Lent is for listening.
A season of hushed voices and uncomfortable silences;
of hearing and overhearing ~
hearing the creak and groan of the church building;
overhearing the muffled cough, the stifled sigh ~
in worship, the silenced infant’s cry.
Outside the oblivious, uncooperative, noisy world goes on,
white noise distracting.
Lent is for listening ~ forty days of listening.
Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness
ministered by angels ~ tempted by evil itself.
After days upon days of being alone but not lonely,
after days upon days of opened-up silence,
the white noise fades,
and then, even its memories.
And Jesus heard, really heard
beyond the hunger, past the thirst
behind the silence, under the soundless,
the voice of the calm within.
Lent is for listening ~ our forty days of listening
moving us over, under, around, and through
all the noisome distractions encumbering our lives,
engulfing us ~
For us to hear, really hear
behind the silence, beyond the wordless,
the calm, compelling call of God.
Lent is for listening.
Straining to hear the change of beat in the pulse of liturgy ~
changing the we’s to I’s
confessing my sin, not our sins any longer.
Absorbing the change of colors in our banners ~
the purple mood of royal mourning.
Surprised by a dark wreath of candles
wrapped in a crown of thorns ~
a candle extinguished each week closer to the cross.
Lent is for listening.
longingly, lovingly with great expectation
to hear the very voice of God in the early dawn
pronouncing victory over the ancient enemy:
Death, where is your victory?!
Death, where is your sting?!
Lent is for listening.
D. Jay Losher, Jr. is pastor of First 1793 Church in Washington, Pa.
