Talk is cheap - Clover Sites



TONGUES OF FIRE IGNITING DIALOGUE

Dr. Stephen D. Jones, preaching

June 15, 2014

First Baptist Church, Kansas City, MO

Acts 8:26-36

“Talk is cheap.” That statement suggests that while actions matter, words do not. Talk is cheap when used to delay, prolong, pre-occupy or postpone. Talk may be cheap, but dialogue never is.

Talk is not dialogue. You enter into dialogue, but you don’t enter into talk.

“The pastor had a nice talk today.” That’s like saying that while it wasn’t a miserable sermon, it wasn’t memorable either. “I felt the pastor was really connecting with me today.” That’s a different kind of talk.

I once took a youth group to Gillette, Wyoming. And we spent one day with a rancher. For a group of urban youth, the rancher’s world appeared so foreign. He took us around his vast acreage – mostly land not able to grow or feed anything. The rancher was a real loner. I think it was even more of a shock for him to have a group of urban youth shadow him for one day. For the rancher and the youth to interact required real effort – there weren’t points of similarity. He was a man of few words. And yet, I noticed that the rancher talked all day long to himself, quietly, carrying on an animated conversation as if we weren’t there. Human beings are social creatures, and if you stick us alone in a vast wilderness, without others, we will talk to ourselves.

The truth is, we talk all day long, every day. Most of our talk is about the weather, about sports or trivia, about tasks. Most of our talk doesn’t involve connecting with another; it isn’t dialogue.

Sermons must be a part of a congregational dialogue, an on-going conversation in which the Bible, theology, and life experience connect in a meaningful way. Sermons serve to deepen a congregational dialogue that never ends.

Dialogue is connecting. It is a meeting between people. Leaving the superficial behind, in dialogue we touch one another. We don’t dialogue about what kind of breakfast cereal we prefer. That’s talk, a chat, a conversation. But it isn’t dialogue.

Dialogue has the power to change us. It opens us up to that which is holy in one another. We must tread respectfully as we enter into dialogue, for we may be walking on holy ground.

One of my favorite poets, Ross Snyder, wrote in the 1960’s, “A mother holds a newborn child in her arms, and in faith and love she sings and talks to it…from the beginning. Day after day of the weeks and months, the mother talks and sings. And there is a stirring within the child.

“And the immortal spirit which the Lord God breathed into mortals is awakened by these communications from the mother. That which is without form within the mind of the newborn takes shape as a living soul; and the swirling darkness that was upon the face of the deep within this child is overcome, and there is light.

“The perpetual miracle of the sixth day of creation has taken place in our midst, for the child has become person.

“Throughout our life—by receiving from others their ideas and experiences, the truth they believe themselves to be, their fragile feeling of what is significant in life, their reaching for a pilgrimage before God—the slumbering depths within us are awakened, and an amplitude of spirited existence stored within us.

“By communication, something of ourselves enters into the lives of others. We are interwoven.” (Inscape, p. 56-6)

So much conversation doesn’t involve this level of communication. Talk often pushes people away. People who engage in monologue use words to keep others away. One-sided conversations keep others away. Often our conversations are performances to impress rather than connect with others.

A cab driver picked up a nun. She got into the cab, and the cab driver wouldn’t stop staring at her. She asked him why he was staring and he replied, “I have a question to ask you but I don’t want to offend you.”

The sister answered, “My dear son, you can’t offend me. When you’ve been a nun as long as I have, nothing could offend me.”

“Well,” the cabbie continued, “I’ve always had a fantasy to kiss a nun.”

The nun responded, “Let’s see what we can do about that. First, you have to be single, and second, you have to be Catholic.”

The cabbie was excited, “Yes, I’m single and Catholic!”

The nun said, “OK, pull into the next alley.”

He did and the nun fulfilled his fantasy. But when they got back into the cab, the driver started crying. “My dear child,” said the nun, “why are you crying?”

The cabbie said, “Forgive me, sister, but I have sinned. I lied, I must confess. I’m married and I’m a Baptist.”

The nun said, “That’s OK, my son, I’m on my way to a Halloween party. My name’s Kevin.”

Conversation comes from the Latin, conversus, meaning, to turn around or to convert.

I was in my hometown the other day and I was shopping for groceries with my mother. And a fellow student, with whom I had graduated from high school came up, recognized me, introduced herself, and we talked. But instead of staying with her and truly connecting, finding out what has happened in her life since high school, I thanked her, ended the conversation, and moved on. We could have had an authentic moment of dialogue, for we were close friends in high school. Instead, I kept it perfunctory, and I asked myself for the rest of that day: why didn’t I stay and engage her in dialogue?

Sometimes, when I most want or need dialogue, I find myself incapable. It’s hard to dialogue when you can’t find the same wave-length as another person. It’s hard to dialogue when you are trying to convince or impress the other person of anything. I have had many superficial conversations. And I have had life-changing dialogue. Indeed, I can preach about dialogue only because I have experienced the struggle as well as joy of dialogue. I’ve seen it from all sides. I’ve known people who by their nature invite others into dialogue. I admire those people.

Dialogue makes a difference because it is a connection, a genuine meeting, a holy communing, between two or more people. Once a relationship has touched this level of meaning, things are never the same. You can so easily reconnect with that person again, even after years of absence.

