Luther on Listening

Deuteronomy 11:18-19
You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.

Luther writes, "when my children became old enough to understand faith, they made the habit of bringing home Bible verses from church. They recited these to us, wrote them down, and then put them in little coin pouches, like one might put pennies or coins . Let the pouch of our Faith be gold, where verses about coming to Faith like Psalm 51:5, John 1:29, Romans 4:25 or Romans 5:12, are kept like golden coins . And also carry a silver purse of Love where you would keep verses about doing good like Matthew 5:11, Matthew 25:40, Galatians 5:13, and Hebrews 12 6. (That’s right, you can look these up!) No one should ever think that they're too smart for this kind of a game nor should they look down on a child's faith. Let us be reminded that Christ became a man in order to train us. So if we want to train our children, we must become children with him. I wish I had had this kind of play when I was growing up, I wish it were more widespread today. If it were, I think that in a short time we would see an abundance of Christian people rich in scripture and the knowledge of God. I think that we could make more and more of those little gold and silver purses and use them, maybe even learning the whole BIble!

As it is now, when people listen to a sermon, they often walk out of church completely unchanged, acting as if the sermon wasn't worth the time it takes to hear it! No one comes to church anymore thinking that they might learn something...they listen to sermons and don't learn a single thing, not even enough to ask a single question about faith. It seems to me more than enough has been written in books about Faith, but not nearly enough about Faith has been written into our hearts!"

Needless to say Luther expressed what every preacher before and after his time has felt, that they're preaching to the ether...people that can't or won't listen, understand or respond. Back in vaudeville days, Groucho Marx would stand on the edge of a stage, look out at the people and ask "is this an audience or an oil painting?

But Luther isn't talking about the quality of our preaching or God's ability to communicate, He's talking about our willingness to listen, to have God's Word overcome us, to be changed by it! When Nicodemus asked Jesus how something like this could happen, Jesus answered, "the wind blows wherever it wants to!"

Well, the Holy Spirit is the wind and it has a mind of its own, it blows wherever it wants. But even the wind of the Holy Spirit would find it challenging to blow into a room where the door and the windows were bolted shut! So the challenge for us is to open up the windows and doors of our hearts, and as we enter the room of God's house (the "mouth house" as Luther referred to it) to be open to letting the wind of the Holy Spirit blow through our lives.

Because only in this way can we walk out changed.