It's the sort of scene that all of us have seen. Maybe even acted it out. Roll out of bed, stumble down to the kitchen. One partner makes coffee and eggs. Some small talk. The other picks up the paper. The rest of the meal is punctuated by the sound of turning pages, some grunts, a few attempts at conversation...... and nothing more.
Or the end of a hard day - family sits down together..... Chance to finally have some meaningful conversation? Well - actually no. It's time to sit sit by side and stare at the one-eyed idol in the corner spewing out that evening's inane sitcom offering. A few comments about homework. Something about a meeting tomorrow afternoon. But nothing of substance. Nothing that lasts.

There may have been words. Some might even call it conversation.
But none that hit home.
Sounds have been exchanged. But nothing meaningful registered.

You know the scene, right?
People experiencing the hazards of long-term relationships. They've been around each other so long that they begin to take each other for granted.

How different than an evening after work between newlyweds, who savour every moment, relish every word of the other. The communication is vital, alive.
They don't just hear each other.
They listen.

This morning we want to focus on the words of a poem, a poem about relationships. Long-term relationships. Special kind of relationships.
The relationships between a person and God.

The poem is written by David, a man who has spent his whole life working on and desiring a long-term, deep relationship with the Lord.
Wanting a relationship that went deeper than grunts over the morning paper and coffee; more substantial than glassy-eyed stares in front of the evening TV.

Let's read the poem together:

Central to the whole thing, right at the heart of this poem,
are the words which begin with v.6:
"Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced......"

Odd, eh?..... "my ears you have pierced." Literally, it says in Hebrew: "you have dug ears for me." A more contemporary translation of that Hebrew puts it this way: "You've opened my ears so I can listen."
Opened - pierced - my ears so I can listen. As if there were some kind of great blockage there that prevented clear hearing from occurring.
Which makes me think back to breakfast over the paper; or the evening in front of the Idiot Box - where words are spoken, but nothing is heard.

Words - they are a central part of our faith experience.
Particularly the words found in the Bible - God's Great Word to us.
It is a Word we read.... often. A Word that get read to us.

But with what effect?
Do we hear it?
Or is it all simple marks on paper?
Perhaps sounds, if read to us, that bounce off our ears -- that never make it deep inside to our mind and our heart.
Could that possibly be?

It can happen so easily, you know:
Where bible reading at meal times - a marvellous practice that I hope all of you engage in - where that marvellous practice degenerates into a "let's hurry, I've gotta go" routine.
Where bible reading in church is the event before the peppermints.
Or we see it as an academic, or religiously intellectual exercise.
We do it. Finished. Move on.
Our lives and minds are so full with other stuff that there's no room to sit and even suggest that there may be more; that perhaps we can actually hear God speak in these words of the Word!
Hear God speak......
......personally.....
.......to us -- you, me.
The longer you've done these things, the greater the hazard of developing this sort of soul-numbing approach to the Great and Holy Word.

Busyness and humdrumness of life gets in the way.
We, perhaps, grow complacent about our relationship with the Lord.
And God has to cut through all that. He has to pierce through the layers, the walls, we've erected around ourselves;
to slice through the fog.

Eugene Peterson puts it this way - that sometimes it's as if God's Holy Spirit has to get a pick and shovel and dig through the cranial granite, opening a passage that will give access to the interior depths, into the mind and heart." [Working The Angles p.101]
Or, to use another picture says Peterson, perhaps we need to think of our lives as being something like water wells which used to draw clear water but have become clogged, plugged with all kinds of refuse: cultural noise, throw-away gossip, garbage chatter, traditional blocks, personal preoccupations - which so clog our heart that we cannot really connect with what God speaks.

We open a bible and read the words. But they run right off our soul like water off a duck's back. They flow right past us, never stopping.
Scarcely a thought that.... hey.... they were meant for me!
Oh - that happens so easily.

Some of you are aware that one of the hobbies I've fooled around with over the years is ham radio, two way amateur radio communication. I would sit down behind the radio and computer gear, and try to make contact with someone in who knows where - Asia, Europe, North America, next door. It can be a wonderful hobby, where you meet all kinds of interesting people.
BUT it's absolutely nothing when it's simply me behind my radio sending signals out. There has to be someone on the other end receiving what I say, and then sending signals back to which I can respond.
Two-way communication.
A signal goes out....
AND....
it is picked up, processed and responded to.

That's the whole point of God's Word.
The Lord sends it out....
AND.....
it is picked up, processed and responded to.
That is His plan. His desire. That's His heavenly goal.

I'd ask you to consider for a moment this morning......
..... what's reality like in your life?
Anywhere near the goal?
 
 

The Word of the Lord goes out - and what a rich variety of formats we have at our disposal to see that Word transmitted. In book form that we can read at home, during lunch break at work, during worship services, at committee meetings, in school. Around the world via Internet: email and web sites. Television and radio. Up on large screens with video projectors. All ways that send out the Word of God.
AND YET....
What's waiting on the other end?
Ears stopped up with refuse?
Hearts and minds closed off as if by granite?

