Elijah     The life and example of the great prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel teaches us another valuable lesson in listening to God.  The Lord told him to inform the evil king Ahab that it would not rain until God said so, leading to a devastating drought throughout the region (I Kings 17-19).  God helped him to escape the wrath of Ahab by a lengthy retreat to the wilderness east of the Jordan River, followed by a lengthy stay with a widow and her son near the Mediterranean coast.  After three years of hiding, God told Elijah to go confront Ahab. 
             Trusting God’s protection, the prophet went, explained why Israel had fallen into disaster (their idolatry and apostasy), and challenged Ahab and his prophets of Baal to a contest on Mt. Carmel to see whose god could make it rain.  They built altars and placed wood and sacrifices on them.  Baal’s prophets then prayed and shouted and danced all day trying to persuade Baal to send fire down to ignite the wood and consume the sacrifice.  When they finally quit in exhaustion, Elijah had barrels of water brought to soak the altar he had built to Yahweh and all the wood and sacrifice on it.  He prayed a simple, quiet prayer of worship asking God to show the people he truly was God.  Fire fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the altar, the soil beneath it, and the water that had been poured on it – and then it soon began raining. 
             Humiliated, Ahab and his queen Jezebel sent soldiers out to arrest Elijah, but the Lord helped him hide in the desert again.  He provided the prophet food and rest, and then sent him on a 40-day journey to Mt. Horeb (probably Sinai, at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula).  Told to stand outside a cave on that mountain to see the Lord pass by, Elijah witnessed a powerful wind, a strong earthquake, and a raging fire, but the Lord was not in any of them.  Then he heard a gentle whisper.  It was God, assuring Elijah of his presence, protection, and guidance into the remaining work the Lord had for him to accomplish.  The loudest, most spectacular voice isn’t necessarily the Lord’s.  For the common good of God’s people, we must learn to listen deeply and discern carefully.

 

Peter, James, and John      In Mark 9:2-8, we find the account of Jesus’ transfiguration on a mountain, with Peter, James, and John as witnesses.  Matthew 17 states that Jesus’ face shone like the sun, his clothing turned white, and he was joined in discussion by Moses and Elijah.  Peter was bewildered and couldn’t just stand there, so he proposed building monuments to the three celebrities.  Just then, God spoke out of a cloud saying, “This is my Son, whom I love.  Listen to him!”  Those orders from headquarters couldn’t be any clearer. 

 

You and Me       So why does genuine listening matter so much?  First and foremost, in our relationship with Christ, it keeps us in step with the Spirit.  If we’re only following a set of rules and traditions without listening for the Spirit’s leading, we can easily be sidetracked, misapply those rules, or become spiritually out of touch with the One who is Life.
             Genuine listening to other people conveys the love of God to them.  It acknowledges that there is “that of God in them.”  The early Friends called such listening “laboring with one another” to point them to Christ’s Spirit for the answers or guidance or affirmation they need when confronted by life’s challenges.  It communicates sincere care and accompaniment for their journey in a community that is eternal.
             Genuine listening imparts value and importance to the person being listened to.  It says to them that although there are other things I could be doing, nothing is more important to me at this moment than this – and you.
             Genuine listening prevents the listener from hearing what he wants to hear instead of what the speaker is actually saying.  Half-hearted listening dishonors Truth and is destructive to both relationships and the common good.

 

How Do We Learn to Genuinely Listen?     Psychologists undoubtedly have superb scientific techniques to teach improved listening skills, but for me, nothing about that enables “spirit to touch spirit.”  Only the Spirit of the Lord can do that.  We learn to listen spiritually to one another by faithfully practicing listening to God in all circumstances, and by choosing to love one another through listening.  We learn to listen genuinely through a disciplined prayer life, by listening to the Lord through the scriptures, and from the example of godly mentors.  We learn to listen by letting God speak to us through nature, through the innocence and unbiased observations of little children, and through Christ’s presence with us in life’s inevitable hardships.  Jesus’ half-brother James, who wrote much about controlling the tongue, gives this sage advice in his epistle – “everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires” (1:19,20). In the polarized, self-focused world we inhabit today, there is far too little genuine listening taking place.  We have work to do.  Let’s be Friends.

 

  

 

1)  Why is genuine, sincere listening to others so essential for building relationships that reflect the common good?

2)  What is your favorite or most satisfying way of listening to the Lord?  What makes listening to God challenging?

3)  What benefits do you receive when you know you have been genuinely, deeply listened to?

4)  What traits in people, or factors in modern life, make it especially difficult to genuinely listen to other people?

5)  What does the Transfiguration story teach you about what God desires most from us?