Week 2, Day 3: Are you listening?

Prepare to listen.  Light the 2nd purple candle.  Be still and pray, Guide my feet today into the way of peace.  (From Luke 1:79)
 
Read: Revelation 1:9-16
I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11saying, ‘Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.’  12Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. 14His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, 15his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. 16In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.
 
Meditation
‘I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet.’  ‘I turned to see whose voice it was.’  ‘His voice was like the sound of many waters.’  His voice can be frightening, as loud as a trumpet blast; as deafening as flooded rivers cascading down the mountain.  This is a Voice that will be heard above the clash of nonsense from preachers, politicians, musicians, advertisements.  It will be heard above the noise of lies and distortions of truth that bombard us daily.  It’s a Voice that speaks truth even when it hurts, clashing with our personal opinions.
 
Jesus is that Voice and he stands in the midst of the local church, shouting his message of redemption, waiting for us to be still, silent and listen.  At the end of his life on earth, God claimed Jesus as his son and commanded the disciples, ‘Listen to him’ (see Mark 9:7).  We’ll hear his voice, if we listen for it.
 
Reflective Wondering
How can you let Advent be a time of noticing and listening to that voice that blasts louder than a trumpet and thunders louder than many waters?  Are you listening?
 
Respond to Jesus in prayer
Your voice, Lord Jesus is loud and yet I so often fail to hear it, listening instead to my favorite voices that affirm my lifestyle and ideas.  Help me as I journey through Advent to turn off the clashing voices and hear your voice so that I become a more faithful follower of you and your truth.  Amen.
 
Go and live obediently in the world, where Jesus’ voice can be heard today, but we must listen.