If the audiologist were running tests, she would say "Dynamic range is within acceptable limits. Tympanic membrane is intact and vibrating, auditory nerve transmitting signals. Yep - the hearing is fine."
But the Word has no more impact than water from the lake swishing in and dribbling out of our ears when we're at the beach. Within the hour everything's dried up, evaporated.
You'd never know it was ever there.
It may have been an interesting read.
The preacher may have had a unique take on the passage.
It sounded right.
You may even agree with it......
But within the hour....... so what? Did it make a difference?

Is that how it is, children of God?
Is that the state of reality with us - at least some of the time?

Back to Psalm 40. Note that v.6 is not the end of the Psalm.
Things roll right on to verse 7. To 8. And 9. And 10.
When God scoops out the junk, when He drills through the granite, when He unplugs the ears and carves a path through to a person's heart and mind and soul -
- the inner core of being where love for the Lord God lives -
When God gets through, things begin to move.
You can see the hearing happen.
It begins with a personal response.
You begin to understand that these Words, all these Words, are not just some story about a far-away people in a far-off time. They are not merely words of religious instruction and moral interest.
They are a very personal letter, a love letter written to you.

And, well, you tell me - are love letters the sort of thing that you just read, nod and say "Sounds interesting. Good point. Every child should have a bit of this in their lives - sure couldn't do them harm."? What a goofy thought, eh!
You read the love letter and think - "Wow! That's about me. ME!"
And then you respond - go and visit, send your own letter of reply, buy chocolates and roses (always a good thing). You respond.

God's Word hits home. Look at verse 7:
Wow. That's about me.
Written about.... to.... ME!
Lord - here I am. I have come.
Just as I am - O Lamb of God, I come!

Back to the Psalm. See what happens when the words of God's love letter get past the cranial blockage?
v.8: I desire to do your will, O my God
v.9: I do not seal my lips
v.10: I do not hide your righteousness; I speak of your faithfulness.
I do not conceal your love and your truth.

When your lover sends you a letter, you want to be close to that person, to do whatever you can to make your lover happy. You long for intimate contact. And that's verses 8-10.
God's love letter hits home and bring visible, unashamed, upfront response. Doing what makes the Divine Lover happy. Longing for intimate contact with Him. Desiring to be close to Him.

There's a wonderful message - written just for you - between the covers of this book. A message of God's faithfulness to us - standing by us in tough times, giving us countless blessings day by day (blessings too many to count); most of all the message of God's seeking and finding us through Jesus, granting us - through Him - a secure place in His holy family.
A personal message for you.

Friends, you can read the words and close it. Or - pray and work for a new openess, a new way of receiving these words - where your eyes are replaced by ears, wide open and receptive ears that hear a loving, seeking Saviour calling to you, the one He loves.
 
 

Work and pray for new openness.

Work -
Remember how we said that this rather peculiar phrase "My ears you have pierced" can well refer to God having to shovel out all kinds of garbage that has clogged our minds, our souls, our hearts -- the junk that can block, get in the way of our hearing God's personal message for us?
We can leave here this afternoon committed to being alert for and guarding against too much of that junk from settling into our lives.

I served a rural church community for seven years. Learned some about farming, including the fact that when you walk into a pig barn - no matter how briefly - you can't help but come out smelling like......
can you guess?

Morally and spiritually it's precisely the same. What you hang around, and what you take in eventually and inevitably affects who and what you become.
That goes for the sorts of movies you watch.
It's true for the music you listen to.
The hobbies and friends you surround yourself with.
The kind of work you do.

Sometimes we like to say - "It's just harmless fun. I won't be affected by it." And we don't realize that as the junk pours in, some of it always sticks - and the ability for us to truly hear God's message is dulled; the communication path to heaven becomes clogged, like cholesterol choked arteries.

I challenge you, brothers and sisters, to take an inventory of where things are at for you. I challenge you to work at it. As we begin a new church season, ask - "Do the patterns of my life force God to do extra digging and drilling in order to get through to my soul?"
Work......

......And pray.
Pray that the Holy Spirit would move in like a great divine surgeon.
I'm always amazed at heart surgeons and what they can do today - how they can go into arteries and veins that are all filled with gunk, and they can sew things up, clean things out, replace parts and give people a whole new lease on life.
The Holy Spirit can move into our hearts and lives and do precisely the same thing......
.....only far deeper and better.

He can pierce through the misconceptions that may have built up within us over years; chop out and remove pains and hurts that have become spiritual barriers; remove blocks caused by the complacency of the years.
And there isn't a single person here who doesn't have some of that hanging around somewhere.

So God's Word, the poetic words of Psalm 40.6, provide the occasion and challenge for all of us to drop down in prayer;
to understand that God desires not just a simple, surface-layered relationship. He wants to go deep; a rich, lasting, growing relationship with each of us. He wants to pierce the exterior and bore right to the core of our being.
understand that, and respond. Say with David, "Here I am, I have come - Lord, all that is written here..... you meant that for me. I know I haven't been all together. It hasn't been all good. But Lord, here I am. I have come. Pierce through all those layers and callouses. Remove the garbage I'm not even aware that exists. Heal the hurts that get between us. Shake away the complacency. Dig down deep. Speak to me. And stay with me. Forever."