Sketch: Listen to God 1 ...

Sunday, March 18, 2018. Currently, we have a new government in Germany, and the topic of religion has been in the media over the past days. The point is the role of Muslim immigrants. It is very interesting: in the political debate those who seem to be most atheistic when it comes to christianity seem to be the most fierce defenders of Muslims when it comes to immigration and integration. Those who strongly oppose the catholic church when it comes to rules have no problem with Sharia preached in so many mosques in democratic countries. But …

Knowledge about God? …

But let us look at this topic in a slightly broader framework: what do we know about God? What is our idea of God? How do we deal with the topic? My understanding is that the deepest problem here is our missing knowledge of the world religions, about all of them, Judeism, Christianity and Islam. We might know something, but we do not fully understand. So we need to ask: what do we know about God, do we understand God?

Let us have a look into the biblical book of proverbs, chapter 8. Here, wisdom is speaking. Wisdom is calling. Wisdom wants to teach. Listen first, it says:

32 “And now, O sons, listen to me: blessed are those who keep my ways. 33 Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. 34 Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. 35 For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, 36 but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”

Wisdom is calling …

Wisdom is calling you and me. It is there. It wants us to search it. It is very interesting, indeed. The biblical books clearly believe that wisdom is talking, all the time. It is calling. It can be heard. It is even loudly on the roads. And it calls me to listen. It calls me to wait. It calls me to come daily. Every day, wisdom wants to be with me.

There is a fantastic promise of wisdom. It promises life to us, and favor from the Lord. Wisdom is linked to God (= the Lord). But it also gives a warning: who fails to find wisdom, will be hurt strongly. It is even an active act: you hurt yourself when you do not find wisdom. Is it active? Can it be an active act not to find something? Yes, if you close your eyes, if you keep your ears from listening! These verses tell us that it is us who do not want to listen, the voice of wisdom is there, loudly. The voice of God can be heard.

I would have to say much on this topic. I have been searching to hear this voice for quite a while. But then I found it. I started to hear. And I started to listen. I found this life, God talking to us. There is a lot more to say. But first of all: we need to open our eyes, the eyes of our heart. Wisdom is there already talking to us. You can find, if you start to search! (Roland Potthast) ... further texts