Philip was traveling south from Jerusalem on a wilderness road to Gaza. And on the road he encountered an Ethiopian eunuch. A eunuch was a minority of the first century, a chastised outsider. Eunuchs are men who lack the capacity to function sexually. They were shunned by others and felt to be condemned by God. The Deuteronomic law states the eunuch “shall not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.” Deut. 23:1

Eunuchs were typically invited by ancient kings to oversee the bedroom chambers of queens because they posed no sexual threat to the king. This eunuch served in the court of Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians. He was in charge of her treasury. As a eunuch he was felt to be trustworthy with royal money because he was not capable of forming his own household or having his own children. He was not considered a threat. This man’s status was so self-defining that we do not even know his name. Throughout this story, he is referred to as “the eunuch.”

As an Ethiopian, he must have been a God-fearer, a Gentile drawn to the Jewish understanding of God. He was studying the prophet Isaiah as his chariot was returning home to Africa. And Philip encountered the eunuch along the way and a deep dialogue ensued. Questions were raised, issues were discussed, souls revealed. It was a conversation that Philip should not have had with a man considered less than human.

Yet, it was life-changing as these two men, one Semitic and one African, one Jewish and one Gentile, one considered clean and the other deficient, one with a name and the other not deserving to be called by name, one in a sexually alternative class and the other not, somehow met on holy ground. And as a result of their dialogue, the eunuch asked to be baptized by Philip, a sign that he had been forever changed.

I’m reminded of another dialogue, along another lonely road leading from Jerusalem to Emmaus, and two disciples of Jesus were trudging along talking together, overwhelmed with the crucifixion of their Lord, troubled by the unverified news of his resurrection, unable to make sense of it. And a stranger happened along the road, walking alongside these two disciples. And dialogue ensued. Later, the two disciples said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road, opening scripture to us?” They entered their household, and the stranger broke bread, blessed it, and in holy communion their eyes were opened and they recognized the stranger as the Resurrected Christ. (Lk 24:13-32)

I’m reminded of an unlikely conversation Jesus had with the Samaritan woman at the well, transforming to her (Jn 4:7f.). Or the conversation Jesus had with the Syro-Phoenician woman in which his understandings were transformed. (Mt 15:21f) Or the intense conversation with Peter in which Jesus challenged Peter by asking, asking, and asking again, “Do you love me?” (Jn 21:15f.) Or the transforming dialogue with Zaccheaus, which as a result the hated tax collector returned the money he had cheated from others and lived his life anew.

Jesus was Man of Dialogue. He found common ground with everyone, sharing holy ground through life-changing dialogue. Often, the Gospels don’t offer us the conversation that took place, only the outcome. I’d love to read the dialogue between Jesus and Levi, the tax collector-turned-disciple. I’d love to hear more of the dialogue between Jesus and the woman caught in adultery. I’d love to hear what he said to the man, too! I’d love to hear more of the dialogue between Jesus and his friend, Lazarus. An itinerant teacher, somehow he managed to connect with others, for a day, a moment, for a life-time.

Who are your dialogue partners? With whom do you share the holy ground of conversation? Do you have trusted soul-mates with whom your talk often seems to be graced? Soul-mates with whom you reveal your most authentic self?

Do you have dialogue with others here at First Baptist? Have we structured our church life in such a way as to ensure that dialogue doesn’t happen? Not just talk – but authentic connection?

Dialogues are shaped by partners. You can’t have unwilling dialogue. You can’t force someone onto holy ground. And in dialogue, you can’t control the outcome. You can’t enter into dialogue for the purpose of agreeing, acquiescing, compromising. Dialogue must be open-ended, to lead where the Spirit leads.

Can you identify dialogues that have changed your life, altered your thinking, expanded your stereotypes, required that you rethink your assumptions? Many of us have chosen careers, partners, life-direction, as a result of dialogue. Could you chart the transforming dialogues that have happened to you? Can you identify the “Great Dialogues” of your life? Maybe you’ve had only 4, 5, 6….?

On that first Pentecost day as the early believers gathered, their conversation was graced by a deep spirit of understanding, even though speaking different languages. It was their dialogue that stopped others in their tracks, for strangers recognized their own language and understood what these disciples were saying. It was, first and foremost, a miracle of communication. It had nothing to do with glossolalia, speaking in tongues.

Typically, a miracle of communication might not mean that we can understand languages we have not learned. But communication miracles happen all the time. When people strip away pretense and hype, when people get real with one another, the miracle of dialogue ensues. And common ground becomes holy ground, and the Spirit of God moves between us. A miracle happens when two strangers enter into unexpected dialogue.

After I announced my resignation to my first congregation, one of the most successful businessmen in the church came into my office, shut the door, and began to share with me on a level we had never shared before. He was likely twenty years my senior and I frankly would never have imagined our having such a conversation. He shared disappointments, worries, and unrealized dreams in his life. Thirty-five years later, I remember that day so clearly. Dialogues are memorable.

Recently someone told me she had a Mormon friend who talks about his daily conversations with God. The person said disbelieving, “Conversations with God? Does God talk to you?” And her friend said, “Oh, yes, all the time.” I think she shared with me to show evidence of the over-the-edge thinking of Mormons. But I didn’t find the Mormon’s beliefs odd at all. I said back, “I think the difference might be in the way you each define ‘conversation’ and ‘talk’.” I think we can have life-changing conversations with God. I believe that God is trying to communicate with us all the time. Not audibly, so much as through music, through art, through nature, through silence. But one sure way that God communicates with us is through revelatory dialogue with other people. In dialogue, God is often revealed.

Dialogues are revelatory. They are life-changing. They open a window

into other people,

a window to the Sacred,

a window through which the Spirit’s Tongue of Fire can ignite new connections. Amen.

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