Listening Heart, Discerning Mind

MCC Key West

October 1st, 2006

Hebrew Scripture: 1 Kings 3:5-15

Gospel: Luke 11:5-10

Rev. Charles Tigard

What do you long for in your life? What’s on your heart this morning? Your dream? Your longing?

I imagine the night of Solomon’s dream that his heart was heavy and his mind was full of all kinds of emotions.

Solomon is young and inexperienced, having just inherited the throne of Israel from his father David.  Solomon has big shoes to full.

So he retires for the night. I’m sure his mind is racing and that his heart is heavy. That’s often the place where dreams happen.

God appears to Solomon saying, “ask anything- ask and I will give it to you.”  Solomon knows what God needs of him, what God expects of him; leadership to lead his people, his nation. 

Having the opportunity to ask for anything Solomon asks for a listening heart and a discerning mind. Wisdom and faithfulness.  He asks for just what he needs to lead his people. What he needs to fulfill the task he has been given.

Dreams and visions.  Asking and receiving. 

MCC we are a place of visions.  We are a community of dreams.  As I thought about Solomon’s dream, I thought about all the dreams- the crazy ideas- the visions that have changed the world.

Martin Luther King’s dream of racial justice and equality.

Mother Teresa’s dream of serving the most vulnerable in the world with small acts of great love

Gandhi’s dream of non-violent resistance that defeated an empire and freed his people. 

Muhammad who received his mission as a prophet in a dream.

Or MCC’s founder Rev. Troy Perry who had a dream like experience. He had a moment of clarity from God.  “Troy I love you as you are.”  Troy had this crazy idea of starting a gay and lesbian church. And all he had was a very simple, radical message of God’s vast love.  This was the message that he would later preach around the world. “God loves you just as you are.”

In that moment a vision was formed and a movement began. 

What’s powerful about the story of Solomon’s dream is that Solomon asked for what he needed.  You know that’s a spiritual practice. In my life when I have a need, a desire, something that is on my heart I need to learn to ask.  To give my longings voice. To pray about it making our desires known to God and each other.

At MCC San Francisco we are a church in the heart of the Castro.  We are a urban inner city ministry.   Social justice is at the core of how we are.   It’s not enough to believe, or speak about justice.  We must live it out putting our faith into action.  Yesterday I had the privilege of helping with our cooking with love program which provides meals to those in need right here in Key West. That’s an excellent example of faith in action.

San Francisco has the highest per capita homelessness rate in the country.  And like many places we have a large group of people who are not homeless but who are working poor- who have a home, an income but don’t make enough to make ends meet.

At one point at we had the sanctuary configured in the round with the altar and communion elements in the center of the room.  Theologically for us this was a symbol of the centrality of communion.  The open and welcoming table that for us is a living symbol and act of God’s love. 

One Sunday evening we were in the middle of the service and all of sudden a homeless man charged into the center of the sanctuary.  And he lounged for the communion elements on the table.  Our ushers quickly gathered around him and took him out of the sanctuary. 

Later we served him communion and made sure he had a shelter for the night, clean clothes, and a meal. 

That man was our teacher that night.  He thought us something very powerful.  He was approaching the table not out of irreverence or disrespect but because he was hungry.  He was hungry and in his body, in his spirit he knew enough to take what he needed in that moment.  To ask for what he needed. 

All of us come to this place to this table hungry and thirsty. Spirituality hungry for spiritual food. To receive enough strength, enough hope, enough love, just enough to satisfy what we need.  Strength for our journey in the week ahead. 

Seeking and finding.  Asking and receiving.  Those are powerful spiritual principles.  In order to find- first you must seek. In order to receive- first you must ask. Knock and the door will be opened to you. Seek and you shall find. 

Jesus says in the Gospel of Luke, "If you go to your friends house hungry at midnight, and ask lend me three loaves of bread- Would you answer and say Don't bother me. It’s too late at night-

But because of the asker’s persistence, the neighbor will get up and give what is needed.

 "I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you.

 For everyone who asks receives. They who seek find. Those who knock- to them it will be opened.”

My prayer today is, “God give me the wisdom and the strength to ask. To ask for what I need.  And the clarity to know God, what it is you need of me.”

Solomon with all his power and wealth experienced this moment of humility.  “Ask- Ask and I will give it to you- God what we need is a listening heart and a discerning mind.”

MCC Key West this is our moment.  A moment of imagination.   A moment to dream together.  A moment to reflect and moment to rejoice at what God has done through you. 

Look into God’s future. Have the strength and the wisdom to ask and the faith to believe it will be opened.

With boldness, listening hearts and discerning minds let’s be about creating new dreams. 

Amen.